The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-01-10
Sharpers are Thick,

l
son City-any place newly open to specu-
| lation.
A number OF young Americans, having
finished their service in the Cuban army
| arrived in Havana penniless, STRANDED
To the English consul, Mr.. Jerome, then
acting for the United States, they applied
for money to pay their fare by steamer
to New York. The consul had fund for
the purpose. Each case was Investigated,
but now and then an adventurer was dis
covered-too late. One naturalized Amer
lean citizen, who spoke French, received
his money from the British consul and
then visited the French consul and OBJ
tanned the same amount for the same
purpose. a young German, by similar
process, carried out the same plan.
One enterprising adventurer has bought
up quantity Of expired tickets in the
Royal Spanish Lottery. He hires negro
boys to sell these biletes--for which the
drawings were held weeks ago-to Ameri-
| cans who cannot read the language in
which they are printed. The tickets are
offered at half-price, and hundreds have
been sold.
The most tolerable of the Adventures
are the Observation-Disclosures fell
| lows who are waiting for something 10
turn up. One of these arrived on Friday
| and left on Saturday. Asked why he
| ran away, he replied: There is no money
to be made in Cuba; of that I am con-
WINGED. hunted everywhere, but 1 could
! not find single Jew
A number of Cubans living in Havana
hold patents of nobility-Counts and Mar
quises. Even these have caught the con-
tagion Of venture and are offering to sell
their titles TO Americans having mar
riageable daughters. With the end Of
Spanish sovereignty in Cuba. however,
the right to Cuban titles OF nobility will
be annulled. Many of these titled Gu
bans, whom rebellion has made poor in
everything but name, mean TO make the
! most Of the few remaining days of their
Countship or Marquisship by making
desperate attempt to marry money, not
mentioning, Of course, the fact that IN
few months they will have no right
to their titles Nearly every American
who comes here and Is known to be rich
| receives a communication stating that If
the recipient wishes to have his daughter
| if he happens to have one-made COun-
| tess or Marquise, the matter can be
| arranged by calling upon the writer at the
! Club National
Three Americans in Key West chartered
one of the old Spanish fruit steamers cap
tured during the war, loaded it with
cargo of food stuffs, and, s soon as the
blockade was raised, brought the ship
into Havana harbor. They sold their
| cargo, divided So, 600 proceeds, and came
into the town in search Of adventure.
They found it. All the adventures in
town began bleeding them, fastening up
on them like leeches. Within a short
time they lost both money and life. Two
are buried, the third lies in the Hotel
Passje at the point of leath.
In adventuTers parlance. the whole
push is ''in the game and everybody
is dead easy" Here is an assortment
of rovers. scspegoats, prodigals, and old
timers who stories open the purses and
the houses of rich and gullible Cubans.
Several guests at the Inglaterra, posing
as capitalists, have run up big bills only
to run away. Cuban merchants are en-
PERTAINING bogos promoters. Self-stylcd
agents Of American manufacturing con-
Germs are booking and receiving pay
ments on deposit for ORDERS" Here is
a one-armed college graduate posing as a
hero of the Cuban rebellion: here is the
familiar under-twenty-one sort, the scion
Of wealthy family, the 'lend-me-five-
Governor-w ill-put-up'' type. One old
gray-bearded man is actually collecting
money as an American missionary. To
warn a Cuban against these soldiers of
fortune is simply to be thought an ad-
venturer yourself.
Dive-keepers, gamblers, and procurers
make no attempt to conceal the OBJECTS
of their visits to Havana. To these men
many a reconcentrado girl has been sold
by her parents into worse than slavery.
One of the resort" keepers, entering a
cafe in the gayest part of the Praedo, re-
marked. loud enough for all to hear:
This is as good a place for a dive as
any-I will take IT and bring down the
whole outfit" And two days later ne
sailed for New York with a lease fer
that building in his pocket determined
TO get back and open his dive before the
Americans arrive. He is the manager CT
a notorious New York music hall.
OF the adventurer class the most nu-
merous are the winsome, always welcome,
ever wheedling young men. who get them
selves supported by claiming rank as
newspaper correspondents. They hire
cheap room in Havana's tenderloin and
then give the Hotel Inglaterra or the
Passje as their address. Genuine capt.
talisits and prospectors pay them for sup
posed tips on real estate or plantation
deals. Guileless but honest clerks and
statesmen, who have come to Havana in
search Of employment, pay the so-called
newspaper men for promised positions.
Americans who are now ready to begin
spondents for "write-ups" in American
newspapers. One of these correspond
ents" comes to your room in the morn
ing before you get up. He remains whie
you dress, 50 you must invite him TO
breakfast. He calls upon you again inst
At dinner time, so you must ask him TO
| dine with you. You sit in the cafe with
a party Of friends, the correspondent"
| appears, you must introduce him, and
! thus he acquires new strings TO MS bow,
knowing that the old ones viii break
some mighty suddenly.
In the minority, but most interesting.
are the lady adyenturesses. Spanish in
their birth language, but they speak En-
gIish. They honor Americans as their
| exclusive prey. They usually have CUBAN
interpreters as accOmplices. On the day
before the bones OF Columbus were 70
be taken from his tomb for shipment TO
Spain an Interpreter suggested that I
ought 20 60 10 the cathedral ana take
a last photograph OF the sarcOphagus Le-
fore It was boxed for transportation I
went with the Interpreter; that IS, I fe,i
into the trap. II front OF rs on the ALTA
were Two rapid-fre guns their muzzzles
| pointing down the nave. presumably ready
! 20 repel raiders. Behind Us was the mag
ulficent sa-coDhagus. supported on the
| shoulders Of four marble kings. Midway
| the church q woman kneit, seemingly alb
| sorbed n her devotiOus. Presently she
looked around. 7 recognized her. for
had net her IN Havana IN the days BE-
tween the destruction OF the Maine and
the beginning OF the war. She was Al
that time a spy n the employ % the
Spaniards.
she 5 talking TO you" said the inter-
prefer.
Nonsense 7 protested she IS only
min NH - fa- !" Wherenrnr h