, 1873-03-30
HAVANA AND CUBA.
Glimpses Of the Queen Of the
Antilles.
Life in the Spanish West Indies
---Tho Future Of That
Region.

Lilo III the Spanish West Indie!
! ---Tho Future of That
Region.
The recent lecture Of II. q. Spofford, Esq, be
!! fore the Rayenswood Literary Association, WA
| an excellent example Of what our frst-class lee
! turo associations should provide for tho enter
taiument and instruction Of their patrons. It il
] because lecture committees too frequently
| squander their money on merely flash writers
tha they have disgusted the intellectual clnsses,
and hundreds Of lecture associations, once -four
] ishing, have ceased to exist.
! The vivid Impressions Of Havana and Cuba
! which were left on the minds of Mr.. SpoGords
! audience will repass before their memories for
years, like charming a.d instructive panorama.
HAVANA,
with it's delicious climate, never tonched with
frost, yet seldom heated to moro than 90 degrees
Fahrenheit; in the midst OF 4 landscape the most
sunny and lu1uriantly beautiful that caa be-
imagined; with its distant view Of that grand,
oldtime fortress, the Moro, which, with threatou-
ing brows OF heavy cannon, looks down from the
rocky heights at the entrance of tho magnificent
harbor, keeping watch and guard over city and
sea Havana, with it's glorious outlying hills and
valleys dotted with villas and groves Of orange
and palms with its dark, investing wall around
tie old town; its sinister-looking sentnels on
the parapets and at the gateways; its mar
row streets within the walls; it's quaint cathe
lrals, and long lines Of low brick or stone shops
and houses, succeed an0painted yellow, and pink,
and blue; and, interminGled with these, it's ancant
palaces, aud prisons, aud courts, and gates, aud
arches, and founta;ns,-all in the style Of the
seventeenth century; Havana, with its broad,
smooth avenues (or passoos) outBide the old town,
stretching far away into the rich tropical folds,
and lined with luxurious dwellings, Of the mobiles
aud the wealthy rising in tue m:Ist Of groves
and gardens Of fruits aud rich1y-colo1cd flowers,
vocal almost every night in the year With the
mirth and music Of these pleasure-loving chill
dren Of the South, dancing on their broad piaz
zas, or around tho cool fountains i'll tho moonIlt
courts Havana, the richest jewel in the realm
of Spaiu,-as re listened to the lecturer, how
VIC longcd to reyel for season in it's joyous
light!
Pardon SO long a sentence, but all Havana and
its surroundings nre but one, grand picture to US
since nIr. SpoIord's description yet the lac
turer drow parts Of it in separate sketches.
Quo Was Of
TIE GRAND PLAZA
(where, it il said, was celebrated tho first mass
tho New WorId), with its surrounding palaces
of the Captain-Geueral and the Government
Departments with its broad marble pavements,
covering two-th:rds Of the square; with its
gorgeous intervening dowc7-beds aud shrubbery;
with its colossal statue OF Ferdinand and marble
figures Of SANTA; with it's military and operate
m1lsic and evening crowds Of promonaders, the
clItc OF the city.
ri ~, nfaI a1r
THE GRAND pAssEo,
:, The aftarnoona when the Indies and GENTLE
men, III splehaid court equlpagcs' VI guy palau-
gums or sWl1tly-HE1ne 7o1antes' eaJoy tneu-
serves IN 1ia1ng. anu Tue pioud souns g., ouoans as
e3Holt 'ner 1ech4es7 no1sotnan9h4p LII @no n4os'
e1c1tine manner.
ihere, too' was tue oescf'ptton OF ene "onoef-
1nl' oeserteo
.., BISHOP t::l.l1, uAapIS, ,',,,o.;.,a aa
WIZ Tvs asso:eg ~ 1,azreaa a,1s
weird, romapt,c legenus,-"aeIe, tho !; negroes
esgts nlsut; H. a4u 's ~ ~ - r7,;,osaIan.
talts from me treGs, auu loinlHous as ~
terms snea4ins alsasslon5 r. saorda ~ ascr;1,
sly ~ e1ss ~ io ~ 49,. xotr 49, Iii 7r,lo
tlon OF tnls ealuen me ast 'o1 sue' aIa W., -
interesting nero tue slghts, anu tne soHaus ot
tue wlnas, N shat sslause "oou afo ~ aaesen. xe
from Tue slsn's Ano eounoe " oW o"D -o1oate
The place "a Inessy ana WIN frsa ,nd
sge but 81 via and aate c. rnc FsH ana
o1affi
trces With leaves dense as roofs oyerbea, festooned
with running vinea, like temples for the worship
Of oberon or Pam, and, r. othsr :. places,
long lines Of palms, their trunks completely hung
Win parasitic snd ehfas Dps ep M .oa
at ~ rln here are hedges of thorn century old
sn3 anost a. ;mpenetralle IS the walls Of tie Moro,
The ho-house plants Of the NORTH and others that
bear removal al about in uncaredfor perfec-
tion and the air is ned with the perfume ot orange
nd hme blossoms: InG soas 81 pe pac. .alt
10 ol ,nT tnS ~ The Of The nda
cocoa-n,,ts: and when the wind is high tho palms
throw about their arms With tho whzzing sound Of
great falling body and the brakes OF bamboo CRATE and
shrek Ike some br1arean eaaft In agony.
A1r. sponoCd described
TIE TRAGIC SPOT
IN The suburbs et the. city, where the fffty-two
American followers Of Lopez, the fill
1uster chief, met their barbarous fate 80
,ravely, cheering the American tag, that was
:et aeoTo them IN moekery' till the last man
'oA.
cpBA, :.
which still retains ITS Indian namc waa dlscov-