Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-03-12
THE DAILY"TTMES
HOW THEY LIVE IN HAVANA.

there are houses there which are called hotels
| In these, however, the stranger must not expec
! to find even the faintest likeness to Mivart's o.
| the Hotel Meurice, or the Astor House. The no
tel of Havana has not the slightest trait in com
mon with the French hotel, either as it exists up
on its native soil, or as modified by English fri
| gidity and reserve, or American gregariousness
| or with the English inn, or the American tavern
! or the Eastern caravansera. 1t is nothing more
or less than an ordinary boarding house, though
| differing widely in it's habits and aspect from its
| counterparts in New York. The number of no.
| tells is very small. There are three only which
are kept by Americans: there may be four or five
kept by Spaniards. Those Americans who wish
! to talk Spanish and eat Spanish, may 20 to one
of the last, In No6lesa Fascogonda, for instances
but the probabilities are, that after days eXpe-
rience of garlic and oil, they will complete their
Castilian accomplishments by walking Spanish
into new quarters. In any house in Havana, pub.
lie or private, Spanish, French, German, or Anne
rcan, enough yernacular conversation and cook
cry to satisfy any reasonable taste, may be had
for the asking; and as the habits and character
of the people can be closely observed without
sharing their bed and board-the traveller will
find the equilibrium of his mind and body pre-
served, and no advantage lost by committing him.
self to the care of an American host.
When in our last number the reader and
the writer stopped in their walk through
the narrow, dirty alleys which the Habaneros call
Gales, and which take the place of our broad and
dirty streets, it was before the huge door of our
hotel As the building is fair specimen of the
better class Of houses in Havana, being in fact the
former residence of wealthy Spaniard, let us
look at it somewhat in detail. The gateway is
vast enough for that of fortress, and is surround
ed with ornamental tracery, in which the Moorish
taste upon the builder is very evident This gate
way is, save a small window at its side, the only
external aperture in the lower story, which is
nearly twen:y-feet in height. 1t is closed by
huge bivalve door of treble mahogany, thickly
studded with brass knobs, which are the heads
of the bolts which bind it together. One leaf
stands Open enter and find ourselves at one end
of an oblong courtyard, paved with flat stones.
On our left stands the high-wheeled uolante,
which is sure to be found in this part of the
house of any person even well to do and be
hind it is the pallet which the porter sleeps;
for the ponderous gate admits of no latch key,
and whoever comes in after ten o'clock at night
must rouse the porter, who is generally soldier
upon half pay, we'll used to disturbed slumbers.
AS we stand in the gateway, we see that the walls
are between two aud three feet thick, and are
built not in layers, but with irregular mixture
Of stones and mortar. At the end of the court
yard, half hidden behind an arch. are two horses,
under the dining room. Around the courtyard
are the apartments of the negroes and the store
rooms From the middle springs tall, slender
catalpa tree, branchless, except near its top,
which almost reaches that Of the house, where
its broad, thin leaves, cast their delicate shade
upon the gallery which we see running around
the court above our heads. Close by the tree is
the mouth of large cstern, long unused. We
turn to the left, and ascend broad stone stair
case, with heavy balustrade. On the first land
ing stands puzzling piece of mahogany furniture;
for it is too high for refrigerator, and too low
for shower bath. 1t is filter. Opened, it dis.
closes large hemispherical stone basin, from the
lower surface of which the water drips rapidly in
great pelucd drops into an earthern vessel below.
This natural filter far surpasses, in efficacy, any
artificial continuance for the same purpose; even
those to which the American Institute has award
ed gold medal And the water, which is thus
filtered. and which is brought into the city by an
aqueduct, is, to confess the truth, purer and more
palatable than the Croton. Another flight of the
staircase leads US to the floor of the balcony,
upon which open all the principal apartments of
the house. A broad platform before us has a
floor of cement, hard enough to be polished like
marble. On enc side is cane settee on the
other huge Spanish armchair, with bottom,
sides and back Of unyieldng leather; such chair
as the fortunate possessor of Pellicier's Don
Quixote, published in Madrid in 1913, will find
in the admirably characteristic illustrations of
that edition. Here is the entrance to the draw
ing room, large apartment fronting on the street,
and the full width of the house. about fifty feet
in length Its floor is of tesselated marble. Its
furniture seems penuriously meagre and mean to
those who are accustomed to the overloaded
rooms of the North. A pi .no-forte, book ia
BILE, upon which no books are, a cane-bottomed
sofa, few ordinary chairs, and half @ dozen or
more, huge cane Boston-rockers, are the sum of
its contents. Its lofty roof is unceed, and shows
beams rather Enthusiastically carved. The windows,
reaching from the floor nearly to the roof, open
upon balcony, which seems to overhang the
middle of the narrow street. They are all open
now; but we notice that they do not close with
sashes, but with heavy shutters in each of which,
about six feet from the floor, is glazed aperture
about nine inches square. Such thing as a
glazed window sash does not exist in Cuba
Sleeping chambers open upon the gallery around
the court. which we noticed from below; and on
the side of the quadrangle, opposite to the draw
ing room, is the dining room, which is nothing |
more than wide platform thrown across the |
court, and open to the air through arches. Be-
yond this. the gallery again leads to other sleep
ng rooms, to Offices, and to the kitchen. where
all the cooking is done with charcoal in small
furnaces Some houses have lower gallery |
opening on the first landing of the staircase, and
leading to other sleeping apartments. From the
upper gallery, steep flight of steps leads to the
heavily-tiled roof, whence we assembled to the
Top OF one OF the square elevations we nave al
ready noticed. The furnishing of the bed cham
1ers is of the same meagreness as that of the
drawing room. cot, or simple four-post bed
stead, upon the sack bottom of which no bed is
aid, but only quilt or two, a wardrobe, wash
stand, and the inevitable rocking chair, all of
'ather homely materials, are what we find This
paucty and poverty of furniture is Cuban trait,
and is indicative of no frugality. The man whose
volante and harness have a thousand dollars
worth of silver worked into their decorations, and
whose calesero (coachman) carries enough of bull
lion about him to purchase his freedom, will not
have so much, or so expensive furniture IN his
house as the New Yorker who considers himself
in very moderate circumstances. The very pa
lace itself is no exception to this remark. And |