more at http://news.quickfound.net/intl/puerto_rico_news.html "Life and development in rural Puerto Rico." also see: Puerto Rico: "Fiesta Island" 1953 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWhy6oMixx8 also see: "Report on Puerto Rico, U.S.A." 1955 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqsx-6sV7hA Public domain film from the Prelinger Archive, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). The New York Times, January 18, 1891, p. 10: IN PORTO RICO'S CAPITAL HOT SAN JUAN AND ITS FORMIDABLE CASTLE. THE NEATEST CITY IN SPANISH-AMERICA-- THE CAPE AND THE CONSUL-- A NIGHT AT THE OPERA--THE HOTTEST CITY IN THE WEST INDIES. ...As seen from the sea, San Juan consists almost entirely of a series of massive fortifications, that collectively form the castle, as the Spaniards call all their big forts, although this has little of the appearance that is commonly supposed to belong to a castle. It is a town--a city--of forts and batteries, all built of stone, rising one above another, crowding and jostling each other... The buidings are in such excellent repair that they seem almost out of place in a Spanish colony. There is none of the picturesque ruin that adds to the beauty of the reknowned Morro at Havana or the other Morro at the entrance to Santiago. Near one of the forts stands a low stone building, the size of a small cottage, with an immense stone chimney rising from it. "Is that a smokehouse?" I ask, "that small building with the great chimney?" "No," I am told, "that is the powder magazine." "And why a chimney for a powder magazine?" "That is not a chimney," is the reply; "it is a stone column to support the lightning rod." A rich port indeed (for that is the English for the name of Porto Rico) this must be where they can afford to build a stone column fifty feet high to support a lightning rod. But there are no signs yet of any town save a few buildings on the hilltop. The pilot has come on board and taken command of the bridge... As we creep further and further in, sweeping around to the eastward, the city of San Juan, the capital of Porto Rico, lies before us. Now we see the lay of the land, and the mystery of the hidden city is explained. The town lies on a rocky peninsula, shaped like the narrow end of a long, curved squash. This peninsula is an island, in fact, being separated from the mainland by an insignificant inlet a few miles down the coast. In front of the peninsula is the sea, behind it the harbor. The land rises somewhat abruptly to a height of perhaps 200 or 250 feet. On the seaward slope are the fortifications, on the harbor slope is the city... We found the weather at San Juan rather more comfortably warm, even on board ship. We were in about latitude 17°, on a level with the south side of San Domingo and the north side of Jamaica, several hundred miles lower than Havana... To go anywhere in San Juan it is necessary to ascend or descend a hill. The north-and-south streets are steep hills and the east-and-west streets are moderate hills. It is necessary always to walk, for there are no public carriages and very few private ones, and no street cars or other conveyances. The population is large enough to warrant such things, being about thirty thousand, but the hills are so steep and the city is so compact, covering so little ground, that they would not be of much use... Our first objective point was the café. Every Spanish city, of course, has its café, and San Juan has two. We chose the one on the corner opposite the great cigar factory, "Los dos Antilles," because it was the nearest. and found nearly all its marble tables in use already, although the Porto Rico breakfast hour, 11 o'clock, had barely arrived. There are only two meals a day in Porto Rico, breakfast at 11 and dinner at 5, and everybody, rich or poor, must eat at those hours, or go without. Breakfast is the more important meal of the two, to be taken with great deliberation and solemnity and soup and Spanish wine, and all the public offices from 11 till 1 while the officers go to breakfast. The café, however, is not a place to eat, except such light things as cakes and ice cream. It is devoted to drinking and smoking and talking, and it is such a universal place of resort that one is reasonably sure in the course of an hour or so of seeing all his male acquaintances there. It has none of the obstreperous features of an American bar, and light and cooling drinks were in far greater demand than strong liquors... WILLIAM DRYSDALE. The rest of the above article is posted at more at http://news.quickfound.net/intl/puerto_rico_news.html

• published: 04 Dec 2014
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