3-086-440 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Spanish-American War: the rainy season in Cuba - in town, 1898. '"Sono a la tres de la mañana, y llueve." Thus the night- watchman (Sereno) sings out on his round in the Spanish-American towns. In English it means, "It's three o'clock in the morning, and it rains." There is no need to change his weather report for hours, days, and months to come at this time of the year in the Tropic of Cancer. People who live in the temperate zone have no idea what rain means in the tropics. It begins not with a gentle drizzle, that may change into a downpour for perhaps a few days. There the flood-gates of heaven are not merely opened, and left ajar more or less; they are taken off the hinges, and put away for good for the next four or five months. Rain falls in torrents incessantly. In some localities it never ceases day or night for weeks; in others, with mathematical precision the rain begins at a fixed hour, and ceases with the same precision at another hour. The volume of water thus precipitated for weeks and months is stupendous, and the intense solar heat, converting it into hot steam and mist, induces the most luxuriant vegetable life. Rapid growth and rapid decay are the result. The roads become impassable, mire and swamp taking their place...' From "Illustrated London News", 1898.