Identifier: puertoricoitsres00ober (find matches)
Title: Puerto Rico and its resources
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Ober, Frederick A. (Frederick Albion), 1849-1913
Subjects: Natural resources
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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r some time.But that there are mineral resources worth exploit-ing, tracts well worth purchase for development bymeans of modern agricultural operations—coffeelands in the hills and sugar lands along the coast—we have every reason to believe. While the better classes are mainly engaged inbusiness and are of Spanish origin, most of thepoorer are resident in the country, or, what is farworse, living from hand-to-mouth in the towns andcities. It seems incredible that an island thirty-six hundred miles in area, much of it arable land,capable of producing every variety of fruit andvegetable known to the tropics, should yet containa population a large proportion of which is poverty-stricken. Yet such is the case, and whether a bet-ter government will change the conditions so radi-cally that all will be improved in means, and alsoafford an opening for enterprising Americans, re-mains to be seen. It is not strange that poverty exists in theNorth, where a long winter prevents the poor from
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g PhO a)CO GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE. 167 raising even tlie necessaries of existence; but*in aland where the sun always shines, where it is neverimpossible to plant and sow, to harvest and gatherfruit—to find people there without the means forsupporting life, and in the country districts at that,seems inexplicable. The reason for this conditionlies not on the surface of things, but down in theprimitive foundations of society. The children, as has been intimated, white,black, and coloured of both sexes, disport them-selves in their complexions merely, varied bysuch additions of dirt as they may receive while atplay, and which is not always removed at night.They are naturally cleanly, as are most dwellers intropical countries, because the bath is always re-freshing, and to paddle in cool streams (if theymay be found) and beneath overarching tree-fernsand bananas is pleasanter than rolling in the dirt.But cleanliness is only a relative term, dependingupon the surroundings. In the large tow

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