The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-24

can authority rests upon purely bus
 mess basis, fearing competition with
 the richer and more energetic race | While a few of the larger financial in- l terests may favor an alliance, the con-
 mercial classes in general are strongly | in favor of independence. The Bode- | gueros, for example, a very numerous ] class who own the small provision stores which are located on every cor
 ner of every block in every Cuban city, | dominating all the retail trade and ] forming a more powerful factor in poli- l ties than the saloon-keepers of the Uni | ted States-are opposed to annexation 1 to a man. As a rule, too, the Spaniards
 own the drug stores, the cafes and the l inns or posadas, as they are called, | throughout the island. In the poorest | little straw-thatched village one is all ways sure of a tolerable meal-rather red-peppery and garlicy, perhaps, but | clean and well served in courses, with | good Spanish claret, English ale, or
 posadas, where maybe the mules and horses are stalled in what would be the "parlor" in a country tavern of the
 north while the traveller sleeps above,
 are really much better than the average
 hotel' in villages of the same size in America. The Spanish Boniface cares little for the honor of his profession or the comfort of his customers; but he
 has learned that there is profit in
 keeping a good inn. Awhile ago the
 Bodegueros were fierce in their hatred
 of the Cubans and clamored loudly for
 annexation; but since they have seen
 the methods of the Americans, their
 abundant capital and steady persis-
 tence in business, self-interest has
 caused them to sing another tune.
 Now they have painted their store
 fronts the Cuban colors and Haunt the
 Cuban flag in order to keep the Cuban
 trade and accentuate their hostility to
 American military occupation. The or
 der of General Brooks, forbidding the
 Bodegueros and cafe owners to sell any
 alcoholic liquors to American soldiers
 added fuel to the flame of hatred.
 From time out of mind they had turned
 many honest pennies by ceiling drinks
 to Spanish soldiers, and now that those
 good customers were gone, why not to
 the usurpers? When few of the
 bodegas and posadas were closed and
 their owners heavily fined for breaking
 the law, they became intense in their
 hostility to American control, and the
 climax was capped when the finest cafe in Havana was shut up without legal
 process, because one of its walters sold a gin fizz to a drunken m-major. It
 was no use to plead that the ignorant employe mistook the drum major for a
 major general; the proprietor had no recourse until the military authorities,
 having made sufficient example" of him, permitted the place to reopen.
 In spite of his ignorance and avarice, the Spanish property-owner in Cuba, being thrifty, hard-working, honest in his way and disposed to be peaceable, has in him more of the elements of good citizenship than the average Cuban. He came from Catalonia Asturia or the Basque provinces, or his father did usually with no capital but strength and industry. He began as chore-boy or farm-hand to some Bodeguero or planter, who had been a few years ahead of him in Cuba, willing to work from a. m, to il D. m. until the inevi- | table end was attained of shop or land or inn, of his own The Spanish | word bodego means wine-cellar, but here it stands for any sort of general | supply place. where everything eatable | and drinkable is sold, from jerked beef | to claret. In all cases the Spaniards' | dignity has kept pace with the advance | in his fortunes, from chore-boy to mer- chant or landed proprietor, and though | he may not be able to distinguish the | price-mark on his own goods, and signs his name with an K he rides in his car | riage at the head of island aristocracy. It is an actual fact that many of them have no system of keeping accounts but by chalk-marks on the door. Where the merchant is unable to read, write or 'cypher," all business requiring those must be deputed to hired clerks. But the Spaniard, having plenty of native shrewdness, rarely gets left" as they say in America You may be certain that he has a good margin Of profit on all transactions; and though giving credit in what looks Ike a loose sort of way, he invariably collects the interest on his mortgages while Waitingg for the default in prin- clpal which will ensure the whole thing falllng to him in the end, Checks and dratts are rarely used, though many of the mercantile and shipping firms do d. banking business as we'll Shylocks bv nature, their standard of commercial in- [egrlty is so high that every mans word IS as good as his bond and verbal con- tracts usually serve for written ones. tormer Consul-General Williams says that when he was merchant in Ha- wanna it frequently happened that tram 'actlons involving many thousands of iollars, with complicated provisions hat might easily lead to dispute were carried on without a scrap of writing. and were always promptly settled.
 The patriarchial way in which the Spanish merchant, great or small, man. ages his business in Cuba Is curious and 'macks of mediaeval Spain. Going into my shop or store between the hours of 10 q. m. and noon, you may see a. table spread for breakfast in some dingy back ,orner among the boxes or barrels, meals ,r groceries" with a small loaf of bread at each plate and the inevitable bottle Of claret in the middle. In all 'ases the clerks and employees live with he shop-keeper and his family, eating at he same table and sleeping somewhere | n the place of business. Many of the arger mercantile bliShmentS of Ha-