The times., 1899-06-25
ACROSS CUBA IN A
RAILWAY TRAIN
Villages and People Between
sasua and Cienfuegos.
No 0verburdening Desire for An.
nexation to America.
Army Regulations as to Sales of
Liquor to Soldiers Offensive
to Innkecpers.

py the exceedingly 1erky train that runs
almost due south from port to port, may be
recommended as sovereign dyspepsia
cure. akin to horseback riding. Though
the pleasure of the journey is marred by
the necessity of holding on to ones hat
and grasping the sides of the seat, while
nodding like toy mandarin to ones VISA
Wis and threatening 10 pitch bodily into
him, the scenery. as the traveller gets
glimpses of it between these acrobatic
performances, is beautiful enough to fill
him with 'the Joy of living" He sees
long stretches of cane. yellow as FURNISHED
gold with the sun shining on it; tobacco
farms dotted with towering palms, and the
rank and file of fields of Indian corn stand
ing like armies ready to march. Vast,
empty meadows, enclosed within low walls
OF piled-up stones that remind him of
New England, are covered with coarse
grass, upon which cattle ought to be feed
ing, interspersed with poorly titled or
wholly untitled sections, whose bright red
soil and Haunting weeds attest their won
derful fertility. At rare intervals stretches
of tropical jungle are passed, apparently as
unreclaimed as when the first Spaniard set
foot on the island.
The lark spins out his interminable
airette to the summer sky, the notes of
quail and plover, phoebe" and tomegun
are waited on the soft, warm breeze, and
beyond all the distant hills glimmer like
dream of the delectable mountains. Palm
trees, characteristic of every Cuban land
scape, are mnipresent-sweeping away in
curved lines along the course of streams,
standing in splendid groves or ranged in
double rows of smooth, grey columns
whose majesty gives one the feeling OF
walking in moonlit cathedral. Undoubt-
edly the most beautiful thing in nature is
tall stately palm, standing alone against
background of fieecy clouds in tur-
quoise sky. Its plumed crest, tossed by
every vagrant breeze, casts no shade-or at
best, but a tiny patch afar off in the field.
The stories of travellers in tropical lands
sitting under the cooling shadow of palms
are as absurd as those other MayneR Reid
tales of wayfarers reaching up and pluck
ing coeoanuts with which to slack their
burning thirst-a feat they might perhaps
accomplish if possessed Of arms twenty to
thirty yards long.
AS one progresses farther and farther
into the heart of Cuba, the nineteenth
century, with all its strife and turmoil,
falls behind and is forgotten. Each straw
tbatched village encountered en- route, and
they are very numerous-seemsg given over
to perpetual somnia. The railway stations
are not thronged with the idle and curious.
as in other rural parts, but the people sit
in their doors, dreamily watching the train
from afar, too lazy for active curiosity
Occasionally more enterprising citizen,
black as the hackneyed ace OF spades or
with the lean, brown profile of Ramesses
II, saunters through the cars, offering some
| trifle for sale; and ragged children extend
their hands for aims and laughingly greet
the traveller with the English phrases they
have picked up, such as "gim ME a PEN
ny" ''all right" and ''good-ky" At one
station small girl, patched fore and aft
| but with the face of an angel, lifted timid
eyes in respones to our salutation and
murmured God DAM without an idea of
| the meaning of the word she had heard
the Yankee soldiers use.
Each matched village has some distfn-
gushing peculiarity. At one is made the
! famous jalea de guayaba (guava jelly).
which has such sale throughout all
| Spanish America. 1t is put up in narrow
wooden boxes, can be kept Indefinitely, and
is as appetizing as healthful. In the hotels
of Havana it is invariably served with
| cheese as a dinner dessert Another town
is distinguished by great wooden crucifx,
/ erected on the public square, with arms
| opened wide TO a sinful world. At Esper-
ANA, City of Hope" tall birdhouse,
| close by the church, extends a hospitable
! invitation to all the denizens of the air. 1t
shows the kindly and poetic nature of the
| people-so poor that SO could not be rails
| ed among them to save human life, yet
caring for the feathered tribes less ire
! sponsible than themselves. In several
! towns the public well appears to be the
| social centre. On an elevated platform,
rooted and tiled, but with sides open to
the air, is a great iron wheel, which every
body turns for him or herself. oh, for the
| pencil OF a Mast a Gibson, or a Cruik-
shank, Women come strolling across the
| fields bringing to the wells kerosene cans
| converted into buckets and boys carry
| poles on their shoulders, to which are
slung cans, jars, demijohns any old thing
! that will hold water, except regular pail.
| Groups of barefooted girls coquette with
| their lovers while waiting their turn q the
wheel, and bedraggled matrons sit on the
steps exchanging ueighborly gossip, their
| saddle-colored babies, naked as Correggio' S
| ''St. John" rolling about in the weeds.
| Sleepy and unimportant as these interior
| villages seem, they are the real Cuba after
ALL and in them the public pulse may be
more correctly told than in cosmopolitan
| Havana, where the people have learned the
wisdom of Disgusting their sentiments.
| BY the way, if anybody at home is of
| the opinion that the Cuban nation will ever
welcome annexation to the United States,
| he may as well disabuse himself of the
erroneous idea Aside from patriotic nom
sense concerning the cause for which they
fit bled and died" there are several rea-
sons why a permanent alliance with Uncle
| Samuel would be about the last thing the
average islander would desire Most bit
| terly and universally opposed to it are
! the two distinct and widely different ele-
ments which together compose mere than
| two-t thirds of Cubas populaton-the
! Spaniards and the colored people With
| the former, opposition to American au-
| thority rests upon a purely business ba-
| sis, fearing competition with the richer
and more energetic race. While few of
/ the larger financial interests may favor an
alliance, the commercial classes in gener-
al are strongly in favor OF independence
| The Bodegueros, for example, very nu-
merous class who own the small provis-
ion stores which are located on every cor
ner of every block in every Cuban city
| dominating all the retail trade and form
! ing a more powerful factor in politics than
/ the saloonkeepers of the United States
are opposed to annexation to a man. As
a rule, too, the Spaniards own the drug
| stores, the cafes. and the inns, or posa-
das. as they are called, throughout the
| island.
| In the poorest little straw matched vii
| lage one is always 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 Apol-
| lnaris water. These poor looking posa-
das, where maybe the mules and horses
| are stalled in what would be the ''parlor"
! in a country tavern of the North while
the travellers sleep above. are really much