1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



181 



miles wide in its narrowest place the 

 value of which is not known for under 

 the present government not half of 

 its capabilities are known, not much 

 more than half of its land is worked, 

 its rich iron and coal mines lie idle 

 awaiting for the day to come when it 

 will pass from Spain to a more hu- 

 mane power. Spain treats this, its 

 palm of possessions, worse than I can 

 find words to explain. Although it 

 has 1,168,000 inhabitants they con- 

 sider it at their mercy and tax the 

 people till they have hardly a cent 

 left with which to buy their clothes. 

 Think of this many people paying an 

 annual money tax of 2, 400, 000 dol- 

 lars to their superior brothers, tax, 

 tax, tax, nothing but taxes, you have 

 got to get a little piece of paper for 

 this, for that, and for the other, if you 

 drive a buggy you will have to pay 8 

 dollars a year for doing so. You 

 have to have a citizenship paper 

 every year, this however is only 20 cts 

 a head, without this paper you have 

 no right to own anything and it could 

 be taken from you at any time no 

 matter how much your property is 

 valued at you have no right to it with- 

 out this paper. If you are a butcher 

 you /have to pay 3 dollars for every 

 grown hog you kill and five for every 

 beef, if you wish to embark in store 

 keeping you shall hove to search the 

 corners of your pockets lively for at 

 the end of a year you must hand over 

 300 dollars no matter whether you 

 come out even or not, for the privilage. 

 If your fancy runs to hair cutting and 

 shaving, you must pay according to 

 the number of customers you. Should 

 you have a desire for shoemaking, to 

 protect the feet of these poor unfortu- 

 nates, you will only have to pay 5 cts 



a pair for every pair you make. If 

 you set up in the blacksmith business 

 do not be shocked at the end of your 

 first year to learn that you owe Mrs. 

 Spain 100 dollars or more, for the 

 privilege of practicing on the feet of 

 our poor, dumb, faithful, animal the 

 horse. Of all things keep control of 

 that vital organ the heart for, matri- 

 mony is very expensive here and of- 

 ten a poor fellow works for months 

 bending his back to the blazing sun 

 after he has built his palm hut. It 

 will only cost him 25 or 80 dollars 

 for the knot, and right here let me 

 say of the palm that there is no other 

 tree that grows, out of which a human 

 being can get all the material to build 

 a house and the broom to keep it 

 clean and feed for his pigs. You 

 think I am gassing ? All right then, 

 now I'll show you. Selecting a tall 

 straight palm he falls it, cuts it in 

 the lengths he wants it, splits it into 

 boards of the proper width, hews off 

 the fibers from the inside, and leaves 

 them for the sun to dry and 

 harden, these boards which is the shell 

 are very hard when dry and about an 

 inch or more thick. Now he pro- 

 ceeds to cut the leaves which are left 

 about two days in the sun to season. 

 While his boards and shingles are dry- 

 ing the frame-work is put up. This 

 is a short job. The size of the house 

 is generally about 12x20 ft. The 

 four posts are set very firmly in the 

 ground, being hewed from everlasting 

 wood. Plates and rafters are all 

 made of poles, the plates being spiked 

 well to the posts. The rafters and 

 crest poles are all lashed firmly with 

 palm string. Now the house is ready 

 for the roof. The palm-leaves which 

 are 8 to 10 ft. long are cut up about 



