The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-19
THWESTERN CUBA.
SOME or THE RICHEST IND MOST
INTERESTING SECTIONS.
OF the Island Are Least Known to the
Worid-The Important cities of Sagua
La Grande and Puerto Principe.

Of the Island Are Least Known to tn
Worid-The Important cities of sagui
La Grande and Puerto Principe.
Especial Correspondence of the Journal
and Courier.l
Cardenas, Sept 15.--The city of Pu-
erto Principe, lying almost in the CEN
ter of the province of the same name, is
reached by a forty-five mile railway
from the port OF Nuevitas, on the north
coast. Though one of the richest and
most interesting capitals of Cuba, as
we'll as the quaintest and farthest be-
hind the times, it is perhaps less known
to the outside world than any other
town of equal size on the island With
in it old Tenpus seems to have turned
as lazy as the natives and to have laid
down his scythe and going out of busi-
ness In the earliest days of European
occupation. With a population of
something over sixty thousand, the city
has never had 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
lest denizens of the tropics, are so
hospitabe that they never permit a
friend to remain an hour in a public
house. Every stranger who comes their
way with letters of introduction Is re-
ceived literally with open arms and
treated as a bosom friend; and even
those without roduction-unless their
faces or manners carry too evident tes-
timonial of n-respectability-c as
suredly make their way without diff
Guilty At the worst, travellers in these
out-of-the-way regions do well to re-
member that in every village the
priests house-thas Padre" (Father)
in local parlance-is always open to the
public, and in them way-farers may be
sure of entertainment at reasonable
rates Of compensation.
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 misfit. Its
narrow, crooked streets are mostly I'M
paved and the low casas of Anticipated
architecture are shabby in the extreme
There are several old churches, a num-
Der of converts and monasteries, we'll
patronized bull-ring, theater, a group
of somewhat more modern buildings for
government offices, and of course fine
Casino-for no Cuban city is so poor
that 1t has not several Of those anti-do-
nestle institutions called "clubs" in the
United States, wherein benedicts may
preserve the liberty and traditions of
bachelorhood at the expense of their
own firesides. The country around Pu
erto Principe is the best in Cuba for
grazing purposes-vast grassy plains,
with rivers running through, where
millions of cattle might be well sus-
tanned. Yet to this day Cubans gene
rally go without butter or pay dol
lar the pound for vle-smelling stuff
brought in tin boxes from Denmark and
not fit for wagon-grease. Enterprising
Americans can find no better field than
right here in well-conducted cattle
farms. The industry would not re-
quire large capital, like sugar and cof-
fee, and would bring sure, speedy and
bountiful returns. Some tobacco is
grown in the neighborhood and good
deal of sugar-cane; and wild honey,
produced by the stingless bees of the
country, Is exported in considerable
quantities. An American gentleman is
experimenting, in the line of garden
truck, on a small farm in Principe |
Province, not far from the capital. His |
onions, beans, tomatoes, cabbages egg
plants, and / don't know how. many |
other homely northern vegetables, seem |
to be doing remarkably well, except for
the drawback of too fertile soil, which
inclines to undue exuberance of vege-
tation at the expense of fruitage. He
o1c Ia
real apple and real peach trees--but in
this climate they do not bear apples and
peaches, only beautiful crops of thrifty
leaves and blossoms In their season; for
the fruits buds invariably drop off pre-
maturely. producing soil, In any
part of the world, Will not bear our
northern fruits; but it will grow or
anges and other tropical fruits to per
lection. The wild oranges Of this sec
tion small, Juicy and yellow as gold,
are as fine as can be found anywhere in
he world; but, strange to say, there is
not a regular orange-grove in Puerto
Principe province. Cocoanuts are made
more use Of, and every mans field is
ringed with the tall, graceful trees.
The nuts are sold on the spot, at an av-
rage rate of eight dollars the thou I
sand. They are generally hulled where $
hey grow and then hauled to prim-
i've mill near Nuevitas to be ground {
md pressed for OIL The Cuban pro- !
ess OF extracting oil from the cocoanut {
asses, a dispensary for children whose !
ii from cotton-seed. The cake of l
Old residue is fed to the pigs--about i
he only live stock at present raised in I
astern Cuba--and the shells are util- I
zed for fuel in running the mills SO S
ar the oil has been locally employed s
My as lubricator for sugar-making t
wicked waste of valuable {
lateral, 1t seems to those who are ia d
liliar with the splendid possibilities of S
he product. Here is an unequalled +
pening for the manufacturer of PALM t
IL soap, cocoa -f1bre-mats, hats, etc., to | d
ly nothing of the hundred other uses G
} which parts of the tree, it's fruits and n
bres may be put The saying goes t.
nat a cocoa-tree bears a nut for every t
ay in the year. Anywhere in rural
uba you may buy as many cocoanuts Ii
) you can carry for a twenty-cent il
lin; and one who has never tasted the n
MILK of freshly-gathered nut can 1t
ave no idea what is meant by the ii