THE CUBA R E V I E W 



21 



BASEBALL IN CUBA 



\lthousih professional baseball in Cuba 

 is reallv'"only about two years old. three 

 baseball clubs are now fully established in 

 the city of Havana and tremendous inter- 

 est in the game has developed. 



"Of course the national language ot 

 baseball is American slang," said Senor 

 Elev Martinez, president of the Almendares 

 Club of Havana, in a recent interview, 

 "and we use the same terms in describing 

 points of the game. A fly is a fly, and a 

 strike a strike. However, our people have 

 not all caught on to the pronunciation of 

 some of the words in vogue, and you might 

 not recognize a "hit.' The umpire calls 

 'one ball' and not 'uno bola.' When there 

 is a dispute over a decision, there is apt to 

 be a medlev of languages. In the games 

 with the American teams we have one 

 American umpire, and the other is a Cu- 



"There are several Cuban players who 

 have been doing well in this country on the 

 big league teams. For instance there is 

 Marsans, of the Cincinnatis, who is the 

 manager of Almendares. We call him the 

 'Cuban Tv Cobb' and are very proud of 

 him He" ranks second in stealing bases 

 among the big professionals Then there 

 are two Cubans on the Washington team, 

 Calvo and Acosta, who play ball at home 

 in the winter." 



MOTOR CARS AND AUTO TRUCKS 



The Canadian Acting Trade Commis- 

 sioner at Havana states, in a recent report 

 to his government, that many motor cars 

 have been brought into Cuba directly hy 

 their owners, or through commission 

 agents who have sold from catalogs. Deal- 

 ers and commission agents seem to be 

 willing to order from the cataloo- and im- 

 port any kind of machine for which a cus- 

 tomer may express a preference, though 

 few dealers have any proper agencies, in 

 spite of this slack state of affairs, however, 

 there are manv motor cars in Havana. 



There is undoubtedly a large held tor 

 trade in inotor lorries or trucks on the 

 sugar estates of Cuba, but at present difh- 

 culties would be encountered because of the 

 deep mud of the cane fields. Much inter- 

 est is also being shown in motor lorries at 

 Havana: a numl)er are already in use and 

 latterly several sami)le lorries for demon- 

 stration purposes have arrived from the 

 United States and iuiropc. As many of 

 the streets in the city are very narrow, an 

 cxcci)tionally short wheel base is necessary 

 in order tr^ negotiate the sharp street cor- 

 ners successfully. 



'ihc new wharf of the Cuban Company 

 ill .Mau/.anillo has been officially accepted. 



NEW POWER PLANT AT HAVANA 



The Havana Electric Railway & Power 

 Co. has now under construction a 40,000 

 h. p. plant in the harbor of Havana. At 

 present there are three power plants in the 

 citv of Havana ; one being for the railway, 

 the second an independent power plant and 

 the third a gas and electric plant. These 

 three plants have recently been consoh- 

 dated bv American interests and now a new- 

 plant is" lieing constructed to take care of 

 the power required for all such work m 

 Havana. At the completion of the plant 

 under construction the other plants will be 

 dismantled. 



Four reinforced concrete chimneys have 

 been contracted for with a Chicago firm. 



For this plant all coal is imported from 

 the United States at a considerable expense 

 necessitating an economical boiler mstalla- 

 tion Each of the four chimneys will be 

 •'75 feet high with a 14-foot inside diameter 

 at the top; the foundations are a mat 40 

 by 40 feet and 6 feet thick, reinforced both 

 parallel to the sides and diagonally, and 

 rest on wood piling. 



American cement is being used througn- 

 out this work, and precautions are being 

 taken to prevent any retards in the set ot 

 the cement due to the unusual element m 

 the water. While there is a cement mi m 

 Havana, the chimney contractor, as well as 

 other contractors on the island doing large 

 work prefers American cement. 1 he cost 

 of the native and the American cement are 

 practically the same, being approximately 

 ?2 >^5 per barrel. 



RELIGIOUS MATTERS 



Rev Albion W. Knight, missionary 

 bishop to Cuba, has resigned his ottice and 

 will be the Vice-Chancellor of the Uni- 

 versity of the South at Sweanee, Tenn. 



The Pope has nominated Archbishop 

 Nouel of Santo Domingo apostolic delegate 

 to Cuba and Porto Rico. Archbishop Nouel 

 was for a short time president of the re- 

 public of Santo Domingo after the down- 

 fail of the Victoria regime. 



Tlic Protestant Episcopal House of 

 I'.ishops in session in New York on Octo- 

 lier 24th nominated the Rev. William C. 

 P.rown for the ])lace of bishop of Cuba. 

 The nomination was approved by the house 

 of deputies. . 



Bishop P.rown is an archdeacon stationed 

 now in F.razil. Me is proficient in Spanish. 



President Menocal desires a congres- 

 .sional discussion of the general reorganiza- 

 tion of Cul)a's army, wliich, it is under- 

 stood, will be radical if tlie a(hninislrati<)n s 

 wishes are observed. 



