, 1884-07-25
CUBA'S BEAUTIES.
Afternoon Beauty Shows in the
Streets of the Cities.
Broad, Cool Window sAii-, and
Their Loads oil Pretty Girls
Fans Turned to Use In
Filtration.

with shade, the pretty Rrls, dTessed III their
thin, light-hued costumes, pose themselves in
picturesque attitudes in the windows, and en-
joy looking out upon the street scenes and he-
ing looked at in return. TIN windows are
rs big as stable doors, and the stills, which are
as wide as an ordinary sofa, and composed Of
cool marble squares or china tiles,
are only n foot, or, at the most,
two feet above the sidewalks. On
these broad sills, the pretty, big-orbed, lam
guild beauties seat themselves in tailor fashion,
or lie at half length, resting their backs
against the window frame and displaying
their small, high-arched, and high-hecled
shoes, and sometimes an inch Of gay silk
hose. I never saw one reading; in fact, |
never saw anybody read in Cuba. Every
club has a library, but the collections Of vol
umes are very slender, and seem to be usually
dusty and abandoned looking. Tn women
and girls sometimes hum u pretty Cuban
tune, sometimes chat or comment on the
passers by, but oftener are content to lie in
dreamy Incidence, tanning themselves with
that easy, graceful mastery of their huge
fans peculiar to Spanish and ~semi-Spanish
women.
LkNGUID BEAUTIES.
They lack vivacity. They are inactive. l
saw every sort of them, and the only one
who in my presence exhibited energy enough
to run from a mouse was a ballet dancer IN a
theatre. In a parlor in Santiago six or eight
we're entertaining company. Tho night was
cool, as all nights are In that night of prom
Use, und a company of healthy American
girls would have shoDe at their best. Some
would have romped. Some would have
laughed outright at the mental efforts OF
others; not so the Cuban misses. Each girl
came languidly in, dropped into a rocking
chair, opened a huge fan, and took a light
part in a very light conversation. To be sure,
they were proportionately as active In com
parison with the men as American women
are, for the heat subdues energy to such n
degree that one never sees a man hurry, or
allow himself to be disturbed by work. A
few hours OF GOODNESS in the evenings will not
suffice to overthrow the results OF everyday
heat. On board the Wards steamer New
port, coming from Havann early In May,
when the ocean atmosphere was refreshingly
cool, a number of young New York men ell
deavored to arouse the ladies, all Cubans or
Spaninrds, but they would not walk or dance
or even talk very much. The most that
could be coaxed from them was an occasional
Spanish or creole balled, sung 50 sweetly and
with such unlocked for spirit every time and
by every lady, that all the passengers crowded
tine sociai hnli, and even struggled ao- room
in the gallery overhead
A STRANGERS SURPRISE.
The first time a stranger walks along a
Cuban street and sees all the ladies lolling in
the Oriental windows he is greatly astonished.
Mr.. Randall, the superintendent of public in
struction in Rutland, said he felt as il he was
intruding. When he went in the houses lie
saw trees growing there, and when he came
out, where trees were to be expected, he
walked between lines of ladies, until at ,ast
he decided that he could not tell whep he
was indoors and when he was out. He took
to the park 70 make sure. But equally
astonishing is the difference between
these beautiful women and their not
very handsome husbands and brothers. The
men are thin and dried-up looking, with very
dark skin, and, so far as I could see, hair in
variably black. They dye their systems
with incessant coffee drinking, and tan them
selves with sunshine and tobacco. But look
along the double row of beauties In the win
dows. How many blondes you see. How
many pink checks and light tresses! And
nearly all the women are either plump or
evidently on the way TO ~stoutness. Tobacco
has not died, or coffee tinctured, or sunshine
baked those faces, necks, and arms, in the
darkest of which there is no hue except that
of the blending of the olive and the rose.
FAN FILTRATION.
There is u love Of mischief in some of the
full orbs that are turned upon a stranger in
the streets, and if he be inclined to nirt he
will be pretty certain to get a revelation Of
the possibilities of the pastime. Cuban girls
have got flirting down to a science. A New
York girl is clumsy at It beside one of these
maidens. The Cuban girl must have her fan
with her or she won't engage in the tele-
graphic combat. Without IA fan flirting is
raw and clumsy. With one it is artistic, cleo
tic, and instead Of requiring holdnass IL
heightened by a suggestion of modesty. Then,
again, it is more safe, for if a man who has
had a dozen playful messages flashed
to him from behind q fan should presume to
hasten matters by any imprudence, the
Cuban girl has only to close her fan and look
at him with cool surprise, and he will doubt
his own senses and go away uncertain
whether he saw her fhrt with him or only
thought he did. These girls ~heighten the eff
feet of each of the few signals uied in n fiIta-
ton by combining each one with a movement
of their fans. A glance OF admiration must
be caught in the instant between the removal
and replacing of the fan before the face, and
II caught IL seems u thousandfold
more mischievous than il would have
looked IL the fan had not lent something
Of slyness and secrecy to 1t. Just
so 1t is with n smile. The flirting girl smiles
behind her fan, allows the young man to see
the mischievous expression, and then hides it
in confusion. Imagine Immediately after
WhTu u iogulhni lhuBnlnB glance over the top
of the fan, or just at the side of it, shot di-
rect ut the mark, and then replaced by a view
of a demure round face, resplendent. with its
coal-black eyes and ruby lips, turned calmly
in another direction, and wearing the expires
sion of a statue. There Is probably no more
filtration in Cuba than anywhere else, but
this habit the young women have OF resting
in the windows is taken advantage of by the
young men, and a curious custom has grown
out of it
A CURIOUS CUSTOM.
II a young man Is smitten by the charms q
a young lady, and does not know how to be-
come acquainted with her by an Introduction,
he walks past her window of an afternoon.
Then the positions Of the two are reversed,
and he is the one under scrutiny. He passes
and repasses the window, directing side
glances at the object OF his arbitration. She
Is quick to notice this, and, ii She Is inclined
to encourage him, she remains in her seat.
In time he may venture to speak to her, and
may either receive an invitation to call upon
the family after a few chats at the window,
or will have u way pointed out to him for
obtaining a formal introduction. If his APP
appearance and manner are offensive OF dis
tasteful to the young woman, sise wallis whili
Come One. Come All.
The new machines sold BY Beckstead,