THE CUBA REVIEW 



13 



GENERAL NOTES. 



Interesting Items from Various Sources Regarding the Island's Activities. 



More Automobile Roads. 



The road which is to connect Havana 

 with the city of Pinar del Rio will be 

 completed by June 1, when automobiles 

 will be able to make the trip to the 

 capital of Pinar del Rio Province, and 

 by continuing on the new roads could 

 visit Luis Lazo, Guane and even go as 

 far as the town of Mantua. Or from 

 Pinar del Rio the trip can be made across 

 the mountain range to the coast town 

 of San Cayetano. 



Within a short time all of the bridges 

 on the road between San Cristobal and 

 Pinar del Rio will be finished. 



San Diego de los Bahos, Cuba's fa- 

 mous watering place, can now be 

 reached by auto, and here as well as in 

 Pinar good hotels are to be found where 

 the travelers can put u" with comfort. 



Baltimoreans Praise Cuba. 



Gen. John Gill, president of the ]\ler- 

 cantile Trust & Deposit Company, and 

 Mr. William H. Blackford, president of 

 the jNIaryland Life Insurance Company, 

 both of Baltimore, Md., have just re- 

 turned from a trip to important points 

 in Cuba. Gen. Gill said: 



"We arrived in Havana Monday morning and 

 were agreeably surprised to find the temperature 

 and weather much cooler than at any point in 

 Florida. 



"What a wonderful country to be able to pro- 

 duce four crops each year of all kinds of vege- 

 tation. Cuba should be left alone, under the 

 moral influence of the United States, to work 

 out its own problems, and it will surely do it." 



Fire in La Maya. 



Despatches announcing that the town 

 of La Maya, in Oriente Province, 

 twenty miles north of Santiago, was al- 

 most totally destroyed by fire, were re- 

 ceived April 1. Sixty-five important 

 stores and merchants' houses were re- 

 duced to ashes, and the loss aggregates 

 between $600,000 ad $1,000,000. 



La Maya was a historic town in the 

 Cuban wars, and after the construction 

 of the Cuban railroad its importance and 

 wealth have grown considerably, as it 

 was a changing station for traveler? from 

 Havana going to Guantanamo on the 

 Santiago train. 



A printers' union has been formed in 

 Havana with 110 members. Others will 

 be organized in Santiago, Camaguey, 

 Cienfuegos and in all Cuban cities where 

 there is a sufficient number of printers. 

 These unions are directly affiliated with 

 the International Tvnographical Union. 



Ex-Governor Magoon on Annexation. 



At a meeting in Philadelphia, March 

 n , of the American Academy of Polit- 

 ical and Social Science an address of 

 former Governor Magoon was read. It 

 contained the following important ut- 

 terance on the subject of the annexation 

 of Cuba: 



"The United States will not and can not annex 

 Cuba except with the full consent of the Cubans, 

 and the number of Cubans now favoring annexa- 

 tion is probably less than one per cent. From 

 the standpoint of the United States, annexation 

 is undesirable. 



"From what source would the United States 

 recoup itself for the loss of enormous revenues 

 now derived from sugar, tobacco and other pro- 

 ductions of Cuba? Another matter to be con- 

 sidered is the need of public improvements, the 

 cost of which would not be less than 



$100,000,000." 



Disastrous Fire in Havana Harbor. 



Fourteen lives were lost, the handsome 

 piers at the terminal of the Havana Cen- 

 tral Railroad, together with an enormous 

 quantity of shipping and merchandise 

 were totally destroyed and over sixty 

 people injured in a big fire, the largest 

 ever known in Havana, in the upper part 

 of the harbor on March 29. The Ham- 

 burg-American liner Altenburg, just in 

 with a cargo of rice, was damaged to 

 the extent of $80,000. It is believed the 

 entire loss will amount to over $1,000,- 

 000. The dead are two officers of the 

 Altenburg and twelve of her crew. In- 

 terment was in Colon Cemetery. 



Cameguey's New Buildings. 



Among the improvements for Cama- 

 guey are a new market, a new city hall, 

 a municipal slau^rhter house, sixteen 

 houses for workmen and other small 

 improvements in the boroughs of Guai- 

 maro, Coscorro, Altagracia and San Jero- 

 nimo. 



Plans for all these improvements are 

 now being made. An election will 

 shortly be held to get the sense of the 

 public on a proposed municipal loan of 

 $600,000 to carry out these improve- 

 ments. 



Vice-Admiral Passual Cervera, who 

 commanded the Spanish fleet in the bat- 

 tle of Santia'^o. died at Puerto, Real, 

 Spain. April 3, of heart disease. He was 

 born February 18, 1839. 



The latest strike of the workmen on the 

 Habanilla water-works and sewer con- 

 tract at Cienfuegos was settled on 

 March 20. A partial recompense for 

 wages lost during the strike was given. 



