The Republican journal., 1898-07-21


pure. They never grippe. BY druggists.
each great apple guarded by circle of
glittering, sharp edged bayonets. In
Florida the pineapple leaf is SO sharply
serrated that the thought of getting
around among them suggests field of
torture Evolution seems to have pro-
crossed farther in Cuba, for in the older
and more carefully cultivated plantations
the saw teeth that edge the long, pointed
leaves have mainly disappeared.
Before the war, it was the sight of
lifetime to 90 out to Marianao, a suburb
of Havana, and there drive through an es-
tate which had $4,000 pineapple plants in
full bearing. Over in Nassau they call
the pine plantations groves and cor
chards'' as if they were trees. Whether
groves or fields, the plants are about the
same, producing one of the most luscious
and popular fruits known to man, for
which there is constant and ample de-
mand. Like most things worth having in
this troubled life, the golden pines are
not easy to get at \ very short stroll
among the singing leaves will lead you to
sympathize with the New Yorker who,
after a visit to Marianao said: ''You do
not mind the first two thousand or three
thousand sticks and prods from the
needle points of the bayonet- leaves as you
a tial h1It aft Jtl1i tor
tnred cuts can endure no more and your
remarks about the pineapple crop are
likely to be prejudieed by present sore
ness. How much nicel it would be if the
apples really did grow in orchards aud
you could send colored boy up the trees
to shake down few, and then you could
sit down in the shade and eat them.
a plant only produces one pine at a
time. The fruit thrusts itself upward in
the middle of a mass of long, narrow and
/ sharp arched leaves, spreading forth from
a central stalk precisely like those of the
Agaye Americana, or century plant,
with which everybody is familiar. The
stem is perhaps eighteen inches to two
feet in height.
The same plant produces a second APP
pie, and third, and so on through sever
al bearings after which a new plant must
be started from the ''slip.' Nothing is
easier of cultivation or requires less
capital and previous experience; and few
crops bring in greater or more certain re-
| turns.
Baracoa, the port and village on the
eastern tip of Cuba, few miles north Of
Maisi light, has population of about g.,
600. 1t was once of considerable impor-
tance, when the Cubans had a fruit trade,
as the shipping place of large quantities
of pineapples, bananas and cocoanuts,
and at certain seasons its small bay was
crowded with fast sailing fruit-ships seek
ing their cargoes. There is no hotel in
the village, only the usual wretched
Fonda y Posada," fit for neither man
nor beast The port is surrounded by an
abrupt range of hills-part of the Sierra
Nisse chain. At the summit of the noun
tain few miles from the town, there is a
huge volcanic cavity of great depth in the
form of a crater, but in which, singularly
enough, the strata give no evidence of
volcanic origin. The most conspicuous
feature in the landscape, however, and the
| journal, is the great table topped noun
tain close behind the town, which is Wis
| ible miles out at sea. 1t is still called by
its aboriginal name, Yunque, and about it
many traditions cling. To this day the
natives declare that at times the face and
figure of the martyred cacique, Hatuey,
may be clearly traced on the perpendicu-
lar cliffs of Yunque that overlook the val
ley he loved; and then the apparition dis
| appears as mysteriously as it came. By
the way, we have heard little about the
chieftain, Hatuey, seems to have been a
savage of remarkable foresight
Though nearly twenty years elapsed
from the time of Columbus discovery of
the island to the founding of it's first set
tlement, the chief cacique, Hatuey, never
ceased to warn his people against the
Spaniards. Having secretly informed
himself of the barbarous treatment in
flicted upon the Indians of Santo Domin-
CO. he called all the tribes CT Cuba to-
gether in three days council. He told
them that the Spaniards performed all
their cruel deeds for the sake of a great
god whom they were serving, whose like
ness he would show them. Then taking
some gold from his pouch he said: ''This
is the god whom they serve and him they
follow. They are coming here to seek
this god. Therefore let us make a festi-
val and dance before him, to the end that