The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1899-09-28
The Republican Journal Thursday September g. 1899

| from the house of Mrs. John A. Logan.
IN Washington, D. c.. and now Mr.. and
Mrs. Carbonell, at home in Habana, are
the proud parents of bouncing boy who
was lately christened 'Fitzhugh Lee"
The Cisneros family, though eminently
respectable, was poor and obscure; there
fore, in Cuba, the alliance of the daughter
with an aristocrat is considered long
step upward for the young lady.
The natural resources of the Isle of
Pines are just now attracting considerable
attention, and not long ago our Assistant
Secretary of War made public volumin-
Gus report concerning them, from Col.
Bliss, the U. S Collector of Customs, at
Habana. The soil is extremely fertile,
but small portion of the island is under
cultivation. A few of the green valleys
sugar are grown to limited extent and
pineapples are perhaps the staple product.
There has been some trade in woods, ma
hogany, pine and cedar, and might be
great deal more. Spirits of turpentine,
pitch tar, sulphur, tortoise shell and crys-
tails are also among the possible exports.
Silver, quicksilver and iron exist in the
hills, and the marble quarries are practi-
cally exhaustless. The mountain ranges
that cross the island in several directions
are almost entirely composed of beautiful
marble of every variety known, and in all
colors of the rainbow, piled as by art in
contrasting strata, varying from black,
brown and gray to palest tints of pink,
blue and green. Another low mountain,
called Los Cristalas, is even more curious,
its steep sides being literally coated with
rock crystal of an exquisite sea- green tint.
great height, all are very wild and impress
sive, with dark ravines and sheer precipi-
ces, some of them POO feet in height.
Half a century ago, the marble quarries
near Nueva Corona We're extensively
worked, and good deal of Cuban money
went into the enterprise, which promised
we'll btl LOT SOME uukuOM Ii reason lllb
Spanish government looked on it with dis
favor; and in order to kill the business,
levied such an outrageous tax on the
sand used in saving that its promoters
had to give it up. Thus has the mother
country always encouraged home-indus-
tries in her colonies. III the taxes for
,a,,Iy, cd inf no Ts1a Afp ba
Bank of Spain went TO Habana, from
whence one fourth was afterwards REMIT
ed to the inhabitants. The only dues di-
rectly collectible by the authorities were
those for slaughtering cattle and selling
beef, These taxes no longer exist, as
there are practically no cattle left on the
one and half cents on each sack of char
coal and seven cents on a cord of wood.
Vast quantities of mangrove and other
soft scrubby wood make this fine har-
vest field for the charcoal burner. Last
year about five thousand bales of tobacco
one hundred pounds to the bale, were ax-
ported from the island. and sold in Haoa-
ma Tor $40 the bale. That was an unusual
"tobacco- year in Pinos, because the
workers came over from Nuelta Abajo to
escape the war They have now returned
to their former homes, where conditions
are better, and this year the island crop
will fall to less than two thousand bales.
But the fact remains that it might grow
here, to absolute perfection, if there was
anybody to cultivate it, Rich, beara5le
land may be bought as low as half dollar
the acre. That suitable for tobacco is
not in large tracts, butin scattered patches
among the hills, where the settlers
greatest drawback would be isolation
from the world
FANNIE BRIGHAM WARD.