Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-04-27

toIs' executors. guardians, charitable or
religious institutions or on trust funds de-
posted by order of the court.
No money loaned to any officer or trus-
tee of the bank
CHARLES p SMITH, President
FREDERICK w. WARD. Treas,
T.. S. ISHAM. Assistant Treasurer
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floors, without anything, but alive with
little black heads and smooth little brown
bodies and bright eyes, that popped out
of every chink. and swrmcd over each
other in their eagerness to see ''los Amer
iCanOs." There were great many such
huts on the hillsides with little trails lead
ing to them. The men and women stop
ped their work in the fields to wave their
hands to us and 1t was eTY rare that
man let us pass him with his head COW
cred Imagine such a thing In driving
through New England farming section!
All the natives seem contentcd and happy.
Along the road we met many little bur
ros with pannlers filled with vegetables
and mounted on top Of all would be
man or woman carrying a gay umbrella.
taking the things to market to sell. They
logged along so amicaby and business
cares did not seem oppressive How in
teresting 1t has been to see these people,
and how it makes you think! Then there
were scenes so beautiful you held your
breath at their beauty and grandeur. ono
in particular ] remember as we came from
Guayama back to Aibonito. We took IL
sharp turn on the mountain side, and
there came into view suddenly a most
wonderful reach of valley, with soft green
hills on either side covered with tobacco
fields and tobacco drying. In the valley
Gt was early morning. lay dense fog,
like a great glacier. filing the valley. The
sun was shining above it and way beyond
lay the line OF the Caribbean sea with
white breakers making faint lines against
the blue. AS we saw 1t from a height of
perhaps two thousand feet it was most
beautiful. These ridges are unusual y
abrupt and end in sharp points like mini
ature volcanoes
At Guayana | was fortunate enough to
see some very good native dancing. I had
suspected that they ought to be able to DO
a few turns in this country If you hap
penod on tho right time and conditions,
and 1t was true, and well worth SEEING.
The most characteristic dance Is the
"danza," very slow waltz in which the
dancers do not have to cover much ground
and II is consequently well suited to the
tropics. 1t has sundry swayings and bend
ings not usually seen in the waltz | found
these could be varied to suit the dispoSi-
tion of the danseuse and to see these pref
ty black-eyed senortas go through a
DANA" Is we'll worth while. 1t was at
q dance given by the alcalde of Guayama
that I saw this The whole affair was
very interesting and the host and hostess
most delightfully."- cordial. The dancing
was all in a small front room and the
street in front was literally packed with
natives who stood on the steps and looked
on in a very friendly, quiet way. The
music was n piano and a guiro, which
makes most hideous noise and is used to
mark the time Every few minutes the
hostess passed about little glasses Of diff
fercnt kinds Of soft drinks for which Porto
Rico is famous, and these people do make
them to perfection. When we started 70
make our adieu the corpulent little al
caldo turned to me and said in English
"Rut have not balled with you, Senorita,
and you cannot GO till you have bailed
with me-" | assured him | could not
ball" the "danza": but he insisted, and
so | stood up and wothled through it and
when we had "balled" sufflcicntly he as
sured me ! did it beautifully, as we'll Il
not better" he said. than our native
senoritas." I was quite overcome, and we
took our departure.
From Guayama we drove to Arroyo, a
little shipping port where Gen. w lson' 5
portion OF the American troops landed at
the beginning of the Porto Rican cam
paign. and started on their triumphal
march inland. Here we visited a sugar
plantation and were fortunate to find ono
that was primitive to a degree, and free
from all improvements and mpler n $
that may save time and labor but make 4
homely and humdrum. American enter
prise had not touched this and it was a
picturesque sight-liko a story book exact
~. The process is quite similar to that of
maple sugar making excepting that the
Juice has TO be crushed out of the sugar
cane before IL is boiled. There were the
negroes, men and women. boys and girls.
harefooted and with gay bandannas on
their heads, bringing in the cane from the
sugar cane FIELDS on great carts piled nigh
with the cane ami drawn by oxen. They
all seemed so happy and sang rs they came
jogging along through the fields t. the
place whore the carts were to he empticd
into a great bin from which the stalks are
fed into the presses, These extract the
Juice which / tasted and found it some
thing like cur maple sap. II is then boiled
into molasscs and brown sugar We went
into the house Of the nlanter--a great
rambling empty place with old mammys
bringing you cool things to drink and the
rich planter open-handed and cordial J.,
owning absolutely everything. II was all
very interesting.
We spent our last night upon this trip
at Guayama. All these little villages are
much alike. In each the chief spot Of in
terest is the plaza, or square with the
church of the village, generally rather an
imposing Notwithstanding building. and
little pink and blue and lavender shops
opening upon it. In this plaza on certain
nights % the week the native band plays
and the young people of the village con
gregate and sauntcr up and down Hero
in san Juan It is done on a more elaborate
scale, and on Wednesday and Sunday
nights To see the pretty dark-cyed girls
and their SWANS flirting away and NUM-
bling sweet nothngs In Spanish is an at
tractiVe sight and full of local color
! AfterwaN one may 80 into a quaint
Spanish restaurant and find a most deli
cous cup of rich thick chocolate and see
the smart set of san Juan make merry.
| on Tuesday morning We turned our
! faces homeward to San Juan, and drove
the entire distance from Guayama in one
day, about Co miles. We We're on the road
before seven in the morning-it really
seemed as If We got up one hour earlier
each day stopped at Aibonito and Cayey
for relays of mules; had our breakfast at
Caguas, where those dear people seemed
like old friends: and reached Rio Pudias
at half past five that afternoon. Here we
left our dusty ambulanCes and hctook our
dustier selves to the little special toy train
which was waiting to take the governor
general to the capital lIo was met here
by his cabinet. very dignihed looking set
! OF men, and with many shrieks from the
important little engine we were whzzcd
quickly into San Juan, The weather had