The Republican journal., 1899-04-13

llldi polSbHS ana eXIermlnafeS them.
Pe-ru-na is sold by all druggists Free
advice Will be given any one who will
write DR.. s. B. Hartman, of Columbus, o.
tenanted with surprising number of idle,
hopeless looking men, women and naked
! children, our beggar following increased
to crowd. Strange to say, there are few
signs of cultivation in the environs of this
poverty cursed town. VIII Their the peo-
pie are too i'll or too lazy to make gardens
IN the fertile soil lying all around, or too
poor to buy seed, or if conditions not
| apparent to foreigners Forbid do not
know. 1t seems to me, however, that if
| the Red Cross, or some other benefcent
power were to utilize the many acres of
seemingly waste land by planting it to
potatoes and common vegetables, appor-
tioning it out to families and compelling
them to care for and harvest the crops, it
would be truer charity than to feed them
on free rations for an indefinite length of
time
On slightly slope of the road to town
we passed beautiful villa, its white walls
and pillared front cleaning amid sapadillo,
orange and mango trees Palm and olive
trees lifting their heads in the centre of
the house walls, tell OF Moorish inner
court; and the side yards are gay with
pink and white oleanders, scarlet pome-
granates and royal purple hibiscus But
IN.
splendid place is quite deserted. Our in
telligent cochero related its history. The
residence is considered the finest in the
entire province. 1t contains we'll filled
art gallery, and imported furniture that
was formerly the admiration of the peo-
pie The owner, a once wealthy Spaniard,
possessed rich sugar plantations a little
way back in the valley. besides three
thousand acres of the best tobacco lands
in the world. Five years ago it seemed
beyond the range of possibilities that he
could ever find himself poor man. Early
in the war, insurgents burned his sugar
estate, destroying his mills and machinery,
and in few hours sent skyward in flame
and smoke property worth two or three
million dollars. Fearing for his own life
and the safety of his family, the Spaniald
hastily gathered together what he could
and fled to the mother country, leaving all
he possessed in Cuba to be sold by agents
But nobody was buying much in those
netdsti dias. Some of the richest planta-
tons on the island only brought six dol
lars an acre, and Others equally good could
not be sold at any price. The senor's to-
bacco property, that erstwhile yielded a
yearly income of several hundred thousand
dollars, brought only s11 900 in the lump.
During the war, the abandoned mansion
in the outskirts of Matanzas, at the mercy
of both armies and all the guerillas, bush
whackers and bandits of the time, was
absolutely valueess, for nobody would
have accepted it as gift if obliged to try
living in it. Probably the house cost in
the neighborhood of a quarter of a million;
and in the opinion of our cochero might
be purchased to day for five thousand dol
lars 'down.' Here is valuable hint to
home seeking Americans. There are other
abandoned palaces like this, scattered all
over the island, which might be bought
for 1.-THE of their original value and con-
verified into ideal residences. The beauty,
salubrity, pure water, and easy railway and
other facilities, conspire to make Matan-
zas far more eligible place for an Amer
lean resort than Nassau and other points
to which our countrymen and women flock
by thousands every season. Two or three
million dollars judiciously expended in
Matanzas would put it on par with Nice
and the Rivera and make it central
watering place for the world.
When we reached the central portion of
the town the streets that erstwhile looked
so deserted, were filled with merry mask
ers. Ladies in Spanish costume, wearing
harlequin masks OF black silk, promenad-
ed in bevies, or rode in carriages, throwing
kisses and bandying jokes with everybody
they met, both friends and strangers.
Presently barbaric music was heard,
wierd sound, like the beating of tom toms
before a cannibal feast, and around a cor
ner swept a motley procession. 1t was
headed by score of stalwart negroes,
bearing aloft effigies of saints, the most
honored figures being naturally the Black
Virgin and st. Augustine. Following this
advance guard we're several hundred men,
women and children, of all conditions and
shades of complexion. Most of them we're
more or less darkly colored and while few
sported gorgeous holiday raiment, many
were rather too scantily attired for de-
cency, with here and there half grown
child as naked as the minute he was born.
All were shouting and singing at the tops
of their voices; and while the leaders kept
step with monotonous rythm, beating the