ns have even been known to take
place.

Such a thing as liberty of the press was utterly unknown. Articles that
had been printed in the Madrid or other Spanish papers attacking the
government could not be reproduced in any Porto Rican papers, without
the editors being arrested and punished. And this occurred even if the
article in question had not been considered as offering ground for the
prosecution by the authorities in Spain.

The papers, by the way, were ridiculously inadequate in every sense of
the word. Only one attempt was ever made to establish a magazine. This
was about eleven years ago. It was called the _Revista Puertorriquena_
and was intended "to carry the highest expression of our intellectual
culture to all the people of Europe and America where the magnificent
Castilian language is spoken."

The magazine was conducted by a committee composed of a director, two
editors, "and other illustrious persons" elected by the subscribers. The
founder of the magazine lamented that the "race of artists" who first
settled in Puerto Rico "were so overwhelmed by the exuberant and pompous
beauty of the tropics that the natural means of artistic expression were
exaggerated to the detriment of ideas," and that the crying evil of the
periodical press of the island was "the abundance of sonorous and
high-sounding articles having nothing to say to the understanding."

The founder of the magazine was Don Manuel Juncos, who is the author of
several books of travel. He speaks of the Brooklyn bridge as "a magic
vision of the Thousand and One Nights," while the smoke that rose from
myriads of New York chimneys "formed the holy and blessed incense of a
mighty and busy population, rising directly up to God from the fecund
altar of labor." In the streets he was amazed at the "incessant
avalanche of men, all having the purpose of certain or probable
utility."

No more than nineteen persons, under the old regime, were allowed to
meet in any place of the island, without special permission from the
government, and the mayor of the town was obliged to attend the meetings
to see that nothing was said or done against "the integrity of the
nation."

Licenses were required for everything, even for an ordinary dancing
party.

The manner of life in the large towns of Porto Rico is not dissimilar
from that of European countries, with the exception of some slight
differences due to the heat of the climate. The fashions for men and
wome