Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1934-02-22
WILLOW Man Tells
Of Havana, Cuba
In His OlUn Words

]. r. Stanton, Willow River
merchant, left about the middle
of January on a 30-day trip into
the southland which took him to
Cuba, through the Panama canal
to the Pacific ocean and to Hon.
duras and Nicaragua. Many in
teresting things were seen by Mr..
Stanton, which he tells something
about in the following letter writ
ten upon his return:
/ thought it might interest you to
hear of Cuba as l saw it. We were
called at o'clock in the morning
and upon getting on deck found we
were just taking on harbor pilot to
enter Havana harbor. The entrance
to Havana is an impressive sight with
the City of Havana on one side, city
larger than St. Paul and Minneapolis
put together-over 100000 people, and
the ancient fortress and MORO Castle
on the other. Then as you get into
the harbor you pass ships such as you
never imagined, freight ships from all
over the world and queer looking sail
ing ships; also the impressive sight
of the U. S. battleship Wyoming, and
two U. S. destroyers anchored, facing
the City of Havana in about the loca-
ton of the battleship, Maine, when it
was destroyed. (They have beautiful
monument erected on the water front
as a memorial of the Maine.)
Ashore I'm Cuba.
As our ship went on through the
harbor the customs officers and doc
tors came aboard to examine us and
look over our papers, and after find
ing us o. K. issued a shore pass
which we were to carry with us at
all times on shore.
i was fortunate in the fact that at
my table on ship l had a man who
had charge of all municipal equip
Canal Zone, Panama: contractor
who had been employed there four
years and a Cuban medical student
who had been in school in the United
States until the Cuban University had
been reopened since this last revolu-
ton. They could all speak good
Spanish, the language used in Cuba,
and the young Cuban doctor (Senor
Gomez seeing to it that | was we'll
entertained while visiting in his city.
We took a taXicab up town and |
found they charged tourists Csc to
soc when the regular rate for Gu
ban was only 10c. l was first intro
duced to a druggist who showed me
through his store and then leaving
the store in care of his clerk, took me
out and through the business district
of the city.
There were signs of the revolution
to be seen everywhere, such as broken
windows and bullet holes through the
walls. The stores, owned by Amer
lean interests, seemed to fare the
worst. / remember in particular
Woolworth's 5 and 10c store did not
have window left and the building
was badly battered. 1t was then
guarded by Cuban soldiers being sta
toned about it with rifles for pro-
lection, but was doing business.
There was certain class who.
when they saw that l was an Amer
| lean, would stick their tongues out at
me. Then there was better edu-
Gated class who feel a great respect
and appreciation to the American
people.
The U. S. government had shown
good judgment in that they had three
battleships there and any American
could go on board for protection, but
aside from that they did not allow any
sailors or marines to go ashore or
take any part in the local trouble,
which was wise.
Wealth is Evident.
One thing that impressed me was
the two extremes in Havana. l never
saw greater wealth than in some of
the homes which l was in. They had
marble stair cases, alabaster lamp
shades, tiled bathroom for each bed
room, massive carved mahogany fur
niture, gorgeous tapestries and gold
freScO. Then there was their WON
derful capitol building; the most
wonderful building l ever saw, built
of wonderful marble, alabaster, gold
and heavy carved mahogany wood
work and rich tapestries with bronze
doors weighing five tons to the pair.
Also perfect diamond as large as
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