A Little Journey to Puerto Rico by Marian M. George
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Marian M. George >> A Little Journey to Puerto Rico
Others have a palm branch twined among the iron bars of their balconies,
or placed aloft, to protect the house from evil. This branch was one of
those blessed at the cathedral the last Palm Sunday.
A piece of white paper floating from the iron railing of a balcony tells
us that the house is to let. Here buildings can be rented by the day or
week, as well as by the month or year.
The dwellings and other buildings are of gray stone or brick, stuccoed
over and tinted blue, yellow, drab or any other color but pink.
About half the houses are two stories in height, the others one story;
but all are flat-roofed and without chimneys. The main or upper story
has iron balconies which project over the narrow streets and darken
them. The houses have no windows of glass, but the window openings are
provided with heavy shutters. We enter these houses through interior
courts or patios.
Many of the rich Puerto Ricans have fountains, trees, and flowers in
these open central courts; a few have roof gardens. Here the family sits
in the evening to catch the cool sea breezes. Others sit on their
balconies along the outside of the house, or along the inner court or
patio.
The patio is the coolest place about the house during the heated hours
of the day. Here the women bring their sewing or embroidery, and chat.
It is also the favorite playground of the children, and in its shade the
men of the household take their afternoon nap.
There are no yards or gardens attached to these houses. The only green
spots to be found are the inner courts, the public squares or plazas,
and the garden of the Governor-General's palace.
There is no portion of the city set aside for the rich or the poor.
People of means, of education, and of refinement live in the upper
stories. The poor live in crowded rooms and patios, and in basements or
in dirty alleys.
Many of the wealthy, fashionable people live in the pretty suburban
towns. Others, who are engaged in business in the cities, live over
their stores, on the second floor.
The lower floors are occupied by servants, or poor people. To reach the
upper stories of these buildings, we must pass through a crowd of
children, dogs, and poultry in the courtyard below.
Upstairs the rooms are large and the ceilings lofty. The windows reach
to the floor, and the shutters are kept open to admit the air.
The homes of even the wealthy seem to us plainly furnished. There is no
upholstered furniture. It is too warm for this, they tell us. But wood
furniture, wickerwork, and willow ware are used.
The floors in the best houses are tiled or are made of hard wood.
Carpets are never used, but rugs are seen occasionally in the center of
a room.
The bedrooms are small and not well ventilated. The beds are canopied
and trimmed with fine handmade lace.
The walls are usually bare; but here and there a fine painting may be
seen. Giant ferns and broad-spreading palm leaves are used to festoon
the walls and arched doorways. These are cut fresh and renewed from day
to day, and they make the dark, cool rooms attractive and inviting.
Within and without the house, potted tropical plants are found.
Peeping into the bath room of one of these homes we see, not a bath
tub, but a swimming pool large enough to accommodate a young whale.
We think this an improvement on our bath tubs at home, and of the joy it
would give the average United States boy to add such a feature to his
own home.
FOOD AND DRINK.
For water the people have, until quite recently, been dependent upon
cisterns, in which the rain that falls upon the flat roofs is collected.
These cisterns are in the patio, or courtyard, and an open drain runs
through the same place.
[Illustration: THE BREAD SELLER.]
Much of the cooking is done here by the poorer people.
It seems to us that cooking in houses without chimneys would be rather
difficult, but then these people do not use stoves or coal. They cook
over a small pot, or brazier, or furnace of charcoal.
They cook less food, too, than people who live in the North. They live
largely on fruits and vegetables and have little meat.
Ice is used only by the families of the wealthy, and it is impossible to
keep milk or fresh meat for any length of time. In place of ice-water
the people store water in porous jars, and in this way it is kept cool.
They prepare many refreshing drinks to be used in place of water by
using oranges, lemons, limes, cocoanuts, and the milk of almonds.
They also indulge very often in little ices, which the venders bring to
the doors many times a day.
The poorer people, who can not afford to indulge in such expensive
drinks and ices, use barley water, or water with toasted corn and sugar
in it.
The people have coffee or chocolate and biscuits for the first or early
breakfast. The second breakfast is eaten between eleven and twelve
o'clock, and corresponds to our lunch. Dinner is eaten at six or seven
o'clock in the evening.
Many of the business men take the morning meal with their clerks at a
long table on a veranda, or in a room of the establishment. From three
to four o'clock in the afternoon everyone indulges in a siesta or nap.
Along the wharves and in the outskirts of the city, the houses are but
one story high, and many of them are built of wood. These houses have
but one window and are dark and poorly ventilated; yet they are crowded
with poor people.
Some of them have patches of garden separated by rows or hedges of
cactus. Here we see brown mothers sitting in the sun mending fish nets.
Their naked little children are at play near them.
* * * * *
THE PEOPLE OF PUERTO RICO.
The people of Puerto Rico, on a casual glance, appear to us to come from
every nation on earth. The first person you meet will be black, the next
brown, the third yellow, and the fourth white.
After a time we are able to divide them into five classes: the upper
class of white Puerto Ricans; the lower class of whites, or peasants;
the negroes; the mixed people of negro and Indian or other blood; and
the foreigners.
Among these last are Germans, Swedes, Danes, Russians, Frenchmen,
descendants of Moorish Jews and of natives of the Canary Islands.
All of these people speak Spanish, however, and have the Spanish
customs, manners, and religion.
Of the 850,000 people, less than one half are colored or of mixed blood.
The upper class of white Puerto Ricans is descended from Spanish stock,
and in this class are found the wealthy planters and stock raisers, the
merchants, and the professional men.
They are a happy, good-looking, hospitable, polite, and prosperous
people. Many of them are fairly well educated.
In appearance these people resemble the Cubans, having regular features
and dark hair and eyes.
The men are not large, but are well built, erect and graceful.
The women have clear complexions, delicate features, and small hands and
feet.
Heavy clothing is not worn. The men dress in white (light linen or
cotton), and the women in cotton or other thin material.
The ladies of the family are secluded very closely. They spend much of
their time in the patios or on the balconies of their homes,
embroidering, making lace, and gossiping. They care little for reading
or for study.
The Puerto Rican is generous and hospitable. He tells you, as does the
Cuban, that his house and all it contains, his servants, his horses, his
possessions, are yours to use and to have.
But of course he does not mean that you shall accept these gifts. He
means that he expects you to use them freely so long as you are a guest
in his house.
By these well-to-do people, any sort of labor is regarded as degrading
and altogether out of the question; so they keep many servants. Some are
paid and some receive only their board and clothes. But all are content.
The working people are of one color, a light brown, with black eyes and
straight hair. They are rather small and thin; and many of those living
in the cities are ill-fed and diseased.
They are ignorant and somewhat indolent, but are gentle, quick of wit,
and teachable. Though cruel to their animals, they are kind to their
children.
There are many beautiful girls in the lower classes as well as in the
upper, and these we see on the streets and in the market places.
Many of them use long scarlet shawls and wear black satin slippers on
their bare, pretty little feet. They are as proud of their little feet
as of their hands. Some of the girls in the market have hair
three-quarters the length of their body; but while it is so black and
abundant, it is extremely coarse. The laboring men cut their hair short
in the neck, and wear a thick bang on the forehead.
[Illustration: A BEGGAR OF PUERTO RICO.]
In many parts of the island beggars appeal to us with outstretched hand.
Even the little children are taught to add their mite to the family
income by begging.
In Ponce these beggars secure a special license to pursue this
profession and have a regular system. In certain houses, on certain
days, a little table is placed in the doorway and a row of copper cents
or coins upon it.
The beggars who are privileged to come to these homes, come at the right
time, take their pennies, and with a "Thank you!" shamble off.
CHILD LIFE.
Formerly lessons never bothered the small Puerto Rican, or indeed any
other Puerto Rican child. He played "hookey" all day long, and no truant
officer disturbed him, or dragged him off to school.
He never saw a schoolhouse or the inside of a schoolroom. He never saw a
book. But, for that matter, neither did his father or mother. They can
neither read nor write; nor can many of their neighbors.
The Puerto Rican city child often lives in a crowded basement, with many
brothers and sisters. The child of poor parents in the cities is not
usually very clean; but then he has very few opportunities for bathing,
and his only playground is the courtyard and the streets.
His little country cousins, who live where pools and streams are found,
spend much of their time in the water. They find it pleasanter to paddle
in cool streams, beneath overhanging tree ferns and banana trees, than
to roll in the dirt.
They object, however, to wearing clothes, and are allowed to go without
any until they are ten or twelve years of age. Even at this age they
shed briny tears when compelled to put on one cotton garment.
These little country children learn to be helpful at a very early age.
They fish and catch crabs; weed the garden; dig potatoes; gather fruit,
vegetables and coffee; and do errands.
But they have one bugaboo, and that is the wild dog. This animal is very
fierce. It sometimes leaves its hiding place in the forest, with a pack
of companions, and carries off sheep, pigs, and calves.
If very hungry, it may attack a child; and so the children keep a sharp
lookout for it.
Children in Puerto Rico sleep on the floor or in a hammock, and they eat
whenever or wherever they can find fruit or vegetables within their
reach. Sometimes they smoke, too.
They have no toys, no books, no pictures, no fine clothes or homes; yet,
for all that, they are cheerful and contented. They have little, but
they seem to want little.
The children of the wealthy and well-to-do dress and look very much like
the children in our Southern States; though the babies and very young
children sometimes wear no clothes.
These children are sent to school, or are taught by a governess or tutor
at home, until they are old enough to be sent away to school.
Then they are sent to Spain, France, or the United States, to complete
their education.
The girls study and read very little. It is not considered necessary
for them to be well educated. They are not allowed to walk about the
streets alone, but must have a servant, nurse, or attendant from the
time they leave their cradles until they are married.
EDUCATION IN PUERTO RICO.
Not more than one seventh of the 850,000 people in Puerto Rico can read
or write. Only one child in twelve, between the ages of six and sixteen,
attends school. (In 1897, of 125,000 children of school age, only about
28,000 attended school--about 19,000 boys and 9,000 girls.)
The buildings used for school purposes are seldom anything more than
thatched huts. Sometimes two or three rooms are given to the school in
the house where the teacher lives.
Many of the country districts are without schools, and no school
privileges are provided for three fourths of the people.
The schools are of the old-fashioned, ungraded, district-school type,
and are for pupils from seven to thirteen years of age.
Pupils are supposed to study arithmetic, geography, grammar, the history
of Spain, and religion. There are few schoolbooks used. The pupils write
down what the teacher dictates, or copy what the teacher has written.
The one book they use is the one from which they learn to read.
Arithmetic problems are often worked out on the floor with bits of clay.
There are from fifty to one hundred and twenty-five pupils in each room,
and two or three teachers. The pupils sit on long benches or on the
floor. The boys and girls have separate schools; but the white and the
colored pupils attend the same school.
The pupils are bright and quick to learn, but there is no discipline in
the schoolroom. They come and go as they please. They stay at home if
they wish, and no truant officer disturbs them.
Many remain away from school because of a lack of clothing. Others
remain away because they prefer to play in the streets. Their parents
are careless and indifferent to the advantages of an education, and make
no effort to induce their children to attend school, or to study.
This unfavorable state of things is soon to disappear. The United States
is now rapidly introducing schools and capable teachers into every part
of the island. The people seem very glad to take advantage of the better
order of things.
RELIGION.
The established church of the country is the Roman Catholic; but other
religions are tolerated, and a few Protestant churches are to be found
scattered over the island.
The people seem to be little interested in religion or in their
churches, and Sunday with them is only a fete day or a holiday.
HOW THE PEOPLE AMUSE THEMSELVES.
The people of Puerto Rico have two hundred holidays or feast days in
their calendar. They are always ready to welcome new ones, however, and
have within the past year added Washington's birthday and the Fourth of
July to the list.
Last year they celebrated the Fourth for the first time. In all the
cities there were speeches in the daytime and fireworks at night. In the
country there were races and processions in honor of the new "feast
day," or holiday.
The people show their patriotism and loyalty to the flag of the United
States in many ways. They are eager and quick to adopt American manners
and customs.
Just before sunset, the band comes into the Plaza at Ponce and plays the
"Star Spangled Banner" in front of headquarters as the American flag is
drawn down for the night.
The Puerto Ricans noticed that the American men took off their hats and
stood with uncovered heads while the flag made its descent; and now
they, too, show their loyalty by doffing their hats when the flag comes
down.
The people of Puerto Rico are extremely fond of music. Strolling bands
of guitar and mandolin players are numerous; and at evening time the air
is filled with music.
Each peasant makes his own guitar. It is a very curious instrument. This
guitar music is usually accompanied by music from another instrument
called a guida. This is made from the great curve-necked gourd. The
music or sound is made by passing a piece of umbrella wire up and down a
series of notches cut from end to end on the outside curve of the gourd.
The sound produced is much like that made by rubbing together two pieces
of sandpaper. We would not call it music at all, but the natives seem to
like it. No orchestra is complete without it, and one can hear the
scratching of this instrument almost any time, at any home in Puerto
Rico.
Sunday is a day not of rest, but of merry making. During the early
morning hours the Puerto Ricans go to church. After church, they hurry
away to the cockpit or to the bull ring in the suburbs of the town.
Very early in the morning we see numbers of roosters staked out by short
strings to pegs driven in the sidewalks. These are the game-cocks which
furnish to the Puerto Rican his favorite amusement and opportunity for
gambling.
They seem to realize their importance and keep up a great crowing,
sending challenges of defiance back and forth to each other. Their
owners take good care of them and endeavor to keep them in good
condition for fighting.
In the market places we see these fowls in wicker coops. Many venders of
food and other articles have game-cocks tied by strings to their stools
and stations.
When their owners have nothing else to do, they devote themselves to
training these birds; or they try to find some one willing to match them
in a contest.
The buildings where these fights take place are to be found in every
town and village. They are considered next in importance to the
cathedral and the town hall, and more important than the schools.
The cock fights are usually held on Sundays and holidays, and last the
greater part of the day. On the day set for these fights, the birds are
taken to the arena, descriptions given and amounts wagered. One fight
follows another, and large sums of money are lost and won.
BURDEN BEARING.
If a country is without good roads, it must employ human
burden-carriers; and many of these we see in Puerto Rico. Men and women
walk long distances through the country bearing heavy burdens upon their
heads, shoulders or backs.
The banana and plantain men carry their fruit fastened to poles. They
move along quite easily with two hundred pounds or more of fruit. On the
street and in the market place we hear the singsong notes of the
vegetable man telling us of the excellence of his wares. These he
carries on his head on an immense board, sometimes five feet long.
The dulce seller, too, carries his tray of cocoanut dulces, guava jelly
and other sweets on his woolly pate; as do also the sellers of fruits,
bread, cakes, bottled cocoanut milk and trinkets.
The hat weaver and the broom maker carry their wares on a shoulder pole,
with a load fastened to each end so as to balance it.
The milkman carries an open-mouthed ten-gallon milk can on his head.
From this dangle the ladles and measures he uses.
But he does not always deliver milk in this way. Sometimes he rides up
in front of the door astride his horse, and shouts "milk" at the top of
his voice.
On each side of his horse are fastened milk cans, and from these cans he
ladles without dismounting.
Sometimes he drives his cows before him and milks them at his customer's
door. This is the favorite method, because the milk is then sure to be
sweet.
[Illustration: A PUERTO RICAN HAT WEAVER.]
This is not always the case if the milk is carried some distance in the
hot sun, in uncovered tin cans.
The milkman always comes very early in the morning, and so does the
baker. If the baker is not on time, we must wait for our breakfast; for
bread is not baked in the house. It is always bought.
We can hear him long before he reaches our door, for he keeps up a
plaintive cry in order to attract our attention.
Sometimes our human bread wagon carries a great board or basket on his
head, and in this are as many as fifty loaves. (See illustration, page
26).
The butcher, on horseback, brings meat hanging from hooks in frames.
Much of the poultry is brought to town in great odd wicker coops strung
across the backs of ponies. Here is a poultry vender at the street
corner, with his inverted and excited merchandise suspended by strings
from his shoulder. (See page 22).
HOW THE PEOPLE TRAVEL.
Puerto Rico is a very delightful place to visit, but we do not care to
go there to live until there are better roads.
There is but one good road on the island, the one leading from San Juan
to Ponce. There is only one line of street cars (in the city of
Mayaguez); and there are only one hundred and forty-seven miles of
railroad in the whole island.
The best roads run along the coast from town to town. There is one
exception. This is the wonderful military road which connects Ponce, on
the south shore, with San Juan on the north shore. (See map, page 4).
Parts of the country away from the coasts are reached by bridle paths;
but the roads outside the cities and towns are impassable during the
rainy season. Sometimes there is only a bridle path or trail overgrown
with tangled vegetation, and crossed by streams without bridges.
The means of transportation employed by the people are the pony carriage
or surrey, the saddle horse, the ox-cart and the foot. The beast of
burden is either the donkey or the pony. These animals are employed to
carry goods in packs over the trails, in place of using the wagon.
The ponies are usually small, half-starved, badly treated animals. They
carry great burdens, that look heavy enough to crush them to the ground.
Their food consists of green corn and grass. One of the commonest sights
on the road, street, or marketplace is the pony with his load of green
fodder.
This is usually so large that it covers the animal entirely, but the
master is always in plain view, sitting astride the moving corn-stack.
[Illustration: A PUERTO RICAN PONY LOADED.]
The planters and farmers have an odd-looking saddle, which they use on
these ponies. It is a leather pad to which are attached wicker baskets.
The well-to-do farmers who own ponies carry fruit and vegetables in
these baskets. Sometimes two hogs are brought to market in the baskets,
with all four feet tied together.
When the farmer takes his family to market, he and his wife ride the
pony, and the children ride in the baskets.
The ponies also carry bales of grass, trunks, and all kinds of household
goods, and furniture.
The principal draught animals are oxen. The heavy two-wheeled ox cart
is used to convey great loads of sugar, coffee, and tobacco or fruit,
over the good roads.
Great, strong, patient beasts they are. They are yoked by a bar of heavy
wood fastened to their horns.
They are driven, not with words or whip, but with a goad. The driver or
teamster walks in front of his team and waves his arms and goad the way
he wishes them to go.
If they do not follow fast enough to please him, he urges them along by
prodding them. The end of the goad is shod with a sharp spike of steel,
three inches or more long. Often we see these oxen dripping with blood,
and seamed and scarred with wounds.
Besides the pain of this constant goading, they suffer from flies upon
their face, nose and eyes. Since their heads are bound, they can not
shake the flies off.
All day they stand or travel in the hot sun without water or food.
Even when they stop or rest, no one thinks of putting them in the shade.
Almost all the people are cruel to their animals, yet they seem not to
realize that they are doing wrong. It is a custom, that is all.
It makes us wish we might organize a society for the prevention of
cruelty. It is, perhaps, the only thing that could change this custom.
* * * * *
THE FARMER AND HIS HOME.
Puerto Rico is a country of farmers. Nearly five-sixths of the people
live in the country. Their homes are scattered along the valleys, on the
hills, and even on the mountain tops; for the land is fertile
everywhere.
[Illustration: THE PUERTO RICAN FARMER IN TOWN.]
We have seen the homes and home life of the people in the city. Now let
us take a jaunt out into the country to see how the farmers and the
plantation laborers live.
Here is a farmer now, coming down the street. He is on his way to the
market. His horse is a thin, mean-looking little beast. His produce is
carried in baskets, and his machete is sticking out of one of these.
This machete he always carries with him. He could not get along without
it. It is a large, long, clumsy knife, something like a corn-cutter.
Sometimes he uses it to cut a way for himself and pony through the
forest, or on the bridle paths overgrown with plants and vines after the
rainy season.
When he has sold his load of vegetables and fruit, we will ride out with
him to his home and visit some of the plantations.
We saw many peasant farmers and laborers in the market place, and found
them polite, shrewd, bright in conversation, but very ignorant and
somewhat indolent.
They are quite content with their way of living, and take no thought for
the future. A Puerto Rican farmer thinks himself rich and fortunate if
he owns a horse, a cow, some game-cocks, a gun and an acre of land.
He is simple in his tastes and buys little in the market. His rice
flour, corn meal and coffee he has prepared at home, by pounding in
wooden mortars or grinding between stones.
His patch of land he plants with corn, sweet potatoes and other
vegetables. Bananas, plantains and other fruits grow wild and may be had
for the picking.