New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1881-07-13
WHOLE NUMBER 1873
Scenes in Havana.

Louisville Cour!cr-Jour
You will open your eyes pcrchance
when! you hear that Havana claims a
population of 100000. This, however,
is an overestimate. Well-informed bust
ness men assure me that the actual pop
ulation was about $780, 600. OF this num-
Der O,OOO or 1900 are Cinnamon and
1000 foreigners other than Spaniards.
Tho Cinnamon are engaged in every
pursuit, except politics, and you never
turn corner without encountering one
of them. Some of them look sleek, fat
and thrifty. while others look cadaver-
Gus and wrotchedly poor. Passing an
alley one day, my travelling companion
and myself stumbled on sight that
stumped and rooted us to the spot for
some minutes. There, in q little mar
row passage some twenty-five yards
long, between tenement house, fifty
or seventy-fve Cinnamon were living
in manner. The sides and farther
end of this hive of squalid. yellow, pig
eyed human beings, was honey-combed
with burrows, bunKs, kennels or what
ever you might term them, constructed
of pine boxes or anything. that could be
put together for q sleeping place. In the
open space between these sleeping
shelves were several dozen Cinnamon,
some cooking, some washing, some
eating, some patching up old garments
and others smoking opium from long,
slim pipes and lazily dreaming of the
land Of Confucius. It was sickening
and disgusting sight, and we turned
away thinking that this must be very
like the rag-pickcr's district in Paris, of
which we have read. Out on the COM
mons we saw Cinnamon living under
pieces Of. old weather-stained canvas
or oil-cloth, or in little huts built of
boards and covered with palm foliage
Many of them cultivate small patches
of vegetables near the city. A few of
them have prospered and own business
houses well stocked. It costs a China
man very little to live when he is hard
pressed. He feasts on spoiled fruit and
decayed cats.
The architecture of the residences
and business houses of Havana is al
most entirely Moorish. The houses are
built for the most part of stone, with
tessellated floors. The roofs are invari-
ably flat and covered, with variegated
thing. It is no uncommon sight to see
dogs, chickens, peacocks and goats
walking around on the house-tops. In
the evening the families betake them
selves oftentimes to the flat roofs to en-
Joy the refreshing sea breezes. The
doors are large and ponderous and
strengthened with heavy iron bands and
bolts. The knockers are usually brass,
in the shape of q hand. The windows
have no glass and are simply largo
openings Tor air and light, with iron
bars running up and down their length
about six inches apart Heavy latticed
shutters on the outside stood open in
the evening to admit the breezes, and
are closed by day to keep out the dust
and sun. The houses are painted pink,
blue, yellow and other bright colors,
which contrast cheerfully with the mas
sive somberness Of the piles they adorn.
Many of the private residences of Hav.
ana have been built by rich planters for
Winter homes, and are palatia in their
structure and interior apartments.
Aldama's palace, looking out on the
Mars Park, cost 5000, 600 in gold. It is
four stories high. painted ochre color,
with great pillared arches on tho fronts.