The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1899-09-21

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DR.. Pierce's Common Sense Medical Ad-
wiser sent for d one cent stamps to cover
mailing onlr Cloth binding 81 stamps.
! Address Dr. K. Y, Pierce. Buffalo, \. Y.
| giant ceibas, (similar to our cottonwoods),
and ''carolinas," species of tropical oak.
But for the most part it is an empty
country, little way from the main road
SO far as human life is concerned The
people, dazed by their sorrows and losses,
are still afraid to venture far beyond the
settlements. All the porteros, or farm
houses, were destroyed, together with the
handsome residences on the larger estates,
and their owners, if not among the dead,
are too poor to rebuild. There is also a
noticeable lack of farm animals; and of
farm implements there was always a
| dearth. In number of instances | saw
men taking the place OF oxen at the pillow,
two men pulling, while a third guided the
rude, hand fashioned implement whose
model may have been the pictures of
plows used in Moses day.
Nearing the centre of the long and mar
row province, one dscerns more hopeful
signs of recuperation, chiefly owing to
the exigences OF the tobacco trade
| This was once the great tobacco growing
section of the world, you know-the re-
gion OF the famous Nuelta Abajo, where
every farmer as well as every squatter on
a half acre, was tobacco planter, and
where every traw-thatched, palm sided
home was supplemented with a drying
shed for tobacco leaves. In many cases,
wealthy buyers and manufacturers have
advanced money to the whilom planters,
furnished oxen and supplied young plants
to stock the fields anew. To day there
are many miles of growing tobacco in
| Pinar del Rio, even running up the sides
Of the chalk cliffs that mark the begin
ming of the Nuelta hills, and appearing
to thrive as well in rocky soil as in loam
The rich red earth of this province pro-
duces equally we'll, corn, sugar cane and
sweet potatoes, and no doubt other yege-
tables, if the farmers cared to raise them.
Every ''bohio,n is EMPOWERED in banana
grove, and wild orange trees are laden
with fruit. We passed a splendid pine
apple plantation-the sight of life time,
it seemed to me-more than eighty thous-
and plants in full bearing. There is some
thing peculiarly fascinating about the
graceful curve of the smooth, sharp edged
leaves, bristling far as the eye can see like
the bayonets of an army on the march,
and the golden fruits thrust upward from
pink centres. Each plant bears but one
great, juicy globe of sweetness at time
but the same plant is good for another
''apple'' few months later, and another
and another: and then it must be pulled
up by the roots and replaced by a new
slip.
Pinar del Rio city, capital of the prov
ince of the same name, has in the neigh
borhood of 5000 population, about the
same as before the war, because it was
ton, nor decreased by extraordinary sui
fering. 1t happened that the country
people were driven in another direction
and thousands penned in smaller villages
in the eastern end of the province. Shoe
making is the chief industry of Pinar,
engaging nearly half the population
each on his own hook, SO to speak, for
there is no factory and labor saving ma
J ab; !, int
are many comfortable homes in the city,
and substantial shops and stores, and one
of the finest hospitals | have ever seen.
Most of the public edifices, including the
of the Province, are ranged around the
central plaza.
1t is pleasant to take a volante ride
along the old highway, shaded by PLAN
bagante trees, to Colona fifteen miles
from Pinar del Rio. What is most needed
is a railway through the hills, from Bahia
Honda on the north coast. The English
company which owns the railway running
from Habana to the capital of Pinar prov
ince, threatens to extend its line farther
into the tobacco lands; but if it does not
afford better and cheaper service than at
present, its patrons will not be numerous.
The northern hills are said to be full of
magnesia and other minerals, while their
extensive forests of cedar and mahogany,
and the several varieties of pines from
which the province takes it's name, offer
wealth to the woodsman. Immense fields
of yucca also call for American enterprise.
The first man who starts yucca planta-
ton and builds starch factory, lays the
foundation for colossal fortune Yucca
is fibrous root containing tapioca and
other starchy matter in larger proportion.
1t grows wild all over Cuba and resembles
the alder bushes of our middle states.
Pinar del Rio city has always been not