Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.) 1914-1995, 1937-02-09

patch again about customs OF the
Cubans and this time tells also OF the
| thriftiness of the Chinese settlement
! in the capital there. Her letter IN
| full follows:
Dear Mr.. Editor:
| 1t seems to me I have always loved
a holiday, and I am wondering II tnlS
fiesta" today has inspired me TO
write another letter to the folks at
home. First I want to say l feel
! somewhat flattered receiving my 1lrst
fan maiH' and perhaps that also
may be an incentive for this letter.
I recall a New York business woman
telling me that giving pleasure 10
others was a very selfish piece OF
business since the giver always de-
rived therefrom the greater pleasure.
And now to this fiesta.
Today, all schools, stores, banks and
public buildings are closed to honor
the Cuban patriot Jose Marti, the
apostle of liberty whose eighty-fourth
birthday occurs today. He is some
times called the George Washington
of Cuba, altho he was killed in ac-
ton before Cuba finally threw off the
shackles of the mother country Spain.
While only student in high. school
he was writing reflections of his love
for Liberty and at seventeen had found
ed two> newspapers as an outlet for
his sentiments along these same lines.
However these periodicals were of
short duration, since he felt he could
be of more active service out amongst
the people in his urge for Cuba indie
pendence.
Perhaps it was his youth, which
stands out so strongly, that is now so
appealing to the school boys and girls,
for essentially it is youth celebra-
ton. Thousands of school children
filed past the statute of Jose Marti,
each school carrying a floral offering
to deposit at the foot of the lone mon
ument in Poark Central. It was esti-
mated that $4,000 children required
three and a half hours to pass before
the statue and the official reviewing
stand, where the President of Cuba
and his official family greeted the
heads of the various schools of the
city. 1t seemed to me I never saw so
many nice looking boys all dressed in
navy blue, each class led by holy
father, and whom passed along the
Prado on my daily walk. I made no
attempt to get near the monument
Until next morning and the floral dis
plays were unusual in color and form,
a large harp Of turquoise blue chry
santhemums standing out in bold re-
lief. I think this about covers the
main points of the Fiesta" of the
apostle of liberty, Major General Jose
Marti, born Jan. %, 1853-died in &C
ton May 1895.
Perhaps I should add that General
Jose Marti's son, of the same name,
was guest Of the Rotary Club at it's
regular weekly meeting the day be-
fore. In one of my previous letters
I spoke of the Chinese population in
Cuba. There are approximately $4,000
Chinese inhabitants, as in every coun-
try they have their Chinatown. The
section is not as colorful as some
that I have seen, and while always
mysterious and ssecretive in appear
ance, I understand it is harder to
penetrate than the Chinese colony in
the larger cities of the United States.
The Chinese are thrifty, there seems
to be no such thing as depression for
them, they seem to be able to get
along on very little, if need be, and
such a thing as a Chinese beggar
have never seen, while at times the
city is flooded with the native beggars
who are not so fond of tilling the soil.
Some years ago I had read that the
Chinese had the best balanced diet of
any other nation, using more green
food and less meat. / think that most
of us have enormously heard that rice,
chop suey and chow mein were their
most famous dishes Here find that
were it not for the Chinese there
| would be little native green food
with which to balance the diet. Their
farms, called "fincas," in the Spanish,
are small in acreage, and here one
sees intensive farming to a superla-
tive degree. They have their own
system of irrigation, the planting is
done in rows of little mounds such as
we use for bleaching celery in the
States, thereby retaining much mofs-
ture and incidentally not a weed One
man will undertake to water the en-
tire and varied crop, in bare feet and
knee breaches he walks back and
forth along these rows with tho ire
mendous watering cans held high and
in the bright sunlight giving the eff
feet of sparkling fountain.
In all the various shades Of green
are rows upon rows of the finest let
tuce,' raddishes, leak, onions, parsley,
CELERY, potatoes, squash pumpkins
corn which is very small and inferior
to ours, and tomatoes which are all
pulled green and after one or two
days at the most, are read and delici-
.ously sweet There are quite few
native. Chinese plants with which I
am not familiar. Practically all the
green vegetables and native fruits are
sold in Chinese shops and the large
public Observation-Disclosures they are fast
encroaching upon the grocery stores
Their house on the "finca" is the ma
tive "bohio" or matched hat, which is
made entirely of bambo and is very
cool. They seem to have neither car
nor horse bat we frequently see them
tfudging along on foot, with their cart
OF green food and fruits into the city.
BESIDES the farming, the laundry
work done by the Chinese is a ire
mendous piece of business because of
the long summer and warm winters
men are clad mainly in white linen or
ho ~