“Would a white man lose caste on marrying a coloured woman?”
“Oh, very distinctly. I could tell you of several instances.”
“But there is no serious friction—no feud—between the races?”
“At present, no; but I’m not at all sure that a race problem may not declare itself when the new Constitution comes into force in February next. We shall then have the negro in politics; and that is how trouble always arises.”
“You fear a Cuban repetition of the Reconstruction time?”
“Yes, indeed I do. The negro is susceptible to every sort of political machination. Every carpet-bag demagogue can make a tool of him, and that the Cuban white men won’t stand for.”
“Meanwhile, however, there is no trouble? You have not any such Reign of Terror here as there is some parts of the Southern States?”
“No. Outrages on women are practically unknown here.”
“And how do you account for the difference between Cuba and the Southern States in respect to this class of crime?”
“Well, sir, I’m a Southern man myself, and all I can say is that the nigger here don’t seem to me the same as he is at home. I believe it is partly a real difference of race. |The Pick of the Basket.| You see, most of the slave-ships used to touch at Havana before they went on to Charleston or New Orleans; and the Cuban planters used to make a study of the different races and tribes, and select the best types. The daughter of a very wealthy planter—she’s an old lady now—has told me all about it. They knew precisely the qualities of the different breeds. Some were best fitted for body-servants, some for field-work, some for handling stock, others for educating and making clerks and book-keepers of. So, you see, the Cubans got the pick of the basket, and only the lower class—the mere brawny animals—got to the United States.”