THE PAGEANT OF CUBA By Hudson Strode The historian whose
aim is to thrill as well as to instruct could not find a better subject than Cuba. Mr. Strode's The Pageant of Cuba (Jarrold, 18s.) is as its title suggests, intended for popular consumption, and he has succeeded in writing an extremely moving, and at the same time reliable, account of the tragic history of that island. The original Cubeilos, a gentle and contented people, driven to death in the mines in order to satisfy the Spanish conquistadors' lust for gold, were so reduced in numbers that negroes had to be imported to take their place. Cuba had her periods of wealth and importance during the Spanish regime, and when the Spanish empire melted away till only Cuba was left, she became the symbol of a vanishing greatness. Mr. Strode's account of the Cuban -revolt and the Spanish-American war is excellent, and his analysis of the part played by the American "yellow press," with Hearst as the leading spirit, is surely one of the most astonishing chapters in modern history. Their hide. pendence won, the unfortunate Cubans next became the victims of a Presidential system which culminated in the atrocities of the recently ended Machado regime. Mr. Strode brings his history down to the assumption of power by Sergeant Batista, a stenographer, who is still President. It IS an amazing story, and the author has not failed to make the most of it.
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