New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-07-06

Cruz, steamed into Pensacola harbor
the other day. was this:
WELT was the editor Of one Of
the Pensacola papers, VINO had come
out with the Quarantine doctor sup
pose our boys are dying down there OF
disease ! told him they we're not,
and that so far as mere heat was cop
cerned 1t seemed quite "a hot or hotter
in Pensacola than it had been IN
Mexico.
Many others have made similar re-
marks. seemed astonished tina: one WAS
not suffering from some tropical fever,
asked whether the army could get
through the summer down there az
Vera Cruz
do not know just what may maze
been printed here. but one gets the
notion that decidedly inaccurate n
preston has gone abroad. both OF gen
ersl conditions in Vera Cruz and the
actual health Of our soldiers. For the
benefit OF those at least who may have
relatives or friends with the army 10
seems worth while TO repeat the actual
facts and correct some very general
misconceptions Of the nearby tropics.
Vera Cruz is. in the first place, one
n the most healthful towns in Mexico.
days before 10 was thoroughly cleared
up. under the supervision OF well
trained Mexican physician. some ten or
twelve years ago. It's streets are we'll
paved the principal ones With asphalt
and they were kept clean even before
the American took charge; 10 IS well
drained. has plenty OF good water and
few mosquitoes. There IS no yellow
fever, and in the city itself little ma
laris.
The "Tlot Country"
Il lies, 10 be sure, in the tirrrG
cdiierte. or not country as contrasted
with the cool highlands in which most
of the large Mexican cities are stu
sted and in the hot country malaria
is endemic. But life amid the rank
vegetation of banana or sugar planta-
ton and IN seashore town in tie
same latitude may be as il is in NeiG
Cruz very different, different as life
in Panama City differs from life in the
bush" few miles outside the Canal
Zone.
Most OF our northern congratulations
about the climate of the countries along
the Caribbean are indeed, inaccurate.
OF course. the tropical sun has a pene-
lTdAiU6 AudliiF AIfuONl III tilf +NbA III.
II will bore through the ordinary straw
hat like a corkscrew. You dodge it
instinctively just as you would dodge
rain or a blow. and cling 10 the shady
side Of the street as II "snipers' were
watching the sunny side from their op-
posIte roofs.
There are occupations, like banana
growing. which can be carried on My
in hot and unhealthy ghborhoods,
and the unbrOkcn warmth and humid
,ty Of the tropics everywhere gradually
take the starch out Of the white man.
however comfortable he may be. His
blood thins. and in time. If he does not
20 North for a change. he loses strength
and efficiency. And. Of course, various
diseases are endemic which are intre-
quent in the temperate zones. Yet the
suffering" from heat common 70 ou-
Northern city summers IS wherever
people live at all-almost unknown.
The average coffee planter in any Of
the neighborhoods from Mexico down
10 Brazil would throw up his hands at
dog-day temperature IN New YORK.
Summer in Central America" sounds
like a furnace. yet except IN the low
land belt along either coast, where few
live. il means what the geographers
The vertical sun is more penetrating
than ours. but the thermometer re-
mains surprisingly low. In San Jose,
the pretty little capital Of Costa Rlca
"a city typical OF the beautiful high
land neighborhood where most Central
Americans. like most MeXicans, live
the thermometer. in July or August,
rarely rises more than a degree or two
abou- ~ 20 the daytime, and az night
IT, generally falls two or three degrees
5ec..
Moreover. people who live in the
tro3ic. respect the sun. They arrange
tneIr houses and living TO keep away
from D.. lust as sailors arrange 20 keep
out Of the ocean. was particularly
impressed with this during our frs.
few hours a Pensacola.
Comfort in Vera Cruz.
In the little Vera Cruz hotel where
| had been stopping a place untre-
ouented by tourists. and not yet spoiled
by American improvements the bed
room had a tiled floor which little
Indian girl washed every morning.
There was no upholstery of any kind.
or picturcs or curtains. and the bed
was merely a woven wire spring over
which a couple Of quilts we're laid with
sheets on top.
The room itself must have been
nearly fifteen feet high and .here were
two French windows with wooden shut
tiers opening on balcony. These shut
ters were closed during the daytime,
and when they were opened az night
the breeze which we had every even
ing az Vera Cruz blew in hard enough
20 roll the blankets Off the bed.
As 10 is now the rainy season, Il
practically always rains in the late
afternoon or evening. cooling the hot
roofs and pavements, and with these
tall windows open, the bed in front OF
them and the inside door 70 the patio
ajar, it Jas always cool, and now and
then almost cold.
From this-but for a few nights
under the stars on the deck of the
Mississippi stepped into what the
clerk no doubt regarded as a very SUI
perior room in Pensacola's superior
hotel.
Pensacola belongs TO the new"
South. Cement sidewalks have pushed
far out into the sand fats along the
Gulf shore. and in the centre Of the
have succeeded in restraining IS