Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-14

held the outrages that were committed al
Its gates. Its plaza dozes in the MONDAY
sun; it's palms wave dangerously While It's
few Inhabitants lounge about their aoor-
WAYS unaffected by the hum of American
industry that can almost reach them from
the north and from the south, or listen TO
the tales of some black veteran of the war
a cross line of railroad runs here-lt, IN
deed it may properly be said to do any
thing but creep--its single locomotive puff
fling its wheezy way once each day.
He who is in any haste to reach any
given point along the trocha, who desires
to travel faster than the slowest freight
that ever was conceivd, will do well to
take passage in the patient mule stage
that is In waiting. and from It view the
fertl red land. The journey southwark is
marked as with mile stones by the grim
block houses still standing at kilometer in
tervals, but from the portfolios and the
turretS, where Mauser rifles once briStled,
the tropical foliage often now forms che
vaux-de- frise and waves a gentle welcome
in the trade wind that here sweeps across
the island.
There is something almost pathetic in
the contempt In which these once dreaded
block houses are now held. Eight miles TO
the south of the railroad station is one that
has been seized upon by native famiiy.
Its watch tower has been torn down, and
around IL spreads an addition with
matched roof, the whole forming modern
Cuban residence of some local pretension,
while at little less distance in the other
direction an American settler has built q
neat and attractive cottage. and uses the
block house as a bath room. He has a
windmill, and has piped his water TO the
block house. where. each morning, stand
| ing upon a cement floor. he fmpudently
takes his matutinal shower, careless OF the
structures early history, Some OF the
larger block houses are now used by the
farmers along the old trocha line as store
houses for various commodities.
Agriculture and Rebellion.
little instance showing the suspicious
and excitable nature of the Cubans, and
also the completeness In which the arts
of peace have succeeded the turmoil OF
war In that once torn and troubled coun-
try. comes to nay mind 1t happened dur
ing my stay In Cuba last winter, and has
a distinctly farcical value worthy of being
Incorporated in a typical Cuban operetta.
General Jose Miguel Gomez, as hand
some and dashing a captain as ever d.
rected a company during the time of the
war, was then turning his attention to the
conquest of the soil as the administrator
of q great estate along the trocha Now
Gomez is a brilliant man of immense per-
sonal magnetism, and the Idol of the COM
mon people.
1t was he. you Will remember, who was
the liberal candidate for the presidency
against Palma last December and when
he withdrew and retired to devote his full
and capable energy to commercial life
there WAS liluEf uiScOnteuI on the part or
his partisans and feeling Of suspicion
on the part of his opponents that his re-
tirement to the trocha district was not as
innocent In intent as it seemed.
So when poor Gomez, guileleSs of any
political aspirations, had accomplished the
stupendous undertaking OF clearing 1900
acres of jungle in thirty days. feat
which, in point OF time. has never before
been approached--and was, with his thou
sand laborers engaged In burning away
the underbrush. word was receive at
Havana that Gomez was heading an fnsur-
reetion and with men armed with ma