The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-01-16
PORTO RICHNS' WOES

Special Correspondence Of Associated
Press.
San Juan, Porto Rico, Dec. 3l.-The
Porto Itican business men is of keen
intelligence and of quick perceptions.
His relations in the past have been
largely with old established and re-
liable European concerns and today
he is making comparisons between the
pioneers of American commerce" who,
with baggage and sample trunk, are
daily landing upon the shores of his
island home, and the business men Of
the continent whom he has known in
the past. The result of this keen scru-
tiny and comparison is not Overwhelm-
| ingly favorable to the American pion-
eer, it has, in fact, brought into life
| the old Spanish word "buscones.
| ''Buscar," to hunt, to seek, "buscOnes,"
hunters, seekers adventurers, and some
| even say the term means cheats and
| pilferere.
The Porto Rican is hard to fool. Be-
] cause his island is in a far away corn
| er of the West Indies, the location Of
| which has only lately become known
| to the majority of Americans not in
| schools, and because he has lived quiet
| ly at home and attended to the bus
| mess of pleasures of a community of
some eight hundred thousand people,
| he is none the less pretty good judge
| of men and manners. The Americans
| who are today in evidence upon this
| island have been weighed and found
| wanting. Commercially we are making
| the same mistake here tnat we have al
| ready made in another Latin Ameri-
| can country and that has been to un-
! derestimate the Intelligence, the per-
| ception and the culture of the business
| men thereof.
| AS the Porto Rican is quick to detect
| the rOughness, the bad manners, the
| lack Of courtesy, the deceptions and
| the guile Of some of his recent Visl-
tors, so is he equally quick to perceive
| contrary qualities in others among
them. On the first points he is per-
haps over sensitive and may be said
to fail in appreciation of the rough
diamond. On the other hand there are
| qualities present in the Anglo Saxon
gentlemen of breeding that are as in
| comprehensive to the men of this cap
ital as is the idea of cold and snow to
the ignorant laborer of this tropical
| island.
In the beginning, the Porto Rican
overestimated us, and part of the awak-
ening he is now experiencing is a ma
tural reaction. In the beginning the
| word American stood for all that was
best in the way of government, civil
ization, advancement, education, man.
ners and commerce. Our country and
it's institutions were looked up to by
| the masses in a way that is difficult
to understand today, Americans fresh
| from the States We're regarded as al
most superior beings; when we landed
here before the war the islanders in
vested rs with a glamOr of the Won
ders in Wash ngton and New York
that we had but recently gazed upon
Anything and everything American
was considered to be pre- -eminently the
best of its kind. In the beginning our
| welcome was based upon these concep-
tions. 1t was thought that the pass
ing If Spain and the acceptance of the
Stars and Stripes would carry with II
some magical influence from the great
country up north, sufficient In itself
TO put an end 20 all that was unjust
and wrong and to straighten out the
affairs of this unhappy island with a
fdirys wand. From this unreal mental
attitude there has come the consequent