The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1854-08-25
Night ia Havana.

Night im Havana.
At night the tropic world is all awake, all tremu-
lous with life and light. The streets within the
walls are thronged and gay. Then the ladies ol
condition go shopping, and there volantes crowd
the narrow streets. The fair inmates, dlsdaInIng
TO descend, are waited on by familiar, yet courte-
GUS shopment Spaniards Of old Spain and masters
of that courteous familiarity, in which, as IN SO
many other graceful traits, the Moor still triumPhS
IN the heart OF Spain. One feels the Orient too,
in the equanimity with which The dignihed dealer
in genuine RegaliaS, or wonderful fans, condesc"nds
to waive trife Of forty fifty per cent, on the
original prtco he had asked for his admirable
wares. And do you not seem to see that lmcom-
parable lady Of Bassorah, to whom the young silk
merchant gave such long credit, and loaned such
large sums the security of her magnItl-
cent ewes, when you hear the stately and sounding
adularion with which these Peninsular tradesmPn
ply their customers, adroilly putting not their
goods, but the fair buyers thereof! The ecs'atlc
cjacu aons which burst from the lips of the Persian
Princes, when they first beheld themselves sur
rounded by the unvaiIed Houris Of a London
drawing room, are the daily license OF the young
Habanero, nor do the native ladies take any otense
at The complimentary nonsense which saIutes their
passage through the streets. But shall not soon
forget the mixture Of alarm and indignation with
which northern lady of my acquaintance salyng
from the hotel door for her first vOlane expedition,
heard herself addressed by two youths, who took
off their hats in passing, and exclaimed, "Go with
God lovely and beautiful American Long live
your !oveiiness, and long live America y Yet as
she chanced to be pretty, and as America is by
no means unpopular with the Creoles, she gr W
quite accustomed to such SITUATIONS, before the
ride was over and even submitted with tolerably
good grace receive the Information from waiter
at the cafe, where she stopped 20 take an ice,
''that the ices of the beautiful ladies had been paid
for by Caballero who had gone out y
At light, too, the daughters Of the middng
classes, arrayed in their best, stand behind the
gratings of the huge ground floor windows, guess
Of glass, and gaze out upon the busy street, while
their dowdy mammas, in the easiest undress, rock
slowly in the huge butacas, or arm chairs, which
are always arranged In two parallel lines from the
front windows. The promenaders without, so
narrow the sidewalks, almost brush the dresses
of the young ladies within, yet the wax-women
who obgingly lead the fashions in the shop
windows of Broad way and Washington sts.,
not more lmpassive under the stare and rura!
wonder or delight than are these Creole damsels
under the bold gaze of native criticism or foreign
admiration, TO which they are oightly subjected.
How favorable this arrangement is 10 the COM
mercc in biIlets doux, | need not say, and the
windows are generally somewhat bowed, have
even witnessed exchanges of more tender nature,
made through the gratinss. night the Plaza
dc Armas is IN its glory. The Plaza de Armas
is not large Hyde Park, neither does it AT all
resemble the Battery and those wise people who
dsdan DrachenfeIs for it's little likeness TO
Anthony's Nose and despse Windermere because
il is bat tea-cup beside The great washub OF Lake
Erie, find the Plaza de Armas neither fair nor
pleasing. Yet it seems 10 be charming place,
with its picturesque frontier oC southern buildings,
and its citadel OF marble quiet, when the hot noon
broodS upon lis silent palms and STILL dreaming,
odorous flowers. A charming place suggesting
rec,IIecons more charming still Of ovIier places,
Of the gardens OF King Agb, and Of the courts
wherein ''Ganem, the Distracted Slave OF Love,
rected extemporaneous verses to the dark-eyed
AIcolomb. And at nj ght the Plaza DE- Armas has
new charms of It's own. Then the reglmenal
ba nd gather around the conspicuous marble statue
of Ferdinand VII, discourse most passionate music;
then. moving groups of ladies in mantiIIas and
cabaIeros, (alas that | must write it in black
dress coats and white panaloons, checker the rch
moonlight on the marble pavements, and swarthy
slaves glancing with ornaments Of silver and gold,
lean The low walls, bandying their chuckting
wit in their strange negro Spanish and halt
hidden in the broad shadows of the buildings round
about the Plaza, dark-eycd Acolombs receive the
homage of meeker and Icss ecstatic Ganems,
as!uous beside those wondrous vehicles which, to
the lady of Havana, gondola and throne,
fauteuil and palanquin at once.
AT o'clock the bands march off the ground.
The voIantcs follow and the aImless masculine
world repairs to the cafes. The cafes stately
squares of marble columns open in the centre to
the airs OF heaven and refreshed with the FLASHING
of fountains There the representatives Of half
the nations of the world to be found, the heavy
musaches Of the Spanish dragoon, and the ruddy
clean shaven visage of the English MILDLY, equally
active IN the discussion OF all manner Of and
fragrant compounds, cool with northern ice, and
aromatic with the life Of tropic fruits. There
oysters costly luxury, and pineaPplcs a
drug, and nobody reads the newspaper. An
uproarious confusion OF tongues, the continual
ringing from the little silver braziers, which the
unweared waters cauer down upon the marble
tables in answer to the perpetual cries of "Candea
Can6eIa 7 Fire Fire J which echo through the
building. and a ceaseIess movement: to and fro in
the bright gas.light distinguished the world Of men
within. Without, the ladies in their volaDtes take
ic"s, and a IiuIe more gaantry. Gan. Eden or
Pictures Of Cuba.
A young lawyer took FOR his first fec New
foundIand pup; whereupon the following cores