Porto Rico Part 6

"The show at the theatre that day, by the way, was given by an American troupe that has been touring the Indies.

"There is, of course, nothing new in the custom in Catholic countries of giving Sunday mornings to church and Sunday afternoons to pleasure. In Ponce the merchants are not willing to close their stores for the religious observances of the day, but hold that it would be wholly wrong to mar the hours of pleasure by business attentions. The stores are all open Sunday mornings as on other days, but shut tight Sunday afternoons.

Vesper services are all but unknown. There may be a change regarding services presently. The priests have not been paid since the arrival of the American army. It was the Spanish custom to pay them from the customs receipts. Colonel Hill has refused to give them any money since he has been in charge of the custom-house, and has told them that hereafter their people will have to support them voluntarily. What the people will say to this at the start it is hard to guess. They may not wholly understand it. Under existing laws they are taxed for the support of the church. What their voluntary support of it will be remains to be seen. Protestants have almost a clear field for mission work here. The only Protestant church on the island is at Ponce, and that was opened on the Sunday after the Americans' arrival, for the first time, it is said, in ten years.

"The chief service at the cathedral is held at 9 o'clock Sunday mornings, ma.s.s being said hourly from 5 o'clock until then. At the 9 o'clock service many Americans drift in. Even the Catholics among the soldiers who have attended have appeared to drift in rather than go with the purpose of doing their devotions. It may be that there seemed something inconsistent in kneeling before the altar with a row of cartridges girded around the body. One man crept into the nave behind the seats, took off his cartridge belt and laid it beside him, and, kneeling, bowed his head very low, while he joined in the prayers. When the service was over he carried the war belt in his hand to the door and there stopped and buckled it on. Fifty yards from the door a company of the Nineteenth Infantry was encamped on guard duty in the princ.i.p.al public square, on one end of which the cathedral stands.

"While the services were going on late comers of the native congregation edged their way in at the rear doors, and, pa.s.sing round the screen beneath the choir loft, dropped to their knees on the marble floor, there remaining until the close. Noticeable among these wors.h.i.+ppers were the old and widowed and the very poor. The last recked little or not at all of the filthy floor, trailed with dirt and spotted with tobacco juice. Some of the others brought with them prayer rugs, even though they were but ragged strips of carpeting."

The same correspondent has also this to say about the shops, which is interesting:

"One of the things revealed by a shopping tour is the absence from the shops of anything distinctly characteristic of Porto Rico. The tourist has not made the island a favorite stopping place, and the people seem to prefer when buying anything not edible to buy foreign-made articles.

The only things that even bore a stamp indicative of Porto Rico found by several hunters after curios were fit relics of a Spanish city--case knives inscribed "Viva Ponce." Fortunate seekers after mementoes secured a few of the peculiar native musical instruments called guiros. It is straining courtesy as well as language to call them musical instruments, but they are used by the natives to make what to the natives is music, and one of them is included in each group of street or cafe musicians.

The instrument is a gourd shaped like some of our long-necked squashes, hollowed out through two vents cut in one side, and the surface over half the perimeter slashed or furrowed so as to offer a file-like resistance to a metal trident, which is sc.r.a.ped over it in time to the music made by the guitar, or whatever other instrument or instruments make up the orchestra. There are times when the result is suggestive of the couchee-couchee music and scratching."

For nearly three centuries slavery existed in Porto Rico, but it was finally abolished by the Spanish Cortes in March 1873.

The New York Herald in its special correspondence has much to say about the inhabitants that is of undoubted interest, and from this article we have culled considerable that follows. The article in question was written after the virtual surrender of Porto Rico.

These people have been accustomed to military rule all their lives, and to withdraw it in toto and tell them to go in and govern themselves is an experience which many regard as dangerous. Of a race excitable, with blood that courses quickly and with wrongs of many years' standing, the natives are intoxicated with their freedom. Their delirium has but one course--revenge--and when the entire population is fully awake to the opportunity offered there may come a break from all restraint, and then it may be shown that the depletion of our army was a blunder.

Without the menace of the Spanish soldiery, without the fear of the Church, and without the guiding hand of a good American officer and wisely-located American army of occupation, there may be trouble ahead.

With the going of the soldiers comes the influx of the mercantile cla.s.ses. Salesmen are arriving in large numbers and promoters and speculators abound. Everything is being boosted from its former lethargic tropical calm. Prices of commodities are rising. Land has quadrupled in value in the owners' minds, and even the street gamins now demand twenty-five cents American money for a single b.u.t.ton alleged to be cut from the coat of a Spanish soldier, which they formerly had trouble at disposing of at the rate of twelve and one-half cents per dozen.

These commercial avant couriers are bright, active 'hustlers,' who make the native nabobs gasp at their breezy ways, but, all the same, these nabobs are pretty shrewd persons and know how to buy closely.

There is one thing the native merchants have to learn, and that is to display their goods and wares. Not a single show window exists, and if some enterprising Yankee will just tear out the forbidding front of one of these business houses, replace it with one on the showcase style and set forth a dazzling array of merchandize, arranged by the deft hand of the artistic window decorator, there will be a revolution in trade in this place.

Another portion of the business life to be renovated is the sugar industry. The crudest system exists for the transformation of the juice of the cane into the saccharine crystals of commerce. Machinery so ponderous that it requires a volume of steam all out of proportion to the energy actually needed, and wasteful methods in the extraction of the syrup residue after crystallization, obtain. Yankee machinery, coupled with Yankee push, will cause a wonderful difference in the cost of the finished product.

"At the same time the manner of herding the hangs on these huge plantations must surely be changed. Such conditions exist in the quarters that a mere recital would be unprintable, and from an examination I made of the quarters of a very large estate I came away ill mentally and physically."

Members of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have a great field before them in this island. The inhabitants are the most cruel in their handling of beasts of burden and, in fact, of all living creatures below the grade of mankind that could be imagined.

Oxen and bulls furnish the princ.i.p.al means of merchandise transportation. They are yoked together with a huge horn rising upon the neck just back of the horns and held in place by bandages around the forehead. The driver carries a goad about five feet in length, in the end of which is inserted a sharp steel point about one inch long. This is used so freely that it is common to see streams of blood running down the sides of the poor maltreated beasts. Not satisfied with using the sharp end, the inhuman drivers frequently deliver terrific blows with the b.u.t.t across the tender noses of their charges.

Many an American soldier has knocked down these cruel drivers for their abuse of the patient beasts, but the drivers do not improve with the thras.h.i.+ng. The American military authorities have imported several American yokes and an effort is to be made to compel their use instead of the timber of torture which now obtains.

An author of the last century has this to say about the Porto Ricans:

"They are well proportioned and delicately organized; at the same time they lack vigor, are slow and indolent, possess vivid imaginations, are vain and inconstant, though hospitable to strangers, and ardent lovers of liberty."

Referring to the mixture of races, the same author continues:

"From this variety of mixture has resulted a character equivocal and ambiguous, but peculiarly Porto Rican. The heat of the climate has made them lazy, to which end also the fertility of the soil has conduced; the solitary life of the country residents has rendered them morose and disputatious."

A writer of more recent times declares that they are "affable, generous, hospitable to a fault, loyal to their sovereign, and will to the last gasp defend their island from invasion. The fair s.e.x are sweet and amiable, faithful as wives, loving as sisters, sweethearts and daughters, ornaments to any society, tasteful in dress, graceful in deportment, and elegant in carriage. In fact, visitors from old Spain have frequently remarked their resemblance to the _doncellas_ of Cadiz, who are world-renowned for their grace and loveliness."

"The truth is that they all have the Spanish _cortesia_," says Frederick A. Ober, in the Century Magazine, when commenting upon the above opinions, "and are more like the polite Andalusians of the south of Spain than the boorish Catalans of the northeast. Even the lowliest laborer, unless he be one of the four hundred thousand illiterates, signs his name with a _rubrica_, or elaborate flourish and styles himself 'Don,' after the manner of the Spanish grandees, and the humblest innkeeper, when receipting a bill, will admit he 'avails himself with intense pleasure of this occasion for offering to such a distinguished gentleman the a.s.surance of his most distinguished consideration!'

"This need not imply affectation, nor even insincerity, but merely a different conception of the social amenities from that of the all-conquering American, who, it is to be hoped, will not treat this foible with the contempt which, in his superior wisdom, he may think it merits."

CHAPTER VII.

THE DAWN OF FREEDOM.

When the United States declared war against Spain for the purpose of freeing Cuba from Spanish misrule under which she had suffered for so long, and also with the desire to avenge the dastardly blowing up of the Maine, but little or no thought was given to Porto Rico. That island was an unknown quant.i.ty, but still one which was destined to play a considerable part in the near future.

This was in the natural sequence of events. After the terrible havoc wrought by our navy at Manila and at Santiago de Cuba, attention was turned toward Porto Rico.

The feeling became widespread throughout the United States that the war would fail in its object if Spain were not driven from the possession of all her colonies in the West Indies. Even those who in the beginning thought that the war was unnecessary, gradually came round to this point of view. It was quite sure that the expulsion of Spain from the western hemisphere would prevent the provoking of another war of the same character, and this desirable result could not be achieved so long as Spanish rule was maintained in any part of the West Indies.

The demand for the freeing of Cuba, the possession of Porto Rico, as well as a protectorate over the Philippines, was just, and the nation demanded it.

The Boston Herald aptly remarked:

"This may well stand in the place of any exaction of money. The United States is much too rich to desire to compel money payment from an exhausted and practically beggared nationality. Such a course would be belittling the war in the eyes of the nations of the world, and it is not at all in accordance with ideas of our own national dignity. Here is the substantial concession of Spain, and it involves all and more than all for which the war was declared."

The invasion of Porto Rico was not commenced until after the result of the war had been definitely decided.

But the Spaniards with that unfailing belief in "manana" (to-morrow) behaved like true Orientals, as they are in part, and acted as if time gained was half-way toward victory. With scarcely an exception, they are all indolent and fatalists.

The prime minister, Senor Sagasta, put off everything with that word which has proved so fatal to Spain, which undoubtedly precipitated the war, and which was at the bottom of all Senor Sagasta's policy--"manana."

It is related that one day in the Cortes, a deputy criticized the idleness and indolence of Senor Sagasta, and the latter replied:

"_A nadie le ha sucedido nado por no hacer nada._"

A free translation of this is: "Nothing happens to him who does nothing."

Both Sagasta and the Spaniards have doubtless found out by this time the falsity of the saying. To show the feeling prevailing in Spain, it may be well to quote a Madrid corresponded of the London Times:

"Though peace is regarded as a.s.sured, it may not be attained so quickly as is generally expected. Senor Sagasta objects to be hustled, and insists upon everything being done in a quiet, orderly and dignified manner. He considers it necessary to have full and satisfactory explanations as to all doubtful points, in order to enable him best to protect the national interests against the aggressive tendencies of the Was.h.i.+ngton Cabinet.

"He has also to examine very minutely the exigencies of the internal situation and home politics, so as to avoid popular dissatisfaction and political unrest. The Spanish people, though sincerely desirous of peace, are disposed to admire this hesitancy and tenacious holding out till the last, although aware that it implies greater sacrifices.

"As an ill.u.s.tration of this feeling, while General Toral is blamed for capitulating at Santiago, Captain-General Augustin, in continuing a hopeless resistance at Manila, bids fair to be a popular hero."

About this time, before any attack by the Americans, Macias, captain-general of Porto Rico, discovered a conspiracy, which if it had not been quickly checked would have placed the island in a state of insurrection.

Eduardo Baselge and Danian Castillo, both prominent Porto Ricans, were active leaders in the incipient insurrection.

The Spanish postal authorities discovered the conspiracy through a letter written by Castillo to Baselga. General Macias was informed of this discovery, and a quiet investigation disclosed the fact that there were involved in it all of the most prominent residents of the city of San Juan, both native and foreign.