The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1906-10-19
WASHINGTON LETTER.

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to Washington, when the Cabinet will
be complete and he will doubtless have
some interesting and funny things to tell
about the Cuban revolution. What an
absurd affair it was and is after all Gil
bert and Sullivan never collaborated in
opera bouffe that could compare in high
strung absurdity with the ridiculous actu
alites of recent Cuban history. The
genial Secretary of War doubtless had an
amusing experience in his role of peace
maker but it is doubtful if he was sur
prised at anything he saw or heard or
smelled or tasted in Cuba. He became
acquainted with wild and infantile ''half
devil and half child" people during his
residence in the Philippines. The event
shows:that the Secretary was not slow in
measuring the personnel of the Island,
whether they call themselves Moderates
or Liberals, and that he played his part
with mock seriousness and treated with
the bandit patriots mounted on stolen
horses and mules and armed with obsolete
guns as though thew were the real thing
Your correspondent has resided in Cuba
and is more or less familiar with the
Cuban as soldier, patriot or statesman.
To admire them or trust them one must
know them but slightly. They do not
improve on acquaintance and those must
be hopeful indeed who can believe that
they will ever be fit for or capable of self.
government. On the surface there may
have been improvements in the admins
tration of affairs in the Island, but as
matter of fact there is not and has not
been much change from the time when
the policemen pursued by day that peace
able calling and by night were the bold
est of thieves and burglars, robbing the
houses which they guarded during the
day light and with which their occupa-
ton gave them great familiarity. If there
are any statesmen in the Island who are
honest there are few who are not ridicu-
lous and rarely does stage in the theater
present a more absurd spectacle than
did Cuban Congress during one of its
sessions. The members with their waxed
mustaches, oiled hair, powdered faces
and corseted figures posed for the benefit
of .the gallery visitors among which
Cuban bellies were in the majority. When
a speech was delivered on the floor of the
chamber great enthusiasm was displayed
at every flowing period in which the
country was called the Pearl of the An,
titles" or the Land OF sun and flowers"
and great apathy when questions OF
6naEce and government were discussed.
Apparently incapable of being serious in
anything but frivolity the Cubans are
never grave except in pettiness. To ride
in street parade throwing paper confetti
at their friends and neighbors affords
them never failing excitement and delight
for the four weeks of Lent each year. In
their opinion they owe the Americans
two heartfelt grudges and these are the
adjustment of bull fighting and of re,
moving the evil smelling, dirt secreting
microbe breeding, mosquito infested
palms aud plants from the public squares.
To hear Cuban resent these reforms
made during American occupation would
be to suppose that the Americans had
murdered the first born of all the families
or sold all the virgins into slavery or
been guilty of some other unspeakable
crime. Their dislike of Americans is no
less intense than their hatred of the
Spanish. That Senior Palma who had
been educated in the United States ana
absorbed some ideals from his associa-
tons here was heartily tired of his job
among his fatuous people no one can
doubt who knows them. The Cubans
have no patriotism or love of country and
the revolutionists were nothing more than
a crowd of disappointed grafters, just as
the moderates were for the most part
arrogant bureaucratic Office holders
ganzed so as to permit every grown man
on the Island to be President, and all at
the same time and for life and with free
entree to the public treasury, there will
always be discomfort, riot and revolution
1t is more than possible that before this
Cuban business is finished some one is
going to be pretty heavily sat upon, either
by Secretary Taft or Governor Magoon OF
both of them, and considering the weight
} of these personages the experience will
not be pleasant for the victim. The oh
streperous little game.cocks calling them
selves colonies and generals of the liberal
army are entirely too much in evidence
in Cuba. 1t is these that the American
rulers will sooner or later be called upon
to quell. Since the campaign in the field