isa-normaladvance-1903-00172

Description:	172THE NOEMAL ADVANCE.I saw tears in her eyes. She stood looking towardthe crowd, who were laughing immoderately andlooking at us. But I must console her at all haz-zards. So I continued:Let not doubts arise to make you unhappy, formy love for you is as constant as the northernstar, and without you I won Id feel as blue asFinnigan when his wife cant get more than fourwashings a week.And right at that critical point, up strode thatfuzzy-lipped cuss with a very red face. He toldthe precious one that the girls wished to consulther about what train to take in to town. She left,and then he turned to mc and said, Now you gotake a run.I always thought before his eyes were a hopeless light gray, but I guess they are black.—Myrtle Jloffman.Along the Coast.San Juan, in spite of its name, is so far fromsaintly that the Evangelist would find an amplefield in this namesake city of his. Dishonesty andcorruption prevail in every vocation filth and unseemly sights meet the eye at every turn odorsindescribable assail the nose in every quarter ofthe city noises comparable only to the Midwaybombard the ears from sunrise to sunrise. Narrow, uneven streets are crowded with dirty, diseased, deformed, half-clad natives. Ox-carts, pub-lie carriages, and panier-laden ponies vie with thestreet venders in making the highways a veritablepandemonium.A short but toilsome walk brought us to thehotel. Through the dark entryway of the lowerfloor, which was used mainly as a store house, weascended to the second floor where the hotel wasreally located. From the dining room of the hotelwe looked out onto a stretch of tropical scenery,the beauty of which would beggar description.After two days in San Juan we boarded the little coast steamer, the Porto Rico, which plies between the coast towns carrying passengers andfreight. The second town, Aguadilla, was ourdestination. San Juan is the only port on theIsland which has harbor facilities, so at Aguadillawe had our first strictly Porto Eican experiencein landing. About an eighth of a mile from shorethe steamer floated without even anchoring andwas immediately surrounded by a collection ofnative row boats manned by their owners. A sortof stair gangway was lowered and at the foot ofthis most unstable means of exit the nativesquarreled and almost came to blows over the passengers who were to go ashore. The reason for suchviolent competition we did not understand untilseveral days later when we discovered that wc hadpaid four times the customary fee for the removalof ourselves and our baggage from the steamer tothe hotel.As soon as wc landed we were surrounded bymen, women, and children, all talking rapidly inhigh, strident tones and gesticulating violentlywith hands and heads. Dirty, half-naked, severalof them deformed, they presented a group rarelyseen save in some horrible nightmare.Through narrow, noisome streets we found ourway to the hotel. The rooms on the ground floorwere occupied by a shoe store, a barber shop,and a grocery store, all reeking with the odor ofdried codfish and garlic and all alive with cats anddogs. The stairway leading to the second floorwhere the hotel was located, was in the rear. Thesteps were of brick overlaid with cement. Theconcrete was broken and crumbling and we involuntarily held our breath as wc ascended. We wentthrough the long hall past kitchen, pantry, washroom, and servants quarters, through the diningroom to our bed room. Two large, door-like shutters opened onto small balconies. The room contained two iron beds, surmounted by reel mosquitocanopies, and a wash stand with a small mirror
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/33986
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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