Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1899-08-10
PUERTO RICO, U. ga.
INTERESTING DESCRIPTION OF
OUR NEW POSSESSION.
Some Curious Facts Regarding This Island
Which Has Been So Little Known
To Most Of Our Readers
Until of Late.

When the flag was raised over San
Juan, Puerto Rico, on October 18th, It
overshadowed one house that, if 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 in nearly four centuries ago;
but the White House survived the
American flag-though all that is left
Of the old conqueror himself Is a hand
full Of dust in n leaden casket that rests
In the Dominican Church Of San Juan.
Columbus discovered Puerto Rico ON
his second voyage, in 1893. At that
time 1t may have been the religious
metropolis Of the Antilles. The won
derful Latimer collection in the Smith
sOnian Institution seems to show that
the other islanders regularly resorted
to IT. 1t would appear too, that the
natives, like the Aztecs OF Mexico, had
n civilization Of their own. They num-
bered perhaps six hundred thousand.
Ponce de Leon came over in 1903
and promptly exterminated them. He
and his followers took everything the
people had and successive Spanish
lOliuNtu AAiS NsNuiAiBiVs hBOul
the only noteworthy thing they did for
the island was to plan the fine military
road that runs diagonally across 1t
from Ponce to San Juan. Fortunately
they could not deprive 1t 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 is shaped like brick. 1t In thirty
i've miles wide, ninety-fye miles long,
and has an area Of about thirty seven
hundred square miles. making it Ave
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 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 crops four times year.
The country is well watered, yet there
are no fever-breeding swamps and
marshes, as in Cuba. Nature has been
so generous to the land that even In
the cities, people live unframed In the
midst of filth that anywhere else would
insure pestlence.
OF two of these cities, San Juan, the
capital, and Ponce, near which the
army Of occupation landed, every read
or has heard San Juan on the north
coast built on long, narrow island,
from which bridge runs to the main
land,-is n walled city, with the port
culls, mOat, gates and battlements Of
3 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 q still more desir-
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 a population of nearly
twenty thousand; and Aguadila, Are
cibO and Fajardo have each five thou
sand or more inhabitants.
San Juan and Arecibo, fifty miles
apart, are connected by rail, and In the
whole island there are, completed or
building, about three hundred miles of
railroad and five hundred miles of tele.
graph Street railways of a primitive
type 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 II. The foreign
trade of Puerto Rico during 1896.
amounted to nearly thirty-seyen mil
lion dollars-Of which the United
States got one-ifth. The island tx
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
them.