The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-07-07

The Most Important City on the South
ern Coast and Third in Population on
the Island.
especial Correspondence Of the Journal
and Courier.
Clenfuegos, June This newest city
or Cuba, founded during the present
century. is much more Americanized
than any other on the island. 1t was
created by the sugar trade and includes
large number of American and Eng
lfsh planters, merchants and shippers. l
| think 1t was in the year 1878 that its
name was bestowed-not, as is generally
stated, because of Columbus remark
when he sailed this way and saw many
Indian fires along shore-"mira! Glen flu
egos" Iook! hundred fires), but in
| honor of Senior Don Jose Cienfuegos, a
Spanish hidalgo who was then the gov
l ernor- general of Cuba. Instead of the
| narrow, crooked, ill-paved coW-paths
| that distinguish its three century and
odd old eighbors-HaVana, Matanzas,
| Santiago and Trlnidad-Cienfuegos
| streets are broad, level and well-paved
laid out at right angles with the regu-
| larity of d checker board and illumina
| ted with gas and electricity. To tell the
truth, the very newness of the town, its
freshly painted, two-story houses and
commonplace modern improvements"
are somewhat disappointing to the tray
eler, who feels that he did not come so
far to see what he has everywhere at
home, and considers himself defrauded
of the musty picturesqueness of Nueva
Espana which he had a right to expect
Bright, clean and progressive, with its
population now reckoned at forty-two
thousand, the seward outlet of the
finest sugar producing province of Cuba
and the terminus of the most important
railway line, 1t is by all odds the best
business town in southern Cuba, and ia
therefore bound to attract the greatest
number of Americans. Its harbor--a
deep inlet behind the shelterng Gays Of
Doce Leguas, Qnnumerable wooded is
let's stretching along the south coast,
which Columbus named THE Queens
Gardens')--is the safest deepest and
cleanest, if not the largest that indents
Cuba. 1t is one Of the few in Spanish
America which permits vessels Of the
largest tonnage to come up to wharf
and land passengers over a gang-plank
as in New York, without the aid of the
troublesome but omnipresent small
boats All the steamship lines that ply
the Caribbean Sea and Spanish Main
make this frequent port OF call ana
the wonder is why Spain left 1t so COM
paratively undefended, while ports OF
far less consequence and more difficult
of access have their Moros and long
lines Of fortitications. | suppose the rea-
son was because flush days were over in
the mother country before Cienfuegos
was born, and being short Of cash, she
adopted her usual manana plan OF
thinking about securing the stable door
after the steed had been stolen.
La opinion. the leading local newspa-
per, asserts that before the war the an
nual export of sugar from iCienfuegos |
was six hundred thousand hogsheads, |
and that tobacco was not far behind, |
Some of the richest plantations of the
island lie little way back of the port,
and connected with it by rail or water;
and what 1t will become in the radient |
future under American fostering ana
with abundant capital to develop the in
resources of the surrounding
country, it requires neither prophet
nor the son of prophet to foretell The |
three considerable rivers that empty
into Cienfueeos bay-the Canudo, Salu-
do and Danaje, each navigable some dis
tance nland-are Of great consequences
in a land so destitute Of good roads.
run off in all directions, to-
ward Santiago on the east. Trinidad on
the west and Villa Clara on the north,
with the robber-intested
trails of the central mountains. 1t is a. /
matter of history, too frequently stated
to need repetition here, that since time
out of mind banditti have made these
trails useless for any business purpose
but their own. Even since the war and
American occupation, travellers have
been captured by knights of the road
and held for ransom and few years
ago it was so common an occurrence as
hardly to cause comment. Terrible tales
are told Of tortures inflicted by the rob-
bers upon those whose friends failed to
paw promptly the sums demanded. Per-
naps finger, an eye or an ear of the
"a ptive would arrive by special post, as
gentle hint to his relatives of whao
night be expected to happen next unless
he money was quickly forthcoming; fol-
owed by other portions of the victim,
Until it was known beyond doubt that
here was not enough left of him to be
worth paying for. The last authentica-
ed case of this sort was that of Senior {
Manuel de Alvarez, a merchant of Villa
Clara, who started for Cienfuegos with a :
mall escort, presumably to buy goods.
Not one of the party lived to reach his
destination. Most Of the escort were
titled in the first brush with the rob-
)ers, and the others deliberately muir
Tered, being poor men from whose rela-
ives no ransom could be obtained as
lood cannot be squeezed from a turnip.
after few days Senior Alvarez family
eceived a written demand for twenty
housand pesas, embellished with draw
1gs of skulls and cross bones worthy
he Kuk luX Khan, accompanied by the
ssurance that unless the money was de-
osited in a specified place before CIV
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