18 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



been to change this Spanish view and habit to something more in line with the modern, 

 progressive and practical methods the Americans introduced. The seed was sown, but 

 the intervention lasted too short a period to insure for it a permanent and sure develop- 

 ment. 



Mr. Bullard finds no color line in Cuban schools. "White, black and yellow European, 

 African and Asiatic, attend the schools, institutes and university, and work, play and sit 

 together in still unl)roken accord. White prefer white teachers, but the race question 

 rarely comes to the surface, as out of 4,000 teachers 300 only are emphatically negroes." 

 \Vomen constitute three- fourths of all the teachers, but Cuban mothers do not yet take 

 part or exhibit public interest in school matters. It may come later. But "the most 

 significant thing in all Cuban education," says the writer, "is the wide and ever-spreading 

 study of English among Cuba's two million people, forty thousand or one in every fifty 

 are studying English in some way in school or out. It shows the mental trend. 



Statistics show 3,538 class rooms in 1904-5 as against 3,699 in the school year of 

 1908-9. The census of 1904-5 showed a school population of 306,681 as against 336,524. 

 The registry gave 194,657 scholars in 1904-5 as against 190,122 in 1908-9. While the 

 actual attendance was 133,682 in 1904-5, the records for 1908-9 showed a roll call of 

 99,087. 



An important Cuban Industry 



"Camp No. 7 was made on March 8th 

 under a large, wild fig tree, near a stream 

 at .Mananteales (about 4,")0 metres altitude) 

 but no very good collecting ground was 

 found in the vicinity, dry hills and pastures 

 surrounding it. Here we had opportunity 

 of viewing an important Cuban industry, 

 tiie raising of righting cocks, one establish- 

 ment having some one hundred and rifty of 

 these birds, carefully labelled and variously 

 nriced up to high figures, and learned that 

 the region was famed far and wide for the 

 excellence of this product, which had the 

 curious result of making eggs high-priced 

 and difficult to obtain for culinary pur- 

 poses, because they miglit be hatched out 

 and yield cocks of great value !" 



The explorers also found the plains 

 about Trinidad infested by a spiny African 

 shrub, Dichrostacliys nutans, called "Aro- 

 ma" by the Cubans, of the Mimosa family, 

 growing three to five metres high and 

 densely covering many square miles of 

 land, formerly under cultivation, to the 

 practical exclusion of all other vegetation ; 

 it is most difficult to eradicate and a weed 

 of enormous vigor. It has also become 

 established in other parts of Cuba; the 

 plant is distributed by cattle, and is a se- 

 rious menace to agriculture. Xo econom- 

 ical method of extermination is as yet ap- 

 parent. — From the diary of Dr. N. L. Brit- 

 ton, director of the New York Botanical 

 Garden, who returned early in April from 

 a six weeks excursion into Cuba in search 

 of specimens. 



Cattle in Cuba have been suffering for 

 lack of rain, and there has been consider- 

 able mortality in Santa Clara, Matanzas, 

 Havana and Pinar del Rio provinces. Re- 

 ports from Camaguez and Oriente are on 

 the other hand very favorable. 



Roosevelt's Promises Kept 



At a dinner given at Chiristiana, Norway 

 l)y the Nobel Society, Colonel Theodore 

 Roosevelt, in the course of his address, 

 made the most intimate speech on Amer- 

 ican affairs of his entire trip, according 

 to the A'cw York American. Regarding 

 Cuba he spoke as follows : 



"I was particularly pleased about the 

 course of the American people in the 

 Philippines and Cuba. At the close of the 

 war of 1S98 the army was in possession of 

 Cuba. Man after man, diplomats of the 

 old school, said to me : 



" 'Of course, you will never get out of 

 Cuba. You say you will, but that's under- 

 stood. The nations do not expect prom- 

 ises like those to be kept.' 



"As soon as I became President I said : 

 'Now you will see those promises kept,' 

 and Cuba began its existence as an in- 

 dei)endent republic. 



"There came revolution. Men were 

 obliged to land troops again. The same 

 gentleman said: 



" 'Now you are relieved of your promise. 

 You must stay in Cuba.' I said, 'No. I 

 shall not only keep my promise to the 

 letter, but in the spirit. We stay in Cuba 

 to help until she is fit to help herself. 

 When we leave, the island will be in better 

 shape and fit to maintain permanence of 

 government.' 



"Before I left the Presidency Cuba had 

 resumed her career as an independent 

 country, a separate country, holding her 

 head up as a sovereign State among the 

 nations of the earth. 



"All our people want is the continuance 

 of order, peace and prosperity, so no shad- 

 ow may excuse any outside intervention." 



The president has granted exequaturs to 

 Pierre Henri Bryois to act as French con- 

 sul and to Herman Michaelsen to act a^ 

 French consul at Santiago de Cuba. 



