Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-03-22
LETTER FROM CUBA
Habsna Inside and outside the Falls
-Vfsft TOT Country Restdenee-FroP-
teal Fruits. Flowers and Servants.
From & Lady Correspondent
HOTEL SANTA ISABEL, |
IA HARANA. Feb. 1866. (

zeal Fruits, Flowers and
From & Lady Correspondents
HOTEL SANTA YsABEL,
La HABANA, Feb. 8
Habana without the walls is much lar
Ger than the intra-mural town, has wider
streets and is better built. One of the
finest streets is the Prado or Calzada de
Ysabel "a. It is very wide, rum from
the Campo de la Punta on the Gulfto the
Bahia, has several rows of the royal palm
and Fcus religiUsus running the whole
length of the street, is adorned with foun-
tains, has q fine statue of Queen ISABEL
and a beautiful work of art called La
Yndia, an Indian girl in sitting posture
upon a lofty pedestal, with the insignia of
her tribe about her. It is commemorative
of the legend that says when, at the land
ing of the great navigator all the men
and women ran away in terror and con-
cealed themselves, a young girl came for
ward and extending her arms to the Span
iards pronounced the word 'Habans"-
welcome. A sorry coming it was to these
simple a~borigines. 1t is less than four
hundred years since the discovery of the
islands yet from nearly every one all
trace of the earlier inhabitants has passed
away.
THE Prado is just beyond the walls and
all the picturesque archways of stone open
upon it. The gates, 1 think, are never
shut now, but at night are guarded by
soldiers, whether to keep the ms from
going out or the reverse 1 know not.
Weeds and shrubs are growing in Whist
was the moat, and a species of cactus has
fastened upon the walls. AT one extrem-
ity of the street is the Punts, one of the
forts that guard the entrance to the har-
Dor, at the other the Arsenal. Opening
from this street. too ara the Campo MiEitar
and the Plaza of the Tacon Theatre.
There is also a delightfully."- situated hotel,
the Inglatcera, formerly the resort of
Americans, but at present they seem to
congregate within the walls.
Through the kindness of friend a visit
to the country seat of Count Fernandina
was arrnged. 1t is on the Cerro, three
miles from the walls. The house is two
stories high, thelower one between twenty
and thirty feet from the ceiling to the
floor. The front of the house has six large
rooms, two hOOred with red cedar with an
inlaid border, the others with black and
white marble. The furniture is very ele-
CANT. Articles Of quaint shape inlaid
with brass and ivory and pearl, tables of
precious marbles, and everything that
fancy could dictate but books. / saw only
one small cabinet filed with English
books. Every room is hung with pictures
and filled with statuary. Most Of the
paintings are by modern artists, a few an
large and admirable collection. Most of
the statues we're too closely yelled for in
sp~ection. One interested US particularly,
a The Fisher Girl" ordered before the war
by General Robert E. Lee.
The billiard and dining rooms are fur
nished with exquisite native woods. The
sumner sale a manager is a marble court
rooted with lowing vines. There is a chapel
where, when at home, the Count hears
mass every Sunday.
The sleeping rooms are almost as ele-
giant as the reception rooms, filed with
pictures and busts. The dressing room
of the Count has an exquisite painting of
q lady taking her siesta on a hammock.
She is a dainty bit of flesh and blood, with
the dark hair and glorious eyes of the
South n arm, perfect as thai that
Milo's Venus lost" hangs over the ham,
mock, and between the taper fingers is a
cigar, not the delicate cigdrro affected by
most ladies, but a genuine "tabaco."
From the house we passed to the garden,
where for an hour we wandered among
flowers and shrubs 1 never saw before ex-
cept in greenhouses. The oranges had
been gathered, the zspota was in fruit,
the coffee with red berries not unlike a
cranberry, the pepper with foliage like
the laurel, palms of many. species, the
banana, hibiscus with huge blossoms, pink
scarlet, fame-eolored, the Ipomara, with
white flowers like a morning-glory, and
scores of others whose names the memory
could not retain.
Count Fernandina has fifteen hundred
slaves on his plantations, and two or three
hundred in his town and country houses.
The gardener told me some were Africans
pure; most Of them born on tie island
were more intelligent and less manageable
than the importations. 1 asked fine meant
to say that the more they knew the
wickeder they grew? He replied, with a
laugh, pretty nearly that" He said he
told the Undergraduates a thing n day,
and perhaps not again for a month. That
is wonderful; we have few servants who
do not need more frequent reminders. He
said they we're usually bright and quick to
learn, but sometimes their tete dAfrigHe
came back and he could do nothing with
them. He supposed they were thinking
of other things. When contented, they
did well enough. All very like other folks,
that.
Upon leaving, an old black brought
each of the ladies a prettily arranged bou-
quet of flowers. He was grizzled, and
naked to the waist. The douceur offered
he took without s word, or the movement
of q muscle of his stolid face.
The gardener seemed SO very respecta-
able we hesitated a little about fees, but
found he had nc more objection than the
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