The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-24
THROUGH THE HEART OF FCUBA
CROSSING THE ISLAND FROM SI c U.t
 LA GRANDE TO CIENFUEGOS
On il Flying Train-Spirit of the People i'm the Interior yiIlages-Why Annex ation to the United States Is Not More

ation to the United States Is Not More
 Favored.
 Special Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courler)
 Tsperanza, Cuba, May 2T-Crosslhg
 inc island from Sagua la Grande to Cl-
 enfuegos, by the exceedingly jirky tram
 that runs almost due south from port
 to port. may be recommended as soV-
 ereign dyspepsia-cure, akin to horse-
 back riding. Though the pleasure Of
 the tourney is marred by the necessity
 of holding on one's hat and grasplng
 the sides of the seat, while holding
 like a toy mandarin to one's vis-a7Vis
 and threatening to pitch bodily into
 hin-the scenery, as the traveller gets
 glimpses of it between these acrobatlc
 performances, is beautiful enough to
 fill him with "the joy of living He
 sees long stretches of cane yellow as
 furnished gold with the sun ehining on
 it: tobacco farms dotted with towering
 palms; and the rank and file of fields l of Indian corn standing like armies
 ready to march. Vast, empty mead
 ows. enclosed within low walls of piled
 up stones that remind him of New | England, are covered with coarse grass
 upon which cattle ought to be feeding; l interspersed with poorly tiled, or who'll
 ly untitled sections, whose bright red | soil and Haunting weeds attest their wonderful fertility. At rare intervals stretches of tropical jungle are passed, apparently as unreclaimed as when the first Spaniard set foot on the island.
 The lark spins out his intermnable airette to the summer sky, the notes of quail and blower, Phoebe and tome guin are waited on the soft, warm
 breeze: and beyond all the distant hills glimmer like a dream of the Delretable Mountains. Palm trees, characteristic of every Cuban landscape, are omni- present sweeping away in curved lines along the course of streams. standing in splendid groves, or ranged in double rows of smooth, gray columns whose majesty gives one the feeling of walk ing in a moon-lit cathedral Undoubt- edly the most beautiful thing in nature is a tall and stately palm, standing alone against background of tleecy clouds in turquoise sky. It's plumed crest tossed by every vagrant breeze, casts no shade-or at best but tiny patch afar off in the field. The stories of travellers in tropical lands sitting under the cooling shadow of palms are as absurd as those other Mayne-Reid tales of wayfarers reaching up and plucking cocoanuts with which to slake their burning thirst-a feat they might perhaps accomplish if possessed of arms twenty to thirty yards long
 As one progresses farther and farther into the heart of Cuba, the nineteenth century, with all it's strife and turmoil, falls behind and is forgotten Each -thatched village encountered en route-and they are very numerous seems given over to perpetual somnia The railway stations are not thronged with the idle and curious, as in other rural parts, but the people set in their doors, dreamily watching the train from afar, too lazy for active curiosity. | Occasionally a more enterprising citi- | zen, black as the hackneyed ace of spades, or with the lean, brown profile | of Rameses IT., saunters through the | cars, offering some trifle for sale; and | ragged children extend their hands for aims and laughingly greet the traveller | with the English phrases they have f picked up, such as ''gim me penny" | "All right" Good bye" At one sta- tion a small girl, patched fore and aft. | but with the face of an angel, lifted | lifted timid eyes in response to our sal utation and murmured ddam," without an idea of the meaning of the | word sh had heard the Yankee sol diers use.
 Each thatched village has some dis tinguishing peculiarity, At one is made the famous jalea de guayaba guava jelly, which has such sale | throughout all Spanish America. It is put up in narrow wooden boxes, can be kept indefinitely, and ie as appetizinS as healthfu In the hotels of Havana it is invariably served with cheese as dinner dessert Another town is dis tinguished by great wooden crucitix erected on the public square, with arms opened wide to sinful world. At Is- peranza, City of Hope" a tall bird house, close by the church, extends hospitable invitation to all the deni- zens of the air. II shows the kindly and poetic nature of the people--so poor that ten dollars could hardly be raised among them to save a human life, yet caring for the feathered tribes less ir- than themselves. In eeve- ral towns the public well appears to be the social center. On an elevated platform, roJfed and tiled but with sides open to the air, is a great iron wheel, which everybody turns for him or herself Oh, for the pencil of a Mast a Gibson or a Cruikshank! Wo- men come strolling across the fields bringing to the well kerosene cans con- verted into buckets, and boys carry poles on their shoulders, to which are slung cans, jars, demiiohns, any old thing that will hold water except a regular pail. Groups of bare-footed girls cocuette with their lovers while waiting their turn at the wheel, and bedraggled matrons sit on the steps ex- changing neighborly gossip, their sad- ile-colored babies, naked as Corregglo's Saint John, rolling about in the weeds. Sleepy and unmportant as these interi- 1r villages seem, they are the real Cuba after all, and in them the public pulse may be more correctly Lold than in Havana, where the peo- ole have learned the wisdom of dis