The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-04-23
CaIk Of the Gown
Items Gathered in
IUaIRs and CaIks.
HOW THEY HAVE CHANGED

HOW THEY HAVB CHANGED.
Chas. Carr and A. H. Walker, who wen
from Wichita to Texas two years ag
and Joined a Texas regiment to Cub
in the Spanish war, are in Wichita thii
week visiting Abe Carr of the South Mai1
street bicycle works who is a brother
of Chas. Carr They left Cuba abou
Two months ago and We're mustered our
at Galveston last week. They have
brought a fund of interesting stones and
kodak pictures Of Cuba and Cubans
they say that Cuba is rapidly American
izing. When they first went TO Havana
"a nicEle would buy a gallon of figs or
nine oranges, but the dealers have al
ready come into contact with so many
Americans that they have found half
as much for the money will go just as
well so now they count out fourteen
figs or three oranges for a nickle. They
have learned that American money IS bet
Ter than Spanish, and if they have to
make change they always give back
Spanish coin. They have also learned
ahe American trick of holding a bill up
the sun to see if those silk threads that
are in every genuine piece Of American
paper currency are there. If they can't
see the threads they say No good Ameri-
canos."
Another evidence of American progress
and the good results of closing the war
IS the way the poorer Cubans go about
getting something to eat. When the sol
tliers first landed in Cuba the Cubans went
about with little carts picking Up scraps
of bread, fishing bones out of the camp
swHl barrels and getting such other re-
fuse as the Americans threw away. The
bones were fshed out and taken home for
soup, one bone being used for two or
three days. From to a dozen Cubans
stood at the door of every American mess
TENT at meal time, and when the soldiers
walked out to empty their tin plates of
scraps. they ecraped them off into pail
held by a Cuban beggar. Now the Cubans
go about in an economic shopping eXpe-
dition and manage to buy food most Of
athe time, when they run out of home re-
ksOurces. with the mixture of American
and Spanish money that they are man
aging to get hold Of They have quit
fishing bones out Of the swiH barrels, and
.even refuse to pick up scraps thrown out
son the dry ground. They are putting
glass in their windows. No Cuban win
dow had glass before the war closed and
hadn't had for years. Every window glass
was taxed by the Spanish collector twice
swhat it was worth every year. An ordi-
mary window pane, IA by 20 inches, cost
"a Cuban dollar q year in taxes, which
finally got to be so burdensome that they
broke out the glass and put up boards.
An ordinary Wichita residence in Havana
would be taxed a hundred dollars a year
for window glass alone.
If Cuban was a shopkeeper, he made
his window show very simple and ex-
posed only half of it at a time, moving
Hhe boards back and forth every half day.
They are already beginning to eat from
dishes. A set of dishes such as the poorest
family in Wichita uses three times a day
cost 50 a year in taxes, and if this was
not paid promptly the dishes were con-
ascated by the Spanish tax collector The
clothes they wore were taxed. Children
ETere not dressed at all until y years old.
Spanish customs are already beginning
TO be streaked VIII Americanisms.
One of the curious and CHASTITY things
told about by Mr. Walker and Mr.. Carr
IS the boneyard in the cemetery at Ha-
Nana- The cemetery is owned by a syn
dictate Of rich. Spaniards. When a man
Cuban-died who was not able to pay
rent on cemetery Got, the body was
taken TO the charnel house and the flesh
eaten by lime. The skeleton was then
Thrown into the boneyard. This boneyard
IS 200 feet square and 20 feet deep in
human skulls and bones. 1t is probably
more than 20 feet deep, but the boys had
no means Of getting any lower down in
their Investigations Men walked out on
Hhe stupendous pile Of skulls and kicked
them around like balls. Sometimes when
a man was wealthy enough to pay rent on
q lot he couldn't afford a coffin. so the
corpse was put into a coffin, taken to thu |
Cemetery, lifted out and thrown into the |
open grave and the coffin taken back for |
Ese in another funeral.