Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-07

out eastern Cuba. The country is just
opening up, and a large number of men
are employed in getting cut timber. There
are hundreds hewing mahogany logs which
are carried to the ports on the railroads
or down the rivers at the times of the
floods. Others are making railroad ties
and others saving lumber and preparing
it for shipment At such work unskiled men
are getting 81 day. The price for cutting
down and barking a tree which will make
log thirty feet long and four feet in d.
ameter is 30 cents, and so cents Is paid for
trees above that size. The sawyers in the
Havana lumber mills receive from 500 to
500 month, and the mahogany hewers
are paid from s. to 81 per thousand feet.
Engineers are paid hundred dollars a
month, while head sawyers get three or
four dollars a day. Wood choppers receive
$12 month and board and charcoal burn
about the same.
There is an enormous business in char
coal here. This furnishes the fuel for do
nestle uses. All cooking is done over bra
Ziers or in little holes IN lodges built up
against the wall of the kitchen, making
sort of brick stove 1t were. The houses
seldom have chimneys and only the fewest
have cook stoves of the American or Eu-
ropean pattern. The charcoal peddler is TO
be seen everywhere. He carries his fuel in
cart drawn by mule or horse and goes
from door to door like huckster.
The Building Trades.
Mechanics of all kinds are paid less here
than in the United States. The native Gu
bans are naturally skillful. Many of the
workmen are jacks of all trades, and our
mechanics would probably say masters OF
none Still they do excellent work and some
of the buildings made by them are magnifi-
cent. There are about fourteen thou
sand carpenters in Cuba. They work
almost altogether by the rule of thumb.
In building they cut the pieces too large
and then saw or shave them down to fit.
hen thnrr be- sNkf mill @
the framework on the ground until they
get it of the right dimensions and shape.
They VIII then take 1t to pieces and re-
erect it in its proper position Such meth
DDS are time consumers, and the Cuban
carpenter at half price is dear in COMPARE
son to ours. Good carpenters are paid
from a dollar and a half to two dollars a
day in the cities; In the smaller places they
work for much less.
Cuban Masons Versus American
The wages of masons are equally low,
but still their work is quite as costly al
ours. The ordinary native brlcklayer
does well II he can put UP 800 bricks per
day. The American on rough work can lay
1s00. The superiority of our masons was
shown in the building OF brewery which
was erected in Havana not long ago. A
gang of bricklayers was imported from the
United States, and was worked side by
side with the Cuban hricklayers The
Americans laid three times as many bricks
per day as the Cu5ans. IL was q repetition
of the experiment made on the Westing-
house building at Manchester, England.
The contractor there was American. He
became Disguised with the slow work of the
English bricklayers and imported large
number of American masons to work side
by side with them. Before the --merieans
came the English bricklayers laid 400
bricks per day. They opened their eyes
when the Americans laid from 1890 TO
coo, and they gradually put on a squirt.
which brought them up close to the Amer
leans.
Skilled bricklayers in Cuba get $50 to
50 day. hodcarriers 81 and whitewashers
and brushmen 81 and upward. All build
ings here have thick walls. The brick Is
laid up in the rough and the wall covered
with plaster or stucco where 1t faces the
street. 1t is then painted In bright colors
Among the Iron Workers.
Most of the public buildings have great
deal of iron about them. Their windows
are covered with lacework Of iron and
iron balconies extend out from the second
stories. The material used Is wrought iron,