The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-02-09


their studies; on our return to town
we met the swarms of children re-
turning home at the noon recess, and
enjoyed looking at them Most OF
them were Porto Ricans. but many
were pure negroes, or seemed to be.
Others We're almost white; a mixture
Of Porto Rican and white blood. In
color, the Porto Ricans resemble our
INDIANS, but they are generally quite
small, quick and nervous. The Porto
R1can women are generally of the
Spanish type. and have gentle dainty
ways, and olive complexions
AS we walked about the old portion
OF the city. We were much interested
IN the fact that in San Juan, Thursday
seems to be wash day. Every other
door open into a court. providing en-
trance to dozens of houses. Looking
into these. we saw hundreds of wo-
men doing the family washing; every
court looked like huge hand laundry.
Little brown children played about,
and, if we stopped to admire the scene,
mothers brought their babies to the
door, that We might admire them. This
was in the old part of the town, on
a hill overlooking the sea and Moro cas-
tie. People marry very young here.
and many of the mothers who saw did
not seem to be 20 years old.
I talked with Wisconsin man to-
day who came to the island six years
agO, and engaged in pineapple grow
ing. He says pineapples begin paying
the second year. and that his average
net income from ten acres is 800 per
acre. The Wisconsin man is a BOOM
er, and certainly he didn't underesti-
mate the return from pineapple grow
ing. 1 was told that sugar cane grow
ing pays a net profit of $50 an acre,
and probably you should reduce that
estimate a little, too. The grower of
pineapples told me that he paid $50 an
acre for his land six years ago; now
wild land in his neighborhood is worth
$50 an acre. When land is N pineap-
pies. and producing. it is said to be
worth $3.50 an acre. Grape fruit pays
about as we'll as pineapples, and Or
anges are also profitable. Bananas are
not much grown here, except for home
consumption; the weather is not hot
enough. In summer, the people say, the
hundred, and never below 60 in win
ter.
In the near future, thousands of peo-
to engage in fruit growing, cane grow
ing, tobacco growing or stock raising.
The products of the island are deliv-
cred in New York in four days, and
that is = big advantage. Land is sell
ing at low prices. and living here is
cure in this American territory as in
any American state. and 1 see no rea-
son why Porto Rico should not have
a boom.
Coffee is grown here. The members
of the horticultural society who were
on board the ship this afternoon also
gave away many packages of Porto
Rican coffee, and it was served on
deck later by the ships servants. One
member of the horticultural society
told me that seven years ago, he
bought good coffee land at 81 an acre.
This land, he says. is now worth So an
acre. Land of this variety is being
bought up by Spectators.
The island of Porto Rico is eighty
miles long. and forty broad. San
Juan is situated on a slightly hill, and
back of it may be seen two ranges of
The scene from San Juan
harbOr is very attractive. | am in
formed that the good land of the is
land amounts to a strip forty miles
long and eight miles wide, but that
many of the mountain sides will sue
grow coffee. Many of the
largest buildings in San Juan are
cigar factories, and members of the
horticultural society say that much
Of the tobacco sold as Havana is
really tobacco grown in Porto Rico.
The mountains in Porto Rico are
wind breaks. a boomer in
formed me, and the natural advan-
tages" story told here by the boomers
is very interesting one.
1 saw good many copies of a pa
per called The Times around San
Juan. 1t is two-thirds Spanish, and
one-third English, and contains no
telegraph news I bought a copy,
and exhausted it in minutes ex-
animation.
There are more than thousand
miles of macadam road on the island,
the military road from San Juan to
Ponce, eighty miles, being famous be-
cause Theodore Roosevelt admired it.
by railroad, and extensions are being
built. The highlands grow coffee
Ceven to the hill tops" the boomers
say). and the valleys produce the
other crops. Cocoanuts grow every
where on the island, and it is estimat-
ed that cocoanut tree will pay a
profit of 81 year, without attention
More than hundred thousand
acres are now planted to sugar cane
in Porto Rico. L quote here the
statement of a boomer: Twenty
acres in grape fruit trees six years
old will support family. and enable
it to sport an automobile and have
butter on it's bread" Nearly a hun
dred thousand children are housed in
modern school buildings on the is
land, which has a population of about
one million, making it the most
densely populated of the West Indies.
The houses of San Juan are of
style, with grilled windows
and open on patio in the centre.
(Chart.-Patio means a court) With
its gayly colored houses and battle
ments San Juan suggests Algiers On
the Atlantic shore, a massive wall
MORO castle with Castle
Christobal, which faces the ocean.
These fortifications were planned in
the seventeenth century. Some of
the stone walls enclosing the city. and
which are as prominent as MORO
and Christobal forts from the harbor.
are one hundred feet high, and grey
with age, contrasting strangely with
the more modern edif1ces had
rather a contemplate opinion of San