Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-09-03
. boy and girl, and grown-up folks too, 50,
if We will, we can learn lesson in behav-
ing ourselves, even from the birdss

HAVANA LIFE.-Looked at from q social
point of view, what Immediately strikes .
stranger is that Havana, like the Rome
of Romulus, is city without women.
There die annually, out Of population of
205, 900 souls, 1862 white males to 1904
white females, while the deaths among the
colored people are, for the males, 1916 ;
for the females, 1899. Thus, while the
sexual numbers of the negro and mulatto
population are almost balanced, with re.
spect to the white the proportion is some
thing more than three males to one female.
The fact, however, is self-evident. Hard
ly any other women than negresses are
ever to be seen about. Ladies with any
pretension to youth would sooner die than
venture out unprotected, even for their
early mass and so uncommon is the sight
of decent women unattended in the streets
that foreign ladies, unacquainted with the
customs, and sauntering from shop to shop,
become the object of curiosity not un-
frequently degenerating into impertinence.
The causes of the disproprtion between
males and females are not far to seek.
Besides the priests, the soldiers and sailors,
and the public functionaries, whose tenure
of Office is extremely precarious, and who
are either debarred from marriage or dread
its encumbrances and responsibilities, there
are here thousands of Spanish immigrants
of the lower classes attracted to the spot
by high wages, but looking upon themselves
as birds Of passage, who consequently,
would hardly dream of sending for women
from home, while their contempt for the
native race seldom allows them to look up
on the Creole women with honorable in
tentions. l need not dwell upon the OBJ
vious results of this state Of things. SUI
fee to say that regard for women is by no
means enhanced by their scarcity. The
charms of cafe and club life, such as they
are, wean the Havana husband from a
home where real feminine accomplish
ments are as unknown as hearth rugs and
fire irons. Housekeeping in the town, and
still more in the suburbs, is terribly up
hill work. Foreign consuls and other
strangers usually try it on their FIRST arri-
val, but soon look upon the hotel, with it's
smells and noises, as haven from domes-
tic storms. Nothing like available free
service is to be obtained in slave-hold-
ing community; the lazlness, and, unless
awed by the lash, the insolence Of the ne
gro bondmen communicate themselves to
the hired help, whatever be the color. race
or sex, working at the same task with him
in common household. Hence man S
life in Havana is wholly out-ofdoors, while
| for women there is no lite within them.
In no town in France or Italy have ever
| seen so many, or, proportlonately, such
sumptuous and constantly crowded cafes
and restaurants. The Havana merchant
is as eager to make money as he is ready
to squander it. But the town supplies
little besides gross material enjoyment for
his money. A box at his third rate opera,
drive in his dreary Prado, are all the
amusements he can have in common with
his wife and daughter. For the rest, the
women are eft to NOPE alone at home,
playing bo-peep with the passers-by from
their window gratlngs, or pacing the fiat
roofs OF their houses like SO many Sister
Annes waiting for those who are never
coming. With so little wholesome do
nestle society, it is pleasing to hear the
character universally given for good
conduct to the Havana women. Few
of them, even of the lowest classes, fire
quent the cockpit and the bull-ring, and
the prohigacy, the symptoms of which are
everywhere only too conspicuous, is of
Spanish or ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Of for
elgn importation.-London Times.