CUBA— THE SUGAR MILL OF THE ANTILLES 



33 



hour — fiction that 

 makes "Dare Devil 

 Dick" seem a "piker." 



After the cigars are 

 finished they are 

 placed in old seasoned 

 cedar bins, where they 

 get a little touch of 

 the cedar aroma, while 

 any surplus moisture 

 in them evaporates. 

 When ready for mar- 

 ket they are assorted 

 according to the color 

 of the wrapper and 

 packed in the boxes 

 we see at the cigar 

 stands. 



Each cigar-maker 

 usually smokes cigars 

 of the grade he makes, 

 and it very often hap- 

 pens that one of these 

 men smokes better ci- 

 gars than many Amer- 

 ican millionaires. 



The Cuban factories 

 in 1 91 9 produced 

 157,000,000 cigars for 

 export. Placed end 

 to end, they would 

 reach from the Straits 

 of Magellan to Sitka, 

 Alaska. 



The profits of the 

 tobacco and cigar busi- 

 ness in Cuba bring in 

 from the 



world a great toll 



outside 

 It 

 is only when consid- 

 ered in comparison 

 with the sugar trade 

 that these profits ap- 

 pear relatively small. 



There are many other industries which 

 would almost certainly become sources of 

 great wealth to Cuba were there less op- 

 portunity of making big money in sugar- 

 growing and tobacco-raising. Cuban sisal 

 might rival that from Yucatan ; Cuban 

 cattle might compete with those of Argen- 

 tina and Australia ; Cuban fruits might 

 claim their place in the world's markets 

 alongside those of Florida and California. 

 But the Cuban planter feels that of all 

 men he can best afford to let well enough 

 alone and stick to his two staple crops. 



(Q Underwood and Underwood 



Havana's public repository for unwanted babies: cuba 



This foundling asylum has a door where the mother of the un- 

 wanted baby may go in private, place it in a cupboard in the wall, 

 then shut the door. On the other side of the wall a Sister of Mercy 

 opens the cupboard, and the ill-starred child finds a home where 

 loving hearts are open to its misfortune. 



From whatever angle one views Cuba, 

 it is a land filled with interest, a land that 

 in twenty years has passed from gnaw- 

 ing starvation to overflowing plentv. 

 From one of the most wretched of com- 

 munities to one of the richest of peoples 

 is the transformation that two decades 

 have wrought ; and if the island shall be 

 a beacon light, guiding the ships of state 

 of other American nations into the har- 

 bor of permanent peace, the altruism of 

 the United States will be justified and 

 external guarantees of internal peace will 

 receive a rich vindication. 



