Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-03-20

Went to the Tacon theatre Which-is on
the Prado outside the walls. The house
has an open court in which people eat ices.
The first floor and fight of stairs are of
marble, the others of common stone and
wood. The corridors are wide and con-
stantly filed with smokers. The stage is
large, the p~srquette, occupied only by
men, seats between six and sever hundred.
The first tier of boxes corresponds 10 our
dress circle. The box nearest the stage is
large and surmounted with the royal arms
and the national %colors, if well chosen, of
Spain, they Symbolic, as they may,
blood and gold.
The other seat each six persons, the
chairs in the inevitable two rows facing
each other. There is a second tier Of
boxes, the third tier is partly occupied by
arm chairs; above are two gallaries. This
arrangement is pleasant but does not seat
nearly as many as our Opera Houses. The
Tscon seems very plain from the absence
of carpets and upholstery, even the pro-
scenium boxes are without drapery. A
chandelier hangs from the centre of the
building, beautiful with its countless PEN
dants of glass, and in front of each box is
a jet enclosed in a ball of glass. These
were not lighted and the house seemed
quite dark.
The curtain rose at half past seven and
fell at ten-another instance of Cuban
good sense. The ladies were all in full
evening dress, the men, meek slaves of
fashion and of France, had stove-pipe
hats and black coats. Gloves are not de
rigeur even for the Opera, are scarcely
worn at all upon the Paseo.
18th February. Went to tie Cathedral,
in which, after repeated removals, rests
the bones of Cristoval Colon. The church
is of stone without cement, has a hand
some facade with two towers, is very old,
has a row of columns each side the nave
that support the high arehed roof. There
are several affairs each with a painting.
The only ones that seemed to me TO have
artistic merit are a st. Peter and one of
the patrons of the church, San CristObal.
The stout ferrymen with staff in hand has
Just reached the land and with turned
head and pleased face locks at the little
child seated on his shoulder who holds the
globe in his hand, and whose tiny form
had power to weigh him down. down in the
waters, till prayer buoyed him up and at
last set him upon the rock that was
stronger than he
The Bishop was received at the outer
door and between files of priests and boys
proceeded to the altar, his immensely
long, purple train needing half a dozen
bearers. After the investiture came the
ceremonies peculiar to the day, n of
which is the amounting with oil and ashes.
The black cross looked oddly on the ton
sure, and a fellow sight-seeer wanted to
know if it were the custom house mark.
Many things seem absurd when we are
ignorant of their correspondence, but to
Catholics these forms are all rich in mean
ing, and until we have found avenues to
God direct enough to dispense with the
mediation of priest and temple, we should
not mock at those who have a few more
ceremonies than ourselves.
There are no pews in the church. Some
Of the ladies have chairs, most have a rug
spread by a servant, upon which they kneel
or sit during the entire service. Although
1t was Ash-W Wednesday, there were few
worshippers, and those looked about more,
and seemed less reverent than in our
churches. h. n. ID.