The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-08-17
THE VERY HEART OF CUBA.
\ Visit to the City of the Holy Trinity.
Sleepy, But Picturesque.

Thanks to American newspapers, the
world has lately become well ac-
quainted with Habana in the west,
Santiago in the east, CienfuegoS and
Natanzas in the middle-the New
York, San Francisco, Philadelphia
and Chicago of Cuba-but to this day
few people know much about the
country between those widely sepa-
rated cities. 1t is hard to realize that
the Pearl of the Antilles stretches
over three and half degrees of lati-
tude-farther than the distance be-
tween New York and st. Louis, Phil
cisco and Denver. Harder yet is it to
realize the difficulties of travelling
through the interior-the impOssi-
bility of making the entire journey
overland, from one end of the island
TO the other Spaniards and Cubans
seem to have considered the water
ways of their forefathers good enough
for all time to come, and there has
never been any connection, except by
boat, between the eastern and western
sections of the country. In all this
rich territory there are but four good
roads, and they lead only few miles
out of Habana. The eastern half of
the island, with its rugged mountains
full of minerals, extensive forests and
painless iungles, has no public high
ways worthy the name, the few coun-
tryward routes being mere mule
trails, and poor ones at that. Since
the war, however, an American syn
dicate has investigated the feasibility
of railway line between Santiago
and Habana, and reported favorably;
therefore the time is at hand, maybe,
when locomotives will rush shrieking
from end to end of this sleepy land,
connecting forgotten towns and vii
lagos like the beads of a rosary. on
strings of steel.
As yet the greater part OF Cuba
resembles the Heart of Africa" in
one particular. 1t remains terra
iRcOgnita, concerning which any wild
story, well told, gains ready credence.
Even during the war when the eyes
of all nations were turned this way,
only occasional scraps of information
found their way from southern ports,
leaving the whole vast interior, with
tS of nrfln ct
and wanton destruction, buried in
impenetrable silence. In this region
of gloom and mystery. of which Trini-
dad is the southern outlet and Sagua
Ia Grande the northern, | have been
spending the last few weeks for the
purpose of telling your readers all
about it. Santa Clara province is the
very heart of Cnba. and was once the
garden spot of the world before those
destructive patriots, Gomez and
Maceo, overran it with their negro
rabble, al machete, and converted
sixty million dollars worth of grow
ing cane into drifting ashes. To-day
little is left but the royal palms,
standing like plumed sentinels amid
the dead. In hundred miles of the
richest territory, not a house nor a
human being is to be seen. Planta-
tions, ranches, farms were all destroy
ed by one army or the other, villages
wiped cat, sugar mills a thing of the
past, expensive machinery broken up
and rusting in the fields waiting a
purchaser as old junk-nothing to
speak of former population but heaps
of melancholy ruins.
The six hundred miles or so between
Habana and Santiago are traversed
barely half way by the railroad, which
ends at Santa Clara, sending out
branches to Sagua and Cienfuegos.
If you insist on an all-land route, the
remaining 800 miles must be made
over robber-infested trails, in the
saddle. on OK carts, on foot, according
TO circumstances and locality. 1t is
not to be thought of without strong
escort, and if after great expense,
danger, toll and privation you arrive
at the end of the journey with whole
skin and purse in your own posses
sion, you haye been exceptionally
fortunate. No native undertakes
such q hazardous thing without say
ing seven Ave Marias at every mile,
to bring himself good luck, and even
then the reverse is likely to be mis-
portion. Hardly one person in a
thousand comes to Trinidad except
by water, usually by coasting steamer
from Cienfuegos, 40 miles to the west
ward. You may go all the way by
water from Habana, rounding the
western tips of the island, or by rail
to Batabanao, the southern port of
Habana province, and thence sailing
eastward t70 miles, among innumer-
BILE wooded islets, or by railway to
Cienfuegos, and thence by steamer,
or from Santiago, sailing in a north
westerly direction, past the dark
mountains of the Maestro range, Cape