454 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



of statuary representing' Christopher Co- 

 lumbus.* Mr. Hamel is rather more of a 

 fiealer in honey and wax, I take it, than a 

 bee-keeper. At the time of my visit I think 

 he felt a little troubled because the price 

 of honej' was so low. and he had such an 

 immense stock of it in his spacious ware- 

 house. As the price went up a little aft- 

 erward, however. I presume he disposed of 

 it without loss. His apiary was only a short 

 drive out of the city. The hives were scat- 

 tered about in the shade of some of the 

 great tropical fruit-trees and royal palms. 



Of course. I was specially interested, 

 while in Cuba, in the " homes " of the peo- 

 ple. Round about Paso Real, and through- 

 out the country generally, I felt greatly 

 pained to find so many homes destitute of 

 the comforts of life. Many of the friends 

 told me the good homes were destroyed and 

 burned during the war; and as the people 

 were poor, and oftentimes almost entirely 

 destitute, they were getting along- with any 

 sort of roof over their heads until they 

 could build better homes. For some reason 

 the city of Cardenas seemed to have escaped 

 the destruction during- war times. The 

 home of friend Hamel is not only one of the 

 finest that I visited in Cuba, but I think I 

 may say it is one of the finest in all its ap- 

 pointments I ever saw anywhere. It re- 

 minded me of the stories I had read of Ori- 

 ental luxury — of the palaces described by 

 Ben Hur so vividly, etc. Friend Hamel is 

 the happy father (or ought to be) of a good- 

 ie number of handsome young ladies. I 

 think there is only one son. Some of them 

 spi'ke enough English so I passed a very 

 pleasant evening. In the way of a well- 

 spread table, the evening- meal I was asked 

 to share with them equaled any repast I 

 ever before partook of. Not only was there 

 most of the dishes I was acquainted with, 

 but a good many of them I had never tast- 

 ed of before. I asked so many questions 

 about the new thing-s I almost felt ashamed 

 of myself. His son is a g-ood deal interest- 

 ed in gardening, and is busy just now in 

 testing different fruits and vegetables from 

 the North to see what will and what will 

 not g-row in Cuba. 



Speaking- of his accomplished daughters 

 reminds me that, when I got in a strange 

 place, and could not find anybody who 

 could talk English, I almost always found 

 some p;ood -lUOinan who could not only sym- 

 pathize with me, but could get me out of my 

 trouble. It brought to mind very vividly 

 poor Rambler's experience when inquiring 



* "While the very narrow streets in the great city of 

 Havana, where even a square foot of land is worih so 

 much money, may be all right, the new towns in Cuba 

 are being started on a different plan. When one be- 

 comes accustomed to those very narrow sidewalks, 18 

 to 24 inches wide, he gets along pretty well ; and, in 

 fact, these narrow streets, with their canvas covering 

 during the hottest part of the day, make it very pleas- 

 ant and shady, and in some respects a cool retreat that 

 we should not get with wide streets like those in 

 northern cities ; but when we consider the electric 

 railwavs that are pushing into towns everywhere, 

 even iii Cuba, it behooves us to start a town on a more 

 liberal scale. 



the way to Marianao, when '" a petite jew- 

 el of a woman took interest in the matter." 

 See pag-e 330 of last year. On my way 

 from Cardenas back to Havana I heard 

 some of the passengers speak of Giiines; 

 and when we arrived at a station where 

 there is a branch road, several got off to 

 take the other road to Giiines — at least I 

 gathered this from the conductor. Now, I 

 wanted to visit Giiines; and although I had 

 a ticket back to Havana, I thought if it 

 would save me very much time I could lose 

 the value of my ticket by taking the branch 

 road. First, I wanted to know how long I 

 would have to wait at that station to catch 

 the train for Giiines. I went clear through 

 the car, asking the passengers if they talk- 

 ed English. I showed my ticket, pointed 

 to my watch, etc. They all seemed very 

 anxious to help me; and some of them, es- 

 pecially the women, seemed distressed to 

 think they could ?iot help an unfortunate 

 foreigner out of his perplexity. By the 

 way, I do not know exactly why, but it has 

 seemed as though the feminine portion of 

 creation always sympathizes with me, even 

 when those of my own sex do not care 

 whether I am in trouble or not. On this 

 particular occasion a very bright and pret- 

 ty young woman indicated to me by her 

 looks that she knew what I wanted, and 

 seemed anxious to help me, even though she 

 was not ready to admit she could speak 

 English; and you know it is not always ex- 

 actly the thing to do, for a young lady trav- 

 eling alone, to be too familiar with a stran- 

 ger, even if he is in trouble. I finally ap- 

 proached her, raised my cap, and said, 

 " My good friend, I hope you will excuse 

 me when I tell you that I judge by the ex- 

 pression on your face that you can command 

 English enough to give me the information 

 I want. I would not trouble you, but I 

 wish to know, before this train starts, how 

 long I would have to wait here to catch the 

 train for Giiines." 



She gave me a most bewitching smile, 

 and answered hesitatingl}', and with some 

 embarrassment, in a musical voice, "I 

 think — train — Giiines — half hour." 



I thanked her the best I knew how, and 

 begged her for just one more piece of infor- 

 mation. " Now can you tell me about how 

 long I would have to wait at Matanzas to 

 catch a train to Giiines? " 



She studied a minute, gave me another of 

 her smiles, and replied, " I think — may be 

 — all day."* 



* It just now occurs to me that we here in the United 

 States often laugh at foreigners when they attempt to 

 use our language. Perhaps I have joined in this my- 

 self when some poor foreigner made hard work in 

 trying to make his wants known in English ; and if 

 God will forgive me I think I shall never do it again. 

 Well, in Cuba there was something wonderfully fasci- 

 nating, and I might almost say musical, in hearing 

 Cubans try to pronounce English. Some children 

 came into the reading-room at 89 Prado. I was trying 

 to read my Spanish Bible, and, of course, I asked them 

 to help me They were very patient, and we went 

 over the difficult words again and again, until I could 

 pronounce them tolerably well. Then for the sake of 

 a little change I asked them to read on the English 

 side. They were a little bashful about attempting it, 



