12 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



ALL AROUND CUBA 



INTERESTING NEWS NOTES REGARDING VARIOUS MATTERS PERTAINING 



TO THE ISLAND. 



CUBA'S EXPOSITION BUILDING 



The Reiniblic of Culja, the baby of nations, 

 has offered to its foster father, Uncle Sam, a 

 $100,000 present in the shape of its magnifi- 

 cent Spanish Renaissance Government 

 building, being constructed with the Presidio 

 section of the Panama-Pacific International 

 Exposition. Through its Commissioner, Gen- 

 eral Ernesto Lonaz del Castillo, the Island 

 Republic suggests that the building be used 

 as a permanent officers' quarters and club- 

 house for the U. S. army after the close of the 

 Exposition. 



The paviUon will carry the lines of Spanish 

 haciendas, being 117 x 144 feet and topped 

 with two main towers, 128 feet high. The 

 central patio, always a feature of Spanish 

 houses, will contain fountain and garden 

 effects, with electrical displays causing an 

 ever-changing wave of colors. A band shell 

 is provided for the music at balls and recep- 

 tions. 



The second floor will have a grand ball and 

 lounging rooms. The broad stairway is of 

 Spanish style and a superb work of art in it- 

 self. A conservatory, stocked with the rarest 

 trojiical flowers, will open off the upper patio. 

 The garden space around the pavilion is not 

 extensive, and General Castillo has requested 

 that additional garden space be allowed so 

 that Culia's floral settings may properly 

 ornate the building. 



Before the European war broke out. Gen- 

 eral Castillo, who was one of the Repubhc's 

 younger war heroes, assisted by Colonel 

 Fredericks, city engineer of Havana, had as- 

 sembled exhibits in accordance with the 

 Cuban Government's appropriation of $2.50,- 

 000. Realizing that the gigantic tragedy of 

 nations would mean the shifting of the balance 

 of trade to the western hemisjjhere and the 

 advent of a sort of commercial Monroe Doc- 

 trine, which would make all the commercial 

 Americans independent, Cu))a i)romptly an- 

 nounced her intention of doing what most of 

 the great South American Republics have 

 done, that is to increase the amount of space 

 allotment at the Exposition. 



"If a cjuarter of a million dollars is not 

 enough," declared the doughty general with 

 the customary pride of his race, "we shall 

 spend a good deal more than that. Cuba's 

 showing will be the most attractive of any 

 western country." 



Cuba's exhibits will be shown chiefly in 

 four or five of the main exhibit palaces, a re- 

 production of a big sugar mill, a tobacco fac- 

 tory in operation, and a Cuban garden occu- 

 pying the entire space beneath the biggest 

 glass dome in the world, are among her feat- 

 ures. The garden exhibit will include royal 

 palms 70 feet high, set in a circle interspersed 



with 50 foot Creole palms. Around these will 

 be grouped specimens of tropical fruit trees, 

 bearing the sapota, sweet sop, mango and alli- 

 gator ]jear. There will be Guanabana trees, 

 cacao and nispero trees. 



In the Palace of Education, Chief Alvin E. 

 Pope has arranged for a striking demonstra- 

 tion of Cuba's achievements in the line of 

 tropical sanitation and the eradication of yel- 

 low fever. Cuba is justly proud of this work 

 whereby she claims to have made possible 

 the digging of the Panama Canal. 



INFORMATION FROM MATANZAS 



The i^rice of food is steadily rising in Cuba, 

 as everywhere. The mighty struggle in 

 Europe is the direct cause of it. The doub- 

 ling in the price of sugar has made glad the 

 owners of Centrals, but the employees have 

 not had their salaries raised, and the farmer 

 who "raise cane" are paid the same old price, 

 while the poor people pay twice as much for 

 sugar that they paid two months ago. As most 

 of the sugar mills are owned abroad the money 

 does not remain in Cuba. No tobacco will be 

 raised this year; last year's crop is still unsold, 

 and the European market is a thing of the past. 

 Germany was Cuba's best customer. I pre- 

 sume they'll have to smoke beet leaves 

 steeped in nicotine till this cruel war is over. 

 Now is the time to lay in a supply of genuine 

 Havana cigars. 



Beef is still low in price and poor in quality; 

 not stall fed or grained, but tough and eaten 

 the day after it is killed. The Cuban insists 

 that ail the bones be removed before he pur- 

 chases. They have a strange way of prepar- 

 ing beef for the market. On the treeless, deso- 

 late, waterless shore of the ocean, many cattle 

 feed, some of them walking skeletons. I am 

 told they can not get fresh water and are com- 

 pelled to drink sea water which causes their 

 hair to fall off. So the process of curing the 

 hide is begun before the creature is killed. 



We read of Him who "tempers the wind to 

 the shorn lamb." Nature is very kind to the 

 sheep in this hot land. The thick wool is 

 slowly turned into hair. I have seen the pro- 

 cess going on to the great relief of the panting, 

 suffering sheep. Wool is not needed with the 

 thermometer at ninety degrees. A sheep cov- 

 ered with hair can keep cool. — E. P. Herrick, 

 Matanzas, in the New Milford {Conn.)GazeUe. 



Mrs. Zayas, wife of Dr. Alfredo Zayas, the 

 head of the liberal party and former vice- 

 president of the republic, died suddenly on 

 September 20. Mrs. Zayas was a victim of 

 Bright's disease, from which she had suffered 

 for a long time. Mrs. Zayas leaves her hus- 

 band and four children. 



