The Nevada journal., 1856-04-18
Life i'm the Island of Cuba.

Hon. Zadock Pratt delivered lecture
before the Kingston Literary Association,
which we find reported in the Albany dr.
gus. We clip some interesting extracts
from it:
The Hotels IN CuJa.-Whoever expects
to find the hotel of his imagination in Gu
ba will be sadly disappointed. A cottage
with no bed and only a single quilt, bu.
reau, wash stand, and rocking chair, form
the whole furniture of even the best bed
rooms and the living is as different from
our own as can be imagined.
Very little can be said in favor of the
sleeping arrangements at most of the ho-
tells. One is never safe from intrusion
bed after bed is filled up in your room,
and new guests flock in, and after every
other available place has been occupied, if
you have been put into the double bed,
in honor of being the first conner, it is ten
chances to one if you have not compan-
ion and if he is not ready to die of fe-
yer or some other disease, you may think
yourself fortunate.
How the Cubans Lice.-You rise early
and drink cup or two of coffee while you
are dressing, and also eat two or three or
anges, after which you pass away the time
to the best advantage till nine o'clock,
when you have breakfast. This is the reg
ular hour all over the city, and more than
one-half of the days work is accomplished
before it. The Havana merchant goes to
his business and then home to his break
fast, as we in our city 60 home to our din
ner, and many ofthem do business after
that meal. Fish, flesh and fowl, of al
most all kinds, cover the table, together
with cucumbers, green corn, and all the
fruits which are luxuriant in the tropics,
but flour is scarce and expensive luxury,
the duty charged being almost prohibitory;
the excellence and variety of vegetables do
away, to some extent, with the want of it.
and he who has roughed the world for him.
self can live very comfortably.
The cooking is generally good, but even
on the tables is the coarse brown the
process ofrefning is not considered necess-
airy where it is made. In fact, they seek
to live with the least expenditure of labor,
and though it may suit them very well,
must confess to temperament suited to
working a little harder and having things
a little better.
A Coffee Plantation IN full 6loom.-One
of the most beautiful sights that ever at
tracted my eye was coffee plantation in
full bloom. The plant is an evergreen tree
from fifteen to twenty feet high, with a
large smooth bright green leaf the flow
ers are white and sweet scented, and grow
in punches at the base of the leaf 1t is
usually planted in lots of about eight acres,
laid out in wide walks, the borders of
which are planted with orange, banana,
mango, and other tropical trees, the par
tial shade of whichis necessary to preserve
the coffee tree. The luxuriant climb
ing plants of the tropics intertwine the
branches and offer every shade of beauti-
full flower, and when the coffee plant is al
so in blossom they are so large and abun-
dant that it seems as if cloud of snow
had rested upon each tree, and the whole
forms a scene of natural splendor, fully
equal to the most exalted idea of the gar
den of Eden.
The sugar plantations, however, though
the least beautiful of any, are by far the
most profitable, some of the largest yield
ing an income of over two hundred thous-
and dollars per annum, while the smallest
produces about one hundred thousand.
Sugar, coffee, and tobacco are the three
great staples of the island, but sugar Yields
about double the per centage of profit of
either of the others, and in fact the culture
of both coffee and tobacco has very much
decreased
EUening on tie Avenues.-The avenues
out of the city extend for miles as they
stretch towards the plantations, lined on
each side with the unequaled royal palm,
interspersed with other trees.
The palm overtops all the others, many
of them rising to height of one hundred
and twenty feet. The leaves are from