THE CUBA REVIEW 



19 



THE BLACKSMITH IN CUBA 



The United States government in its 

 daily consular and trade reports under date 

 of September 23, 1910, prints reports from 

 its consuls in various places regarding 

 horseshoeing supplies and blacksmiths tools 

 in use. On this subject the U. S. Consul- 

 General at Havana and the consuls at Cien- 

 fuegos and Santiago de Cuba report as fol- 

 lows : 



CoHSiil-General James L. Rodgers, Ha- 

 bana. — The general practice of horseshoe- 

 ing in Cuba is verj^ similar to that in the 

 United States, there being little if any 

 difference in the shoes, methods of work- 

 manship, or tools. The tools used are 

 usually of an inferior grade of American 

 and German make. A great majority of 

 the supplies used by the blacksmiths such 

 as rubber shoes, strip iron for making iron 

 shoes, nails, and blacksmithing coal, are 

 imported from the United States, and while 

 standard shoes in the rough are imported 

 in large quantities, a great many of the 

 iron shoes are made by the blacksmith = 

 themselves. This is especially true of mule 

 shoes, the large majority of draft animals 

 being mules of small size. 



Consul Max J. Baelir, Cienfuegos. — Of 

 the equipment in use in the ordinary shop 

 the bellows are of the old system, made 

 of boards joined together and covered with 

 leather or duck. The anvil for forging 

 and preparing shoes weighs between 100 

 and 200 pounds. There are various kinds 



of tongs, hammers, chisels, rasps, punches, 

 files, pincers, etc. The knife is usually 

 made from a piece of a machete and is 

 from 7 to 10 inches long. Common shoes 

 are made in the shops of wrought-iron 

 plate seven-eighths by one-quarter and one 

 by one-quarter inch. The iron comes 

 from the United States and Vizcaya, in 

 Spain, the latter being preferred as being 

 more flexible and less brittle. Heavy shoes 

 for large horses and mules are generally 

 made from old and worn shoes. The 

 horseshoes most in use are Xos. 6 and 7 

 and some No. 8. They are nearly all 

 from the United States, and some are im- 

 ported from Germany and Norwaj'. The 

 coal generally used is hard coal. Ready- 

 made and rubber shoes come from the 

 United States. 



Consul R. E. Holaday, Santiago. — With 

 few exceptions the tools used are of the 

 simple and antiquated pattern. Some of 

 them are made by the smith himself and 

 are very crude and unwieldy. All shoeing 

 supplies are imported. Most of the shoes 

 used are made by the blacksmith himself 

 from bar iron imported from England and 

 Germany. Shoes are imported in small 

 quantities by the hardware dealers from 

 the United States and sold to the black- 

 smith, but it is claimed that it is difficult 

 to utilize them on account of the small 

 size of the hoof of the Cuban horse. Xails 

 are imported from Germany and coal from 

 the United States. 



A\'ill Buy Our Securities 



In an address delivered October 3d, at 

 the annual meeting of the American Bank- 

 ers' Association, at Los Angeles, Cal., W. 

 A. M. Vaughan, vice-president of the asso- 

 ciation for Cuba and assistant cashier of 

 the National Bank of Cuba, the republic's 

 present most satisfactory commercial con- 

 dition and its future prosperity were again 

 presented, as those famiHar with the pros- 

 pects of the island never fail to point out. 



If her political history requires criticism. 

 said the speaker, then her commercial his- 

 tory deserves equal commendation. Her 

 foreign commerce is now over $200,000,000, 

 and it must grow rapidly. 



A hundred milHons dollars of American 

 capital is invested in Cuba, but this is only 

 35 per cent of the total foreign investment 

 for other countries were earlier in the field 

 and realized the opportunities the island af- 

 forded more quickly than the United States. 

 The speaker predicted that with her grow- 

 ing wealth Cuba would be in a short time 

 a market for American bonds and stocks. 



There are no obstacles to the growth of 



trade, for manufacturers can easily obtain 

 credit information and banking is done as 

 easilv in Cuba as in the states. 



Syndicates Buying Land 



Sydney Brooks, the well-known writer on 

 Anglo-American subjects, is authority for 

 the statement that Benjamin & Gee, a Lon- 

 don firm, is negotiating for the purchase at 

 24 shilHngs ($5.75) an acre of an estate 

 of 500,000 acres of freehold virgin forest 

 land thirty-five miles west of Santiago in 

 Cuba, with the intention of beginning its 

 development immediately. 



"I should not be surprised," he says 

 further, "to learn that a dozen syndicates 

 in London and New York are at this mo- 

 ment negotiating for the purchase of prop- 

 erties with all the potential richness of the 

 one mentioned. Cuba has long been called 

 the 'Pearl of the Antilles,' but it is only 

 now that the gem is beginning to be cut." 



Mr. Brooks urges English capitalists to 

 rush into every part of the island still 

 awaiting development. — Correspondence, 

 Chicago Daily Nezvs. 



