The New York herald., 1921-02-20
Reviewed by AURA WooDIN.

Reviewed by AURA WOODlN.
DR.. Willis Fletcher Johnson, like
Macaulay, whose style his own so fe-
licitously resembles, may "cheerfully
bear the reproach Of having descended
below the dignity of history" History
has commonly been regarded as dry
and proliX mental pabulum. This rec
ord reads like a romance of the most
fascinating sort. But if one tells the
truth about Cuba it is impossible to
write other than romantically. Its in
habitants, who are essentially of
race spectacular-La emotional.
exotic. indolenS charming, physically
handsome-are a people in whom it is
difficult not TO be interested; people
who dwell in an atmosphere of color
full glamour in an existence which
seems to us as we behold 1t the veri-
smilitude of phantasm, uprooted from
Spain and Morocco, transplanted into
semi-tropical dream isle and now
gayly grated upon sober, Puritani-
cal American patriotic tree like an
orchid upon an oak
Picture the lovely Dona Ysabel
maintaining her daily vigil for the
lover husband who lay buried far be-
meath the waters of the rolling Missis-
sippi. from the picturesque tower of
the Castillo de la Fuerza, which to-
day takes note,of each American tour
ist who enters the harbor of tumultu-
Gus coloring-La Habana. Whether
perused by a schoolboy immersed in
the adventures of fernando de Soto,
or by the man in Wall Street who
seeks authentic information for busi-
ness purposes, or by the politician in
Washington disentangling the Cuban
threads woven into the fibre of the
foreign policies of the United States
not a page but grips. and never yields.
the attention.
The old histories yielded some
quaint, true touches. Jan Huygens
van Linschoten, a young Dutchman
with an itching foot, who set sail for
Spain and landed eventually in Cuba
with a fleet of five vessels in 1888.
says: Cuba is a very large island be-
longing to the Antille group, first dis
covered by Christopher Colomb in 1492,
and called by him Jeanne ct Ferdinand
and also Alpha and Omega. {.
This island has long been considered
part of the continent on account of its
size. of which one ought not to be sur
prised, for the inhabitants themselves
seem not to know its limit and space,
and since the arrival of the Spaniards
they knew no better.
"The ground is rough and hilly.
There are small rivers. the good wa
ters of which carry gold and copper.
The forests contain wild boars. .
Two notable things we're remarked on
this island---one a valley between two
mountains, where you find boulders by
nature so round that they serve
as ballast for several ships the other
a mountain from which there is con-
slant flow of pitch to the coast wher-
ever the wind may divert it. The resi-
dents and Spaniards use this pitch to
tar their vessels. Both men and
women go about naked. The men
can for the ightest cause abandon
the women but the wives cannot for
any reason whatsoever desert their
husbands. The men are very incon-
stant and lead bad life. The soil pro-
duces big worms and serpents or
snakes that are not poisonous, so the
people eat them without danger. And
these snakes feed on certain little ami
mails called Guaniniquinazes, of which
sometimes seven or eight are found in
their stomach, although they are as
big as hares, resembling n fox, the head