The times., 1899-08-27

mining company in Cuba is the Juragua,
which is jointly controlled by the Penn
sylvania Steel Company and the Bethlehem
Iron Company. The Sagua la Grande Iron
Company was also organized in Philadel-
phia; and so / believe was the Baiquiri.
1t is estimated that the four companies
above named have invested not less than
s15.o00.000 of good American money in
Cuban mining property; therefore it is safe
to conclude that they are not going to
waste their millions and that presently
there will be such stir in these rock
ribbed hills as Cuba has never witnessed
before. There are whole mountains of
iron ore in the neighborhood of Santiago
from which, before the war, the Juragua'
and Baiquiri were shipping from 10000 to
$4,000 tons OF ore per month TO Pittsburg,
Steelton. and Bethlehem. The ore is 60
per cent pure iron. and, strange TO cay,
some of it returned, like bread cast Ccon
the waters. The warships that lately
sheiled these same Santiago hills were
made of metal brought from those very
heights, and the shells they threw were
composed of metal derived from the same
source.
Cuba's Mineral Wealth.
The fact is that Cuba's mineral wealth
was never in gold and silver, as the early
Spaniards supposed. They found the In
dians wearing ornaments of beaten gold
probably obtained In trade with Mexico and
Central America; and in their greed TO
discover where the precious metal was hid
the conquerors exterminated the aboriginal
population The little silver that ex-
/ lists is hardly worth mentioning.
In this (Santa Clara province
there are old silver mines, long unworked
which have produced quantities Of ore yield
| ing Z per cent pure silver. The mines
| are by no means exhausted, but political
disturbances and the poverty of the people
have prevented their further development
| OF coal there is positively none in Cuba
| Munchausen tales to the contrary notwith-
| standing. In the Sierra Maestro range
stretching along the southern coast between
Santiago and Manzanillo, are extremely val
\ liable deposits of manganese, which is in
| dispensable in the manufacture of STEEL II
! is not generally known that Cuba has also
asphalt deposits rivaling those of Trinidad,
| and equally good for street paving and gun
making Beyond doubt, Cuba's greatest
mineral riches are in fine copper There
are inexhaustible deposits of this metal, not
only in the far-famed Sierra del Cobre
| Copper Mountains) OF the eastern end bur
in other parts OF the island. The compare
lively small quantity that as yet has been
| taken out yielded an average of So per cent
pure metal Long before Columbus sighted
| these shores the Indians were mining cop
| per in the Cobre hills. Archeologists find
strong proof that IL was carried across TO
! Florida many centuries ago and used by
the Indians Of that peninsula, trinkets OF
pure copper having been found in their
burial mounds
In the line of furniture. tableware, sew
ing machines, farming implements, and a
! hundred other manufactured articles which
are found in the humbiest homes of the
| United States, there is a marked scarcity
In Cuba, even among the richest. Already
the glib-tongUed Yankee "agent" is abroad
in the island with his ready samples-usu-
ally phic-representin firms in
Chicago st. Louis, and other far-away
cities. A company has recently been
formed in Washington and New York
which is about TO establish a commission
house in Havana similar 10 those carried
on by the Grace Eyre people OF New York
in various South American cities, for the
sale OF these articles in Cuba. In all parts
of Spanish America except Cuba these
commission houses may be found dealing
in all manner OF things, from plows 10
silverware. mostly from Photographic sam
pies, and doing banking business as well.
Riches in the Woods.
The other day met a couple of sanguint
! Missourians who are expecting to get rict
in short order on the cabinet woods of the
island. Here is certainly very wide field
which has never before been worked. Ever
the names OF the valuable woods are mostl,
unknown TO Americans. the old Spanisl
! nomenclature, which has no regard for cor