At first sight, you will like the Cuban, and you may continue to do so after you have learned to know him for a weak-minded brother, without any stable qualities in his composition. He has a subtle attractiveness which you will find it difficult to analyze. Perhaps it is his natural bonhomie and genuine affectionateness
COUNTRY HOMES OF WEALTHY CUBANS.
that draws you, and the undercurrent of naïve childishness that blinds you to his faults. Unlike his arrogant cousin, the Spaniard, he is pathetically conscious of his shortcomings. Often a comic assertiveness will thinly cloak an uneasy realization of inferiority.
And withal you will conclude that he is not a bad fellow at the bottom; that with half a chance he might have developed into a very different man. This idea will be strengthened when you come to know the guajiro. Meanwhile you can not fail to speculate with misgiving on the future of the country if its Government is to remain in the hands of the white and parti-colored Cubans. You may base some hope on the recollection that the soil of this Island has bred not a few men of noble character and great talent,—but we will consider the subject more fully later on.
The younger generation of the present upper class of Cubans is a source of hope and may perhaps prove to be the seed-bed of a different race. Their fathers were born to riches and enjoyed lives of ease and pleasure. Reckless extravagance and loss due to war, and the consequent commercial depressions, have reduced most of the wealthy families to ruin, or comparative poverty. It is as much as they can do to afford their sons good educations. After leaving college they are compelled to earn their livelihood. The result of this changed condition is already apparent in the display of more manly qualities and better principles. Of the many Cuban youths in our educational institutions, a large proportion give promise of leading useful lives.
What the Cuban seems to need more than anything else is to develop virility and hard common sense. If he should do this in combination with the better application of some of his natural talents, he will present himself to the world as a very admirable man. Meanwhile, it is always to be remembered that he was freed from his swaddling clothes but yesterday. He never before had a fair chance to grow, to stretch his limbs, to think and act for himself. We do not know what he can do or what he may become until he has been tested through two generations, at least.
The foregoing is written, in the main, with the Cubans of the cities and towns in mind—the men of what are commonly called the “better class.” The guajiro, the white Cuban peasant of the rural districts, is in several respects a different fellow. But, before we proceed to a description of him, let us take a view of la hija del pais, the daughter of the country.