THE CUBA REVIEW 



11 



Cubas population is increasing rapidly 

 judging from a government report just 

 made public, which shows that during 1911 

 births have exceeded deaths in Cuba by 

 more than 100 per cent, the former being 

 74,286 and the latter 33,194. This is really 

 a remarkable gain in population, says the 

 Rochester (N. Y.) Democrat, and, if it 

 continues, and there are no signs to the 

 contrary, it will in the course of several 

 years bring to the island people the prob- 

 lems of acute congestion and overcrowding 

 of occupations. Consequently, it is natural 

 to suppose that many natives might seek 

 employment in Florida, making week-end 

 visits to their families in Cuban homes, 

 or might even settle in the State and return 

 to the island for a period long enough each 

 year to qualify as voters. Furthermore, 

 the swelling population and the railroad 

 may be factors which, working together, 

 will result in Cuba being tempted to annex 

 herself to the mainland. 



The governor of Camaguey Province 

 wants the mayor of Camaguey City sus- 

 pended for giving permission for cock- 

 fights on other days than Sunday and holi- 

 days, which are tlie days legally set apart 

 for the sport. 



Three members of the police force of 

 Santiago de Cuba were on trial for 

 abusing a prisoner so brutally that he died 

 from the injuries he received. The prose- 

 cuting attorney asked for fourteen j-ears 

 imprisonment for the chief of police, and 

 ten years each for two other officers who 

 were the assailants. The former was the 

 only one punished. 



President Gomez refused recently the 

 petition of a committee of negroes to 

 rescind the Morua law which forbids the 

 organization of colored citizens into an 

 independent party. The colored voters 

 are accordingly highly incensed. 



At a meeting of forty-one Cuban senators 

 and representatives held in the latter part 

 of February, thirty-seven expressed their 

 determination to support the candidacy of 

 Alfredo Zayas, the present vice-president, 

 for president. 



Cuba's hunting law provides that any 

 one caught without a license shall have 

 his weapons and hunting dogs confiscated. 

 The property is later sold at auction, and 

 the proceeds divided between the govern- 

 ment and the officer bringing the charge. 



A new beer brewing incorporated com- 

 pany in Havana at $500,000 has issued 5.000 

 shares at a value of $100.00. The govern- 

 ment tax amounted to $50,000. 



A money order department has been 

 established in connection with the post- 

 office at Carlos Rojas, Matanzas Province. 



When the North Atlantic Fleet was mak- 

 ing its way south of Guantanamo, a storm 

 of extreme furry burst upon the fleet, work- 

 ing swift damage, disabling many ships, and 

 causing the admiral to bid each disabled 

 vessel make its way to the nearest port 

 of refuge. During the greater part of 

 the gale, an official at Washington was in 

 touch with every battleship and cruiser in 

 the fleet, says the Scientific American. 

 Sitting in the quiet of his office, he learned 

 hour by hour how each vessel fared, where 

 she was, and how her course was laid. If 

 a heavy sea came aboard, smashing boats 

 and carrying away deck structures, the facts 

 were known within the hour and laid upon 

 his desk in a typewritten statement. He 

 was able to converse with the captain of 

 each ship, advise with him ; and in short, 

 tlirough the wonderful eyes and ears of the 

 wireless, he was in a position, had he so 

 wished, to control and co-ordinate the 

 movements of the scattered fleet with a 

 surer knowledge of their position and con- 

 dition than the admiral himself. The 

 most daring dream of Jules Verne never 

 carried him so far into the seemingly 

 miraculous as that ! 



George Eugene Bryson, well known as 

 a Cuban correspondent for various New 

 York newspapers before and after the 

 Spanish-American war, and active as a 

 lieutenant on the staff of Gen. Antonio 

 Maceo in the revolutionary affairs of Cuba, 

 died on February 22d at his home, in Ha- 

 vana. 



President Gomez has addressed a letter 

 to Captain Frank Parker, United States 

 army, asking him to remain in Cuba as 

 military instructor to the rural guard. The 

 letter expresses entire confidence in the 

 American officer. The act of the president 

 is the outgrowth of a statement made first 

 in La Discusiuu and later in La Ultima Hora 

 that the American note threatening inter- 

 vention in Cuba was due to misrepresen- 

 tations of Cuban conditions by Captain 

 Parker. 



England's importations of Cuban cigars 

 in 1911 exceeded 1910 by 6,647,838 cigars 

 and the United States purchased 4,377,059 

 cigars more in 1911 than in the previous 

 year, and at the same time its purchases 

 of leaf tobacco exceeded that of 1910 by 

 49,479 bales. Germany bought 1,482,105 

 more cigars in 1911 than in 1910, but its 

 importations of leaf tobacco were 5.040 

 bales less. — El Tobaco. 



A large order of stock saddles, among 

 which were about one hundred ranging in 

 price from $12.00 to $40.00, was recently 

 shipped to one of the largest dealers in 

 Cuba by the Nashville (Tenn.) Saddlery 

 Company. 



