History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of InterestJohnson, Edward A. (Edward Austin)
History
History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of Interest
Johnson, Edward A. (Edward Austin)
Spanish-American War, 1898 -- Participation, African American
Another beloved exile from the land of his birth is Señor Jose White.
His mother was a colored woman of Matanzas. At the age of 16 Jose
wrote a mass for the Matanzas orchestra and gave his first concert.
With the proceeds he entered the Conservatory of Paris, and in the
following year won the first prize as violinist among thirty-nine
contestants. He soon gained an enviable reputation among the most
celebrated European violinists, and, covered with honors, returned to
Havana in January of '75. But his songs were sometimes of liberty, and
in June of the same year the Spanish government drove him out of
the country. Then he went to Brazil, and is now President of the
Conservatory of Music of Rio Janeiro.
One might go on multiplying similar incidents. Some of the most
eminent doctors, lawyers and college professors in Cuba are more or
less darkly "colored." In the humble walks of life one finds them
everywhere, as carpenters, masons, shoemakers and plumbers. In the few
manufacturies of Cuba a large proportion of the workmen are Negroes
especially in the cigar factories. In the tanneries of Pinar del Rio
most of the workmen are colored, also in the saddle factories of
Havana, Guanabacoa, Cardenas and other places. Although the insurgent
army is not yet disbanded, the sugar-planters get plenty of help from
their ranks by offering fair wages.--New York Sun.
FACTS ABOUT PORTO RICO TOLD IN SHORT PARAGRAPHS.
Porto Rico, the beautiful island which General Miles is taking under
the American flag, has an area of 3,530 square miles. It is 107 miles
in length and 37 miles across. It has a good telegraph line and a
railroad only partially completed.
The population, which is not made up of so many Negroes and mulattoes
as that of the neighboring islands, is about 900,000. Almost all of
the inhabitants are Roman Catholics.
It is a mountainous island, and contains forty seven navigable streams.
The roads are merely paths beaten down by cattle.
Exports in 1887 were valued at $10,181,291; imports, $10,198,006.
Gold, copper, salt, coal and iron abound.
The poorer classes live almost entirely on a variety of highland rice,
which is easily cultivated, as it requires no flooding.
One of the principal industries is grazing. St. Thomas is the market
for fresh meat.
Corn, tobacco, sugar, coffee, cotton and potatoes constitute the
principal crops.
There are no snakes, no beasts of prey, no noxious birds nor insects
in the island.
The trees and grass are always green.
Rats are the great foe of the crops.
The natives often live to be one hundred years old.
The most beautiful flower on the island is the ortegon, which has
purple blossoms a yard long.
Hurricanes are frequent on the north coast and very destructive.
Mosquitoes art the pest of the island.
Spanish is the language spoken, and education is but little esteemed.
Every man, no matter how poor, owns a horse and three or four
gamecocks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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