The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1899-03-09
Greater.
+. He acquired wide reputation

Greater. He acquired wide reputation
as poet, novelist and ecelesiastic. both in
Spain and Cuba, and was selected by the
Spanish Academy to deliver the Grafton an
the anniversary OF Cervant's death in
Madrid.
His favorite Cuban pupil was Juan
Gualberto Gomez, the mulatto Journalist
who has been imprisoned time and aoaip
for otfense against the Spanish press laws
Senior Gomez, whose home is in Matanzas
is now on the shady side of forty a
specialized and scholarly looking man
After the peace of Zanjon he elaborated in
the periodicals published by the MARQUIS
OF Sterling. In 10 he founded in Habana
the newspaper La Fraternidad, devoted
to the interests of the colored race For
certain fiery editorial he was deported
to Ceuta and kept there two years. Then
he went to Madrid and assumed the
management of La Tribuna: and in 1890
returned to Habana and resumed tba
publication of La Fraternidad
Equally famous as a journalist is Senior
Nestor Ponce de Leon, who shows scarcely
trace of the African blood in his veins
Senior de Leon was born in Habana about
sixty years ago, but on account Of lis
revolutionary newspaper, La Verdad.
was eNlled and his property confscated. in
go Since then he has resided mostly in
New York. His book, Ell Libro de
oangre, (The Bloody Book, attracted
much attention last year: and he is now
publishing monumental work. the Tech,
meal Engfsh-Spanish Dictionary.
Another beloved exile from the land of
his birth is Senior Jose White, the Cuban
Paganini. His mother was colorea
woman, of Matanzas. At the age of
SKI cen, Jose wrote a mass for the Matanzas
orchestra and gave his first concert. With
the proceeds he entered the conservatory
OF Paris, and in the following year was
awarded the first prize as violnist among
thirty nine contestants He soon gained
an enviahle reputation among the most
celebrated European yiolinists, and, cover
ed with honors, returned to Habana in
January of 1875. But his songs were
sometimes of liberty, and in June Of the
same year the Spanish government drove
him out of the country, Then he went to
Brazil, and is now President of the Con
servatory of music in Rio de Janeiro.
One might go on multiplying similar
incidents, did space permit. Some of the
most eminent doctors, lawyers and col
lege professors in Cuba are more or less
darkly ''colored. z" In the humber
walks of life, one finds them everywhere
as carpenters, masons, shoe makers and
plumbers. In the few manufactures of
Cuba, a large proportion of the artisans
are negroes, especially in the cigar
factories. In the tanneres of Pinar del
Rio, most of the workmen are colored
also in the saddle factories of Habana,
Ifuanabacoa, Cardenas and other places
Facts do not bear out the Oft repeated
statement that the Cuban negro is lazy
and will not work. 200 of them from the
insurgent army, are now employed by the
American authorities at Maranoa Beach
and QGenados camp, and Capt. Hunt, the
army paymaster, says they do their work
better and with great deal less grumbling
than did the Yankee boys at Santiago,
who used to say, ''We came here as
soldiers, not as workingmen. Although
the insurgent army is no. yet disbanded,
the sugar planters get plenty Of help from
theil ranks, by offering fair wages.
FANNIE BRIGHAM WARD.