He acquired wide reputation as a poet, novelist and
ecclesiastic, both in Spain and Cuba, and was selected by the Spanish
Academy to deliver the oration on the anniversary of Cerantes' death
in Madrid. His favorite Cuban pupil was Juan Gaulberto Gomez, the
mulatto journalist, who has been imprisoned time and again for
offences against the Spanish press laws. Senor Gomez, whose home is in
Matanzas, is now on the shady side of 40, a spectacled and scholarly
looking man. After the peace of Zanjon he collaborated in the
periodicals published by the Marquis of Sterling. In '79 he founded in
Havana, the newspaper La Fraternidad, devoted to the interest of the
colored race. For a certain fiery editorial he was deported to Centa
and kept there two years. Then he went to Madrid and assumed the
management of La Tribuna and in 1890 returned to Havana and resumed
the publication of La Fraternidad.
ANOTHER EXILE.
Another beloved exile from the land of his birth is Senor Jose White.
His mother was a colored woman of Matanzas. At the age of 16 Jose
wrote a mass for the Matanzas orchestra and gave his first concert.
With the proceeds he entered the Conservatory of Paris, and in the
following year won the first prize as violinist among thirty-nine
contestants. He soon gained an enviable reputation among the most
celebrated European violinists, and, covered with honors, returned to
Havana in January of '75.
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