THE CUBA REVI E W 



23 



Educational Work of Methodists. 



Dr. John A. Rice in the New Orleans 

 (La.) Christian Advocate has the fol- 

 lowing to say regarding the work of 

 Methodists in Cuba: 



"The way to the future generation is 

 through the hearts of the children of 

 this. Only a small per cent, of the men 

 and women can be reached. The chil- 

 dren are open. So the church in Cuba 

 has done well to begin with the school. 

 We have a fine location and a very 

 good plant in Havana and so in other 

 cities. The day I left, Brother Bradwell 

 told me he had just received another 

 application to take a boarding pupil 

 which was exactly three times as many 

 as he could accommodate. lie has 

 bought a beautiful lot of five acres half 

 way between Havana and Maryanao, a 

 suburban town of several thousand in- 

 habitants, some five miles from Havana. 

 Here he will build for the higher classes 

 of Candler College. This site commands 

 a lovely view of the gulf on one side, 

 an exquisite valley on another and the 

 great city on another. Closely connect- 

 ed with the city by ample electric cars, 

 it will be in a few years in the heart 

 of the residence portion. The only re- 

 gret is that he could not get twenty 

 acres. It would be a splendid invest- 

 ment. He can easily command three 

 times the pupils that he can teach. How 

 different from the states! Here we send 

 out agents to beg for pupils; there we 

 turn them away all the time. We can 

 get all we will provide for. It is a 

 question of men and money. But if we 

 would build as much better institutions 

 here than those offered by others as we 

 do there, we could command pupils 

 easily also. Through these schools we 

 are making converts all the time. The 

 great city is ripe for the institutional 

 church. The brethren with whom I 

 talked are anxious to enter upon this 

 phase of Christian work, feeling that the 

 time is now. Our location in Havana is 

 ideal: $300,000 put into a plant there 

 would yield enormous returns. So in 

 the other cities. The most surprising 

 thing I saw in Cuba is the Clerks' Club, 

 a magnificent building on the Prado, the 

 principal street, beautifully fitted and 

 furnished with all club appliances, with 

 night school for the children of the mem- 

 bers, with a hospital where members 

 are treated free in another part of the 

 city, nursing, medical attention, medi- 

 cine, nourishment, everything that the 

 modern hospital furnishes, and the total 

 cost is one dollar and a half per month 

 per member for all these privileges. 

 They have twenty-eight thousand mem- 

 bers. And another building, even finer, 

 is going up a few blocks away. This 



shows a peculiar readiness to combine 

 for amusement and mutual help. The 

 church could utilize this social instinct, 

 with sufiicient ineans to provide what is 

 needed." 



Removing the Maine Wreck. 



It is said that the movement to remove 

 the ill-fated Maine from the harbor of Ha- 

 vana will be renewed when the United 

 States Congress meets in December. Naval 

 officers are not enthusiastic about the sub- 

 ject, and it is said at the Navy Department 

 that our Government could not do anything 

 in the matter without the consent of the 

 Cuban Government. Occasionally the Sec- 

 retary of the Navy received a letter from a 

 contractor submitting a proposition to raise 

 the Maine, but the Secretary is without au- 

 thority and informs the writers that they 

 must appeal to Congress. During the extra 

 session of Congress, which adjourned last 

 August, a number of bills were introduced 

 appropriating money to raise the Maine, but 

 the bills could not be considered because the 

 committees of the House had not been ap- 

 pointed. However, these bills will be 

 pressed in December, and it will be known 

 early in the session whether or not Congress 

 will ever take any action. There seems to 

 be no doubt but that the wreck will have to 

 be removed, as it interferes with navigation 

 in the harbor. 



The Cost of Feeding Troops. 



According to Gen. H. G. Sharpe, United 

 States Commissary General, in his annual 

 report to the Secretary of War, it cost the 

 United States $533,822.73 more to feed the 

 troops comprising the Cuban army of pacifi- 

 cation than had they been stationed in this 

 country during the same period. Taken al- 

 together, it cost the government $10,497,393 

 to feed the entire army during the past year, 

 and the net loss on perishable supplies was 

 $115,693. 



Disease of Cocoanuts. 



It is now generally admitted that the 

 rot of the crown in the district of Bara- 

 coa is caused by bacteria. A published 

 description of a disease said to be of 

 fungous origin in the Havana district 

 corresponds exactly to the Baracoa dis- 

 ease, which some believe is the most 

 destructive. The symptoms of bud-rot 

 disease are the turning yellow of the 

 outer leaves, which ultimately hang 

 straight down; the fact that the young- 

 est leaves do not unfold properly, but 

 stand upright, becoming first yellow and 

 then brown in color; the presence in the 

 softer, inner parts of the bud of rotten, 

 evil-smelling tissues. 



