Evening star., 1899-07-08
In OUR NEW ISLAND
Some Of the Beautiesand Attractions
of Porto Rico.
SUPPORTS A LARGE POPULATION
How Uncle Sam Succeeded in
Stamping Out Smallpox.
WHOLESALE VACCINATION
WHOLESALE VACCINATION
Copyright. 1899. by Frank C. Carpenter,


Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
SAN JUAN, Porto Rico June -, 1899.
Uncle Sans West Indian garden patch!
How shall 1 describe it? 1t is different from
anything that has been published concern
ing it. 1t has more curious features than
any part OF the South American continent
where 1 have been travelling for the past
year. and a richer soil than almost any
part of the world
1 came to Porto Rico on the government
transport Mcpherson, and have already
crossed the island from one side to the
other making many excursions through
the interior. The island is a revelation to
me. I have never seen a country in which
nature has done much to make pleas
ant home for man.
Porto Rico is 4 combination of the beau
ties of the tropics and temperate zone. 1t
is the new Switzerland of Uncle Sans do
Ininion. 1t lacks perhaps the grandeur of
the Alps the Rockies. hut its quiet semi
tropical beauties more than make up for
lack of SHOWS and gigantic rocks. Some
times in going over it L am reminded of
Japan. and again am carried back to the
mountains Of COTea or the hills of China.
There are silver streams, with matched
huts ciinginS TO the sides of the hills, down
which they run; there are regions which
equal the Blue Ridge mountains in their
soft. hazy beauty, and other parts in which
were ii not for the bananas the cOcOanut
palms, the bread fruit trees and other trop-
ical wonders you might magine yourself at
home in some Of the most beautiful of our
rolling lands
Kite Tail View of Porto Rico.
Before 1 describe my tour of the island
let me give you a bird's-eye view of it.
Suppose We could attach ourselves for the
purpose to the tail of one of our weather
bureau kites, which. l believe, mount high
er than any other kites made by man, and
fy over II. We should See a great rectan-
gular body of blue land rising. as it were,
out Of some of the quietest waters of the
globe.
Porto Rico is about 400 miles from New
York on the boundary between the Atlantic
. ocean and the Caribbean sea.
1t lies between the islands of Santo Do
mingO and ST. Thomas. 1t is so near the
latter island that you can steam there in
about six hours, and so far east of Cuba
that 1t takes our best transports two days
to go from Ponce, on the south, TO the city
OF Santiago.
Porto Rico, as We see it from our kite
is mass Of rolling hills. With the excep-
ton Of light green fringe bordering the
coast 1t is all hills and valleys And such
hills and such valleys. The hills slope up in
places like walls, and the valleys are gi-
gigantic capital VS., with mountain streams
dashing through them. Everything is COW
cred with green, the dark shades of the
mountains largely composed of coffee, to-
bacco and bananas. while the sickly green
OF the coastal plains comes from the sugar
plantations.
IN looking a the island you see that the
hills rise higher in the center 1t is di.
vided by a mountain chain, which run:
through it from west 10 east. branching ou
near the end in two spurs. This ridge look!
just like pitchfOrk with two great tine.
and long handle The joint of the forE
Is about sixty miles from the western enc
of the island, and each of the tines i:
about forty miles long. Not far from
where they join one green mountain rise:
high above the others. This is FL Yunque
or the Anvil the highest point in Port,
Rico II is $500 feet above the level of tht
ocean and you can see it far out in tn,
Atlantic and in the Caribbean.
Where the Atlantic In Deepest.
1t is the top Of the mountain cnain which
rising out Of the sea- forms the Antilles
These Islands are, in fact. merely the peak
Of a great mountain range which extend
far down into the bed of the ocean II tn
water could be taken away or walled of
you would here have some of the highes
mountains of the globe. The deepest par
Of the Atlantic is just north of Porto Rice
In coming to San Juan 1 sailed over Brown
sons Deep. the bottom of which is fiv
miles under water. II was at the point +
the ocean plain where the land rises an
finally eliminates in e. Ylnque. II yo
could shut the sea off from this point tn
top Of Porto Rico would be higher tina
any mountain in the Andes or the Rockies
II would be higher than anything in tn
world outside the very highest Of the Hin
alayas. The same mountain chain spring
up out of the water IN Cuba to a dstanC
OF 500 feet above the sea and in SAINT
Domingo, where IL is the taliest, to IL %
feet. i rapidly falls toward the east, an
IN St Thomas ii rises only half high q
Porto Rico above the water.
L have called Porto Rico a garden pate
II is little more than that in size con
pared with the United States. 1t is
small ii would hardly be a mole on Il
face of Texas 1t would take just abol
1000 Porto Ricos IL they could be slice
of and patched together TO make a Graz
quilt covering the United States. 1t