12 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



GENERAL NOTES 



MATANZAS TELEPHONE PLANT 



The telephone plant of the city of Ma- 

 tanzas has been offered for sale by the 

 government in a decree signed by President 

 Gomez. All the rights and interests in the 

 plant have passed into the hands of the 

 government through the expiration of the 

 franchise under which it was operated by 

 a local company. It will now be sold to 

 the highest bidder subject to right of "tan- 

 teo" enjoyed by the Cuban Telephone Com- 

 pany. 



Under this right the telephone company 

 has the privilege of equaling or of raising 

 the figures of the highest bid, providing 

 the company is not the highest bidder when 

 the bids are opened. 



IMPROVED HOSPITAL SERVICE 



Havana will soon put into public service 

 two automobile ambulances to cost $10,000. 

 The necessary appropriation has been ap- 

 proved by the municipal council. 



A new emergency hospital is planned for 

 Luyan's, a suburb of the capital. 



La Lucha, a daily newspaper of Havana, 

 find considerable fault with the ambulance 

 service of the city, complaining that doc- 

 tors use the ambulances for private uses. 

 It says : 



"A spectacle that is commonly given in 

 this city is to see persons who have been 

 injured rushed to the nearest emergency 

 hospital in a hired hack, altogether inap- 

 propriate for such a purpose, or to see an- 

 other injured person placed on any sort 

 of a handy shelf and borne on the shoul- 

 ders of his working companions." 



The city medical services will also be 

 reorganized. The Council has resolved that 

 the city should engage the services of 

 twenty physicians to attend and give first 

 aid, and ten other physicians to devote 

 their time exclusively to the poor while 

 a new plan of having charity inspectors 

 visit the needy as it is done in other coun- 

 tries, is to be put in force. 



CUBAN TOWNS GET WATER 



A new aqueduct which draws its source 

 from Las Canteras springs near Calabazar, 

 and which produces 3,600 litres of water 

 per minute, will supply Santiago de las 

 Vegas, Calabazar, Rincon and Rancho Boy- 

 eros, all in Havana province, as well as 

 the tobacco plantations and orange groves 

 in the district. 



The aqueduct is owned by a private com- 

 pany which was organized in 1910 under 

 the name of the Alberro Canal Company, 



of which prominent Havana capitalists are 

 interested and of which Dr. Fernando San- 

 chez de Fuentes, Congressman-elect for 

 Havana, is Secretary. The cost of the 

 aqueduct has been up to the present $107,- 

 000. A pumping station conveys the water 

 to a reservoir located near by with a ca- 

 pacity of three million gallons. From 

 thence the water is sent through cast-iron 

 pipes to the different towns and farms. 

 There are special rates for workingmen's 

 homes and no rental is charged when 

 houses are unoccupied, despite the fact that 

 the rates are per annum. 



THE CUBAN CHESS CHAMPION 

 CAPPABLANCA 



There never has been a chess player be- 

 fore Cappablanca who paid so much atten- 

 tion to outdoor sports and one who actually 

 made it a point to build up his body in all 

 directions. He plays billiards, pool, base- 

 ball, lawn tennis, etc., things which bene- 

 fit his body and health to a great extent, 

 thus being an all-round athlete. He, there- 

 fore, when sitting down to a game of 

 chess, never knows the word fatigue. His 

 mental capabilities are always fully at his 

 command, and that is one great secret of 

 his success. On the other hand, he has 

 two other great qualities. He does not 

 smoke and he does not drink alcoholic 

 mixtures in whatever shape. Janowski has 

 said that non-smoking and non-drinking is 

 almost equal to a pawn and move, meaning 

 thereby that he could almost give pawn and 

 move to any player in his class. Of course, 

 that is a little exaggeration, but every point 

 counts. As a rule Cappablanca is disposed 

 to be very light-hearted. He can laugh 

 like a young boy and can enjoy a joke at 

 any time. Of course, he can also be very 

 stern, but what is a man without tempera- 

 ment? — Havana Post. 



The international chess tournament in 

 Havana came to an end March 6th with 

 Frank Marshall, the American champion, 

 winning by one point over his rival, Jose 

 Raul Cappablanca, the Cuban champion, 

 thus reversing the tables as to what had 

 happened in the late New York tourney. 



Marshall received $500.00, the first prize, 

 and Cappablanca the second, which was 

 $350.00. Marshall won 10% games, lost 

 3%, and Cappablanca won 10, lost 4. 



The Manzanillo Water and Light Com- 

 pany has asked for an extension of time 

 of one year to complete the work of es- 

 tablishing an electric plant in that city. 

 The concession was granted in February, 

 1912. 



