The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1899-08-31

n W llOiC l4AStAlIdI l4'ltiA lli NilN NplttllC
Address R V. Pierce, NJ D., Buffalo,
N. Y. He will send professional advice
lin a plain sealed envelope) free of
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.------
were mining copper in the Cobre hills.
Archaologists find strong proof that it
was carried across to Florida many cen
turtles ago and used by the Indians of
that peninsula, trinkets of pure copper
having been found in their burial mounds.
In the line of furniture, table ware,
sewing machines, farming implements,
and a hundred other manufactured art-
Giles which are found in the humblest
homes of the United States, there is a
marked scarcity in Cuba, even among the
richest Already the glib tongued Yam
kee agent is abroad in the island with
his ready samples-usually Photographic
representing firms in Chicago, St. Louis
and other far-away cities. \ company
has recently been formed in Washington
and New Y ork which is about to estab-
lish a commission house in Habana-
similar to those carried on by the Grace
Eyre people of New York in various
South American cities, for the sale of
these articles in Cuba. In all parts of
Spanish America, except Cuba, these
commission houses may be found, dealing
i'll all manner of things, from plows to
silver ware, mostly from Photographic
samples, and doing banking business as
we'll
The other day met a couple OF san
guine Missourians, who are expecting to
get rich in short order on the cabinet
woods of the island Here is certainly a
very wide field, which has never before
been worked. Even the names of the
valuable woods are mostly unknown to
Americans, the old Spanish nomencla-
ture, which has no regard for correct
botanical classification, being still used in
Cuba. Some day our commercial inter-
ests will better define them, but so far
these choicest products of the tropical
wilderness are known to few but the
''Nimbi the Cuban woodmen who hew
the monarchs of the forest by names that
describe their characteristics: For ex-
ample, there is the quiebra hacha,
''machete- breaker" SO called because it
is stronger than any implement of iron or
steel, and will turn the edge of the best
American axe that can be brought against
it. 1t averages fifty feet in height, but is
rarely more than one foot thick-tall and
straight as an Amazonian arrow, which
it greatly resembles; and its dark, mot
tied grain takes on a beautiful polish.
Then there is the "Quebracho- colorado, .
bright red wood which seems to be abso-
lutely indestructable. Timbers made of
this red wood when the first Spaniards
discovered the New World have never
rotted in air, earth or water, but are as
firm and strong to-day, after more than
four centuries of usage, as when taken
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height and is large in diameter at the base,
but its foliage is not nearly SO beautiful
as that of many inferior trees. One sees
good deal of the timber in the old
churches of Cuba and in the uncovered
rafters of the finest houses; and no plast-
ter, kalsomine or paper could be half SO
handsome as the great red beams over
head.
The ''Jucaro'' resembles the red wood,
and SO does the "Arana,' both being
good, hard, red wood, but like third
cousins or poor relations in the aristocratic
Quebracho- colorado family.
There is also the jigui, yaya, dagame,
macagua, and no end of other strange va
rieties, besides the palm, cocoanut, man
90 and ceiba, all useful construction tim
bers, each for special purposes. For cab
net and ornamental woods, even the Bra
than the wilds of eastern Cuba. Satin
wood, Lakewood, rosewood, ebony, olive,
salmwood, mahogany lignum vitae, mahal,
gumbo- limbo, guayacan, caracollillo, quay
abo, sabcu and hundred other varieties
with unspellable local names, enchant the
beholder with the lovliness of their pol
ished grain, in all tints, from pure white
to pale pink, dark red, bright brown,
grays, brown and yellows to ebony black.
The guayacan is black as jet, one of the
hardest woods known, makes elegant ven
eer and does duty in holdings and turner's
work. The mora is big tree with heavy
yellow wood, which when polished takes
the rich color of mahogany and is much