CUBA 229 



blood, the Cubans, through adaptation to environment, have be- 

 come a different class from the people of the mother country, 

 just as the American stock has differentiated from the English. 

 Under the influence of their surroundings, they have developed 

 into a gentle, industrious, and normally peaceable race, not to 

 be judged by the combativeness which they have developed 

 under a tyranny such as has never been imposed upon any other 

 people. The better class of Camagueynos, as the natives are fond 

 of calling themselves, are certainly the finest, the most valiant, 

 and the most independent men of the island, while the women 

 have the highest type of beauty. It is their boast that no Cuban 

 woman has ever become a prostitute, and crime is certainly al- 

 most unknown among them. 



While these people may not possess our local customs and 

 habits, they have strong traits of civilized character, including 

 honesty, family attachment, hospitality, politeness of address, 

 and a respect for the golden rule. While numerically inferior 

 to the annual migration of Poles, Jews, and Italians into the 

 eastern United States, against which no official voice is raised, - 

 they are too far superior to these people to justify the abuse that 

 has been heaped upon them by those who have allowed their 

 judgment to be prejudiced by fears that they might by some 

 means be absorbed into our future population. 



Notwithstanding the disadvantages under which the Cubans 

 have labored, they have contributed many members to the 

 learned professions. To educate their sons and daughters in the 

 institutions of the United States, England, and France has always 

 been the highest ambition of the Creoles of Cuba and Porto Rico. 

 The influence of their educated men is felt in many countries, 

 the most distinguished professor of civil engineering, two lead- 

 ing civil engineers of our navy, and the most eminent authority 

 on yellow fever in. our country belonging to this class. Thou- 

 sands of these people, driven from their beloved island, have 

 settled in Paris, London, New York, Mexico, and the West In- 

 dies, where they hold honorable positions in society, and even 

 the exiles of the lower classes, with their superior agricultural 

 arts, have been eagerly welcomed in countries like Jamaica, Mex- 

 ico, and Florida, which hope to share with Cuba the benefits of its 

 tobacco culture. 



These are the people who are the leaders of the movement for 

 Cuba Libre and who struggled so valiantly to throw off the yoke 

 of an inferior governing class. No cause in all history has been 



