Evening star., 1925-04-27
BY GIDEON A. LYON.
III,

B IL.
Several strikingly descriptive names
have been bestowed upon Porto Rico
and have become part of the common
speech of those islanders who take
pride in their homeland and seek to
express 1t in set terms. For example,
it has been called The Riviera of the
West" and truly its shores and its
coloring and it's heights justify the
title. Again. it has been styled THE
Switzerland of America" a phrase ap-
piled by Theodore Roosevelt, whose
enthusiasm for Porto Rico taxed his
ready vocabulary for Interpretation.
1t is a veritable Switzerland for COM
parative altitude, though, of course, it
lacks the snow that marks Europe s
playground. Its mountains are not
%immense in area or in altitude, but
they are, nevertheless, impressive in
their relative height and their sudden
changes of form and their surprises.
To the flrSt-comer Porto Rico is as
tonishing in it's variety of scenery.
On the large scale map OF the West
Indies it appears as a comparatively
small space. an oblong island that
promises little in the way of variety
of aspect. Actually it is about two
thirds the area of the State of Con-
necticut. That will give a fairly sug-
gestfve basis of comparison. 1t is
about 100 miles long and 80 miles wide.
To the lover Of motor speed those fig
ures suggest that the island can be
thoroughly done" in a day That is
an error soon to be corrected when the
tourist undertakes to cover the space
within a narrow time limit. He will
ind that, although of excellent quality,
smooth surfaced and broad, the roads
siWind tortuously and climb steeply, and
hat fast driving is perilouS and at
kimes impossible
Haste Is Foolish.
Foolish indeed is the sightseer who
3<f'ies to do everything in Porto Rico
#$ 1orth doing in the brief time that
lapses between the landing of the
reamer and her departure two or
Whree days later. He may rush about
Yrom San Juan to Ponce and back. and
ION his return say that he has thor
oughly exhausted the scenic possibili-
ties of the island. He may have made
the grand tour" around the entire
rim or the more customary tour from
the capital across the divide to Ponce
by the old Spanish military road,
thence to Mayaguez, the most west
erly city, and back to San Juan by
the northern route. That will take
two days, crowded to the full with
hasty adventure.
But even the two-day tour leaves
practically all of Porto Rico undis-
covered-that Is, the real Porto Rico,
industrial, agricultural and social. For
there are several Porto Ricos, and it
is hard to say which is the most in
teresting. The hasty traveller will see
the huts of the jibaros in the hills
tiny thatched or tin-roofed cabins on
stills, with plenty Of children playing
about in the spaces in front-or he
will see the jibaro himself trudging
along the road or at work in the
fields. But he will not get to know
the jibaro at all by these glimpses.
And the jibaro is we'll worth knowing.
1 will later present him to my readers.
Stretches of Hills.
The swiftly motoring tourist will see
great stretches of hill country, appar-
entity forested to the crests, and will
not know, unless we'll guided, that
those seemingly untitled valleys and
slopes are productive of great riches
in coffee, tobacco, pineapples, bananas.
oranges, grapefruit and sugar cane.
He will perhaps comment upon the
apparently waste lands that border
the roads, fields that seem to have
gone to weeds. He will not know that
those are resting lands, turned to
pasture for season or two after in
tensive sugar cropping or tobacco cul-
ture.
The marvel of Porto Rico is the fact
that it Is working hard to the limit of
the soil and the strength of a popula-
ton until few years ago sadly de-
bleted by disease of a mysterious, baf-
fling nature. The hills today bear no
tokens of disasters that have befaIlen
the island in the form of terrific hurri-
canes, such as that of &c years ago,
which nearly bankrupted Porto Rico.
Recovery is swift here, for nature is
prodigal with her forces.
New Schools Going Up.
The whizzing motor car. bearing it's
group of hurried travellers, rushes
past an apparently futile pile of build
ing material, remote from a settle
ment. Men are engaged in doing
things, but before the scheme of the
project can be discerned the car has
passed, and those within 1t are un-
aware that here is one more of the
evidences of the foundation building
that has been in progress in Porto
Rico for quarter of a century-a
new rural schoolhouse, consolidating
g. number of tiny schools scattered
along the road or in the hills, where
the youngsters are learning their les
sons, including English. Theses news
schools are arising in the most unex-
6pected places. To the average CONT
mental tourist they would seem to be
badly placed, for they are not near
any large towns. But it is always to
be borne in mind that Porto Rico is
little else than one great town, so
closely it is inhabited.
Then the motor car swings around
q bend in the road. one of the many
hundreds of bends that are to be nego-
tiated in the course of a days driv-
ing, and the scene changes in the
twinkling of an eye from pastoral to
mountainous. The valley dips deeply
to a great distance, and the vision
sweeps far ahead to not merely one
but two, or perhaps three, ranges of
high hills beyond. Half an hour ear.
lier the road was within eyeshot of
the sea, the Atlantic or the Caribbean.
Now 1t is as though this were the CEN
ter of a great continent, many hun
dreds of miles from the ocean. 1t is
hard to realize that just over that last
ridge just crossed lies the waterway
to the far-distant mainland.
Color I'm Profusion.
Color lies on the landscape in prodf-
gal profusion. The hills are green.
brown, yellow, lavender and purple,
according to crops and to distance
The roadside is a Kaleidoscope of the
brightest tints. F'lowering shrubs
adorn the dooryard of the humblest
nut. No roadside dweller lacks some
bit of brightness in his premises.
often the front garden of a cane-field
worker, whose children are tumblin2
about in the dirt, with only the cloth
ing provided by nature, will have a
botanic variety that would do credit
to the most particular urban horticul-
turist. There will be a bunch of cro-