rarely employed in the cane-fields, while in beet farming it is the
principal agent of success.

Though the modern machinery, as lately adopted on the plantations, is
very expensive, still the result achieved by it is so much superior to
that of the old methods of manufacture that the small planters are
being driven from the market. Slave labor cannot compete with
machinery. The low price of sugar renders economy imperative in all
branches of the business, in order to leave a margin for profit. A
planter informed the author that he should spread all of his molasses
upon the cane-fields this year as a fertilizer, rather than send it to
a distant market and receive only what it cost. He further said that
thousands of acres of sugar-cane would be allowed to rot in the fields
this season, as it would cost more to cut, grind, pack, and send it to
market than could be realized for the manufactured article. Had the
price of sugar remained this year at a figure which would afford the
planters a fair profit, it might have been the means of tiding over
the chasm of bankruptcy which has long stared them in the face, and
upon the brink of which they now stand. But with a more than average
crop, both as to quantity and quality, whether to gather it or not is
a problem. Under these circumstances it is difficult to say what is to
become, financially, of the people of Cuba. Sugar is their great
staple, but all business has been equally depressed upon the island,
under the bane of civil wars, extortionate taxation, and oppressive
rule.

If you visit Cienfuegos you will take rooms at the Hotel Union, as
being the least objectionable of the two public houses which the city
contains, and there you will make the acquaintance of Jane, who is an
institution in herself. Indeed, she will doubtless board your ship
when it first arrives, so as to enlighten you concerning the
excellences of the Union over its rival establishment, which will also
be sure to be represented. Jane is interpreter and general factotum of
that delectable posada, the Union, and being the only one in the house
who speaks either French or English, she becomes an important factor
in your calculations. Jane's nationality is a pleasing mystery, but
she may be classed as a Portuguese quadroon. Venus did not preside at
her birth, but, by means of the puff-ball and egg-shell powder, she
strives to harmonize her mottled features. Being interpreter,
waitress, hotel-runner, and c