New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-01-02
DON JOAQ UIN.
BY GEORGE w. CABLE.

Had the summer midnights of 1874 found
you in Havana, you could not have idled
long among the grave and elegant lOungers
Of the Alameda but you would certainly
tired, dark, handsome, sombre. who moved
his more quiet fellow Cubans-for
ameae de HIM neutrality-suspicious.
some EN- 1asuth. less TO. conversation but for
I t%s a race Of his figure anu the IMPRESSIVE
dignity of his bearing.
You would Preeent'"s notice that he was
much courted. AZ, with bis slow and stately
step. he passed one and another group, half
oficers, half civilians, that sat smoking and
chatting in the broad moonlight OF the
Paroue, an acquaintance would lift cigar
from his lips, and say, invitingly, don Joa-
quin!" and draw up an empty chair; or an
s.Justiniani! !" and beckOn coaxingly, but
generally without success. Then third
1ouId saw, "he learned that odd habit Of
promenading from Simpson" And they
would resume their gossiping on the sub
ject of the war.
In the Casino he was always the centre
of circle. though he listened far more than
he spoke, never played, avoided the library,
and seldom filed his glaes. Not that he
tnrned his back on pleasure, but he had
caught . habit of looking her in the face
and never smiling.
Monasterio. the architect, of Matanzas,
Int lately come to locate in Havana, said
of him that he walked the earth as man
who had had one love affair and could
never have another; but MOnasterio was q
eentimentalist-even his fast and efeminate
Havanese comrades admitted that-and We
ehall gee whether he was not mistaken.
The don's friends understood, however,
that there was something wrong with his
heart. Not anything silly-that even q
yoluntari0 would smile at-but something
that made life and romance burden. No
matter where he carried his heart, by day in
the busting Calie del Mercaderes, by night
under the romantic blending OF lamp-light
and starlight on the PradO, in the TacOn,
under tie palms OF the Quintas, IN the gay
hurry of the PaseOs, through all the halls
of the Casino, it had one constant moan,
like the CRY Of q feeble child in the arms of
a forlOrp father, crying, Give givew
Said Simpson, the burly English merchant,
who used to sit in the card-r0Om of the Ca
sino, with his big pink fist lying beside his
glass of ale, while he rallied by turns at his
two great aversions, Cuban customs and
womankind. Said he:
didn't have Q heart! Why don't he come
square up like man, and look his trouble
in the eye till it gives over and backs down
But 10; to-day he Furnishes it. and to-mor-
row he fondles it. That's the way with
YOU bloody Cubans. To-day he runs away
from it to the bull fight. What beastly
bit of foolishness that bull fight is !"
ISL" said MonasterlO, who understood q
little Englieh, and was Bsthetlcal.
'.TopiRht," continued the Englishman-
'sto-nieht he let's it follow him to the thea
tire, and here tomorrow he'll take it up
gently to church, and kneel with it through
all that deuced mummery. hate to see q
fine man spoiled in that way. For Justin
iani is fine man. If Justiniani was an
Englishman, what bully fellow he'd be "
Isl, ei," said the invircible courtesy Of
his Cuban listeners.
But Justinisni was not an Englishman;
wherefore neither friends, nor incense, nor
blood of bulls, nor wine, nor music, nor
ladies-ah the poor heart turned away
quickly with little shudder. None Of
tbose-no, NO, anything but them!
Nothing brought him Joy
One lovely night in summer the mood
came upon Don Joaquin, az it does at times
upon ali men who carry hidden griefs, to
tell his trouble. Whether it was the poetry
of the romantic scene about him l know
not; something made him for the moment,
if the truth must be told, sentimental.
The evening was far spent. The thou
sand little cabs that had been trundling
here and there. freighted with fair women,
were for the most part disappearing, ana
the ringing pavements and the wretched,
frantic little eteeds that traversed them
began to have q moment of partial rest.
Among the trees Of the Prado and Plaza still
FILTERED the countless lamps, and while the
windows of the hotel and the Louvre shOne
brilliantly ON one hand, on the other the
Casino became light and merriment from
its deem srcades, and at stated moments an
intense flash darted over the scene from the
maiestic lieht-tower of the MORO, Is it's
single burning eye was cast now far across
the Mexican Cult, and now over that
ancient, cruel, ungodly beauty, the city Of
Havana.