Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1904-01-20
BIG PORTO R1cAN FAMILIES.
and Can't Bear to Lose Any
Of Them.

Inc Porto R1canS are yet wondering
why President Roosevelt gave that race
suicide warning" said former Official
OF the customs service at San Juan, re-
ports the New York Sun. They say
that II the president lived in Porto Rico
be would have no occasion to talk
about the danger to the state from
small families.
'erhs fact is, Porto Ricans, rich and
poor alike, seem to strive to raise the
largest families possible. The people
worship their children, and the chill
dren look up to their parents with love
and reverence. Families of ten, Is, IS
or 20 children are so common as to ex-
cite no comemnt know one woman
In San Juan who has "a children, and
they are all living.
She Is the wife Of q rich planter,
and is, contrary to the general rule
with Porto Rican women, a good bust
ness woman and aids her husband in
the management of his business at
fairs, besides looking after her house
hold. These double cares would kill
the average American woman, but the
Porto Rican woman is happy and con-
tented and doesn't look a year over 80.
The wife Of relative of mine, q
rich planter, had IA children, but she
lost one Of them. The death of a child
in Porto Rican family, no matter
how large the family may be. Is blow
so stunning that the parents carry
their grief to their graves.
"Whon THE ono s1iod ha cnrraxu aP
the parents was intense. The father
owned newspaper in San Juan, but he
refused even to open the door of his Of
fee for month, and then he could do
no work. Finally he had to go abroad
for six months in an effort to forget
his grief.
while In Europe he ordered mar
BILE tomb, with beautiful white figure
OF an angel surmounting it. in which
to place the child's remains. Now. al
though the little one has been dead
several years, the father goes regularly
twice a week to the cemetery and re-
mains several hours each time.
The mother trudges every day to
the cemetery. taking with her each
time bunch Of fresh flowers to place
on the child's tomb. They dress in
black, and will remain in mourning, l
think, till death.
This is not an isolated instance Of
parental devotion, because on every
Sunday or feast day you may go to the
beautiful San Juan cemetery and see
hundreds of people sitting by the
graves Of children
II recall striking instance Of a
widows love for the memory Of her
husband. The San Juan municipality
owns the cemetery and charges rental
for the reception of the bodies. The
rent for the first three years has to be
paid in advance, and if the renewal
rent is not paid after the expiration of
the three years the bones of the dead
are, without warning, thrown out of
the inches where the collins rest.
1T CHANGED that through an error
the widow failed to pay again after the
three years had expired, and when she
went to the cemetery one day she dis
covered to her dismay that the bones
Of her husband had been taken from
their niche and cast into a pile of
bones Of hundreds of other dead. There
was no way by which the bones could
be identified and recovered.
1.-THE widow had had a great mausol-
cum built for the remains Of her hus-
band. and, rather than have nothing
in the vault to remind her Of him, she
caused all the bones in the pile, COM
prising the remains Of hundreds of
people, to be gathered up and placed
in the mausoleum, being well satisfied
that among the great mass of bones
in the place were those of her hus-
band. This woman makes regular
visits to the cemetery and offers up
prayers over that great mausoleum full
Of bones for the repose of her hus-