Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-17
SPONGE FLEET AT KY WEST

great size here-perfect forests of bananas
and guavas are seen everywhere.
The city resembled Havana in it's pic
turesque villas, Nesting in the shade of
palms. mangoes. and scores of other
tropical growths. which gave grateful
shade to it's citizens. The wide. pleasant
streets, for the most part laid out at
right angles, were as smooth and hard
as adamant before the hurricane. The
houses were built as they are in hot
lower porches. and almost all wooden.
except the United States government
buildings the telegraph office and few
private residences, which are of brick.
The city and it's people are we'll worth
studying for the majority of the popula-
ton consists Of white and colored Gu
bans. this being for them place Of ref
uge and center of propaganda for those
expelled from the Spanish Antilles. A
large proportion Of the inhabitants are
natives and their descendants of the
Bahama Islands. They are hardy and
adventurous race, remarkable for their
skill in diving. In the streets and in the
business houses one hears Spanish spok-
en-, or a patois of that tongue, and sees
Swarthy faces and dark eyes. Over more
than half the shops were Spanish names
and the Cuban flag. Signboards in Spanish
told where the barber shop was located,
or where to buy coral ornaments.
The homes. or rather the wrecks OF
them and customs are largely Cuban;
the interiors were furnished in cuban
style, and the hours for meals the same
as in Havana. The milkman drove MS
cows from door to door, stopping to milk
them for pints' or quarts. as his customers
desired. On Sunday afternoons the Cubans
invariably held cock fights, after having
attended church first. and In many IN
stances carried their fighting cocks with
them in bag. leaving them outside the
church doors. But as this did not al
ways insure safety. as some OF the best
and most valuable of the fowls frequently
disappeared, the more daring ana ven ven
turesome would slip theirs into the sacred
edifice, hiding them under their seats
The social. political and business as
poets OF Key West were overwheiminsiy
Cuban, with the city's wealth centered
in their hands.
Unlike many of our American cities, Key
West has a history and its name mean
ing 1t is a common error for people 10
imagine that the name has something 20
do with the geographical position OF the
island: on the contrary, it is corruption
of Cayo Hueso (Bone reeD), and was so
called because the Indians OF the coast IS
lands and those Of the mainland were OF
different tribes and constantly ngntlhS.
The island men having been driven from
one KEY to another by the more powerful
Coloosa and Muspa tribes of the main
land finally made desperate stand here;
but it was of no avail. and their bones
were left to whiten on the sands anu
give a name to the Key. A 1e" SURVIVORS
escaped to Cuba.
The remains Of earthworks, stone walls,
potsherds, etc, and the abundance OF
human as we'll as animal bones on this
and on some Of the neighboring isles
show indications that the place was well
known to the pirates and efreebooters or
the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, Indeed, they had not wholly
disappeared when Florida passed into the
possession of the United States. The Is
land had been granted by Spain to Juan
P. Salas, in recognition of military serv-
ices. and the patent was confirmed oy
the United States. Later it became the
property of John Simonton of Mobile. VINO
purchased it for the sum of $1,000.
The first American settlement IN Key
West was made by Connecticut yam
KEGS. who came south about the year
1920, to take advantage of the excellent
fishing and turtling. for which the place
had become famous. Ihey erscteo
rough shelters here and there ana re-
turned each year for a fresh cargo OF
green sea turtles and fish, In 1875 I'M
migration set in from the Banana IS
lands, principally spongers and wreck
ORG And from the time the first Amer