The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-09-14

! sorrows and losses, are still afraid to
venture far beyond the settlements. All
! the porteros or farmhouses, were de-
stroyed, 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
| Iarm implements there was always a
| dearth In number of instances
saw men taking the place of oxen at the
| pillow, while a third guided the rude,
| hand-tashioned implement whose model
may have been the pictures of plows
in Moses day.
Nearing the center of the long and
narrow province, one discerns more
hopeful signs of recuperation, chiefly
owing to the eXigencies of the tobacco
trade. This was once the great tobacco
growing section of the world you know
the region of the famous Vuelta
Abajo, where every farmer, as well as
every squatter on a half-acre, was a
TOBACCO planter, and where every
StfaW-thatched, palm-sided home was
supplemented with a drying shed for
tobacco leaves. In many cases wealthy
buyers and manufacturers have ad-
Vanced money to the whilom planters,
furnished oxen and supplied young
plants to stock the field anew To-day
there are many miles of growing to-
bacco in Pinar del Rio, even running
up the sides of the chalk cliffs that
mark the beginning of the Vuelta hills,
and appearing to thrive as we'll in
rocky soil as in loam The rich red
earth of this province produces equally
We'll corn, sugar cane and sweet pota-
toes and no doubt other vegetables, if
the farmers cared to raise them Every
'bohio" (native huD is embowered in a
banana grove and wild orange trees
laden with fruit We passed a splen-
did pineapple plantation-the sight of a.
lifetime, it seemed to me-more than
eighty thousand plants in full bearing!
There is something peculiarly fascinat-
ing about the graceful curve OF the
smooth, sharpedged leaves, bristling
far as the eye can see like the bayonets
of an army on the march, and the gol-
den fruit thrust upward from pink CEN
tiers. Each plant bears but one great,
juicy globe of sweetness at time; but
the same plant is good for another
apple a few months later and an
other 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
province of the same name, has in the
neighborhood of 5000 population, about
the same as before the war because it
was never abnormally swollen by re-
concentration, nor decreased by extra
ordinary suffering. 1t happened that
the country people were driven. in an
other direction and thousands penned
in smaller villages in the eastern end
of the province. Shoemaking is the
chief industry of Pinar engaging near
1y half the populaton-eac on his own
hook so TO speak for there is no fac
tory, and labor-saving machinery has
never been introduced. There are
many comfortable homes in the city, |
and substantial shops and stores, and |
one of the finest hospitals I have ever
seen. Most of the public edifices, in
Guiding the handsome residence of the |
civil Governor of the Province, are |
ranged around the central plaza
1t is pleasant to take volante ride !
along the old highway, shaded with |
trees, to Coloma, fifteen
miles from Pinar del Rio. What is
most needed is railway through the
hills, from Bahia Honda on the north
coast. The English company hich owns
the railway running from Havana to
the capital of Pinar province, threatens
to extend it's line farther into the to-
bacco lands; but if it does not afford
better and cheaper service than at
present, its patrons will not be numer-
Ous. The northern hills are said to be
full of magnesia and other minerals
while their extensive forests of cedar
and mahogany, and the several varie-
ties of pines from which the province
takes its name, offer wealth to the
also call for American enterprise. The
first man who starts a yucca planta-
lion and builds starch factory lays
he foundation for colossal fortune.
Yucca is a fibrous root containing tap
oca and other starchy matter in large
1t grows wild all over Cuba
md resembles the alder bushes Of our
middle states.
Pinar del Rio city has always been
loted as an intensely Spanish town
The insurgents had some sympa thizers
md abettors there, but they were never
numerous enough to neutralize Spanish
sentiment, as in other places. To this
lay the Castilian colony representing
he riches and aristocracy of the sec ,
ion. still holds itself above its Cuban ,
leighbors. Although in the nature of
Kings the Spaniards cannot feel eXces- ,
i've friendiness for the United States, 6
hey greatly prefer annexation to an in
dependent Cuban government. {
We reached Havana just in time for
he sailing hour Of La Cienego," one
f the few native steamers that regu- '
arly make the circuit of the island by t
he westward route. Sailing eastward !
rom Havana toward Matanzas Car &
enas and Sagua la Grande, and so on t
round to Snatiago is frequent and /
avorite trip; but much more unusual E
that in the other direction, around Y
he ribbon-like province of Pinar del I
Sio stretching almost to the border of /
lexico, and rounding the sharp corner
f Guanahaca peninsula which forms t
ne southwestern tip of Cuba. We !
topped at several shabby little ports on r
1me business of the steamship com t
any, but none of the passengers went r
shore Night overlook us off the Bajos s