The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-22

ing recommended the expenditure of at
least S20,O00,000. may still be open.
AS early as last October Havana was
crowded by the first wave of the tide of
American Adventures, that has since
set in upon the island. They were cv-
eryWhere. The hotels could not accom-
modate them all, and they were sleep
| ing on cots in the corridors. They were
| mostly the men who were going to open
American bars and American hotels, or
who had come to look over the theatre
| cal field. or had little money to invest
| in retail business of one sort or an
| other. There was a generous sprinkling
| of gamblers and members of the sport
| ing fraternity. The real estate agent
was also on the ground, and town lots
| were being exploited in the most APP
| proved western style by men who were
keenly alive to the gullibility of human
| nature
| Since the suspension of hostilitias,
there has been considerable legitimate
dealing in Havana real estate. One
New York syndicate has been operat-
ing in it quite extensively, and is said
to own several hundred thousand COL
lars worth of choice property. The
Havana lot is q feet by 112 feet Rents
| have always been exceedingly high A
small one-story house of the tenement
class usually brings in from $50 to 800
| a month. 1t will be seen from this
that improved Havana real estate will
not be bad thing to own, and already
| company is being promoted in Brook
Ign to build flat houses there At pres
ent out of some $4,000 dwellings, over
| 10000 are one-story structures; and
while four stories is the limit, there are
only q such buildings in the entire city.
1t is claimed two and even three-story
nat houses will be perfectly feasible, as
we'll as immensely profitable.
| Money has already been raised for
two breweries, which will be located
just out of Havana; for while the Gu
bans are not beer drinkers" as we un-
| derstand the term, the importations of
this beverage from England, Germany
and the United States have been stead
| lily increasing of late.
Perhaps to an American the most ct
tractive proposition on the island is the
sugar industry. 1t is attractive he
| cause a large sugar plantation COM
| pares favcrably with a great manufac-
! turing plant, and its successful man.
| asement is a problem calling for the
highest order of intelligence.
"A plantation of the first-claSs will
| contain perhaps 10000 acres: it will be
| equipped with the most modern ma
| chinery, it will have anywhere from 80
| to 40 miles of private railroad. and it
WI represent an investment OF Sg,UUu,-
900, while its yearly gross revenues will
I be half that sum.
| Since 1910 the output of sugar has in
| creased over 400 per cent. The increase
| in the other sugar producing countries
| has been but 200 per cent. It will be
| a sorry day for the beet sugar industry
| when American ingenuity and nan
agerial ability takes the sugar business
! in hand On the island for unquestion-
| ably sugar can be made there cheaper
than anywhere else on earth.
Experts figure that with the same
economy in handling and growing .he
cane that is already exercised in ex-
tracing the juice and converting it
| into the commercial product, it can be
made at cost not exceeding Ia cents
| a pound.
| 1t must be borne in mind that the
| cane grower in Cuba has had everv-
| thing against him and nothing for him,
| The duties he has been forced to paw on.
his machinery were almost prohibition.
and he has felt the uncertainty of fire.
quent instructions; yet with all these
drawbacks he has increased the ca
pacity of the island until it is now
100000 tons year.