Daily camera., 1899-07-28
PORTO RICAN KITES.
Men and Women Fly Them as Well
as Children.
A Common sight Is n FIotIIn of Big
Kite. Flying Over the Heads
of Crowds of Old and

/ On the long slopes of brilliant green
grass that stretch away from the walls
of Cristobal Colon and GwindIe down
/ into the city OF San Juan. a great crowd
of curious and noisy men, women and
/ children stand every morning, gesticu-
| lating half madly at one another,
talking very fast and occasionally
| breaking up into little groups. more
/ excited than the rest. Above their
heads there is always a tiOtilla of big
kites, ducking, diving. floating upward
and performing queer tricks as they
| fiirt and play with the ocean wind bill
! lowing inward from the southern sea.
One great red paper monster darted
swiftly upward above the others on
one occasion. Then a shout went uu
from the crowd. 1t seemed 10 be hav-
ing a race with blue one sailing dan
gerously near. 4 hundred trembling
arms with outstretchtd fingers were
raised frantically in the air, sL.kiug
five and ten peso notes Offering bets
on the red The champions OF the blue
made verbal pools, and so the betting
went on, amid tremendous excitement,
more noticeable than d public demon
stration in honor OF the governor gen
eral.
Suddenly the flyer Of the blue, dirty
little Catanian, unwOund several wards
of string that guided his airship. Its
tail was long. striped like the hide of
a zebra, and loaded with strips of card
board all along its graceful length.
Little American flags doated from the
edges of the kite and the end of the
tail, for this Porto Rican was a dip
lomat, like his brothers And when
he unwound the guiding lever, at once
the blue shot up, lEllled close beside
the red for moment. and then at once,
with an incomprGhensiblc movement.
il darted across the face Of its antag-
luist and in moment the latter was
floating downward uucontrollably to-
ward the ground. The sharp. curved
knife with which the blue WAS bur
dened had severed the string of the
red, and the latter had lost and the
victorious kite few upward like newly
liberated bird.
The knife is a necessary and legiti-
rlate burden of every kite that enters
the betting ring. and this seems to en-
hance the uncertainty OF the sport. and
it requires magnificent display G skill
to avoid the blades or to attack an an
tagonist. The skill which men and even
boys display in this respect is some
times almost astounding.
In country where cocktighting is
national sport, and where bulltighting
would be in vogue if the American au-
thorities would permit, where gam
bling is the chief pastime of both men
and women, it is somewhat surprising
that SO mild a practice as kiteflying
should hold the attention with the
power that ii does. The element of
chance, however, and the right to un-
limited and unrestricted betting, hes
carried it swiftly into popular favor,
and so it remains to-day.
In Porto Rico Laurie, now moved to
Havana, was for years the potentate
of kites. He used to sit in the sun there
under the soft blue sky, way up on
hill near old Cristobal Colon, and he
had his colored paper spread about him.
with little heaps of long, slender sticks
carved from the big redwood tree. His
paste pot stood beside him, as he whit
tied with long, keen blade like ma
chete.
From the hands of the old Cuban
there has come many prizewinner.
One was five feet in height and three
feet in width, and il was covered over
with the flag of Cuba, and it bore itself
haughtily in the wind Its flyer tossed
it up from one of the fiat roofs of the
Cerro, and it drew n chattering crowd
bigger than a Gomez parade, and il felt
its Importance, for it tugged hatefuily
at the string and struggled with emo
tional jerks to be free. II was SO SYM
bolic of the spirit of Havana that the
mob went wild with cheering, and Il lit
tie Cuban police officer. in the brand
new regulation blue uniform, with sill
yer decorations, tried to assert his au-
thority.-N. y. sun.