The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-04-09
RAPID PROGRESS MADE BY
PEOPLE OF PORTO RICO
Mrs. Elliott, of New Castle, Writes
OF Work Accomplished in
Public Institutions.
WORK AT PENITENTIARY

Special TO the Indianapolis Journal
NEW CASTLE. Ind. April Sin a letter
from San Juan, Porto Rico. to friends in
this city Mrs. w. II. Elliott, of this city.
says:
Porto Rico is certainly making rapid
progress in every way. The churches are
doing good work. Bishop Cranston spent
a month here. He was delighted with the
advancement Of the work. He said he
thought he was going 10 a foreign country,
but when he arrived he found things so
far beyond his expectation that he could
hardly believe his own eyes.
Cur maternity hospital is doing great
work in Porto Rico. They now begin
ming to see the result OF their work. The
doctor told me they had performed some
very precariOus operations There is a
prevalent disease here among the natives,
the technical name OF which | do not re-
call. IL Is a peculiar disease of the abdO-
men A successful operation performed
for il in our hospital for the first time ana
II was done by native physician. SIhcS
then they have performed nearly nfty Oh
the same character and all have been sue
cessful.
'Since living in Porto Rico l had never
been down to visit the Penitentiary uil mn
a few weeks ago. From the Marina 10 IN, IAS
building the way is beautiful IL Is CaliSu
eel paseo de la Princesa, the Princess waik'
named for one OF the princesses OF SPAIN:
on one side of the walk are all kinds of
palms and flowers with a fine view S OF tnt
one PAINTED In imitation or brlcK. we
found the warden very kind and opnglnS-
He took US hrst 70 the Mot a1. sr ,,aI,,
where We found about twenty-five men
busy making different pieces of furniture
for the St. Louis exposition, all made by
hand Some OF the work was exquisite,
one niece especially. an office desk and
table combined, was a perfect beauty Inc
top was inlaid with native wood, the ilght,
orange. and the dark. Mahogany ne Ut
tie squares were fitted in SO accurately
In a pretty design which was wonderful 10
me- and when you think of the man not
knowing letter from another they
make guitars all of the inlaid wood. and
take cocoanut shells and carve and polish
them until you hardly know what they
are. The officials have the prisoners do all
OF the work. We went TO the kitchen and
saw the men cooking, they were Just tax
ing the bread out OF the oven. II looked
fine. / have not seen lighter or whittier
looking bread in Porto Rico. They were
also dishing I'D the soup for their dim
ner- counted twenty tin tubs about the
size of foot tub, and of course | pre-
sumo there were great many more, Tor
they could not all eat at once. The soup
looked nice and clean, and plenty rich
enough With such nice-looking bread ana
soup to eat the prisoners have not anything
to complain of in that line. The building
was scrupuously clean. and everything Is
are about 450 men in this one building. The
saddles, sight TO me was when the warden
and had US walk down the center. Some Of
them could look at us passed down.
others hung their heads; one old gray
haired man especially attracted my atten-
ton He was very old. stoop-shouldered
and almost blind. 1 presume he was at
least eighty years old, and perhaps has
told us there were over 80 of the men that
could neither read nor write. and about
seventy-fve that absolutely knew nothing
at all. They have a schoOlr0om fitted up
fer them. and they make them study and
recite every day. 1t a most pitiful
sight TO me. / think so much worse in this
country, on account of so much ignorance.
THE garden surrounding the building is
most beautiful spot all kinds of roses.
from different countries and every kind of
flower one can think of. When we left the
gardener gave me all the roses 1 could
possibly carry in my arms
From the workshop were conducted
TO the room where they have stored the ma
terials for shoes, hats and other things,
all of which are made by the prisoners. The
work, some of which was made
from 100 thread. There were lit
tie purses. handkerehiefs and doilies.
One man brought US pair of
fancy black hose which he was knitting as
our grandmothers used to knit We bought
some work. and as we were leaving they
gave us each little souvenir.
wedding Dr. Drees. the superintendent Of
missions for Porto Rico. had a very nice
little nousemaid. and she had beau. They
decided they must get married and asked
DIT. Drees 10 perform the ceremony. He
told them ali right. let him know when they
were ready. Mrs. Drees came to call one
day and was telling about 1t, and asked
II we would not like TO come to the we'd
ding few evenings later Saturday, of
course) she telephoned US to come
to her house at o'clock. We went out,
found the guests We're all there waiting for
the bridegroom. 1t seems they were just
little suspicious he might not show UP
at the last moment, but he did. DR. Drees
wanted TO impress them with the serious
90 ho Ilof1
In q native doctor that lives I'm the neigh
borhood and American gentleman to
sign the marriage certificate. which he ex-
poets 10 have framed for them hoping il
will help to remind them of the sacredness
OF the occasion. After we had waited a
little while the bridegroom came saunter-
so scared. and with big drops of perspira-
ton rolling down his face. When Mrs
eDrees asked him if his mother and sisters
were not coming he said: mo God for
bid When were called into the room
where they were 10 stand | wish | could
describe the look on their faces when they
The bride took on an air OF Importance,
but the poor man was almost shaking out
of his shoes He hurriedly repeated the
ceremony after DR.. Drees. but you should
/. have seen the bride. She acted as if she
comprehended every word she was saying,
but her face looked perfectly blank: could
not think of anything but a falseface We
could hardly keep from laughing The
bride wore a white dress, very short but
she wore long ven pinned with orange
blossoms. a gift from the groom. She said
she must have a veil or people would think
she had been married before The groom
oio not wear the conventional black He
white canvas shoes with brown leather
trimmings a bright red and white striped
SHIRT toroad stripes, too, high celluloid
collar, with a pink and blue tie double
bow. pink and blue loop at each end. I'm
agine the combination. 1t certainly was
funny.