The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-05-24
CATALINA DE CUBA.

Reduced by Starvation to Eighteen
 Hundred-Homeess Children Hud-
 dled in Abandoned Houses and Living
 on Wild Potatoes-The Red Cross to
 the Rescue.
 fSpecial Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier)
 Catalina, Cuba, April 29, 1899.
 After Dr. Hubbell, the Red Cross field agent, assisted by three American ladies and Cuban physician, had been working a fortnight in Guines and Catalina, I came over from Habana to see what progress they had made.
 Guines pronounced Wee-nis) is the largest town, next to the capital in Habana province It lies southeast from, Habana city about forty miles by rail- and Catalina is fifteen miles beyond. The United railway of Cuba having grudgingly given half-rate transporta- tion to Red Cross members l took my printed order for mitad de preco- mitigation of price--to the "Jefe de la estacion," and paid two dollars for half rate to Catalina; receiving therefore a three-cornered bit of pasteboard which the accommodating "Jefe" cut cross wise with a pair of shears, from the regular ticket. Thus a little mental arithmetic will show that full fare for the short journey, in the coin of the country, minus twenty cents on the dollar, exchange-is $4.S0. Rather ex- pensive travelling is this in Cuba, all things considered. The ramshackle old cars, discarded years ago from some ancient road of England or the United States, are labelled first, second and third class. What the second and third classes are like may be left to conjec- ture. Those of the alleged first rate are about like cmigrant cars on our western railways except that these furnish no drinking water to thirsty travellers, or other convenences what ever; no train boys sally through, bringing books, fruits or gum, and in some cases there is no glass in the windows--only wooden shutters which, when closed to keep out dust, exclude the blessed air as well-to say nothing of the pleasant prospect.
 Barring railway discomforts, the journey to Catalina is delightful, leav- ing Habana at 1 p. m., changing cars at Guines and reaching the destination not far from o'clock The face of the country differs greatly from that seen along the other branch of the United railway leading to Matanzas and Cien 'fuegos. The scenery in this corner of Cuba is not unlike that of Ohio and Indiana-except for the absence of cul- tivated farms and the continual pres- ence of royal palms, long lines of them, trending off in all directions like plumed soldiers on dress parade. There are clumps of banana trees, too, their leaves arched wide; and rows of pink tinted pineapple plants, bristling like clustered bayonets. Here and there hedges of yellowish-green foliage. re- sembling the Osage orange, remind one of the great prairie farms in Illinois, and fences of piled up stones speak of thrifty New England. Clear streams are frequent: corn is knee-high in a few scattered fields, and the thick coarse grass of the meadows raises anew the old query. why, in this land of condensed milk and rank, imported butter, dairy farms are not established. Of course we know that all the cattle of the island were killed and eaten during the war; but now that peace is restored why do not some sensible Americans awake from their never-to- De-TedllZoQ uFedHlS OI diIldSSlllS COlOSSdl fortunes in Cuba and come down to the simple and feasible business of making butter, raising chickens and cultivating gardens? Poultry sells in Habaua to- day at prices unheard-of in the United States-the smallest and scrawniest fowls bringing from $150 to $3 each i Eggs cost $S crate, cows milk, 20 cents the quart, and most of the com %o11J ~N@ l&~ I-. e. love or money. This valley of Guines is one of the richest sections of Cuba | which formerly sent to the Habana markets onions and boniatas Ga kind of sweet potato) to the value of $500 900 year, to say. nothing of it's corn and sugar-cane. Nowhere else does the landscape show such brilliant coloring, In the dark red earth, bright blue sky ] and deep green foliage. It is a very paradise of climate, with soil of unpar- alleled richness, but desolated by wars relentless hand. Not a farm house is left standing, none having escaped de- struction by one army or the other. l Only an occasional hut is seen in the | open country. shaped like an inverted | V, its thatched roof and leaf walls | forming a picturesque feature It is |
  that two crops @ year of corn, onions l and Irish potatoes are here grown and | marketed. This is an absolute certain ty, independent of any freaks of the weather, the water supply being regu- lated by Irrigation. They say that | three crops a year are possible--but surely two, in such generous propor- tion, with an uninterrupted succession of vegetables ought to satisfy any req sonable man.
 There are a great many small sta tions along the railway route to Cata- lima, because in Cubas golden days of ] rich plantations roads were built ex- pressly to accommodate the planters, each of whom was as king In his own domain, his casa and sugar mill being the center of a village of serfs They are now mostly kings deposed--- their fields laid waste, mills and houses burned: and only the serfs remain to beg the passing travellers. Every eta- tion is thronged with mendicants, most ly women and children, whose pitiful rags and emaciated faces accentuate | their tales of woe. Each village is sur rounded by cordon of Spanish block houses, small ones guarding all cross |