The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-05-26

50 and the Briton has the audacity to put for
ward this fact as a reason for bringing her to
with shot Seriously and solemnly, what
ought moro TO humiliate us in our own eyes,
than such miserable attempts to make our
national honor a cloak to cover our secret dis
like of all efforts against slavery if not shield
to protect and encourage the slave trade!
Aprii II.
Havana is rdculously expensive place. In
| London or Paris one may spend vast sums of
money, if he likes and is able, in the purchase
Of ephemeral satisfactions and magnificent tri-
! hes; but the satisfactiOns, however expensive,
will probably be satisfactory, and the trifes,
however trivial, certainly magnificent whereas
in Havana one must pay the price of luxuries
for mere necessities, and those poor of their
kind If man could live ON guava jelly and
cigars, | suppose he might find Havana an
economical place but if he requires anything
else--if he wants bread and meat and water,
and a good bed to sleep Inlet him 20 to An
toch or Damascus, to Ancona or Brindisi,
rather than to Havana. At his hotel he will
have to pay more than ct the best houses in
New York and if he has ever scolded his land.
lord at the AstOr, the St. Nicholas, the New
York, or the Clarendon, for putting him up
stairs beyond the reach Of bells and walters
and in a room so small that he must 20 out of
tho window to get into bed he will experience
severe mental remorse when he learns that the
second bed in his large, airy, Havana chamber
is likely at any moment to be tenanted by a
stranger and that when two more cots have
cut off his access to the washstand and looking
glass fourth weary wanderer, Just landed
from the Chagres boat, and dying with the
isthmus fever, may be laid by his side, in the
comfortable double bed which he had thought
lessly appropriated to himself on his first en-
trance into the room. | am drawing no fancy
sketch. "Such things have beenn And every
day which pass alone in this chamber of mine
is as dear to me as if were respited criminal
uncertain of the morrow. A caravanserai
were better than this stale of things. | would
rather bring my bed with me, knowing that |
should have a place apart, wherein to lay it
privately and peacefully, than sleep on down
after this most primitive fashion 1t is very
picturesque, no doubt, and reminds one of the
Posadas in Don Quixotte but it "hkes me
not" and in country with railroads is not to
be tolerated Let US have either one thing or
the other. five must sleep four in q room, let
us travel on mules exclusively franc-etrier,
and dine every dry under the trees with stroll.
ing actors But it does not harmonic, to have
the middle ages at our inn, and the nineteenth
century on the road. These sudden changes of
mental temperature are more trying than those
Of New England spring.
But Havana Is not only an expensive place
it ia an unwholesome one within the walls The
harbor having only one narrow entrance, the
waters are very stupid and sluggish. All the
Establishments Of this beautiful moon are
thrown away on their inert mass They lie
lazily motionless, like great tortoise, and
gorge themselves on the ofa of the city Here
is one source of disease. Then the CITY walls,
which could keep out nothing else keep out the
blessed air of Heaven, which is thus constrained
to blow ouer the city, and not through it, If
you live on street which runs from gate to
the watersde, you are always in draught
in any other street. you might as well be in
somebody pocket. This is source the second of
disease. The authorities are we'll aware of
this state Of things, and nothing would be easier
than to cut another channel to the sea, across
tho narrow neck of land which lies opposite
the housekeeping, perhaps to pull down
the worse than useless landward walls Of the
town. There have been propositions made by
private parties, and very fair ones, to do both
these things; but, as yet nothing has come of
them The third nuisance of the Havana con-
sists in the nature Of the stone used hero in
building and in making the roads. The neigh
borhood of the city gates is always disagreeablc
with clouds Of fine lime-dust, which pene.
trates the nostrils and the mouth, and clinging
to the interior of the head and throat, takes as
it were cast in plaster of those regions of the
. body. You never see Creole gentleman ride
through the gates, without holding his hand
kerchief to his face, in a way which gives you
nj first the impression that everybody you meet
has just como from the dentists. It's how
ever only precaution against this dust which
tends to cause very dangerous iniiammations
Of the throat and eyes.
The environs of Havana are very beautiful.
have already spoken of the Cerro, with its
pretty country houses and fine views of the
Tacon Paseo, and the Rosctree road Besides
these, the quintas Of some of the Creole no
blcs-thc sugar noblesn az the Standards
call them, with n disdan hardly justifable ut
the bar ct common sense, since O sugar noble
certainly is not less respectable than blood
noble nor a title bought with good gold ounces
less honorable than one obtained by success.
full rapine, or mental services rendered to some
vulgar, sensual prince. The quintas Of some
of these Creole counts and marauises are very
pleasant resorts in these delightful mornings.
The gardens are generally neglected, but all
bountitul Nature makes them lovely in spite
OF mans neglect Gorgeous howers-fruit-
trees like the zapote and the aquacate, that
riyal shade trees in their noble size and their
masses of foliage-pa'm avenues, which dis
play to perfection tho best attributes of q tree
for which "it is not good that il be alone :"
these, and the soft early sunlight and the
pleasant morning breeze, make u rambls
through the grounds of Santa Yenia, or Pala.
tino, one Of the most agreeable features of life
in the Havana Then we have glorious row
by moonlight across the and-locked bay, dotted
all over by tho stately forms of ships sleeping
on the waters; and afternoon drives around
the shore to the old Indian town Of Guanaba-
Goa, from the heights of which one enjoys the
finest possible view Of the city, out to Pnentes
Grande, where the green Amendares, tho
Gusdalquiver OF the Habanero poets, glides
under hanging groves swiftly but stealthily
along 10 the sea, till its course IL impeded and
it's speed betrayed by ledge of rocks, over
which it leaps angrily enough in q series Of
small cascades; or through the tangled,
troacherous msngroves to the Chorcra, where
the same Almendarss slips quietly cut into the