1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



4=5 



I thanked her ag-ain, grabbed my valise, 

 and made a rush for the departing train; 

 but a big woman got in my way with her 

 bundles. The conductor was evidently a 

 little vexed because I did not g-et on the oth- 

 er train when I had plenty of time, and I 

 had to give it up. The passengers "caught 

 on" enough to indulge in a good laugh at 

 mj' failure. Very likely thej' shared with 

 the conductor in wondering why it was I 

 should wait until the train was under way, 

 and suddenly decide to leave the car I was 

 in (with my ticket paid through to Havana, 

 which I had shown to almost everybody in 

 the car) , to take the other train. 



NATURAL CURIOSITIES ; WATER SUPPLY IN 

 CUBA, ETC. 



While at Matanzas my good friend Wood- 

 ward accompanied me on a visit to the cel- 

 ebrated cave of Bellamar. While I do not 

 like to speak ill of any of the people of Cu- 

 ba, I do not know but I shall have to men- 

 tion, as a caution, our experience with a 

 coach-driver. Mj' friend Woodward knew 

 where the cave was, but he did not know 

 how far it was from the city. The driver 

 said it was a long wa3% and that the best 

 price he could make was S7.00 to take us 

 there and wait till we explored the cave. If 

 I remember correctly we got him down to 

 S4.00, and thought we had made a good 

 thing. It is true the road was prettj' rough, 

 and was rather bad for a horse and car- 

 riage; but we could easily have walked the 

 distance in an hour, or perhaps half an 

 hour, if we had hurried up. The entrance 

 to the cave is on top of a stony hill. The 

 charge for a guide to go through it is S2.00 

 for a single person; but if there are two 

 persons it is no more for both. The printed 

 notice that was put up did not say this ex- 

 actly, but we persuaded the colored man 

 'who was in charge that that was what it 

 meant; at least, after some banter he agreed 

 to let us follow the guide for S2.00. 



The only method of lighting the cave is by 

 means of huge wax candles, and such light 

 is very inadequate. I should much prefer to 

 give So. 00, and see the whole interior bril- 

 liantly lighted up by means of electric 

 globes; and it would not take a very expen- 

 sive outfit to do it nicely. The bridges, 

 stairways, and hand-rails all through the 

 cave are put up in a very nice and substan- 

 tial manner — far better than similar struc- 

 tures in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky — at least, 

 better than when I was there in 1885. For 

 quite a spell you go almost straight down. 



but finally read, one after another, some of the short 

 verses. As I write about it, I can hear even now their 

 childish voices struggling to pronounce the Knglish 

 words. Of course, they would give almost every word 

 a Spanish inflection. They would gfive i the sound of 

 e. e the sound of a. etc. Hut for some strange reason, I 

 can not tell why, the Spanish inflection as above, to- 

 gether with the trilling of the letter r. had a wonder- 

 ful fascination for me. You see I had been working 

 days and nights for weeks at their language, and it 

 g^ves me a thrill even now to recall those days : and as 

 I write, 1 lor.,:; for the time to conic when I can ae:ain 

 listen to the music of those Spanish wo ds. and look 

 into the faces again of the friends in Cuba whom I 

 love. 



The stalactites and stalagmites are cer- 

 tainly equal to any thing in Mammoth 

 Cave ; but, unfortunately, the smoke from 

 the wax candles has spoiled or is spoiling 

 a good deal of their beauty. The water is 

 so strongly charged with minerals that the 

 whole cave is filled with formations that 

 very much resemble the results of letting 

 water drip or trickle outdoors on a cold 

 wintry day. It looks almost exactly like 

 ice, or better, perhaps, very pure transpar- 

 ent alabaster. In one place there is a wa- 

 terfall that resembles Niagara, not only in 

 shape, but makes some feeble approach to 

 represent it in size. The mineral water 

 has flown over a vast precipice, and piled 

 up a great waterfall through the centuries 

 past. Many of these stalactites give out a 

 metallic ring when struck; and it would be 

 an easy matter to arrange a stalactite pia- 

 no, such as they have in the Cave of the 

 Winds at Manitou, Col. The guide fre- 

 quently struck them to let us hear the musi- 

 cal notes that were given forth. 



Before we started down, both the guide 

 and the agent advised us to divest ourselves 

 of all surplus clothing. He said we would 

 find it pretty warm down there, and that 

 we had all better get off every bit of our 

 " duds " that we could spare. As I had on 

 a light Cuban summer suit, I thought I 

 was all right; but before I got to the ex- 

 treme end of the cave I felt as if it would be 

 just delicious to cast off every bit of my 

 clothing, as many of the Cuban children do 

 when under four or five years of age. The 

 heat oppressed me so that I began to think 

 I would exchange all the wondrous sights 

 the cave had to offer for a breath of fresh 

 air; and when we heard the hackman call- 

 ing from a spot overhead that seemed to be 

 up among the clouds to us, we hustled past 

 the waterfall that I felt sad to view s>o 

 brieflj'. We twisted and bent down, and 

 crawled through interminable passaj.;es. 

 There were clock-shelves and mantels, and 

 things that resembled human beings an^l 

 domestic animals, all carved and polished 

 and colored by Nature's fingers. Every 

 little while you can hear the dripping of 

 water. The caves were discovered within 

 a very recent period, so the guide-books 

 tell us. 



Now let me advise visitors to heed the re- 

 quest of the guide to dispense with everj' 

 bit of clothing they can get along without; 

 and let me say to the proprietors of the 

 cave that, if they want the public to pat- 

 ronize them, they will have to get something 

 better than wax candles. Electric globes 

 would be the thing. And last, but not 

 least, there must be some arrangement to 

 start a current of air. A blower and a 

 suitable pipe to carry air to the furthest 

 extremity, so as to ventilate thoroughly all 

 of these wonderful passages, would make it 

 possible for one to spend an hour or two in 

 comfort away down in the bowels of the 

 earth. 



After we got back from the cave (and we 

 were not gone over two or three hours] the 



