May I, 1907.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



India-Rubber on the Island of Cuba. 



Jiy the liJilor of "The India Rubber JVurld." 



2.57 



Tl I Iv (lay after the 13th we sailed from Pier IJ, East river. 

 \'e\v York, getting away at 12:13, cii route for Cuba. 

 Gedncy channel was full of ice, but the water was smooth 

 and the day fair. Aboard the boat were a number of rubber 

 planters on the way to Mexico, and my roommate was a promi- 

 nent rubber manufacturer, also bound for Cuba. The weather was 

 fine even off Hattcras, and everybody aboard had ample op- 

 portunity to be sociable, and they all were. I was amused to 

 discover how fearful the Mexican planters were of the possibility 

 that guayulc rubber, which they seemed to dislike very much, 

 would put a check on the planting of CaslilUia. I do not know 

 whether I was able to convince them that such was not the 

 case, but I did my best. 



I should have prefaced this story, perhaps, with a statement 

 of why 1 was going to Cuba. I had always believed that rubber 

 could be grown there, though whether profitably or not I did not 

 know. But the knowledge that 451 pounds of cultivated rubber 

 had been shipped from that island to New York stimulated my 

 interest afresh, and the time seemed to be ripe for me to go — 

 that is. one revolution had just been quelled and the next one 

 was not quite due, so I felt that it might be well to fill in 

 the hiatus myself. 



.\fter passing Hatteras we soon sighted Florida, coasted along 

 by Palm Beach, and in due time, early one bright morning, 

 "picked up" Morro Castle. Later we entered the narrow mouth 

 ot Havana harbor, and passing the wreck of the Maine, anchored 

 in such shallow water that the mud from the harbor bottom rose 

 in great volumes all about the boat. Owing to the "Lighter 

 Trust" we were forced to go ashore in a small transfer boat, 

 instead of tying up at a pier and being discharged like up-to- 

 date Christians. The time will come no doubt when this trust 

 will be "busted," and all such discomfort and cost be avoided. This 

 belief, however, did not sjivc us much comfort as we sat in the 



broiling sun three-quarters of an hour before our little boat 

 started for shore. 



One of my best friends in New York advised mc by all means 



to go to the Hotel L . I therefore scorned all suggestions 



on the part of hotel runners that there was anything else worth 

 considering, which was where I was wrong, and the Colonel 

 and I took up our abode there. The city, to be sure, was 

 crowded, and it was difficult to get accommodations. We got 

 two dark rooms with the usual mosquito net covered beds, and 

 with running water in each room. It was not the sort of running 

 water, however, that is well under control, for when it was 

 turned out of the hand-filled tank it leaked out upon the floor 

 and made wading boots almost a necessity. The man chamber- 

 maid caiTie in with a cigar in his mouth every now and then and 

 solemnly mopped it up. He also gave me clean sheets after I 

 threatened in pantomime to make a bonfire of the pair that my 

 predecessors had left, which were far from spotless. However, 

 these things do not trouble one in the tropics if you know how 

 to guard against them, and if you have somebody along who is 

 a tenderfoot who had to pay $1.20, for example, for having a pair 

 of trousers pressed, it is really interesting. I might say that after 

 that one experience the Colonel allowed his knees to bag as much 

 as they pleased, not because he could not spare the money, but 

 because he could not bear to be robbed. 



The first real glimpse of Cuban life that I had was in going 

 around the city that afternoon and evening, and it certainly is 

 beautiful for location, and niarvelously interesting. That Havana 

 will one day be the Paris of America is beyond question, and 

 even to-day, with its beautiful park in the city's center, its prado, 

 and its gay crowds during carnival time, it has a decided sugges- 

 tion of the French capital. One delightful thing about the city 

 is the cheap cab fares — that is, if you know how to get them — 

 20 cents taking one to almost any part of the city, the regulation 



The Editor and His Comp.\xion cm a Cuban Fikca. 



