Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1885 — Facts About Cuba. [ARTICLE]

Facts About Cuba.

Cuba is about ripe or rotten enough to drop into the lap of Madame Columbia. She is only a little over one hundred miles distant from Florida. Each free family in Cuba must pay annually in direct or indirect taxes SSOO. The yearly aggregate wrung from the inhabitants is $26,000,000. The government is despotic, and the press is muzzled by the iron hand of power. Cuba’s last great revolution lasted eleven years, and cost Spain the lives of 150,000 soldiers. The island is overrun with brigands, and financial ruin stares the people in the face. Fifty thousand officials live off the taxes extorted from the Cubans. Each retail merchant has to pay S3OO a year for license. Under President Polk this country offered Spain $100,000,000 for Cuba. The world cannot show a richer or more productive spot than this island. About one hundred marquises and counts reside in Cuba. These titles can be purchased at $25,000 apiece.

The .people are handsome, bright and brave. They are smaller than the Americans, and have black hair and olive complexions.— Atlanta Constitution.