The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-02-01

being practically perfect at this time though the force at work thereon has not been steadily engaged for several
 years in the recent past A good deal
 of reconstructing has been done under the direction of the military authorities within the tWelyenlonth of our occup
 ancy, yet thousands of miles of thor
 oughly good roads are said not to have
 been touched since the surrender of
 a year ago.
 The fields along the roadway look
 green and inviting Not all of them
 have again been brought under culti-
 vation, but the patches of cane tobacco ! bananas and corn to be seen here and
 there, together with the splendid garden
 patches close to the city, already show l ing an excellent state of productiveness $
 give evidence of commencing recon l struction which, when complete, shall | again make this beautiful country blos- l som as the rose. Could it but have the benefit of American capital and American yeomen at this time it's re- construction would be almost immedi- ate. But the Foraker bill tied up cap l ital and made it timid, the mortgage edicts from Washington, though well
 intended and perhaps full of wisdom, have made the future uncertain for | both landlord and leader, and Cuba must wait, or get into cultivation the best it may. These questions in time | will solve themselves, and doubtless to the best interests of the country and the people at large. But it is easy to be
 seen that during the transaction peri n6 ir, pf is to retard, make uncertain and give the weeds a chance to grow. Many people are too severely impoverished to
 buy oxen, mules, horses and machinery for the cultivation of their plantations
 and farmsa Especially is this true of
 small holders. All of them are mort gagged, no lender cares to lend more , when he cannot foretell what the next edict in regard to payment may be, or
 when 1t will come, and so, as stated,
 Cuba has to wait.
 Along the road at varying distances
 are Cuban villages at which refresh
 ments especially those of a liquid na-
 ture, are to be had. These are strag-
 gling, uninviting, primitive gatherings
 of huts and houses of stucco or stone,
 all of one story, the hutcs being roofed
 with palm leaves, grass and reeds In
 almost every village there has been de-
 structfon. If a resident was ultra
 Spanish the insurgents would burn his
 house and destroy his life if they could
 raid the settlement successfully; if, on
 the other hand a resident proved him
 self to be an alder and abettor of the
 revolution the first time a band of
 fel, ,1 al
 they would do for him what the insur
 gents did for the Spaniards. It must
 have kept this people guessing to ob-
 serve a safe neutrality.
 If the villages themselves are unin
 viting and primitive, what is to be said of their inhabitants? These consist of
 Cuban and Spanish people, white and black, with no color line to keep them apart, each house being plentifully crowded with urchins of all shades and hues, from almost a pure Caucasian to sable-hued muchacho whose relation ship to Ham is unquestionable. With the people live their ponies cattle (when they have any) goats dogs chickens and pigs Cats also are plentiful, and now and then a goose or two add to the cosmopolitan nature of household. Filth, squalor, indifference, thriftless- ness abound on every hand. Occasion- ally inviting premises are seen. and now and then face making some pre- tensions to beauty, cleanliness and gen. tility.
 Santa Maria is quaint town of 800 | inhabitants, prettily snuggled among | the hills above tiny rivulet of clear | and swift-running water. The village | rises to the dignity of a summer resort for Havanese who wish to go to sthe country to ba fashionable, while remain ing near enough to visit the city daily | if required. It is very likely some of the quaint pretty villages of Italy and southern France. Its houses are stone and stucco, many of thIm bearing roofs of thatch pitched al such an angle as to give them gothic appearance, the thatch so dense and timeworn that they appear to have existed for ages In the center of the town, whose streets are so and narrow as clearly to have been made to conform to the COW and paths of a century or two ago, there S a massive cathedral 197 years old s ill s an excellent state of preservation and possessing many interesting features. The cathedral was built for the people, hence the houses must have been there before it. The roofs have doubtless been repaired from time to time yet hey are so grotesque, so ancient, so irneWorn and so altogether unlike any Q be seen in the states that the tourist g made to feel that he is surely in a oreign counry. I have seen just such cottages and just such a cathedral in mall places in Ireland, in Italy, in Austria, in France and in Germany but nowhere in our country, from Maine to Iexico or from Florida to Oregon, have hey their counterparts
 There Is a mineral spring in a beau fully shade dnook beyond the town, ; ,ack of a considerable hill over which ( here is a winding path to much high r point on the crest, on which was a | { spanish blockhouse until the insurgents ' aided the town and destroyed it. Sur ( ounding the spring laurel bower af- Z ords delightful shade, the crest of the [ ill giving a splendid view of the sur s country for miles upon miles. ( way off to the west as the sun shone l ut upon it from under a well-clouded I ky, Havana was brought beautifully ( Ito view it's church towers, Morro V aSt1e Cabanas fortress and many of |