atly sealed cans of the favorite preserve.
Indeed, it seems to rain guava jelly in Cuba. Others offer country
cheese, soft and white, with rolls, while in a shanty beside the road
hot coffee and "blue ruin" are dealt out to thirsty souls by a
ponderous mulatto woman. There are always a plenty of the denizens of
the place, in slovenly dresses and slouched hats, hands in pockets,
and puffing cigarettes, who do the heavy standing-round business.
Stray dogs hang about the car-wheels and track to pick up the crumbs
which passengers throw away from their lunch-baskets. Just over the
wild-pineapple hedge close at hand, half a score of naked negro
children hover round the door of a low cabin; the mother, fat and
shining in her one garment, gazes with arms akimbo at the scene of
which she forms a typical part. The engineer imbibes a penny drink of
thin Cataline wine and hastens back to his machine, which has been
taking water from an elevated cistern beside the track, the bell
rings, the whistle sounds, and we are off to repeat the process and
the picture, six or eight leagues further on. Take our advice and
don't attempt to make a meal at one of these stations. The viands are
wretchedly poor, and the price charged is a swindle.

As we approach Matanzas the scene undergoes a radical change.
Comfortable habitations are multiplied, passable roads appear winding
gracefully about the country, groves and gardens spring into view,
with small and thrifty farms. Superb specimens of the royal palm begin
to appear in abundance, always suggestive of the Corinthian column.
Scattered over the hills and valleys a few fine cattle are seen
cropping the rank verdure. There is no greensward in the tropics, and
hay is never made. The scenery reminds one of Syria and the Nile.

One sees some vegetable and fruit farms, but sugar raising absorbs
nearly every other interest, the tobacco leaf coming next, now that
coffee is so neglected. The farmer ploughs with the crooked branch of
a tree, having one handle with which to guide the crude machine,--just
such an instrument as is used for the purpose in Egypt to-day, and has
been used there for thousands of years. The cattle are mostly poor,
half-starved creatures,--starved amid a vegetation only too rank and
luxuriant. The dairy receives no attention in Cuba. Butter is seldom
made; the canned article from this country, thin and offensive, is
made to answer the purpose. The climate is too hot to keep but