The Republican journal., 1899-08-03

layed in the execution, took effect. The
shrewd Captain General had private
schemes of his own to serve in the same
connection; and he served them so we'll
that in spite of starving Cuba and i'm
poverished Spain, he left the Island a
multi millionaire. Under pretence of some
diplomatic transactions between Washing
ton and Madrid, tobacco continued to be
exported by the thousands of bales as
long as any remained on the island, in the
face of the prohibitive decree; and on
every pound of it Weyler pocketed a
liberal commission. After the plantations
were ruined, the great factories of Hab-
ana, some of which employed from 700 to
LOCO men and girls, had to shut up for
want OF the leaf to work on; the Florida
cigar towns were filled with hundreds of
idle, half starved Cubans, and the insur-
gent army felt keenly it's loss of revenue
from that source. The proprietor of ''La
Honradez" told me that before the decree
his factory made up five thousand pounds
of tobacco every day, the average daily
output being 10000 cigars. 1t nearly
broke his heart to have to play into Wey-
ler's hands, so to say, by discharging his
employees, knowing that all would suffer
and many actually starve to death; but
what else could he do, being himself face
to face with restitution? After the in
surgents had destroyed the plantations
and stored tobacco, a little continued to
be raised, perhaps one tenth of the usual
crop, in the back yards of fortified villages
and in the zonas de cultvo, designated by
Weyler for the planting of gardens to sus-
tain the reconcentrados- to give the
Evil One his due, | do not believe the
arch murderer deliberately intended to
send the people to the doom that befel
them.
Happily those days of darkness and
terror are ended, and Cuba, for the first
time in her history, is at liberty to make
the best Of her resources. But the
twentieth century will be well advanced
before the famous Vuelta Abajo can
flourish again as of yore. Whole towns
have been wiped out, and eighty per cent.
of the population are in their graves.
Neither American occupation nor absolute
independence can fill the place of the
Spanish tobacco trade in Cuba, nor what it
might have been without excessive taxa
tinp-tha n1nSn a1lioroa Of Jo ri -;+l,
the old "Compania Generate Tobacos''
yielding an enormous revenue to both
governments. The future of tobacco
production in the island is as uncertain as
that of the Alaskan klondike Soon as
American control was assured, after the
signing of the protocol, tobacco buyers
and manufacturers made advances to the
vegueros; but too late to accomplish much
that year. This year, if excessive rains
do not injure the crop, they will do con-
sderably better. Some sanguine manu-
facturers, who have watched the ups and
downs of tobacco for half a life time as
sert that the old output, worth thirty
i'i'iAiNA4 N'NtA'@As' II SS"Ai VIA oooIi w
doubled in Cuba; while others are equally
strong in the opinion that the industry as
a national affair is practically as "dead
as a door nail Since the war, foreign
capital has been interested in Cuban to-
bacco and wealthy syndicates have pur-
chased lands and factories. The area of
its cultivation has been enlarged; but not
always with best results, for tobacco, like
coffee, is very particular about its envi-
ronments. Two years ago the celebrated
@ Henry Clay company of Habana, tried
the experiment of tobacco raising in the
Isle of Pines; but for some unknown rea
son the soil there is not suitable and the
product was almost unsaleable in quality.
Americans who are not thoroughly trained
in the whole business of tobacco growing
would decidedly better turn their atten-
ton to something else.
FANNIE BRIGHAM WARD.