THE CUBA REVIEW 



15 



ALL AROUND CUBA 



INTERESTING NEWS NOTES REGARDING VARIOUS MATTERS PERTAINING 



TO THE ISLAND 



A national charter has been granted a 

 life insurance company in Cuba, and will 

 be in operation by January 1, 1911, or pos- 

 sibly by November of this year. The name 

 of the new company is "La Compania Na- 

 cional de Seguros de Cuba," and Col. La 

 Gage Pratt, formerly vice-president of the 

 Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Co. of New- 

 ark, N. J., has accepted the office of gen- 

 eral manager of the new company. 



Mons. Ferdinand Frangois d'Orleans de 

 Bourbon, Due de Montpensier, who is re- 

 lated to King Alfonso and is an officer in 

 the Spanish navy, recently reached Havana 

 on his way from Mexico to New York. 

 In an interview with a representative of 

 La Discusion of Havana, he made the state- 

 ment that the blowing up of the "Maine" 

 was, in his judgment, intentional, although 

 not done by Spaniards. He considered it 

 the sole pretext for the Spanish-American 

 War. 



. The Belgian government, through its 

 minister in Cuba, has presented a claim to 

 the State Department for indemnity for the 

 death of Engineer Liarge, who was a Bel- 

 gian subject, and was killed in a dynamite 

 explosion at Pinar del Rio, on May 18th 

 last. A large indemnity is asked of the 

 Cuban government, to be paid to the family 

 of Engineer Liarge. 



The will of the late G. Lawton Childs, the 

 Havana banker, shows an estate of approxi- 

 mately $400,000. Under the provisions Mrs. 

 Childs, who will continue the business in 

 Havana, and the children will receive the 

 income from the investments and property 

 of the estate until the youngest child reaches 

 the age of 25 years, when a division will be 

 made between the surviving children. 



Succumbing to pneumonia, Mrs. Matilda 

 Morales, wife of Mr. Alfredo Martin Mo- 

 rales, private secretary to President Gomez, 

 of Cuba, and one of the foremost editors in 

 Spanish-America, died at her residence in 

 New York City on July 2.3d. 



Mrs. Morales was one of the best-known 

 women in Cuba. She was born at Cien- 

 fuego.e forty-five years ago, the daughter 

 of a wealthy planter. She was active in 

 humanitarian and philanthropic work in 

 Cuba, and her death will be mourned. 



On July 26th a new telegraph station was 

 established at Jagueyal, Camaguey. 



Havana's mayor has forbidden "high- 

 toned" colors on the city's houses, and re- 



quires conservative tints. All houses and 

 stores painted in loud colors must be re- 

 painted within seventy days. Whitewash 

 is prohibited entirely because injurious to 

 the eye. These rulings are in accordance 

 with the city's building ordinances. 



Secretary of Public Instruction Mario 

 Garcia Kohly is planning to compel the at- 

 tendance of children at the schools. He 

 finds absenteeism is not so much truancy 

 as negligence on the part of the parents. 

 At present the police have the work in 

 charge, but little has been done. 



The offices of the Havana Chamber of 

 Commerce, Industry and Navigation have 

 been removed to No. 17 Amargura Street, 

 second floor. The secretary of the corpo- 

 ration is Sr. Laureano Rodriguez. 



A project before Havana s city council is 

 for the construction of a grand arcade, 

 which will necessitate the demolishing of 

 the houses on the block between O'Reilly 

 and Obispo streets and from Mercaderes 

 Street to Albears Square. 



The steel and concrete bridge over the 

 Almendares River, uniting Havana and 

 Marianao, was formally taken over recently 

 by the provincial authorities. The total 

 cost of the structure was $217,000. Its 

 length is 700 feet, and its width 44% feet. 



President Gomez has issued a decree 

 providing that the children of the public 

 schools swear allegiance to the Cuban flag 

 on the first day of the school^ year during 

 the inauguration exercises which it is cus- 

 tomary to hold on that date. 



A question arises as to how this decree 

 will affect American children who are at- 

 tending schools where instruction is given 

 in the English language. 



Among the presidential messages sub- 

 mitted to the Congress was one, urgently 

 recommending an immediate campaign 

 against the spread of tuberculosis, which 

 seems again to have reached alarming pro- 

 portions, there having been, according to a 

 New York Herald despatch, about 39,084 

 deaths from the disease during the last ten 

 years in Havana alone. 



Chaparra, under the management of 

 General Mario Menocal, has increased its 

 output from year to year very materially. 

 The production in 1906 was 259,002 bags ; 

 in 1907, 337,000; in 1908, 251,585, and last 

 year, 482,4g8, 



