Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1898-10-25
SEEING NEW SIGHTS.
Monongalia County Boys Ex-
periences in Porto Rico.

In the Postal Service-Establishi Of
fees in the Interest OF the Island
Worth Jolliffe, i'm Letter Home,
Writes Of the Grand Scenery and Pc
culrar Cuisine-Carrying Postage
Stamps in Saddlebags Over Pic
turesque Mountain Trail-The Flour
ishing Coffee Industry.
Worth Jolliffe, resident of this
county, who has long been in the I'm
tied States mail service, was sent to
Porto Rico by the government to estab-
fish mail routes and postotfices. He
thus writes about it to his sister, I'M
der date Of Playa, Ponce:
Here | am DIT Utuado, 40 miles
northeast of Ponce. Monday morning
established the first United States
postoffice ever established in the in
: terror of the island of Porto Rico, and
the second one on the whole island.
This is little place and has no COM
muncation with anywhere except by
pack and wagon train. My postotfice
is in the same room with the United
States signal corps telegraph office,
and the operator and | sleep in the
office The Sixth Massachusetts vol
unteersz are stationed here, but they
are trying very hard to get away, as
they have had a rough time and
great many Of them are sick. My
board here is very good, but strictly
Spanish, and Ghe way they season
t ings with tomatoes, onions and gar
is awful, but [ am getting fat on
il.
II left Ponce Saturday. about 10 a.
M, in company with Maj. Charles
Darling, the plucky little freshman,
who led the fight at Guanica when
the Spanish bullets cut the wires as
he started across the barbed wire
fence. Another of the four was Cor
poral Draper, of the Sixth Massachu
setts, whose father is ambassador to
Italy; another was Charles Turner,
just out of the hospital, and the
fourth was Worth, but you should have
seen US. On my legs was a pair of
leggings from the Cuban campaign;
on my right nip hung d Colts 40 cal
iber six-shooter; over my left good
canteen partly full of warm water;
strapped in front of my saddle was
my macintosh, and behind my sad
die was bag containing 800 worth
of stamps, and SO on. In my saddle
bags | had can of corned beef, a can
of apricots and two loaves of bread.
''The first night we came to Adj
juntas, little place about as large as
Smithtown, and took soldiers fare.
The next day Sunday we started
over the widest and most picturesque
trail | ever saw. The mountains rose
to sharp peaks above US, and as we
passed around sharp points on the
trail in very many places, misstep Of
foot would have thrown US straight
down over the cliff into the Rio
Grande river, about 500 or 1000 feet
below. Altogether it was the grand
est scenery | ever saw. The opposite
hillside and the valley below were COW
cred with banana trees, with leaves
shaped like laurel leaf, but about
eight to ten feet long and one to three
feet wide. Then, projecting high
above them, was tall cocoanut palm
without limb or knot until the bunch
of cocoanuts was reached away at the
top. Wherever the land was tillable
at all along the road it was covered
with coffee trees, and l rode along and
pulled off green coffee just as you
would pull off green crabapples in the
United States. Every hut along the
mountainside had a sack spread out
and was drying coffee, just as we dry
sugar corn.
''Did tell you that there is no but
ter in Porto Rico except what comes
from Denmark in cans? 1t is called
mantequilla, pronounced man-tay-
keel-ya. This is wild, weird exper-
fence, such as will probably not hap
pen again within my lifetime, and |
wouldn't have missed it for a great
deal. However, / am not going to
marry and settle down here. Keep
this, for it is postmarked with the
old Spanish postmarked stamp which
the United States captured when they
took the town. / have not received
my United States stamps yet, so I
use this"
Notice to Tax payers.