Evening star., 1899-02-09
THE TOWN OF GUINES
How General Lee Was Received as
He Passed Through.
PROSPECTS OF RECUPERATION
The AlcaIde Tells What fhe PEOPLE
Need.
M MIG r A NTS NTED
Copyright 1899, by Charles VI. Pepper.)

FROM i StaH Correspondent.
| GUINES, Cuba, January -, =, 80
They came out over the highway from
| Havana. When they reached the Mills of
Candida the Illinois troops sent up shout.
| A Scriptural-minded corporal said it was
| the promised land. General Fitzhugh Lee
| came along a few hours later. He tarred
| for half an hour and said it was Canaan.
The next morning the Louisiana battalion
came toiing up the hills. They had had
long march, but when they reached the
| summit the band which was with them
| struck up Dixie" That is the way the
| valley of Guines impresses the Americans
1t is possible to come out by means of
| the railroad to Guines and then drive back
| to the hills, distance Of four five miles
But it is better to come from Havana along
| the calzada, paved highway, which is
! one of the four good roads in the entire
| province. Then the traveller is better pre-
| pared for the panorama which spreads be-
| fore him. He can look down across the
| valley and over the hills the opposite
| side out to the Caribbean sea He sees the
| groves of royal palms everywhere and has
| giimpseS of Verdure and freshness which
| give no hint of the desolation and loneli-
| ness which closer view dscloses. Desola-
| ton and loneliness the work of man.
| They will disappear soon. The freshness
! is for today and tomorrow. and the valley
| of Guines, though it is more plain than a
| valley, is worth coming to Cuba to see from
| the heights of Candida at all times
| War could not destroy the richness of the
soil, and / thought it worth while to study
| what the prospects Of industrial recupera-
| ton were in so favored a region. They re-
| duce themselves to a few simple elements.
| LaborerS and farm animals and seeds for
! the crop are what is needed to make the
valley blossom again. Perhaps some of the
| laborers will come from the United States
/ and bring some money with them. If any
r1D is inly yir1cr Of hot la
! in the neighborhood today will interest
| them The people who remain first to
| be considered. When that Is done one
| staring fact has to be met. 1t is the same
| here as in other parts of the island. There
| are not people enough to cultivate the soil.
| The victims of RECOMMENDATION still
| dropping into the grave. The deaths dur
! ing the year which closed on December 81
| We're $500. just half what they were during
| the previous year Out of community of
| twenty thousand, ten thousand have dis
| appeared from the land that was once
! theirs That is short chapter which tells
! in a sentence that immigration is soon =
| be more important to Cuba than questions
| of government.
The AIcaIde's Statement.
| The remnant of the population must be
tilling the lands before immigration can
fill the gap that exists The people are
doing it as best they can. l saw the signs
of it not only in the valley of Guines, but
along the way hither. At San Jose de
Laias, fifteen miles back, the industrial
situation was explained to General Lee by
the alcalde, or mayor, Celestino Herman
deZ. He is a very intelligent man, who
knows the whole country. A squad of
Cuban soldiers are stationed there, and
they were drawn up to salute the Amer-
can troops when the latter passed through.
They also gave General Lee a Cuban well
come. They did not seem to be worrying
/
ment was going to filch anything from
them. They simply told their needs and
their hopes.
Alcalde Hernandez said that there were
164 small farms in this district. These
farms worth even in the present de-
pressed condition of agriculture $346 600.
To till Il caballeria, which is 331s acres one
yoke of oxen would be sufficient for this
season The family which had the cabal-
leria would also need a COW, a couple of
sows and some little poultry, perhaps
| twenty chickens. The cost of all this, he
said. would not be more than $50. Some
thing might also be needed for seed. Yet
if there had been bank in San Jose it
could have loaned $4,000 or $4,000 on land
worth S35OG00, and by this means have met
full need of the community for money.
Though in the days of prosperity San Jose
was a town of four or five thousand in
habitants it never had a bank. Nobody
/ has yet established one there. That is why
the people are without means of helping
themselves in cultivating the soil. A little
tobacco has been planted, and some other
work done in the fields, but if oxen and
pigs and poultry were to be had the re-
cuperauon would be much more rapid
There are two sugar plantations in the
| neighborhood, neither of which will be able
to grind cane this year. a young Cuban
captain, whose family owns of them,
told me that the cane had been burned
over four times. He had come back from
Paris to take commission in the insur-
gent army, and his first experience was in
helping to burn the cane on his own plan-
tation. in order to interfere with the opera
tions of the Spanish troops. After that he
lived on mule steak and horse meat in
Pinar del Rio, and got to like the mule
steaks better than the horse steaks.
The Town of Guines.
AS for Guines. Ii does not look quite so
Inviting as it did a year ago. At that time
a very heavy Spanish garrison was main
! tanned in the country around and the zone
of cultivation extends two or three miles
outside of the town. This year everything
went to pieces during the blockade. Few of
| the people were able to plant because they
had no seeds and no oxen. Between the ra-
tionS which the American government Is
supplying and the aid which has been prom
ised by private associations in the United
States, in the way of oxen and seed if is
probable that when next season comes the
country people will be back in their homes
and most of the land will be again under
cultivation. Some change is noticeable A
year ago the great two-wheeled OK carts
We're worth 81 apiece. Today they have
risen in value. Though the oxen are yet
lacking, the prospect of securing them
| gives the rusty tires and the wheels an in
creased value. Plows seem to have disap-
peared almost entirely.
Guines, though the largest town in the
province next to Havana, never had a bank
| The Spanish Bank had agent who col
| lected the taxes, but it never put money in
| circulation. The Spanish bodegeros. or
| storekeepers, loaned money at IS, 20 and
| % per cent. Some of them are now the pos
! SCISSORS of caballerias of land on which they
| never advanced cent of money. They
supplied families with tasajo or jerked
| beef, and some other necessities through
| the period of RECOMMENDATION. Most of
| these families ire, therefore, alive and in
| return the bodegeros have their land. Yet
| the exchange does not seem to have been
an even one. This condition explains why
| Ill feeling continues against the Spaniards
Nevertheless, the resentment Is much less
pronounced than had been led to believe
Before the insurrection English and
American syndicates had had representa-
! tives In Guines w..h view to establishing
banks and irrigation enterprises. The place
| has for many years had a system of irriga-
| ton canals. That is one of the causes