The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1899-12-20
Letter From Porto Rico.

many points in his letter that we feel
sure would interest and instruct our read
ers that we reproduce it entire, as fol-
lows; We have been keeping house here
now for three weeks and / will try to
give you and your readers some idea of
how we are living. Our place. is seven
miles from San Juan ard one mile from
Rie Piedras, town ofprobably five thou
sand inhabitants, ,althoughlto pass through
it you would not think that there were
more than one thousand at the most We
have three acres of ground fronting on
the military road, and running back to
the San Juan r. r. The military road
was spoken of by me in a former letter;
it runs from San Juan across the noun
tains to Ponce on the south of the island;
is macadam road its entire length of
eighty one miles. The travel on this road
is simply immense, all the hauling for
the supply of the country towns and
people being done by ox,teams hitched to
two wheeled OK carts, and by pack ponies
which carry into the interior where there
are only trails instead Of roads. Then
there are the government trains, consist
ing of four mules hitched to American
wagons, which haul the supplies for the
soldiers stationed in the interior towns.
Carriages drawn by small Porto Rican
ponies, carrying people to the interior
towns and to Ponce many natives travel
ing barefooted, as all poor people here go
barefooted, all of which go to make up a
steady stream of travel from morning till
night, aud in fact all night You hear them
going. This is very fine road for bicy-
cling, being so hard and smooth aud free
from dust or sand. The railroad runs
from San Juan to Rie Piedras, and has
fourteen trains each way per day, com
mencing at six o'clock in the morning
and running 10 eleven o'clock at night.
By buyinga siXty-two mile ride ticket
the fare is sixteen cents for round trip,
and school tickets are sold for half price.
This road will be made into trolley as
soon as the proper grants con be obtained,
which possibly cannot be had till after |
Congress places the island under proper |
government.
Our house sets back from the road sixty |
feet. There is drive way comes in from
the front and runs around the house, and |
three walks lead back from the house to |
the back end of lot and the railroad. In |
front of the house the space is occupied by |
a flower garden; the drive way andIwalks |
are all skirted by flower trees, cocoanut |
palm trees, coffee plants, banana plants,
pine apple plants, orange trees, bread |
fruit trees. The flowers are blooming all |
the time; we pick many boquets every
day, but you cannot see that it makes any |
difference in the supply. cannot name
the different kinds, but many are the
sa ne as we have potted in the States, but |
here they grow to the size of small trees |
or rather saplng, and have flowers con-
tinually budding and blooming. There |
are some fifteen cocoanut palm trees bear |
ing cocoanuts, and possibly about two |
hundred about three years old, aud will |
not bear for four years yet. Five or six |
hundred banana plants, with only four
that have fruit on now, but in month or
two the half or more will have fruit on.
The coffee was picked a month before we
came, but there are coffee plants enough to
supply one family with coffee. The pine
apple plants will commence to ripen fruit
in February, and think there are pro-
baby thousand plants on the grounds.
There are only ten or twelve orange trees
and they are mostly too young to bear,
we having only one tree that has anv
oranges on. There is no one here who
cultivates oranges, the trees are what is
called wild trees, but bear a very good
orange and we buy them in small uuan.
titles at less than five cents a dozen.
Since coming out we have planted many
vegetables and they are all up now and
growing nj, ely. We will soon have fresh |
vegetables from our own garden.
We are having our lot cleaned up, ev-
erything hoed by two native wor kmen, |
and L must say have never had men do |
more or better work. 1 pay them seventy
five centavOs per day, equal to forty-five |
cents our money and at the same time |
theyihave to pay more for groceries or any |
thing in the eatable or dress line than the |
same can be bought Tor in the States. with |
the only exception of sweet potatoes, vans
and oranges. For road work they only
pay thirty cents our money.
Our house is fifty feet by sixty over all;
one story fourteen feet high; a six foot
veranda runs around two sides and one
end, on the back end to the one side is a
Kitchen and pantry, the balance being
taken with large porch and cistern.
The house part is divided into a large
center room used for sitting room, parlor,
etc., and five large bed rooms to the sides.
We ave no windows, but only very large
doors latfipn in % |
outside ones, these we always leave open
during the day time and at night close all
the outside doors tight and leave the in
side ones all open, thus giving us plenty
of fresh air for the night. We sleen on
iron beds with canvass for springs, which
is stretched as tight as necessary with
screws rnnning INTO iron rods, over which
the canvass is fastened on top ofthe can
vass we place hap and sleep on that
with sheet over us. Our cooking is
done on native stove built in the kitch-
en- out of brick; there are four small
places on the top in which you put char
coal, and do the cooking over this fire
Or course you cannot bake, but all the
baking is done here by bakeries, and
there is one good American bakery in San
Juan. We get some of our bread from
the commissary bakery for the troops,
but like the native baked bread very WELL
Our table is set on the porch, we have
never eaten meal inside the house.
The range of TEN perature has been from
70 to 81 degrees, hence we do not suffer
much from the cold, nor do we really suf-
fer from the heat. There is nice breeze
blowing nearly all the time, and we dress
Light and feel very comfortable all the
time: ihe nights are very pleasant and
we sleep fine.