omprising philosophical
disquisitions, essays on nature and art, and lyrical poetry.

Dr. Rafael Montoro, who was refused election to the Vice-Presidency in
1908, has since that date been kept in the service of his country in
highly important capacities, and now, as Secretary to the Presidency, is
most intimately associated with President Menocal, and exerts an
exceptional degree of usefulness in many directions to the national
welfare of the Cuban Republic.

Rafael Montoro was born in Havana on October 24, 1852. He received his
primary education in Havana and in his tenth year was taken to Europe
and to the United States. He was a pupil of the Charlier Institute in
New York until 1865. Having returned to Havana he took up his
preparatory studies at the school of San Francisco de Asis. In 1867 he
returned to Europe with his family, which settled in Madrid. Here he
spent his youth until 1878, devoting himself to literary and
intellectual activities; he contributed to various periodicals, was
editor of the "Revista Contemporanea"; second secretary of the Ateneo de
Madrid; vice president of the Moral and Political Sciences Section of
that institution; second secretary of the Spanish Writers' and Artists'
Association, etc. On his return to Cuba he took an active part in
constituting and organizing the Liberal Party, which seized the first
opportunity to uphold the cause of Colonial Autonomy, calling itself the
Autonomist Liberal Party. In 1879 he was elected a member of the Central
Junta of the party and in the first elections after Cuba had been
granted the right of representation at the Cortes took place, he was
elected a Deputy from the province of Havana. Later he continued working
for his party as editor of its organ _El Triunfo_, which became _El
Pais_, and as an orator in meetings and assemblies. In 1886 he was
reelected Deputy to the Cortes from the province of Camaguey and yearly
went to Spain during the period of the Legislature, being a member of
the Autonomist minority headed by Rafael Maria de Labra. The Sociedad
Economica de Amigo del Pais appointed Dr. Montoro a Special Delegate to
the Junta de Information which met at Madrid in 1890, the principal
economic institutions of Cuba having been previously invited by the
Spanish Colonial Department. The purpose of this Junta was to report on
the tariff regime of the Island and on the proposed commercial treaty
with the United States, as suggested by the famous McK