The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-05-03

A~ 49, 00 @A~ IA 1AAA O%A
This was in the early flfties remen-
Der. She says:
often we drove out 10 the Jesus del
Monte to can on our good bishop
ultra muros" (without the walsh we
passed the most wretched portion Of
the population Of Havana This was by
the Caizada de Jesus del Monte, he
were mud novels, drinking shops,
naked children, horses. mules, pigs,
chickens, old people, and heaps Of rub
bish-all miserable enough-nixed UP
together.
Did I not remember this and one
other sight, that OF the Chinese coolies
and the chain gang, unmitlgated
wr~etchedness, a poe WOUNDED set
driven by mel armed with guns and
whips, with heavy weights and iron
eating into their legs / could not
make over my Cuba into the present
Cuba. Slavery is the same sigh.
everywhere. and il was not patriarchal
slavery in Cuba"
The Spaniards fifty years z We're
deadly opposed 10 free Cuba. There
were 800, 900 slaves, 200. 900 free blacks.
and 800, 900 whites in the island when
she was there. No Cuban could en-
ter the army or navy as an officer.
She says:
The Spaniards, the PeninsuLares.
natives of old Spain, constituted the
army and navy. All judicial and CON
sular officers were Spaniards, and the
merchants, bankers, and other traders
We're mostly Spaniards.
The Galatians Cthe Yankees Of SPAIN
We're the traders. Ever in that early
day the Spaniards were the opponents
Of the freedom of Cuba, and especially
jealous of her proposed annexation 10
the United States, while the native
Cubans desired it intensely. Our host
said that the island vas immensely
rich, the production enormous. and
property we'll protected. This was in
the early fifties."
She says farther:
The captain general was all power
ful. and all CUB was under martial
law No native Cuban could hold any
office of honor, trust, or emOlument.
In fact it was an armed monarchy
encamped in the midst of a diSarmed
and d~isfranchised people
To me it was a beautiful Paris
dropped down in the tropics. Our
drives in the Paseo of a Sunday after
noon showed us perhaps 200 volantes,
with each containing three ladies in
full dress, bOnnetIess and decoletee
with 10000 gentlemen standing along
the lines of the street, gazing at them.
1t was a pretty sight
The private dinners, she says, was
magnificent. But there was a terrible
| condition outside of Havana in some
| places where the slaves were so hound
ed as to be driven into desperation.
| She says Of the sorrowful condition
INC barbarous treatment of the slaves:
cit was only the echo that we heard
OF discomfort, of the terrible cruelties
practiced on the slaves, Of the food
| hounds chained to the very gates Of
the house where we were visiting, of
| the Sierra del CRYSTAL, the mountain
! range full of escaped and desperate
slaves where white men dared not go,
| that filled our souls with e
God help poOr Cuba! Always the prey
of man, who was m~iSgnanaged n in
| jured the fairest lar ever put on this
earth. The furies have been let loose
ON her"
But Havana was full of beauty and
charm and splendor. One more quota
ton from her facile and graceful pen,
and it's exquisitely wrought:
GAS 1 saw Cuba she was a laughing
Thought, a golden gleam.' The vines
were linking hands and passing from
the dance of spring. The fine old
stately city, more Spanish than any
thing out OF oldest Spain, seemed to
say CASTLE and Aragon' with every
breath, and tropical nature made 1t an
ecstacy of the soul. There was a
sumptuousness about it which I do not
remember elsewhere.
There was the tideless ocean tapping
the flower bedecked shores. There was
the echo of the slow swelling pulse of
the dance music, and the glorious in
tonation of the Spanish speech, the
odor of a thousand orange blossoms.
lit was the bridal Of the earth and
sky"