Marian Minnie George

“ ANIMAL LIFE. When Columbus visited the West Indies, he was delighted by the beauty in and about them. "I know not," he said, "where first to go; nor are my eyes ever weary with gazing on the wonderful verdure. The singing of the birds is such as to make one wish never to depart." ”

“ Doors and window-shutters are closed, barred, and double locked, and the town looks as if it were deserted by all human beings. The state of suspense, while the hurricane lasts, is dreadful, for no one knows when the house may fall and bury all beneath its ruins. ”

“ CLIMATE—PERPETUAL JUNE. Puerto Rico is a very beautiful island. Its climate and scenery attract many visitors, and erelong it will be a popular winter resort for people from many countries.
It has been called the land of perpetual June. Flowers bloom and plants and trees yield fruit the year round. There is no winter; but during the season which is our winter, their skies are beautifully clear and blue.
The air is neither dry nor moist, but perfect. The nights are always cool, and the trade winds keep the hottest days from being unpleasant. The average temperature is only 80°. ”

“ No orchestra is complete without it, and one can hear the scratching of this instrument almost any time, at any home in Puerto Rico.
Sunday is a day not of rest, but of merry making. During the early morning hours the Puerto Ricans go to church. After church, they hurry away to the cockpit or to the bull ring in the suburbs of the town.
Very early in the morning we see numbers of roosters staked out by short strings to pegs driven in the sidewalks. These are the game-cocks which furnish to the Puerto Rican his favorite amusement and opportunity for gambling. ”

“ Too often the lonely little stranger in our midst—the foreigner—is viewed with heartless curiosity, or contempt, and subjected to ridicule. Patriotism to many a child means nothing more than a belief that our own country is the best, our own people the smartest, and that we can whip any and every other nation on the globe. ”

“ Each market man or woman has a place assigned, and within this space or in a booth are piled high heaps of fruits and vegetables. And such fruits and vegetables we never in our lives beheld or even dreamed of!
Heaps and heaps of golden, luscious oranges are offered us by the thousand, or two for a penny. Bananas are sold five for a cent, or a bunch of a hundred bananas for twenty-five cents. Think of it! In New York it would cost us three to five dollars. ”

“ They are six or seven inches long, of a pale, yellowish color, mottled with brown.
Instead of taking a morning bath in our rooms, we take a dip in the warm sea water. We find it hot, even very early in the morning; and as we walk to the shore in our bathing suits, we make a large palm leaf do duty as a sunshade.
When we dress for breakfast we examine our clothes very closely, for the centipedes have a disagreeable way of taking strolls over one's clothing and the bedding.
Our breakfast consists of turtle eggs, bread fruit, plantain and cocoanut milk. ”

“ Then the tired women rest under the trees, and chat, and perhaps smoke until evening. When the hot sun has gone down in the west, they make their damp and dry clothes up into huge bundles, lift them to their heads, and plod homeward. ”

“ Parts of the country away from the coasts are reached by bridle paths; but the roads outside the cities and towns are impassable during the rainy season. Sometimes there is only a bridle path or trail overgrown with tangled vegetation, and crossed by streams without bridges.
The means of transportation employed by the people are the pony carriage or surrey, the saddle horse, the ox-cart and the foot. The beast of burden is either the donkey or the pony. These animals are employed to carry goods in packs over the trails, in place of using the wagon. ”

“ Children in Puerto Rico sleep on the floor or in a hammock, and they eat whenever or wherever they can find fruit or vegetables within their reach. Sometimes they smoke, too.
They have no toys, no books, no pictures, no fine clothes or homes; yet, for all that, they are cheerful and contented. They have little, but they seem to want little.
The children of the wealthy and well-to-do dress and look very much like the children in our Southern States; though the babies and very young children sometimes wear no clothes. ”

“ The farmers we see at work have their oxen harnessed to rude plows by the horns. The ground is so rich it is not necessary to plow it very deep.
An acre of good land here will produce more vegetables and fruit than in most other countries.
Riding through the country we see plantations of coffee, sugar cane or tobacco, and also stock farms. Puerto Rico is fertile from the mountain tops to the sea. It is rich in pasture lands, shaded with groves of palm trees, and watered by hundreds of streams. ”

“ THE FARMER AND HIS HOME. Puerto Rico is a country of farmers. Nearly five-sixths of the people live in the country. Their homes are scattered along the valleys, on the hills, and even on the mountain tops; for the land is fertile everywhere.
[Illustration: THE PUERTO RICAN FARMER IN TOWN.]
We have seen the homes and home life of the people in the city. Now let us take a jaunt out into the country to see how the farmers and the plantation laborers live.
Here is a farmer now, coming down the street. He is on his way to the market. His horse is a thin, mean-looking little beast. ”

“ AGUADILLA. After a night spent in Arecibo we wish to hasten on to Aguadilla, but the railroad, we find, will not carry us so far. It ends at Camuy, a few miles west of Arecibo. Here we take a carriage for the remainder of the journey.
[Illustration: DRYING AND HULLING COFFEE.]
The old-fashioned coaches are drawn by small ponies, and these brave little animals carry us up hill and down hill, through deep mud holes, over rocks, into and out of ruts, at a terrific pace.
We wonder that the carriage does not break and spill us out. ”

“ Many of the country districts are without schools, and no school privileges are provided for three fourths of the people.
The schools are of the old-fashioned, ungraded, district-school type, and are for pupils from seven to thirteen years of age.
Pupils are supposed to study arithmetic, geography, grammar, the history of Spain, and religion. There are few schoolbooks used. The pupils write down what the teacher dictates, or copy what the teacher has written. The one book they use is the one from which they learn to read. ”

“ Very soon a fearful roar is heard, and all at once the hurricane descends upon the island.
The work of destruction begins. Trees are uprooted, growing crops are laid waste, and houses are torn down and scattered in every direction. Sometimes whole villages are destroyed and many people killed or wounded. ”

“ The boys and girls have separate schools; but the white and the colored pupils attend the same school.
The pupils are bright and quick to learn, but there is no discipline in the schoolroom. They come and go as they please. They stay at home if they wish, and no truant officer disturbs them.
Many remain away from school because of a lack of clothing. Others remain away because they prefer to play in the streets. Their parents are careless and indifferent to the advantages of an education, and make no effort to induce their children to attend school, or to study. ”

“ That would be a difficult thing for most of us. The next best way is to make the journey in imagination, and that all of us can do.
The island nearest us is Puerto Rico, the most eastern island of the Greater Antilles. Let us visit that first and the other islands later on.
We must find out something of the climate, however, before we start on this journey. This may not be the right season of the year to go. We must know, too, what kind of clothing to take with us.
In order to plan our route wisely, we must know something of the geography of the island. ”

“ They are quite content with their way of living, and take no thought for the future. A Puerto Rican farmer thinks himself rich and fortunate if he owns a horse, a cow, some game-cocks, a gun and an acre of land.
He is simple in his tastes and buys little in the market. His rice flour, corn meal and coffee he has prepared at home, by pounding in wooden mortars or grinding between stones.
His patch of land he plants with corn, sweet potatoes and other vegetables. Bananas, plantains and other fruits grow wild and may be had for the picking. ”

“ The palace of the governor-general and the headquarters of the American administration we find located in San Juan.
Over thirty thousand people make their homes in this city, and a goodly number of them we find at the shore to meet our vessel. They do not wait for us to land. They come out to meet us.
Dusky natives in landing boats are soon alongside, and we learn to our surprise that our ship does not go to the dock. We are to go ashore in these small awning-covered boats. This is a new experience for us, but it is an old Spanish custom. ”

“ Even when they stop or rest, no one thinks of putting them in the shade.
Almost all the people are cruel to their animals, yet they seem not to realize that they are doing wrong. It is a custom, that is all. ”

“ The harbor is very poor, being little more than an open roadstead. Into this harbor empties a small stream called the Arecibo. Goods are transported on this river, to and from the town, in flat-bottomed boats, with the aid of long poles and by much patient pushing.
Along the river are valuable plantations of sugar and coffee, as also fine pastures.
Arecibo boasts one of the most handsome and artistic plazas on the island. These plazas are usually paved with stone and devoid of vegetation; but this one has a small park in its center, surrounding a beautiful fountain. ”

“ Puerto Rico, in English, means Rich Harbor. But Puerto Rico is not rich in harbors. There are not more than six good harbors, but it has less than three hundred and fifty miles of coast line.
The surface of Puerto Rico is mountainous. A range of hills traverses the island from east to west. The hills are low and their sides are covered with vegetation. The hills are not rocky and barren, but are cultivated to their very tops. ”

“ When the barometer tells of the approach of a storm, the people prepare for it. They hunt some hole, cave, or cellar into which to crawl. They take with them, when there is time to do so, a supply of cane juice and food, to last until the storm subsides. ”

“ The well-to-do farmers who own ponies carry fruit and vegetables in these baskets. Sometimes two hogs are brought to market in the baskets, with all four feet tied together.
When the farmer takes his family to market, he and his wife ride the pony, and the children ride in the baskets.
The ponies also carry bales of grass, trunks, and all kinds of household goods, and furniture.
The principal draught animals are oxen. The heavy two-wheeled ox cart is used to convey great loads of sugar, coffee, and tobacco or fruit, over the good roads. ”

“ The principal plaza is a park of grand old shade trees. It contains a majestic statue of Columbus.
The citizens are, many of them, coffee planters who have estates near the city. Each family of the better class dwells in a home of its own, instead of living in second stories.
The poor people of the town are not so poor, or unclean, or shiftless, as the poorer classes at the capital.
[Illustration: A VIEW IN PONCE, PUERTO RICO.]
PONCE. To reach Ponce, the next city we wish to visit, we must use carriages as well as railways. It is on the southern side of the island. ”

“ Land owners give them small patches of ground on the hillsides, which they themselves do not care to till, in order to have the laborers near or on the plantations to assist in cultivating or harvesting the sugar cane, tobacco and coffee crops.
Here the peasant laborers build their cabins; and, when there is no work for them on the plantations, they tend their gardens in a haphazard way. By working a little each day they manage to make a scant living. ”

“ Our guide says they are going to the market place. Let us follow them and see what a Puerto Rican market place is.
Here it is, situated near the ocean. The court is formed with stones, and it contains booths for fruits, vegetables, and produce of all kinds.
[Illustration: GOING TO MARKET.]
Dear me! what a busy, noisy place! People from every race and nation seem to be gathered here. Big people, little people, babies, roosters, dogs, donkeys, horses! What talking, shouting, laughing, crying, crowing, barking, and braying!
Men are smoking, lounging about, and bragging about their game-cocks ”

“ EDUCATION IN PUERTO RICO. Not more than one seventh of the 850,000 people in Puerto Rico can read or write. Only one child in twelve, between the ages of six and sixteen, attends school. (In 1897, of 125,000 children of school age, only about 28,000 attended school—about 19,000 boys and 9,000 girls.)
The buildings used for school purposes are seldom anything more than thatched huts. Sometimes two or three rooms are given to the school in the house where the teacher lives. ”