The Newtown bee., 1899-02-03
LOCAL AFFAIRS.
A Long Hill Boy at Porto Rico.
WE'LL PLEASED WITH THE COUNTRY
 DON'T MIND THE RAIN BIT.

This is certainly fine country. Iex- pected something pretty fine, but this exceeds my expectations, We have been here little over two months now and every time we get letter from home telling us about blizzards and zero wealth CT, we shake hands and say, None for us.s The thermometer registers about 80 degrees during the day and about 70 de srees in the night. There is g fine br ssz9 rum the ocean all the time, which F ses the temperature just about right. They say silat this is the dry season, but it rains every day, and when it rains here it pours. It has got to be 8 second nature with us to carry an umbrella now, as it is just as essential when you go out as 8 hat or shoes and great deal more 30, with the natives, as half of them don't wear any shoes but never go without their umbrella. You start out in the morning and the sun is shining as bright ly as can be and in less than 10 minutes it will be raining pitchforks, but it will stop just as quickly and the gun will be shining just as brightly as ever: But that is better than wadiDg through two feet of snow.
 We are enjoying the best of health, in fact we never felt better than we do this winter, so guess the climate agrees with us. The fruit certainly does, as we are getting fat on 1t. We had an idea when we left home that we would come down here and pick ripe bananas and oranges off the the trees. But we got left, they are all picked off green just the same as when they are shipped to the States. They won't eat yellow orange here not if they can get one that is half green ]; and you know when you are Tn Rome you have to do as the Romans do; so we do the same.
 We haven't seen much of the island yet as we have been but eight or 10 miles out in the country, to place called Rio Pedras, which ia the end of the San Juan railroad. When we were out there we went through 8 e fee, sugar and banana plantation and also sugar mill which has been idle good while, but they are fixing it up again, getting ready for this years crop, which they will begin to cut in about week. They take cart loads of cane into the city every day, which they sell for one cent stick, and it is 8 comical sight to see the natives going along the street chewing on a big long piece of it. We tried it, but it was too sweet for us. Something that you can't find here is & sign which says, "No smoking Allowed, ''as everybody smokes, no matter where they are. Every car on the train Is 8 smoking car, and the ladies don't seem to mind it if man sits next to them and blows smoke in their face. Among the poorer class the women smoke and chew just the same as the men. We don't think anything of seeing an old colored woman going along smoking her cigar and splitting tobacco juice. Our cook chews the buts of the cigars we smoke, and as we smoke good many, we keep her busy. The little kids smoke cigarettes almost before they are old enough to talk.
 The stores are open seven days & week and they are ''dandies," too. They keep collars, neckties, ladies' hats, toilet soap and perfumes in the hardware stores, and all the grocery stores sell liquors. I went into shoe store,a few days ago, to get pair of shoe strings, but they told me they didn't keep them, and sent me into hardware store next door, where 1 got them. There is 8 concert on the Plaze Principal every Sunday night by the 11th Infantry band, when all the beautiful women get out and walk up and down for about two hours. This is about all the exercise they get, as they stay in the house all the week. The color line is drawn very distinctly at these concerts. The white people walk up and down on one side of the plaza and the colored people on the other, and they are very careful not to get on the wrong side.
 There is plenty of ice here as there are two ice plants in the city, and Swift &5 Go. of Chicago have just completed 8 cold storage plant which they have in operation.
 Business down here in the building line is at standstill just at present and ] guess it will remain so until the duty is taken off lumber. as you have to pay an outrageous price for it now. AS for gov. ernment positions, there are two men fol every position. There is 8 good chance for an American butcher, barber and restaurant keeper. We have THE BET most every week and CT joy reading il
 very much, even if it is two or three
 weeks oid.-[ H. J. Wheeler.