The times., 1899-10-22

! Experimenting With Northern
| That Fail to Grow-The schools.
CARDENAs, Sept. 15.-The city of Puerto
! Principe. lying almost in the centre of the
province Of the same name, is reached by
a forty-fve mile railway, from the port
1 of Neuvitas. on the north coast Though
| one of the richest and most interesting
capitals of Cuba. as well as the quaintest
and furthest behind the times, it is per-
! haps less known to the outside world than
I any other town Of equal size on the island.
! Within it old Tempus seems TO have turned
/ as lazy as the natives and to have laid
down his scythe and gone out of business In
/ the earliest days of European occupation.
With a population of something over $4,000,
the city has never had a hotel-nothing
better than posadas and fonditas, as quaint
and comfortless as that in which Joseph
and Mary found refuge in Bethlehem OF
Judea. The citizens. however, though un-
progressive and sleepy as the sleepest deni-
zens of the tropics, are so beautifully hos
pitable that they never permit friend 10
remain an hour in a public house.
Every stranger who comes their way with
! letters of introduction is received literally
with open arms. and treated as bosom
! friend; and even those without introduc-
tions unless their faces or manners carry
too evident a testimonial of non-respecta-
bility-can assuredly make their way with
: out difficulty. At the worst, travellers IN
these of-the-way regions will do well
( to remember that in every village the
priests house-the padre" (father) in To-
cal parlance-is always open to the public,
and in them wayfarers may be sure of
! entertainment at reasonable rates of com
pensation.
A very short visit in Santa Maria del
/ Puerto Principe, as the town was chris
tened, leads you to think that the high
/ sounding title is rather a misft. It's mar
row, crooked streets are mostly unpayed
and the low casas of antiquated architec-
! ture are shabby in the extreme. There
are several old churches, number OF con-
I vents and monasteries, a well patronized
buII-ring. a theatre, a group of somewhat
more modern buildings for government
. Offices. and of course, a fine caslno-tor
no Cuban city is so poor that 1t has not
several of those anu-domestic institutions
called "clubs" in the United States, where
in benedicts may preserve the liberty ana
. traditions of bachelOrhOod, at the expense
of their own firesides. The country around
Puerto Principe is the best in Cuba for
grazing purposes-vast grassy plains, with
rivers running through, where millions oil
/ cattle might be well sustained
Yet to this day Cubaps generally go
without butter or pay a dollar the pound
for vile smelling stun brought in tin boxes
from Denmark and not fit for wagon
1 grease. Enterprising Americans can ma
no better field than right here in Weli-con-
Quoted cattle farms. sThea industry would
net require large capital, like sugar and
coffee and would bring sure, speedy, and
bountfful returns Some tobacco is grown
in the neighborhood and a good deal OF
suear-cane and wild honey produced by
the stingless bees OF the country is e1-
ported in considerable quantities
An American gentleman is experiment
ing. in the line OF garden truck on
small farm in Principe province not fan
from the capital. His onions, beans. to-
matoes. cabbages, egg plants and l don
know how many other homely Northern
vegetables. seem to be doing remarkably
we'll, except for the drawback Of TOO fer
tile soil, which inclines to undue eX-
uberance OF vegetation at the expense o.
| fruitage. He has also an apple and peacf
orchard-real apple and real peach trees
but fn this climate they do not bear ap'
7
thrifty leaves, and blossoms In their sea
son. The buds invariably drop OF
prematurely Sugar producing soil, II
any part Of the world Will not bear ou
Northern fruits; but it will grow orange
and other tropical fruits 10 perfection, Tn
wild oranges of this section, small, juicy
and yellow as gold, are as fine as can b.
found anywhere in the world; but. strang
60 say, there is not regular orange grow
in Puerto Principle province.
In CocOanut Groves.
Cocoanuts are made more use Of AM
, every mans field IS fringed with the tall
graceful trees. The nuts are sold on tn
spot. at an average rate of IS per thousand
They are generally hulled where they grow
and then hauled TO a primitive mill nea
Neuvitas, tC be ground and pressed for oil
The Cuban process Of extracting oil iron
, / the cocoanut resembles that by whicI
Texans make oil from cOtton-seed. Tn
cake" Of solid residue is fed to the pigs
about the only live stock al present raise
in Eastern Cuba-and the shells are util
lied for fuel in running the mills. So far
the oil has been locally employed onl
as a lubricator for sugar making machin
= | erv-a wicked waste of valuable material
il seems to those who are familiar wit
the splendid possibilities OF the product
Here is an unequaled opening for tn
= manufacturer Of palm-oil soap, cocoa fibr
mats. hats. etc, to say nothing OF the hun
dred other uses to which parts OF the tree
, its fruits and fibres, may be put.
The saying goes that a cocoa-tree bear
a nut for every day in the year. ANY
where in rural Cuba you may buy as man
cocoanuts as you can carry for twenty
= five cent coin: and one who has never tast
ed the milk Of a freshly gathered nu
can have no idea what is meant by tn
phrase "a draught for the gods Will
still alive as they say in the West Indie:
the nuts are not brown and hard, as "
see them in northern markets; they ar
bright. yellowish green and look like colos
sal apples slightly elongated. The she
is soft and easily cut. You may make
[ hole in one end with a penknife-when ou
] gushes the milk, like living spring.
should be coIorless as water, with sligh
sparkle, like that from some clear noun
tain rill with a sweetish5 delicious flavor
and il picked early in the morning afte
the nut has been swinging all night in tn
. breeze, the pint of liquid is almost ic
a cold The trouble with imported cocoanut
+ is that they are gathered unripe and spoil
, ed in transit and then the juice become
e thick white, and sour. like buttermilk.
r Where cocoanuts grow, you never fin
= inside their shells any of-that hard, whit
layer which Northerners "desicate
e (desecrate would be the better world, fc
20 in its best estate the nut has no sue
I substance-but instead creamy film
l.