The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-01-15
SALT LAEER DESCRIBES CUBA
PHILIP NJ. RALEIGE'S impress
sIoNS OF TIE ISLAND.
Not So Unhealthy Place As Painted
Heat and High Prices Its Worst
Drawbacks.


Philip NJ Raleigh, who went from his
city last summer to Cuba as a packer
in. Uncle Sans service. has written a
very interesting letter descriptive of the
country TO his brother, ex-Deputy Sher-
if Raleigh. The letter is as follows:
"San Luis, Province of Santiago de
Cuba, Dec. Ia, 1S9S,-Dear Brother: L
have been travelling around hunting up
government stock and have had a good
chance to look over the country and see
a portion of what Uncle Sam has
located.
The sugar mills are not damaged in
this section and are in shape to run this
season; they are equipped with mod
ern machinery, most of it having been
brought from the states. The sugar
cane crop looks good, and there are
. about 10000 or 10000 acres in and
around here.
L have not seen a foot of land that
could not be cultivated. The grass is
so tall and thick that it is almost i'm
possible to ride through it, Flies are not
numerous, and range cattle are always
fat. There are no mosquitoes to speak
of, hut the fieas are something awful.
Anything viii grow here; the natives
make fences by driving sticks in the
ground and fastening barbed wire to
grow up and become trees, and they
have an everlasting fence. Oranges,
lemons and pineappleS grow wild. Cof-
fee, chocolate and bananas are culti-
waited, but not extensively. l saw an
extraordinarily fine-lool1ing field of
ST gar cane in Ponce, Pue to Rico, which
had not been ploughed for six years,
but here it has to- be ploughed every
three years, on account of the soil not
being quite as rich.
There are great many clear
streams of pure water, and also q num-
Der of fine springs on this part of the
island. The nights are cool and the
days are warm. The sun seems as hot
at noon as it was in Jefferson barracks
last July. 1t is quite cool in the shade
at any time during the day.
1T has only rained three times since
the 3rd of November, but the fever
comes around just the same. 1 have
had it, and expect to have it out of my
system before 1 leave here. The hos
pitfalls are crowded with fever patients
but the death rate is not bad, they only
lose a small portion of their patients
There are no swarnps or pools of stag
nant water around here, and l cannot
see any reason why this should not be
q healthy country at this season of the
year. know some men that came here
from Jefferson barracks last summer,
during the rainy season, and they look
as well as when they left there, and
claim that they have not had one days
sickness since they arrived here. There
is very little mineral here; some iron
and copper mines near Santiago is all
that [ have been able TO find. I would
not advise any of Salt Lakes prospect
ors to come here. Prices are high. A
good meal costs a couple of dollars:
enough poor food half cooked, to salts
fy ones appetite costs 50 cents.
Business is not good now, but it
may be when more Americans come.
United States money is the circu-
Iating medium. All of the principal sea-
ports will soon be connected with the
inland cities by telegraph lines; several
attachments of the signal corps are at
work on the lines now.
"A Cuban village looks like rows of
haystacks a short distance away, the
houses being made of bark taken from
cocoanut trees, and the roofs are COW
cred with grass. They are very cool.
A company of soldiers shot four Gu
bans a short distance from here last
month, and since then all the Cubans
take their hats off when they meet an
American.
My last candle is gone, so 1 will say
good night"