The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-04-21
THE HOME LIFE
OF PUERTO RICO.
A Very Pleasant Spot is This Fertile
new Possession in the Warm
Tropical Waters.

Three small islands in the Caribbean
Sea have for the past two years played
an important part in the great drama
which is spread out for the inhabitants
of the earth to view. Small enough to
be called insignificant. not too thiczly
inhabited for homes of peace, rich
enough for plenty. these islands have,
through no fault of their own, but by
the curious fate which brought warning
nations to their shores, been the scene
of as bitter conflicts as were ever
Waged upon any mainland.
If there had been a story of poverty
to tell, then Cuba, Hayti and Puerto
Rico might have been allowed to rot in
hunger and oblivion; but in the soil
which covers them there is wealth, and
the sons of man have not yet finished
with a struggle to get it.
No more beautiful place than Puerto
Rico can be found in the tropical belt
which extends across the Western
Hemisphere from the Pacific Ocean,
over the peninsula of Mexico, across
the Gulf of Mexico, and over the Carlb-
bean Sea-all dotted with islands and
jutting out with peninsulas. Even
Cuba, the garden spot of the world, is
mountainous, and Hayti has its sterile
parts But Puerto Rico is fertile from
end to end, full of all produce for the
delectation of man; and. endowed nat
urally with sweet-woods and CROWNS
that yield sugar, syrup and all kinds
of delicacies that bring fabulous prices
in comparison with other products.
Nor is Puerto Rico a garden alone!
It has it's cities, and beautiful ones
they are, well built up with low put
ornamental houses and with streets
paved in a way that would shame many
a Northern city which boasts of en-
terprise San Juan is the principal and
largest city in Puerto Rico. 1t is also
| the only city on the island that was
fortified, up to the time that It's 1oru.
| fications were Silenced by the guns OF
| American war ships two years ago.
Puerto Rico is the southernmost and
| easternmost of any of our tropical pos
| sessions and its great variety OF prod
| ucts makes it one of the most import
| ant Coffee. tobacco and sugar are the
| principal groWthS of the island, out
| there are delicious fruits and Vegeta-
| bles growing in the soil that IN a lew
years will be in great demand in Amerl-
! can markets. In fact, at the present
| time. Puerto Rican mangoes, alligator
| nears and mandarines are products
that bring substantial prices TO the
| American fruitererS who import them.
The wife and daughter of some ma
| tive srb-officiaI may lounge all day in
| greater elegance upon her second-story
| balcony than her less fortunate sister
| Who occupies the ground floor, yet both
women do lounge and smoke cigarettes,
| embroider a little, rarely read, and
| have little to distinguish one from the
other.
The best houses are meagerly fur
nished-bare floor, a center table, six
| rocking chairs arranged with military
precision on each side and facing the
table: a large mirror, now and then q
/ niano. and the ''best room of the house
is complete.
Food is usually bought ready pre-
pared from vendors. Among the lower
classes food is taken at any time o.
dav. There is no family gathering a
ia bile. The purchase of a roll of bread
a mango. pineapple or bananas, witt
| occasionally a cocoanut, forms feast
Now and then a few centavos Gents
worth of the dulce-a native sWeetmea
prepared from cocoanut or pineapple
augments the days meal.
Coffee is almost unknown to the poor
who depend upon cocoanut milk an6
cane juice.
The weather. have kitchens Of prim.
brazier or upon a brick stove. A tour
of seven days recently made across the
island presented the same bill of fare
at each meal:
Morning. black coffee and a roll o.
bread with butter.
Breakfast, at noon: Eggs, soup, beef
cheese and coffee, with milk or black
coffee or rum.
Dinner, at six o'clock: The breakfas
bill, with fish, entrees and vegetables
and wine or rum.
The food is prepared in part by tbs
legion of servants, if the family il