Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-12
A PICTURESQUE TRIP
Tropical Scenes Between Ha-
Vana and MatanzaS.
PALMS AND CANE FIELDS
Land Generally Leased on Shares to
Small Farmers.
HAPPINESS IN sQUALID HUTS
Shrine of the Church of Montserrat-
The Famous Yumuri Valley
The Belllnar Cave-.
BY WILLIAM II CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Ear and the Chicago
Record Herald.

| Record Herald.
| MATANZAS, Cuba, April I, 1907.
The railway journey from Havana. to the
| city of MatanZas. on the north coast of the
| island. is one of the most picturesque in
| America and is always recommended to
| tourists because it gives a continuous ex-
| hibition of tropical scenery for fifty-four
miles, which is made in about two hours
| and a half. On both sides of the track for
| the entire distance is a series of sugar
| plantations and avenues of royal palms,
which are considered the most beaueiful
| trees in the world. There is a difference
of opinion. however, on this subject. To
me an oak or an elm is MANIFOLD more
beautiful. but it must be admitted that the
royal palm is like the bird of paradise, the
most graceful and the most dainty of all
| trees.
| The cane fields are ripe just now and the
| harvest, Zafra, it is called, is being
| gathered by thousands of negroes, who cut
| the cane. strip it of it's leaves and throw it
| into enormous carts drawn by oxen to the
| railway stations. where it is transferred to
| cars which haul it to the sugar mills. On
| the larger estates are tiny narrow gauge
| railways, running in and out among the
cane fields TO the sugar mills. There are
said to be 800 miles of these plantation
! railways in Cuba. The mills are enormous
structures, with tall chimneys that throw
| out vast clouds of smoke and are enveloped
| in an odor of sugar and molasses that is
almost nauseating in its sweetness
Unusually Large Sugar Crop.
There is an unusually large crop of sugar
this year. The area planted to cane is said
to be greater than ever before but the
weight of the product, which is estimated
at 1252 502 tons for the entire island is not
so great as was expected, because the cane
does not contain the average amount of
Juice. This is due to the drought which
has been prevailing here all winter. This
is said to have been the driest season since
1863. and there is considerable suffering in
the interior On account of the lack OF
water both among men and beasts. Cuba
is not we'll watered. There are few rivers
and creeks, and although artesian wells
have been successful in several parts of
the island, the water underlying the soil is
| usually bracllsh and unpalatabe. Nearly
all the smaller towns depend upon rain
| water. which is caught from the roofs dur
| ing the rainy season and held in cisterns
until the dry months of the year.
The peculiar color of the soil in Cuba,
vivid red, like that in the highlands of
Georgia and along the Piedmont section of
| the South Atlantic states. adds much to the
| picturesqueness of the landscape. and fur
nisheS a striking contrast to the bright
green leaves of the palms. The redness of
the soil is due to the presence of iron and
other chemicals. which make 1t the richest
and the most productive in America. Three
crops of corn, potatoes and O.ner vegetables
NAV be raised anywhere, and cane field
is seldom replanted Sugar is practically
a perpetual crop and nobody ever thinks of
fertiiZng the fields, although tobacco
quireS a great deal of artificial fertilizer
and asSdUous cultivation.
Long professions of palms mark the boun-
daries of estates and different sections of
the same plantations. And they also serve
to shade the rOadWayS leading to the head
quarters of the great estates. No such
monumental col0nnades can be found any
where else in the world. and what strikes
one as peculiar is the absence of young
palms. All the trees seem TO be old and
full growing
You are disappointed in not seeing SPLEEN
did mansions. The headquarters of the
haciendas consist of groups of low and I'M
lovely buildings. surrounded by ugly walls,
but in this respect, as in many others, APP
pearances deccitful. The frequency of
Instructions and the cnterpriSing banditl
have made it necessary for planters to
protect themselves and their homes as Sc
curely as possible, and every hacienda is
a fortress, capable of being defended by
the retainers of the owner, who live with
him within the walls. Some of the larger
plantations are still maintained the old
feudal system, but many of them have
passed from private ownership into the
hands of corporations. and the former pro-
| prietOrs are living In Madrid Seville Paris
or perhaps New York, while Salaried adj
mnistrators reign i'll their stead The pa
tTIaTCHdl between the owner
and the tiller of the soil is rapidly passing
away.
Land Leased on Shares.
1t is customary to lease land on shares
to small farmers who are called colonos.
| They cultivate and cut and bring in the
| cane to be weighed in the rough and are
| given so much sugar its equivalent in
| money for every ton. These farmers live
| in the rudest sort of shacks allied bohios.
made OF palm leaves with mud floors exact
| ly like those that were occupied by the
| aborigines at the time of the discovery of
| America. You can scarcely imagine more
Comfortless dwellings or more primitive
| conditions, and vet if you will visit one of
| the palm matched villages on Sunday or on
a holiday, you will see some OF the prettiest
| women you ever admired, dressed in bril-
| liant colors and stiffiy starchef petticoats
Carrying their heads as high and fondling
| their fans as Coauettishly as the bellies
| of the Havana aristocracy.
Playing around every bohio is always a
| group of children as naked they were
! born. They play in the gun without hats
| or cover of any kind happy as the birds
| twittering in the foliage of the trees above
| them. No Cuban child is expected to wear
clothing until it is five six years old
| and after time one becomes accustomed
| to seeing naked babies in the laps of their
mothers in the railway trains or amusing
| themselves i'll the streets.
Favorite Resort for Visitors.
| Matanzas, as / have said, is the fayorite
resort for visitors to Cuba. You can go
UP from Havana and back in the same day
| by the United Railways in comforta bic ears
and personally conducted excursions start
| from the principal hotels at an early hour
| every morning. 1t is the first station of
| Importance on the road to Santiago, the
| capital Of one of the richest and most
| prosperous provinces. the horne of many
| rich planters, the seat OF the sugar in
| dustry. and is surrounded by one great
| canefield
| Matanzas IL also one of the neatest towns
| in Cuba, and one of the best types of a
l rich SpaniSh CITY I how