THE PEOPLE OF CUBA 101 



beauty. It is their boast that no Cuban woman has ever 

 become a prostitute, and crime is certainly rare among 

 them. 



While the local customs, habits, and religion of these 

 people are entirely different from ours, owing to race and 

 environment, they have strong traits of civilized character, 

 including honesty, family attachment, hospitality, polite- 

 ness of address, and a respect for the golden rule. While 

 numerically inferior to the annual migration of Poles, 

 Jews, and Italians into the eastern United States, against 

 which no official voice is raised, they are too far superior to 

 these people to justify the fears of those who have been 

 prejudiced by the thought that they might by some means 

 be absorbed into our future population. 



No cause in history has been more just than theirs, no 

 self-sacrificing heroism greater, and yet the world, during 

 all the agitation of the past three years, has known little 

 of them, so completely have they been cut off from com- 

 munication, while the little which has been heard has found 

 its outlet through the stronghold of their enemies. 



Notwithstanding the disadvantages of disenf ranch ise- 

 ment and conscription of estates under which the Cubans 

 have labored, they have contributed many members to the 

 learned professions. To educate their sons and daughters 

 in the institutions of the United States, England, and 

 France has always been the highest ambition of the Creoles 

 of Cuba. The influence of their educated men is felt in 

 many countries, a most distinguished professor of civil 

 engineering, two leading civil engineers of our navy, and 

 the most eminent authority on yellow fever in our country 

 belonging to this class. Among the Cubans of the past 

 who have distinguished themselves in literature, science, 

 and art may be mentioned Heredia, Ramon, Zambeau, the 

 famous medical scientist, Teresa Montes de Occa, an ad- 

 mirable poetess, and Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, an- 

 other delightful lyrist. Thousands of these people, driven 

 from their beloved island, have settled in Paris, London. 



