Daily camera., 1899-08-17
PORTO RICAN KITES.
Men and Women ny Them - Well
- Children.
A oe..e. sasAs Is . Eietaii. Of sas
Kites FlyiaG Over the Hs.As
Sf Crowds Of OlA AAA


grass that stretch away from the walls
of Cristobal Colon and dwindle down
into the city of San Juan. q great crowd
of curious and noisy men. women and
children stand every morning, gesticu-
lating half madly at one another.
talking very fast and occasionally
breaking up into little groups, more
excited than the rest. Above their
heads there In always a fotilla of big
kites, ducking, diving, floating upward,
and performing queer tricks as they
airt and play with the ocean wind bill
lowing inward from the southern sea.
One great red paper monster darted
swiftly upward above the others on
one occasion. Then a shout went up
from the crowd. 1t seemed to be hav-
ing a race with a blue one sailing dan
gerously near. A hundred trembling
arms with outstretched fingers were
raised frantically in the air, shaking
five and ten peso notes, offering bets
on the red. The champions Of the blue
made verbal pools, and so the betting
went on, amid tremendous excitement,
more noticeable than a public demon
straton in honor of the governor gen
eral
Suddenly the flyer of the blue, dirty
little Catanian. unwound several yards
Of string that guided his airship. Its
tail waa long, striped like the hide of
a zebra, and loaded with strips of card
board all along its graceful length.
Little American flags fioated from the
edges Of the kite and the end Of the
tail. for this Porto Rican was a dip
lomat, like his brothers. And when
he unwound the guiding lever, at once
the blue shot up, huddled close beside
the red for a moment, and then at once,
with an incomprehensible movement,
II darted across the face of its antaR-
onist and in a moment the latter was
floating downward uncontrollably to-
ward the ground. The sharp, curved
knife with which the blue was bur
dened had severed the string of the
red. and the latter had lost and the
victorious kite flew upward like newly
liberated bird.
The knife is q necessary and legiti-
rnate burden of every kite that enters
the betting ring, and this seems to en-
hance the uncertainty of the sport. and
it requires a magnificent display of skill
to avoid the blades OF to stack an an
tagonist. The skill which men and even
boys display in this respect is some
times almost astounding.
In a country where cockfighting is a
national sport, and where bullfghting
would be in vogue il the American au-
thorities would permit. where gam
bling il the chief pastime of both men
and women, it is somewhat surprising
that so mild practice AS kitefying
should hold the attention with the
power that il does. The element of
chance, however. and the right to un-
limited and unrestricted betting hes
carried 1t swiftly into popular favor,
and so il remains to-day.
In Porto Rico Laurie, now moved to
Havana, was for years the potentate
of kites. He used to sit in the sun there
under the soft blue sky. way up on
hill near old Cristobal Colon, and he
had his colored paper spread about him,
with little heaps of long. slender sticks
carved from the big redwood tree. His
paste pot stood beaide him, Us he whit
tied with q long, keen blade like ma
chete.
From the hands of the old Cuban
there has come many prizewinner.
One was fve feet in height and three
feet in width. and it was covered over
with the flag of Cuba. and it bore itself
haughtily in the wind. Its flyer tossed
IL up from one of the fiat roofs of the
Cerro, and II drew chattering crowd
bigger than Gomez parade, and it felt
its importance, for it tugged hatefnlly
at the string and struggled with emo
tional jerks to be free. 1t was so sym
bolic of the spirit of Havana that the
mob went wild with cheering, and a lit
tie Cuban police officer, in the brand
new regulation blue uniform, with sill
yer decorations. tried to assert his au-
thority.-N. Y. Sun.