Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-11-03
Views ola Washington Visitor Tersely
Tod.
THE ALCAL1E And HIS GREAT POWER
The Laziness Of the Surplus Popu-
Iation.
POLITICS AND COURTSHIP
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Corres pondence Of The Evening Star.
SAN JUAN, p. r., October D 1900.
Having spent 4 number of months en- this
island during so-called turbulent period
i give you a few impressions of the land
and its people as they appeared to me.
When l left New York las, April the in
dependent press. rather Bryan papers.
were lavishly using red scare heads on the
riots in Porto Rico. Upon my arrival here
I found things as quiet an Alexandria
Sunday. Beyond 4 few small labor riots
nothing has occurred TO destroy the mo
notony of the even heat
The change was made from military to
civil government with as little excitement
as would occur in The transferring of a
crossroads post Office. There was speech
making in plenty. but its spelbindins
quality was lost by the time it reached the
swelterins crowd, through a Spanish inter
prefer. Governor Allen has made a good
impression on the people, but he has a ire
mendous job on his hands to govern the
Porto RicauS satisfactory to them. The
wealthy lanl-holdCrs are no doubt satisfied
as their holdings are bringing in more rev.
eEue at present than ever before. l know
poor people here in San Juan who are
paying so per month rent for one miserable
room with a ground floor, with no water
or any improvements whatever l often
v
of the pOpulation) manage to exist.
The government pays good wages to the
few labOrers ii employs and these have
struck on a number of occasions for 81
per day. This demand was all out of rea-
son and has repeatedly failed.
They have some tirst-Class labor agtators
bers who would hold their own up even in
the Occur d Alenc country.
The trouble here is a tremendous surplus
population who are adverse TO emigration
and the idleness of a vast territory suitable
for agriculture. They huddle together in
the cities, thus making the same mis- take
so noticeable in our own country. They are
imprOVident to the extreme and are abSO-
lutely Indifferent as to the outcome of the
morrow. Oar noble red men are the per-
sCnificatiOn of thrift in comparison and the
latter has the reputation of consuming ten
days rations in the first two
Their general poor physique is due TO i'm
morality and ignorance of nutritious foods.
They stuff themselves with bananas and
sweet cakes instead of Cultivating a taste
for beans and rice. The cook stove is an
unknown quantity except in swelldom, and
few moments is sufficient to spend on
their most elaborate meal, on one of their
little charcoal affairs.
Eighty per cent Of the population are un-
der ten years of age, so you can imagine
the number of children crawling around
the streets. They tell me that woman S
main ambition is to help the population on
this island and l earnestly believe 1t. They
are kind and loving with their offspring,
but not generous in the matter of clothing
for them, the primitive style being deemed
sufficient until the child has become large
enough to make individual protest.
We have all the tropical fruits in abund-
ance, but yearn for the juicy apple, pear