THE CUBA REVIEW 



17 



stopped during the funeral of Sir William Van 

 Home; and on that day a monument fvuid was 

 started by a grateful people. September 14 

 was also memorable for a Presidential decree 

 interdicting the use of Spanish silver after 

 December 1; it will then be subject to confis- 

 cation, although the amount in circulation 

 when the decree issued was said to be $10,000,- 

 000. Spanish silver has been a nuisance in 

 Cuba, and particularly in Havana, since the 

 war of liberation; but where was the law for 

 confiscation found? However, the sanitary 

 law can be praised. You may now drink good 

 milk in the capital. In 161 inspections during 

 the month of September only five impure 

 samples were found. 



Could there be anything more curious than 

 the act of two negro women who killed their 

 one himdred-y ear-old father at Tejera be- 

 cause voodooists believe that "centenarian 

 blood" will insure longevity to one who 

 drinks it? Very old age, by the way, is not 

 unusual in Cul^a. On September 20 Ana 

 Medina died in a Havana tenement after 

 living 122 years; and on the same day Felipe 

 Betancourt, 110. was arrested for sleeping in 

 a doorway. Many of the oldest people are 

 part negro, which is a reminder of the statis- 

 tician Jorge Le Roy's tabulated statement 

 (September 7) that the negro race is slowly, 

 l)ut surely disappearing in Cuba. So are 

 impressions reversed. 



Havana is gro\s'ing more moral and beauti- 

 ful. One himdred haunts of vice were razed in 

 September. The attractive Country Club 

 Park at Marianao was opened. Cocoanut 

 and other palms were planted on the Prado 

 and the Malecon. Subscriptions opened for 

 the erection of a monument ($70,000) to Dr. 

 Carlos J. Finlay. Mayor Andrade refused 

 a i)ermit for an anti-German play based on the 

 Lusitania horror. And aljout the same time 

 the British Minister complained that small 

 boys were throwing stones at the legation. 

 ObA'iously Havana in spots is not neutral. 



Twice during the month President IMenocal 

 went fishing and duck shooting. He did not, 

 however, go on the trail of the circus lion that 

 after ravaging Santa Clara for three months 

 was killed near Sancti Spiritus. Negro agita- 

 tion against the whites was reported in 

 Oriente — -stock Cuban news. Haytian Dr. 

 Bobo's name was coupled with it. With this 

 review of the news of month l^efore last, does 

 it not appear that Cuba is worth a little more 

 attention?— jT/ie N. Y. Sun. 



CUBA HAS NEED OF ENGLISH 



With the teacliing of foreign languages in 

 the public schools of this country there is 

 abundant lack of sympathy among thought- 

 ful critics of our educational system. Many 

 of them frankly disapprove of such instruc- 

 tion, not because they think it at all a bad 

 thing for anybody to know one or several 

 languages besides liis own, they know better 

 than that — 'but because in only the rarest 

 instances does the language teaching here 

 lead anywhere near to facility in either read- 

 ing or speaking, and therefore to almost no 

 profit, the pupil's usually all-too-scanty time 

 for study is diverted from subjects of more 

 immediate and vital importance. 



These arguments apply also to the public 

 schools of Cuba, of course, but there the con- 

 ditions are different — so widely different that 

 probably the Cubans will make a serious mis- 

 take if they carry out the announced inten- 

 tion of ceasing to teach English in their 

 schools. 



The young Culjan needs English vastly 

 more than the young American needs Span- 

 ish for instance or any other European tongue 

 and he can afford to give not a little time to the 

 acquisition of something that will be directly 

 and permanently useful in whatever may be 

 his business. For him it will not be a mere 

 accomplishment. The Islanders would be 

 well advised to think again and several times 

 before they carry out a plan the execution of 

 which will tend to restrict and keep diflacult 

 their relations with neighbors who, though not 

 much or at all loved by them, yet are good 

 friends in a rather tactless way, and even 

 better customers for all that Cuba produces. 

 — N. Y. Time.'i. 



ENGLISH DROPPED IN CUBA 



Among the legacies to Cuba left by the last 

 American occupation of the island was a pro- 

 vision in the part of its Constitution known 

 to us as the Piatt Amendment that the Eng- 

 lish language should be taught in its public 

 schools. Now it happens that, in spite of all 

 that we think we did for the Cubans when we 

 started them gomg as a very nearly indepen- 

 dent nation, a good many of them do not have 

 for us a love that could accurately be called 

 passionate, and not a few are distinctly and 

 continuously fretted by the few compulsions 

 under which they still lie. 



Of course it cannot be that any Cuban of 



