It has a military hospital and barracks, two other hospitals, a home for
the old and poor, gas works, and an ice machine. There are also
establishments for hulling coffee, drying coffee, distilling rum,
manufacturing carriages, and grinding sugar. (See illustrations on pages
54 and 69).
The large central plaza has pretty gardens and a cathedral.
There are three manufactories of chocolate for the use of the people in
the surrounding country. Sugar, coffee, oranges, pineapples and
cocoanuts are brought here to be shipped to the United States and other
countries.
Near the city are white-gypsum quarries; also medicinal baths, to which
many invalids and travelers go.
The only Protestant church in the West Indies is the Episcopal church
here.
On the outskirts of Ponce is an old cemetery, in which many famous
Puerto Ricans of an early day were buried. It is quite different from
our idea of a cemetery. It is one solid mass of masonry built into the
side of a hill. In this are narrow vaults, one above the other.
[Illustration: A FUNERAL PROCESSION.]
The openings of these vaults look much like bakers' ovens. The bottom
vaults are used first, and when a body is laid in one of them it is
sealed up and the name of the deceased graven on the outside.
