The times., 1899-06-04
A MIDWAY MORNING
JOURNEY IN CUBA
Touring Through Villages
With Miss Clara Barton.
A Stirring Greeting From Group
of Native Cavalry.
Towns and Cities Turn Out to We'll
come the Red Cross
Party.

Madruga, Central Cuba, MAY est ha.
sometimes happened that reports of great
er distress than really existed at the points
indicated have come to the Red Cross
managers, and supplies sent out in re-
sponse to those appeals which were needed
much worse elsewhere; and again COM
munities of starving people have not been
heard from at all. until a pitiful remnant
was accidentally discovered. Besides, the
United States Army is issuing rations in
many Cuban cities, and it is not our inten-
ton to duplicate that good work There
| fore, Miss Barton decided to make a tour
! Of the island to see for herself what had
| been and should be done, in order to max
| the best possible use of her dimshishIng
stores. Several of her staff, including your
correspondent, accompanied her; and also
| number of trained nurses, who are 10
be left, one by one, at points where their
| services are required
We left our new headquarters in the
/ Tulipan suburb of Havana, at O'Clock on
| a mid May morning, in one OF the beauti-
] full yellowtopped ambulances recently
presented by Auxiliary Society No l. OF
| Philadelphia, and were driven to the Glen
ega station; where we took train for San
| Felipe. The country was still wrapped in
! its Vapory vestido de noche might
clothes, and houses and palm trees sprang
out Of the magnificent highway which con-
meets the capital with Guines-one of the
four good roads in. Havana province Span
ish blockhouses are thick upon it, set
four or five yards apart-scme small
round, and red. Just large enough for a
solitary sentinel; others square squat, and
yellow, capable of sheltering a dozen SOL
diers; and others more pretentious forts
two-storied, tileroofed. and watch tower
ed-all now alike deserted and falling into
picturesque ruin. Early as it was, men
were afeld, plowing, hoeing, and planting
not by any means because these farm
ers are more industrious than those of the
North, or will get in more hours of labor
| between the twilight which begins and
ends each day. Cuban custom born of
torrid climate, commences work at the
first peep of dawn and takes a long siesta
through the noontide hours Those who
are plowing at O'Clock in the morning
will go to breakfast at 10 or II. as will al
so the carpenters, masons, painters, and
other artisans; and from that hour until
z P. m. or later all native workmen will
be absent from the field of action.
by the way, ii has always been believed
In Cuba that only oxen can plow the land.
which during the dry season becomes hard
as macadamized road, and that a good
stout yoke can plow no more than an acre
in two and a half days. An American gem
tleman who is doing some experimental
! farming in Guines Valley, has demon
strated the untruth of the proposition. to
the unbounded astonishment of the ma
tiyes. Happily, his farm lies in the one
irrigated section of the island, or perhaps
he could not have done il. He softened
the hard-baked soil by turning the water
on couple of days; and then, with a pair
OF army mules and an American steel
plow, turned up an acre OF ground in one
day, to the depth of twelve inches. Hith
erto, for four hundred years, only the sur
face of Cuba has been scratched with
wooden plows, not more than four inches
deep, leaving all below in virgin richness.
and as the inefficient old-time methods
have yielded so well, our American friend
naturally expects some wonderful crops
from his more thorough cultivation.
Even since reconstruction. San Feline
station has been SO thronged with chronic
mendicants, whose rags and sores and
swollen feet were their stock-in-tra
that one dreaded to run the gantlet of
their opportunities. Today-wonder of
wonders-there is not a beggar in San
Felipe; for the good DR.. HubbeI went
there a week ago, with three Red Cross
women, and gathered them all into a
home Arrived at the little station about
. O'Clock in the morning we found our
selves besieged by a crowd of different
complexion-neaTly the entire population
men, women, and children, headed by the
mayor, the Judge the doctor. the priest
and a delegation of ladies bringing flow
ers to honor Miss Barton; and thus escort
ed-after the introductions had been made
and speeches delivered we marched In
triumphal procession through the stony
streets of the poor little town. In the doc
Tors house-the best in San Felip-coffee
was served, breakfast being yet four hours
ahead according to local custom. Then
we visited the brand-new asylum. with the
populace still at our heels. What a change
one week OF comparative comfort had
wrought in the erstwhile beggars. whose
faces had become so unpleasantly familiar
IN our frequent trips through the pIacei
| Clean clothes, full sTomachs and assured
protection had made them altogether diff
ferent creatures. True, the Home" was
a shabby one, furnished with discarded
army cots, blue granite table service. and
stands of cracker boxes covered with
eallco; but the walls were freshly white
washed. brick floors well scrubbed cots
covered with clean sheets, and the store
room stocked with rice, beans, bacon.
hardtack, coffee, and condensed milk
enough for many n long day
Before the war San Felipe had popuIa-
tion of about 5000, and now has less than
z'uOe. Ihe outskirts are fringed with long
streets OF reconcentrado huts. a perpetual
menace TO the health of the community
with their abounding filth Itch. scurvy
smallpox, and vermin of every sort II.
1896 the death rate of the town was 100.
IN 81. something over 1000. Its mink
painted church, with three rusty bells in
its little tower, is now more picturesque
than ever, since the Spaniards turned II
into a fort and punched holes for their
guns. breast high, all around the walls
The interior Is, of course, total wreck
with nothing left to indicate that it ever
was sacred edifice, except the empty
| inches where saints once stood and a gid
ed sounding board. shaped like the Spanish
crown, suspended above a tottering pulpit.
Our next objective point was San Anto-
MO de Banos, seven miles inland and only
to be reached on horseback. Horses were
| easily found-lean. spiritless animals-but
J only two side saddles to be distributed
among five ladies, and both of those with
the horn on the wrong side. according TO
the left-legged Cuban fashion. However.
needs must" and just as the clocks pro-
claimed the hour of noon We clattered
out of San Felipe-a cavalcade odd enough
to set the dogs a-barking, Miss Barton rid
ing ahead as gracefully as a girl in her
teens, and all the ladies under coarse
straw hats, fringed around the edges, such
as Cuban negro soldiers wear, hastily
bought at the village store, u. shield our
faces from the broiling sun, anS tied down
under the chin. la Salvation Army.
San Antonio village is the centre of
judicial district of the same name Be-
fore the war it had a population of 5000.
or thereabouts, and now has about one
fourth of that number, the rest having