THE CUBA R E V I E W 



15 



The students of the Havana University 

 gave a country- breakfast in honor of Dr. 

 Joseph Price Remington, who is dean of 

 the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, 

 while he was visiting in Havana early in 

 January'. The breakfast was given at Puentes 

 Grandes near the citj', and the whole uni- 

 versity' turned out in honor of the distin- 

 guished guest. Later the Havana Medical 

 Society- tendered Dr. Remington a banquet 

 at which he met the city's noted medical 

 men. 



Four members of the Havana Band of 

 Mercy went to Alquizar, Havana Province, 

 on Christmas Day and stopped a bull fight 

 performance, which was given at that place. 

 It was onh- the determined attitude as- 

 sumed by the members of the Band of 

 Mercy party that stopped the spectacle, 

 for they announced that not only would 

 the picadors be prosecuted, but also the 

 mayor and the manager of the affair would 

 liave charges filed againts them for violat- 

 ing the laws of Cuba, so further proceed- 

 ings were called off. 



The Philadelphia Americans closed their 

 Cuban tour December ISth. The trip of 

 the champions was a financial success and 

 an artistic failure. The Athletics won only 

 a third of the games they played in Cuba. 

 News that the National Commission in 

 the near future will adopt stringent rules 

 prohibiting champion teams from coming to 

 the island hereafter reached the ball play- 

 ers and did not have a good effect on them 

 in the concluding games. The Athletics 

 cannot understand how they happened to 

 "be so easy for the Cuban teams, and blame 

 their reverses on the climate. 



A bill on December 16th, providing an 

 appropriation of $2-50,000 to finish the cen- 

 tral highway from Santa Clara to Calaba- 

 zar de Sagua, was referred to the commit- 

 tee on public works. 



JNIany counterfeit ten-dollar bills marked 

 series A and numbered 6023912 were in 

 ■circulation in Havana. The secret service 

 police declared they were brought from 

 Mexico. The coimterfeiters were arrested. 



The committee on public instruction fa- 

 vors the bill for the estabUshment of 150 

 additional schools over the island, granting 

 an appropriation of $150,000 for that pur- 

 pose. The report was placed on the calen- 

 dar of the senate. 



The completion of the cart road from 

 Santa Clara to Calabazar de Sagua, to cost 

 $150,000, is asked for. 



Sefiora Ana Quesada Cespedes, widow of 

 the first president of Cuba, who held office 

 during the ten years' war in the '70s, and 

 mother of Dr. Cespedes y Quesada, Cuban 

 minister to Italv. died in Paris. December 

 22d. 



The bandit Solis, who has long been 

 operating in Santa Clara Province, carrying 

 off prominent men and their children and 

 collecting large ransoms, has succeeded in 

 collecting $10,000 from the relatives of one 

 of his boy prisoners. The difficulty in cap- 

 turing the bandit lies in the fact that he has 

 the protection of all the country people. 

 He preys on the well-to-do alone, and dis- 

 tributes much of what he receives in ran- 

 soms among the poor, who are conse- 

 quently sure to do all they can to save him 

 from the authorities. 



The Cuban Telephone Company is busily 

 working at its larger contract of stringing 

 its net of wires throughout the island. 

 The long-distance lines are already com- 

 pleted to Marianao on the west, to Luyano 

 on the east, and to x^rroyo Apolo on the 

 south, and it is quite probable that commu- 

 nication will be had with Matanzas and 

 Pinar del Rio in the next three months. 



On December 16th, the senate approved 

 the house pill providing for a commission 

 to revise the penal code. 



Cuba's Forest Resources 



Semler* takes a very gloomy view of for- 

 est conditions in the West Indies. He thinks 

 that on the whole the West Indies present 

 a sad picture of forest destruction. The 

 small islands are robbed of their former 

 forest wealth ; and the large ones, like Ja- 

 maica, San Domingo and Cuba, have only 

 remnants. What little is left is almost en- 

 tirely in the hands of private individuals, 

 and nothing is done for the preservation 

 of the forests. 



John T. Rea,§ who lived for four years 

 in the West Indies, takes a more optimistic 

 view of the situation, and since his ob5er\-a- 

 tions are more recent, and many of them 

 are original, they are apparently more trust- 

 worthy than Semler's. 



Little definite informatinn is to be had 

 concerning the forest area of Cuba. It 

 probably does not exceed 5,000,000 or 

 6,000,000 acres, which, with a population 

 of 2,050,000, makes the area per capita 

 about 3 acres, and constitutes about 20 per 

 cent of the total land area. Such an area 

 with the small local demand for wood, if 

 the forests are properly manag'^d and cared 

 for, certainly ought to furnish a sufficient 

 supply for home consumption. L^nfortun- 

 ately, however,* the forests do not contain 

 the kinds of timber needed for most pur- 

 poses, and hence large quantities are im- 

 ported annually. — From Bulletin S3, United 

 States Department of Agriculture, Forest 

 Service. 



* "Tropische und Nordamerikanische Waldwirt- 

 schaft und Holzkunde," Heinrich Semler, Berlin. 

 18SS. 



§ The Indian Forester, Dec, 1902, p. 44a. "West 

 Indian Timbers." 



