The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-12-04 00:00:00

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AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER.

i,'RP 00 L , TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1855.

rigid convent roofs, which confer so peculiar an
aspect on the rugged scenery of the Spanish
sierra. The city of Havana contains, likewise,
the characteristic features of the Spanish ara-
besque, displayed in frequent and striking con-
trast with urban requirements suited to the
luxurious manners of the enervating South. If,
the external forms of mountain and plain, of
city and suburb, are thus arrayed in a sort of
conventional contrast of distant places and periods,
a similar combination is not less remarkable in
their social institutions, manners, and costume.
Of the condition of Cuban morals, and the pecu-
liarities of manners which arise out of these, Mr.
Hurlbut affords many pictures, the glowing
warmth of which seems more suited to the tastes
of those " men made of fire, and children of the
sun," whose pulses beat in unison with the in-
tensity of torrid sunshine
tahnadn
imaginationsis consonant
f
with the less fervid feelings
those concerning whom the poet writes when he
tells us—
The cold in clime are cold in blood,

Without attempting to follow our author through
these, we shall, nearly at random, dip into. his
pencillings, selecting as the first specimen his
dashing sketch of
A GROUP IN THE HOTEL AT LA COLUMA.
I was particularly attracted by one old lady of sixty,
with a parchment face, which reminded me of Heine's
dame in the Harz mountains, whose countenance re-
sembled a palimpsest whereon a monkish homily had been
written over a Greek love story. Her dress gtill wore a
hue of youthful folly. She was arrayed in scarlet and
white muslin, orange-coloured stockings, a blue silk shawl
gorgeously embroidered with large dahlias and roses in
green and yellow silk ; a bunch of artificial flowers
adorned her hair, and huge gold ear-rings glittered in her
ears. Thus wonderful in her appearance, she glided
gracefully into the storehouse, purchased a long Jenny
Lind cigar, asked the favour of a light from a Montero
gentleman in a striped blue shirt, with a sword at his
side and silver spurs on his stockingless feet; and then
returning to the " saloon," while the soft smoke curled
about her head, took up a broom and proceeded to sweep
away the remnants of the morning's meal. .
In strong contrast with the above is a scarcely
less vivid, although greatly more sombre and re-
pulsive, picture of
THE FUNERAL OBSERTANCES IN CUBA.
The Campo:, Santos, or burial-grounds, are vile places,
where corpses are thrown aside as they are in Italy, with-
out respect and without memorials even so lasting as the
widow's tears or the tolling of the funeral bell: Before
burial, the dead, dressed in the gayest manner, are ex-
posed on catafalques set around with candles, in the great
saloon of their homes. Ghastly faces stare suddenly out
on you from within the iron-barred windows as you walk
the city streets. Uncoffined and unshrouded, for the
most part, the dead are flung into shallow graves, whence
they will soon be jostled by their successors in the end-
less procession. Dark stories are told of those who have
charge of these interments. A certain countess, who died
near by us in Havana, was laid out in state and superbly
arrayed. When the day of the funeral came, one of the
friends with a knife cut into shreds the fine silks and satins
of her robes to make them valueless as merchandise.
Among the conservative old Spanish a great deal of for-
mality obtains in the matter of mourning. It is consi-
dered proper for the family to shroud everything in the
house of death. Pictures are turned to the wall, furni•
ture gloomily draped. Immediately after the funeral, all
the relations and cornexions of the deceased meet at the
house, where they dine together, the family keeping out
of the way in private rooms till after dinner, when they
appear, and two great circles are formed in the saloon,
the females gathering into one and the males into another.
Lugubrious conversation then commences. This cere—
mony is repeated daily during nine days !
A glance cast in almost any direction by so