Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-08-15
EVER JOYOUS PORTO RICO
SIMPLE PLEASURES THAT AMuSE
THE LIGHT-HEARTED NATIVES.

writes the New York Times CORE
spondent. From morning TO night and
from night to morning the racket is
iucessant. The open-air life of the eli
mate doubtless explains in good part
the prevailing noises, for anything
happening anywhere can be heard
everywhere else. In the houses rooms
are divided only by thin partitions
that reach but eight on nine feet from
the floor, leaving several feet OF air
space above. a chair moved in room
may be heard in every room In the
house. When one inmate is retiring
and let's a shoe fall to the stone floor
instead of carefully laying it there
every other inmate knows what is
happening. High doorways, and win
dows quite as high, protected only BY
doorlike shutters and without glass,
bring street noises as close as If they
wrre indoors. One may hear from an
upper room the conversation of those
passing in the street below. If the
parties to the street colloquy are be-
lated and demonstrative they may
| easily rouse q neighborhood. \ cart
on the stone pavement makes Its pres
ence felt for blocks around.
Native noises begin at daybreak
when the shops open and people turn
out for work. \ brood of magpies
seems loosened in this waking hour,
for the native in his elemnt is a chat
terer. From that time there is no
quiet. Street vendors carrying fiat
pans or baskets on their heads are
early astir, to let the people know, in
minor cadences, that they are ready
for business. The first of this tribe
carry things to eat, usually sweets.
They are followed by sellers of cheap
laces or gew-gaws. Their appear
once brings the housewives to their
windows and barter, seldom amount
ing to more than barter, sets in.
There is n native saying, "Vamos a
pasar el TEMPO" meaning "Let US sit
down and argue" The women employ
It and act on it endlessly. Hotel life
enables a visitor TO learn their opin-
ions upon variety of subjects. Next
weeks weather seems to be favorite
topic. When two women, with their
progeny, draw their rocking chairs
into hotel corridor-hey cannot con-
fine themselves to the forum of their
own apartments-all other proceedings
In the house may as well be suspend
ed. This performance is given IN
failingly from early coffee until the
midday breakfast. After that meal
there may be rest for a nap, which
refreshes the disputants for more Wig
orous combat. The evening session
lasts late, and is often reinforced from
the corridors and balconies in the Vi
cinity.
Street scenes at night show how
simply n community may be pleased.
| The people want to be amused, and
since they cannot afford to pay others
to entertain them, they furnish among
themselves the means of keeping light
hearted. Street maskers provide much
of the night fun. They usually so
about in pairs, in harlequin costumes.
with horns in their caps and highly
painted pasteboard faces. a crowd
is in tow from the moment of their ap-
pearance. 1t gathers numbers as they
jog-trot through the streets. When
they happen to enter u house ON the
way, the crowd waits patiently outside
until the visit is over. The Plaza is
always the objective point. There the
town seems gathered, for other crowds
have followed other maskers to that
centre, and many have gone there con-
fident of finding it worth while. On
nights when the native band plays,
especially on Sunday, mnskers multi
ply, and the scene resembles cnrni-
val On such nights also the home
militia, organized to strengthen and
eventually, perhaps, to displace Amer
lean troops, gets wholesale leave from
the barracks The natives like a uni
form, and the men seem as well pleased
with with it as is a child with q new
toy. This feature adds to the general
animation.
Pleasures end at the Plaza compara-
lively early, to be resumed at hailes
or dances in different parts of the
town High-class residents may hire a
pretentious hall for this purpose, but
the simpler folk get the greater enjoy
ment in modest places, which n few
pesos will rent. The ballroom is al
most always on the street level, for
the fun of a dance is apparently in
having as many spectators as the
street in front of the building will
hold. With a band, consisting OF a
clarionet, which carries the air; vio-
lin to I'll in interludes; bass viol to
mark time and gourd which the per-
former pounds with piece of round
stick, the music that the public love
is ground out. Dancing means a min
imum OF motion to a maximum of
noise. Feet shuttle in unison, but part.
ners may not turn once minute. Its
enough for them to keep barely going
to the sound of a combination whose
music, gypsy-like and crude, evidently
satisfies every sense. Bales often last
until well into the following day, from
twelve to sixteen hours.
Among a people upon whom care
| sets so lightly ii is perhaps not strange