d are very devout.

The manner of keeping Sunday would be apt to shock our New Englanders of
Puritan descent.

A correspondent of the New York Sun, who was with the army in Porto Rico
speaks of this as follows:

"Sunday at Ponce, if it continues as at present, will add still further
variety to the somewhat different observances of the day which now
characterize the territory of the United States.

"'To-morrow,' said a native last Saturday, 'to-morrow I shall go to the
theatre.'

"'It's Sunday,' said his American soldier companion. 'You should be
going to church.'

"An elevation of the shoulders.

"'The same thing,' said the native.

"The show at the theatre that day, by the way, was given by an American
troupe that has been touring the Indies.

"There is, of course, nothing new in the custom in Catholic countries of
giving Sunday mornings to church and Sunday afternoons to pleasure. In
Ponce the merchants are not willing to close their stores for the
religious observances of the day, but hold that it would be wholly wrong
to mar the hours of pleasure by business attentions. The stores are all
open Sunday mornings as on other days, but shut tight Sunday afternoons.
Vesper services are all but unknown. There may be a change regarding
services presently. The priests have not been paid since the arrival of
the American army. It was the Spanish custom to pay them from the
customs receipts. Colonel Hill has refused to give them any money since
he has been in charge of the custom-house, and has told them that
hereafter their people will have to support them voluntarily. What the
people will say to this at the start it is hard to guess. They may not
wholly understand it. Under existing laws they are taxed for the support
of the church. What their voluntary support of it will be remains to be
seen. Protestants have almost a clear field for mission work here. The
only Protestant church on the island is at Ponce, and that was opened on
the Sunday after the Americans' arrival, for the first time, it is said,
in ten years.

"The chief service at the cathedral is held at 9 o'clock Sunday
mornings, mass being said hourly from 5 o'clock until then. At the 9
o'clock service many Americans drift in. Even the Catholics among the
soldiers who have attended have appeared to drift in rather than go with
the purpose of doing their devotions. It may be that there seemed
something inconsistent in kneeling before the altar with a ro