Little Journey to Puerto Rico Part 3

[Ill.u.s.tration: A POULTRY DEALER.]

The people in the market, seeing that we are Americans, try to charge us many times what each article is worth. If we travel very far, we will find that this is a custom of the people in many countries. They think all Americans are rich.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MARKET PLACE AT PONCE, PUERTO RICO.]

Now this is a great mistake, and so we decline very firmly to buy anything at all. This offends the market people. They wish us to make them an offer.

They offer us their fruits for half the first price. Again we refuse. A fourth of the original price. We shake our heads.

Our guide now offers to make our purchases for us, and does so for a very small sum. And the market people and venders are quite satisfied.

It is all they expected.

HOMES AND HOME LIFE.

A narrow, shaded street tempts us to leave the noisy, business part of the town and the throng that crowds these streets and plazas, and stray into the suburbs.

No matter which way we turn, some new picture meets our eyes.

Wandering along, we peep into doorways, courtyards and pleasant patios.

Some of the houses have crosses upon their summits, to show the devotion of the inmates to their religion.

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 gla.s.s, 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 bas.e.m.e.nts 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 pa.s.s 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.