with towns large and small having much the
same characteristics as Havana. Her virgin forests have some of the
richest woods known to commerce. Her hills hold stores of iron, copper,
coal and other minerals. Her soil is ready to yield many-fold to
the courageous cultivator. When the swords have been turned into
plough-shares and the spears to pruning-hooks, there will come a new day
for the native Cuban. He will feel himself liberated from the hindering
rancors and jealousies, inevitable in the light of recent history, which
alone now stand between his beautiful island and the prosperity that
hovers, waiting his encouragement to alight. Then the traveller will
return with reports of Havana rejuvenated, her harbor dredged and
purified, her highways paved, homes made healthy and the whole island
lifted to the higher and happier plane that will give the Pearl of the
Antilles its rightful setting among the other gems of God's earth.

[Illustration: MORRO CASTLE, HAVANA]

Porto Rico, the "rich port," so named by Columbus, came gladly under the
American flag. Its population of about 900,000 has had a sorry time for
three hundred years. They have been steeped in spiritless poverty from
first to last, so used to the oppressor's yoke that ambition seems to
have been crushed. Yet their island is an earthly paradise, save for
its rain-storms and occasional droughts. It is rich in undeveloped
mineral deposits and splendid forests. Nature has helped to discourage
native effort by providing the means of sustenance over-lavishly, in one
sense. The people scattered through the interior find everything ready
grown to hand. The bulk of the population throng the shore areas and are
as listlessly happy with the minimum of life's necessaries as are the
animals.

Spain has left its mark upon the island, a mark representing a
civilization not to be sneered at, though not of the modern stamp. Range
through the island's lovely valleys, struggle up its mountain slopes to
isolated hamlets where primitive life lingers in all its bewildering
unloveliness; thread the rude thoroughfare of its picturesque towns, and
you will come upon replicas of the familiar Spanish church, the symbol
and centre of an ever potent influence for good. With all its faults,
this local haven of peace and good cheer has tempered the lot of
generations that never fully realized the hopelessness of their fate. A
venerable church peeping out of a leafy glade gives a touch