The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-02-24
THE CoLORED MAN IN CUBA.

| are Dispensed With HIS Social STATUS
Army Officers, Educators, Scientists
Poets and Musicians of the Dusky
Race-A Tinge of African in the Best
Blood of the Land.
Especial Correspondence of the Journal
and Courier.)
Matanzas, Cuba, Jan. 20.-Speaking of
the trouble that Americans in Cuba are
Iencounterlng in their task of reconstruc-
ton, it should be borne in mind that
there are two sides to every question,
land the Cubans themselves may not be
without their troubles at the hands Of
Americans. So difficult 1t is for people
of different blood and temperament,
born and reared to other traditions and
same point of view. For example: Not
least among the problems of reconstruct
ton is the social and political status of
the colored man and brother" In be-
nighted Cuba the shade of mans COM
| plexion has never been greatly consid-
cred, and one finds dusky Othellos in
every walk of life. To the +. r. V. ele-
ment of Americans-full of the race
prejudice which exists nowhere on earth
with such venom as in the Land of the
Free-the smallest approach to equality
is simple intolerable. The present cloud
on the horizon of happy reconstruction
at first no bigger than a mans hand,
but now foreboding tempest, arose
When restaurant-keeper from Alaba-
ma refused a seat at his public table to
the mulatto colonel of a Cuban regi-
ment. The southerner had been brought
up that way and was perfectly sincere
| in the declaration that he would see
himself in warmer cline than Cuba be-
fore he would insult his American
guests "by seating id niger among
them!' To the colonel in question 1t
was a novel and astonishing experience,
and is of course deeply resented by all
his kind in Cuba, where the color-line
has never been thought of-for the rea-
son the African blood may be found in
greater or less degree, in some of the
richest and most influential families of
the island. Therefore-as it is not
probable that temporary influx of for
eigners will be able to draw the line very
taut in the land to which the colored
was born--it would manifestIy be the
part of wisdom for those who cannot en-
dure it to return to the Home of the
Brave, where their inherited race-prej-
udice may have full swing.
Had the Moor of Venice lived in this
country he would have found no reason
for the remark, mistake me not for my
complexion" for few Barbantios would
have objected to him as a son-in-law on
that account. In high life and low the
blood of the aboriginal Indian, mixed
with the Latin, has been as often stained
with the African as aduterated with
the Anglo Saxon. Naturally tthe shad-
owed livery of the FURNISHED sun" is no
disgrace among these creoles. In the
creme de la creme of the aristocracy are
mulatto families-growing whittier with
each generation-which have been rich
and powerful since away back to the
days of their forgotten ancestors on the
Congo; and others with tolerably fair
complexion, whose peculiar kink of hair
and shade of finger-tips betrays the
dusky drop which in America would be
fatal to all social aspirations. In Ha-
vana you need not be surprised to see
creole bellies on the fashionable Prado--
perhaps Cuban Spanish. Cuban English
or Cuban German blondes-promena
ding with negro officers in gorgeous I'M
forms; or Octoroon beauties with hair
in natural crimp, riding in carriages be-
side white husbands, or lighting up an
opera box with the splendor of their di-
Almonds. One of the finest houses in
Matanzas is owned by vscount of
once fabulous wealth, the color of whose
spouse it would be stretch of courtesy
to call cafe au lait. There was a we'd
ding in the old cathedral the other day,
attended by the elite of the city, the
bride being the lovely young daughter
of a Cuban planter, the groom burly
negro, black as the ace of spades. Mo-
body to the manor born has ever de-
canned of Directing to this mingling of |
colors; therefore when some newly |
arrived foreigner-possibly an ignorant |
fellow who has no status at home worth |
neutrality-suspicious. that nobody but |
those of his own complexion shall sit in |
a public diningroom, there IS likely to |
be trouble.
When the war began the population of |
Cuba was little more than one-third
black; now the proportion is officially
as $751; s4 colored against 1881,
500 white In 1898 two negroes were
serving as secretaries in the autonomist
The last regiment that Blanco
formed was Of negro volunteers to
whom he paid, or rather promised to
pay, which is quite another matter. !,
Blanco's habit-the unusual
1ire of twenty dollars the month, there
by showing his appreciation of the col
ored man as a soldier. If General Wey-
er evinced any partially in Cuba, it
was for the black creole. During the
.en years war; which ended twenty
years ago, his cavalry escort was COM
posed entirely of colored men.
his latest reign In the un-
ucky island he kept soldiers constantly
IN guard at the gates of the government
palace While the illustrated papers of
spain We're caricaturing the insurgents
Is coal-black demons, with horns and
orked toe-nails, burning cane-fields and
,utchering innocent Spaniards, the t,
Marquis of Teneriff chose them for his
oval body-guard.
By the way, the lieutenant-colonel Of I
lis guard was a Spanish-FTench negro, :
,orn in New Orleans, who was once a
ervant of ex-senator Finchbeck of Lou
H., |