The age-herald., 1899-06-25

l are so industrious that poverty is almost l unknown, an unusual condition of affairs | for city in this part of the world.
 In most of the cities and towns of Porto | Rico the inhabitants are divided into four | classes: The Indians, of which there are a feWsstill remaining on the island; the ne- groes, who numerically, are about as strong as the Indians; the Spaniards and their descendants, and the half breeds, who make up the bulk of the population. Gen. eraly the color line is not drawn very | closely but in this respect Mayaguez is an exception. There the percentage Of whites is far in-excess of that at any other
 place, and they keep their position more closely. While Mayaguez ranks but third commer- cfally, it manufactures more products than both of the other cities While Ponce and San Juan depend upon their exports and imports Mayaguez has scores of small in- dustries from which it derives it's wealth. It has four big coffee mills and a tannery that supplies practically all the leather that is used in the island, the leather being 0 product of the native wagli bark. Besides this it has several chocolate factories, and countless little shops for the making of straw hats baskets, saddles and for polish ing and cutting the tortoise shell.
 In other respects Mayaguez is a pleasant place of abode It's architecture is very attractive as compared with the heavy stone structures that prevail in the larger cities and its conveniences are quite mod
 ern. It has little street railroad, of ex- tremely narrow guage, but quite large enough for the traffic, an electric light and power plant an ice plant and a good water system. It's harbor, however, is so poor that it cannot hope to rank commercially with the other cities where conditions for
 the arrival and departure of vessels are of much more favorable character.
 When one has seen these three cities one hn- oil hot fIa i~Ia hoe to this respect. Of course there are towns, thriving little places whose populations vary from a few hundred to a few thous- and but there are few of them that have many attractions from a business point of view. Lares is a coffee center in the in- terior. in the vicinity of which are to be found the richest coffee lands on the island; Cayey is a tobacco center where there are ten or a dozen spanish firms engaged in the making of cigars, and Caguas, while a large town, is dirty, unhealthy and has lit- tie, if any, individuality. Wherever you may go, however, there attractive places to be found, and in short time, if things continue to improve, there will be no end of opportunities for those who desire to settle in the country, either in mercantile lines or as agriculturalists.
 The inhabitants of the island are gener- ally more industrious than the Cuban, probably because of the better character of the country. While there are many Span- iards who are still true to their mother country the mass of the people welcome the stranger and extend hospitality to him most freely. The better class are fairly well educated, but the poorer people are ex- tremely ignorant The facilities for good living on the island are excellent but the cooking, like that of Cuba, is abominable being greasy and poisoned with garlic. Tn the larger cities the hotels and cafes have commenced to cater to the new trade that has come from the states, and there one may obtain food that is eatable, but the stranger soon tires of the methods of cook ing that still prevail generally on the island.
 Taking it all in all, therefore, the impress sion that Porto Rico gives is much more favorable than that which one derives from his trips around Cuba, and it is probable that this island will be prosperous and hap py long before the last member of the army of the revolution has decided to lay down his arms and become once more peaceful tiller of the soil. Cuba has much to recom- mend 1t but there is no end of work to be done before it will be inhabitable. Every thing is ready in Porto Rico. All that is needed is a settled governmental policy and a reasonable amount of Yankee push and Yankee capital
 GEORGE ALFRED EDWARDS.