The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1914-05-07


to my environment, but arriving in
Cuba, | felt that my first need was a
straw hat. Noticing a sign over a hat
store 'Inglish Spoken" l entered and
found that they spoke English very
much in accordance with their ortho-
graphy. Finally after much waste of
conversation on both sides | invested
sl.25 in a straw hat which at home
would cost fifty cents. Just then a
man happened along who could talk
real United States and he kindly offer
ed his services as interpreter. l in
quired through him why the excess
charges. The shop keeper explained
with shoulders and hands that the hat
in question was an imported article
from the United States.
Santiago is the Oldest town in Cuba,
being founded in 1914. The harbor is
one of the finest in the island al
though hard to enter. The city slopes
sharply from the waters edge and is
built around a piazza designed ex-
clusively as a general hold-up ground
for tourists. Here we met advance
agents for more automobiles and more
carriages all willing to sacrifice gaso-
line and horse1esh in order that we
might view the b%attIefields at ten dol
lars. We hired a guide at this point
to act as interpreter and general infor-
nation purveyor. He was a little
jamaican about the color of a cup of
English Breakfast Tea. He charged
us $3.50 an hour and sold postcards on
the side to pay travelling expenses. He
guided us across the plaza to the Casa
Grande hotel where we became alb
sorbed in sending postal cards until
lunch time and it wasn't till after
lunch that we thought of our guide.
Possibly he has gone to dinner"
says Bill, but no such possibility. He
was waiting for us on the front steps
and but for the evidence of a town
clock overlooking the plaza he would
have overcharged us an extra hour,
just to make us feel familiar with the
ways of the country.
The battlefield where so much geo.
graphy was changed and so many
booms started was not such a much as
our guide books indicated. The most
interesting part was the silk cotton
tree where the surrender took place.
We acQuiesced in the good judgment
of Gen. Shafer in picking out a shady
spot in which to discuss the articles
of peace and we got right under. We
all admitted that in the grateful shade
of said cotton tree, with the trade
winds tanning our heated overhead
crossings that we at once felt a peace
that surpassed all understanding
while the tropical sun was pelting the
tops of u panamas.
1t was in Santiago that we hired an
interpreter to hire a carriage to take
us around at $3.50 for the first hour
and a dollar thereafter. After a long
powwOw which cost a quarter in tips
we started forth in the cool of the
evening to view the sights and hear
the sounds. Our driver was a native
S%painiard with a limited comprehen-
sion of even his " language. He
started in short circles, gradually
widening and it was soon evident that
this was a rae against time with re-
verse English. After a while we began
to take notice. Our boat left the next
day and we were anxious to inform
our driver to this effect. In the party
we managed to dig up American, Ital-
ian and several kinds of German con-
versation but not one word of Spanish.
We tried it all on the driver but mo
comprende" was the best he could
say, while he kept on driving. Finally
by making signs of drinking and shout
ing "acQua" which was the only name
for it we knew in Spanish we finally
prevailed on him to drive to the hotel.
And while it had taken us an hour to
come he managed to drive back in a
very few minutes. We managed to
find further use for him later and
when settling time came he managed
in very good English to nam a price
far above the previous agreement.
At this point another jamaican hap
pened along and having paid all that
we had agreed to, we gave the jana
clan a quarter to tell the driver in
Spanish just what we thought of him,
and If he ran out of Spanish we told
him to come back and we would sup
ply the rest in Dutch.
The ride back to the boat in Captain
DeWall's cutter manned by a black
crew clad in white duck is one of the
things I will always remember. Five
Fortune Island darkies, ~barefooted and
bare-chested, straining at the oars in
response to a ~proffered tip, their white
teeth cleaning in response to the COM
mand. "see what the yams and flying
fish have done for you" a perfect
tropical night. velvet darkness all