The Machete

The machete (pronounced "mah-tchay-tay") with which the Cubans are armed, and which is the implement for all needs throughout Spanish America, has long been manufactured by the thousands at Hartford, Conn. This blade is first cousin to the saber of the United States Cavalry; but while the saber serves only one purpose, the machete serves many, and is as useful in peace as in war. Almost every Spanish-American male, above the age of childhood, carries a machete. The laborer has it, because with the machete he cuts sugar-cane, prepares firewood, and trenches the ground for his crop.

The horseman wears the machete, because with it he cuts his way through the woodlands during journeys over rough country. It is sword, spade and hedging-bill, axe, hatchet and pruning-knife. The hidalgo wears it with silvered hilt and tasseled scabbard; his humbler neighbor is content to carry it bare, and hilted with horn, wood, or leather. The machete may be had in nearly thirty different forms. The blade, which varies in length from ten to twenty-eight inches, may be blunt or pointed, curved or straight, broad or narrow. The favorite with the laborer is the machete of medium length, with unornamented handle and broad, straight blade. The Spanish-American hidalgo bears a scabbard machete, long, straight or curved, according to his taste or circumstances.