In some trades the men work slowly or short hours in order to limit production. Where payment is by piece-work, as in the cigar factories, they do so at their own expense. But this is usually during the slack season, and the motive is to keep as many men as possible employed. One weakness of the working people of Cuba may be charged in part to indolence, but it is equally due to their love of pleasure and excitement, and to a feeling of irresponsibility as to the future so characteristic of tropical nations. Unless pressed by necessity, the Cuban takes frequent vacations. This is his form of dissipation, his way of going on a spree. The excitement of strong drink does not appeal to him as much as the gentler attractions of more protracted recreations. He is often a gambler, he delights in music and dances and in the little festivals of his neighborhood; he regards scrupulously all the observances of the Church that give promises of sufficient entertainment, especially those of a gala-day character. Weddings and christenings and funerals are important events in his calendar. By dint of a close and constant study of the situation he can usually find a valid excuse for indulging in the relaxations of leisure whenever it is not absolutely necessary for him to labor for his support. The Cuban is therefore neither thrifty nor frugal. As a workman he responds only to the incentive of necessity. The Spanish laborer in Cuba usually works with the aim of accumulating a competency; not so the Cuban. The one produces and consumes little; the other produces only what he may consume. The Spanish laborer has few and simple ideals, but they are fixed and permanent; the Cuban stores a new fancy in his head every few days, and forgets it. He becomes impassioned over a carnival mask or a polka-dot tie; a month later it has passed out of his remembrance. This is one principal reason why employers so greatly prefer the Spaniards in their service; they are not necessarily more honest, more active, or more intelligent, but they can be depended upon. The Cubans are not criminally inclined. Under Spanish rule there were four times as many Spaniards as native whites in the prisons of Cuba in proportion to the total number of inhabitants of each nation in the Island. The Chinese and Spaniards both showed a larger percentage of criminals than the native Cubans of either race. Among the higher class Cubans, especially in the remoter towns, there are many evidences of physical degeneracy due to close intermarriage. Little scrawny men with big bony hands and almost no head at all, are characteristic of this class. But this type is not usually found among the rural or laboring population. CHAPTER VIII THE FUTURE OF CUBA