The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-10-12

skeleton" yet i never saw more faith
fui boy to work. These boys do chores
about the house and barn, and assist the
laborers in the fields. Somebody has
taught them that if a man will not work
neither shall he eat The children have
greatly interested me, and among them
4 nave discovered faces handsome enough
to be modes for AN artist Not all are
such by any means, not all children in
america would serve that purpose.
These Cuban children are ingenious in
earning something with which to buy not
sweetmeats, but the bare necessities of
life Here are few samples of what
they do: One morning boy brought to
the relief headquarters quail he had
entrapped. The baby bird" as he call
ed it, was too dainty a mOrsel to he
INDUCED in at his home, but with the
10 cents it would bring he could pur-
chase beans, lard and rice for his family.
A modest and beautiful girl of IL helps
support her family by making fans. An
other girl of six, little Falicia, sells
lines, "cinco por dos centavos" five for
two cents). and with the two cents She
buys one cents worth of flour and one
cents worth of rice. Another girl goes
to- the mountains each day and cuts
large bundle of wood, which she brings
back on her head and sells in the village.
Others braid straw hats, for which they
receive six cents each.
Zone of the most patient faces that I
ever have seen was the face of one of
these hat braiders, Maria, a Cuban girl
of IS or II. Her face was really hand
some, with delicate and even features.
the representation of modesty and gentle
ness. The lower half of her body was
completely paralyZed. She was the last
of her family, all the rest having died OF
starvation. When i came with friend
to see her, she was sitting ON the
earthen floor of the rude shed that serv-
ed as a shelter. Some friend had brought
her few pine stocks, and with these
she was cooking her breakfast i'm tin
cans. And such breakfast. One or
two green bananas, a slice or two Of a
potato. and some simple drink. All one
side of the shed was a folded cot, which
served as a bed; two or three boxes.
with a rickety old chair, and bench for
table, completed the principal fur
nishings. On a stool near the door, day
after day, sat this patient girl braidire
one hat a day, for which she received
seven cents. Neighbors were kind t.
her. and yet as i visited them in their
OWN quarters they seemed almost as des-
titute as Maria herself.
I'm one house, consisting of one large
and two small rooms, lived IL war wild
ows, earning what they could by taking
in washing. They had intelligent faces,
and received us with courtesy. In an
other quarter that formed sort Of Il
quadrangle, so joined as to form one
building with courtyard in the center,
as learned upon inquiry, 200 Cuoans
were huddled together. Here was q
family of IA members once in prosperous
circumstances, but now reduced to pen-
ury. Army rations had kept many of
these people from starvation, but army
rations can never return them to their
former pursuits and make them self
supporting citizens, and now, even army
rations are withheld. Something IS he
ing done, through such practical agencies
as the cuban industrial relief fund,
whose New England headquarters is at
Il Beacon street, Boston, to help these
people to help themselves, but very little
is being done in comparison with tlle
great and imperative need for such
help"