The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1899-03-23
MR.. ALLEN ON CUBA
WELL KNOWN TANNER TELLS OF
OUR NEW POSSESSIONS.
CUBAN DANCING PARTY
Mr.. Allen Says the Greatest Need of the
island is Good Hotel-A Visit to
Cigarette Factory Something About
Cuban Women.

recently returned from CuDa, mas given
a very interesting article on the new
possession of the United States, which
appeared in the Milwaukee Sentinel
Sunday. In part be says:
g The largest returns, " said he, can
be made from good hotel in Havana
under American management. At this
time there are thousands of people IN
the city who want good hotel accom-
modations and there is not a single
decent hotel in the place. Before we
left Miami / wrote to reserve rooms IN
the Hotel Ingleterre. Early in the
morning after we reached HAVANA, |
went on shore to examine cur rooms at
the hotel. I did not like them, but
after looking about for other accommo-
dations l was obliged to return to our
original choice and take up our abode
at the Hotel lngleterre.
We we're charged So a day apiece
for rooms and meals, but after the first
meal we decided to forego the luxury of
the hotel fare and took all our meals at
a French restaurant where the cooking
was much better. We were simply
paying $40 day there for rooms.
q Sugar and tobacco are the chief
industries. | did not visit sugar
plantation, as most of them were
burned by either the Spaniards or the
insurgents and very little sugar has
been manufactured, but | did visit a
cigar and cigarette factory where they
make the finest cigars l have ever seen
and turn out more than 100000
cigarettes daily. 1t was interesting to
watch the hundreds Of girls working,
and rolling cigarettes so quickly that
your eyes could not follow their move
ments. One of the ladies wore bicy
Gle skirt on her visit to this factory,
and the girls seemed very much
amused and motioned to one another
pointing to the skirt. She asked the
major if women never wore short
skirts in Cuba and he answered de-
murely and calamity, sometimes
Few women wear hats. We saw
only about five or six women in hats
Curing the time that we remained in
Havana. All of them wear mantillas
and carry fans. How cleVerly they use
those fansl L watched a young girl on
the cars engaged in a Irritation with a
young fellow in car on parallel
track. The trains had not yet pulled
out, and she was talking to him with
her fan. 1t was new language to me,
with startling possibilities. Men also
carry fans, and you see them on the
streets tanning themselves with deli
cately painted fans. Very few women
are seen on the streets, and during the
afternoon nearly all Cuban women are
at home taking siesta.
The Cubans are small and thin
The men are not much larger than the
women. They are puny looking and
seem doomed to decay. Every one
who sees them and learns to know,
them says that they are unfit for self
government and will never be able to-
undertake for themselves the RESPONSE
bilities of independent legislation. As
have said before, our stay in Cuba is
generally regarded by people there as
permanent, ald we are congratulated
on the acquisition of so valuable an
island, Nowhere in the Ubited States
is the land so fertile; nowhere else does
vegetation grow so readily and so pro-
fusely The natural resources of the
island are unbounded. The island of
Java, not quite so large as Cuba, sup
ports 81 100000 of people, and it has
not the natural wealth of Cuba. be-
lieVe a glorious future awaits the
island under American rule.
A Cuban Dance.
& The major asked Mrs. Allen and |
me to ball given at the Sports club,
a CLUB to which only the Cubans of the
best families belong and to which no
Spaniard is admitted. The dances are
entirely different from ours and the
dancers seem to move in a circumscrib- |
ed area. Four or five couples can |
easily dance on the space under the
chandelier The music was good, and |
sometimes out of compliment to the |
American visitors the band played |
some of our dance tunes and these were
loudly applauded by the Americans
present
j" There were many handsome gowns |
worn on that occasion. Cuban women
have beautiful eyes and their languid |
style gives them an indescribable |
charm. All of them powder. They
looked as if they dipped their faces in
to flour barrel and had not wiped the
powder away. Mrs. Allen spoke to
our major about this custom, for even
the youngest girls cover their faces