Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1899-02-02
PUERTO RICO, U. s. A.
DESCRIPTION CT
OUR NEW POSSESSION.
Some Curious Facts Regarding This Isiapd
Which Has Been So Little Known
To Most of Our Readers
Until of Late.

When the flag was raised over San
Jnan. Puerto Rico. on October 18th, II
overshadowed one house that, IL insen-
safe things could ever awaken to feel
emotion. would surely have groaned
and crumbled That was 1.-The White
House" that Juan Ponce de Leon built
and lived lin nearly four centuries ago;
but the White House survived the
American fng-though all that is lerr
OF the old conqueror himself Is a hand
fUl OF dust In leaden casket that rests
In the Dominican Church of San Juan.
Columbus discovered Puerto Rico ON
his second voyage, in 1903. Al thar
time IT may have been the religious
metropolis of the Antilles. The won
derful Latimer collection In the Smith
sonian Institution seems to show thar
the other islanders regularly resorted
TO It, 1t would appear, too. that the
natives. like the AZtecs OF Mexico. had
a civilization of their own. They num-
bered perhaps six hundred thousand.
Ponce de Leon came over in 1863.
and promptly eXterminated them. He
and his followers took everything the
people had, and successive Spanish
rulers followed his example. About
the only noteworthy thing they did for
the island was to plan the fine military
road that runs dingonally across II
from Ponce TO San Juan. Fortunately
they could not deprive it Of the natural
resources that make Ii the most beau
tiful, the most healthful and the most
productive of the Antilles
Somebody has aptly said that Puerto
Rico is the only island in the world
that IL shaped like a brick 1t Is thirty
i've miles wide. ninetv-fve miles long,
and has an area OF about thirty-seven
hundred square miles. making it five
seventies as large as the state of Con
necticut OF its eight hundred thou
sand inhabitants. three hundred thou
sand are of african descent via ia
maica."
Across the island, from east TO west.
runs a mountain range averaging
eighteen hundred feet in height Be
tween the hills lie some Of the richest
lands on the globe. capable Of produc-
Ing astonishing crors four { mes year.
The country is well watered yet there
are no fever-breedlng swamps and
marshes. as in Cuba, Nature has been
so generous to the land that. even in
the cities people live unharmed in the
midst Of filth that anywhere else would
insure pestlence
or two Of these cities, San Juan the
capital. and Ponce, near which the
army of occupation landed. every read
er has heard. San Juan, on the north
coast built on a long, narrow island,
from which a bridge runs to the NAM
land-is a walled city with the port
cullis. moat, gates and battlements of
the fortified towns of old. Thirty thou
sand persons live there.
Although not an easy place to enter
during a 'norther," San Juan Is said
TO have the best harbor in the West
Indies. Ponce city and district, On
the south coast, with forty thousand
inhabitants. claims a still more deslr-
able distinction, that of being the
healthiest place in the island
Mayaguez facing the Mona Passage
which separates Puerto Rico from San
to Domingo has population Of nearly
twenty thousand; and Aguadilla, Are
ciho and Faiardo have each five thou
sand or more inhabitants
San Juan ana Arecibo fifty miles
apart are connected by rail, and In the
whole island there are, completed or
building about three hundred miles of
railroad ard five hundred mikes of tele-
graph. Street railways Of a primitive
tyre are found in several places. The
three largest cities have the beginnings
Of telephone systems. and San Juan Is
lighted by electricity; but the whole
island is practically virgin soil for the
American promoter"
And there is money in It. The foreign
trade of Puerto Rico, during 1896.
amounted 10 nearly thirty seven mil
lion dolars-of which the United
States got one-ffth The island ex
ports superior sugar, coffee and tobac-
co, its principal imports being rice.
-four, meats, fish, cotton fabrics and
machinery. Its abundant resources
have barely been touched. much less
developed. American money, muscle
and brains will make the most OF
Thorn