The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-01-27
POPULACE IS LITTLE
CONCERNED IN AFFAIRS
Natives Care More for Lotteries and
Cock Fights Than They do for Their
lndependence-Sports Have Been
Banished.

Havana, January 27-Tomorrow at
noon Major-General Jose Gomez, vet
eran of the revolution against Spain,
Will be inaugurated as president of
the Cuban republic, and Alfredo
Zayas will assume the vice-presi-
dency. Governor Magoon, who has
been the real ruler of Cuba during the
American Intervention, will promul-
gate a decree declaring re-establish-
ed the ordinary methods and agencies
of government and turning over the
island to President Gomez and the
Cuban congress. Thus the people of
the gorgeous isle will take over the
management of their own govern
mental affairs for the second time un-
der American auspices.
The inaugural ceremonies will take
place in the palace and will be at
tended by diplomatic representatives
and special ENJOYS from all countries.
1t will be magnificent affair, attend
ed by much pomp and circumstance,
and accompanied by vertiable orgy
of enthusiastic revelry on the part of
the freed and independent populace.
But the populace, it must be admit
ted, cares not so much for political
independence as it does for the lot
teries, the cooking mains and the bull
fights that are promised under the
new regime. These sports and pas
times, dear to the heart of every
Cuban, were at least nominally ban
ished by the Puritan edicts of the
American invaders, but the Liberal
party, which controls the executive
and legislative branches of the new
government, has promised that bills
establishing the legality of cock fight
ing and ihauguratlng a national lot
terry will be among the first intre-
duced.
The only kind of warfare that is to
have attention now is that Of the cock
and bull rings. The cock and the
plough were and are the emblems of
the Liberal party. During the cam
paign they were extensively displayed
as miniature toys and worn as sym
bols; now the game rooster is cock
of the walk in the truest sense. Eery
day one sees men and boys going
about the streets and in the cars car
ing a couple of the gorgeous plum
aged little fowls that make, for the
Cubans, their great native sport. The
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals, which, in the island is
called the Humane Society, and the
Band of Mercy, has tried to interfere
and prevent these fights, at least
while the American government that
forbade them is still here. These hui
manitarians hold that the influence
of cock fight on the sightseer is as
brutalizing as that of bull fight
Cock fighting, as it is practised in
Cuba, is an altogether different sport
from the comparatively tame and hui
name pastime Of American cooking
mains. In the first place. the fowl Is
plucked of his feathers, and his body
is brilliantly painted. OF course, he
starts into the ring enraged. AROUND
his claws are fastened, with fine, deli
cately-made, but strong steel springs
the formidable spurs that are to teal
at his atagonist. Both cocks are
equipped the same way; they hayt
equal chance at each other, and Otter
neither dies, but both just fight til
exhausted and drop in the ring. TheI
the managers" take up the manglet
bodies, rub them with alcohol, pou
drops of brandy down their throat
and when they are revived enough
to be maddened with pain, set them a
each other again. If in the end, if an!
ray of life is left, they are CAREFUL!
nursed back to strength. and made
ready for the ring another time.
1t is authoritatively asserted tina
Gen. Gomez intends to restore tn,
legality of cock fighting. Indeed,
is practically restored now, for gamel
are held every week Bull fights are
also promised, but some think these