Morning journal and courier., 1885-04-09

and the young women by themselves Some times @ young man and woman would be promenading together, but always noticed a mamma or papa at the side, at hand. Scores of young men sat in the strap iron chairs on either side of the ellipse, suck ing their canes, twiddling their legs and staring on and on. Most of them were fault lessly attired after the Cuban fashion. The Cuban dude powders his face, wears painful ly small, high-heeled shoes, standing collar of whiteness that fairly glitters, long finger nails, gorgeous neckt1e and cane that is the joy of his life. He pets and fosters this cane with all the earnestness of which so eff feminate a creature is capable. He would sicken and die if it should get lost or seri- ously marred. Yet even the Cuban dude has his good points, and among these cleanli- ness, even temper, obseoulous politeness, generosity and general harmlessness I sometimes wish he had the spirit to occasion ally get mad or do something discourteous. The female promenaders would have in cured the cf arge of being ''loudly dressed if any of my female readers had been called to pass upon them. But custom makes everything right and delicate pinks, blues, lavenders and violets are quite the correct thing here.
 It was not long before our senoritas began to make distant bows to acquaintances of the opposite sex. One was so fortunate as to have two proper-looking young men join her and walk each side of her They were rivals of the fierce tropic variety, and in their ardor ventured to commit an impro- priety rather than yield either one to the oth- er But our fair Cubana with the crimson basque evidently looked in vain for certain familiar face. Romeo was not to be seen. Still, with true feminine instinct, she felt that he must be driven finally by his very
 jealousy to come and witness the supposed exaltation of his rival; and she kept walking and looking.
 At length I ventured to remark to Mrs. H., q should think there would be some- thing of a sameness about this after few hours" ''I fancy the sameness has already begun" was the reply. So we concluded that we would slip back to the hotel; and as the senoritas appeared to be enjoying them selves hugely, we effected our escape from the moving ellipse in a quiet way, and start ed through the scant shrubbery on the way toward what we absurdly call ''home" while we stay in this island. We had proceeded about half way across the so-called park when the foliage rustled behind us and up
 came the lovely Cubanas all breathless and excited.
 "Oh senor, senor!' panted the foremost; "how could you desert us2 It was very,
 very terrible of you!" 'We were little
 tired, g explained, land thought that, ac-
 we would steal quietly away without saying
 good night, lest by so-doing we should seem
 to break up your excursion"
 'EAh, but do you not know" was the won dering response, "that we young girls cannot go out in Cuba at all except we have guardi- ans with us? It was dreadful to be left alone
 in the public park" Then it dawned upon
 us that the fair ones had not been solely anx- ious for our society when they had begged us to go out with them. They had urged me to go on account of my benignant paternal type of countenance, and Mrs. H. because of her weight of some thirty odd years. With out knowing it, we had been under the re- sponsibility of chaperoning our young hos tesses about.
 Or course we lied and said we weren't tired and insisted upon taking place in the procession again for their sake. So gath cred up our small orphan asylum and began the dizzy promenade once more, to the inf nite satisfaction of the maidens. Round and round we went until my knees were shaky and Mrs. H. said her shoes were full of gravel stones. We speculated as to why the electric lights have been discarded in the Parque, what the receipts of the rose-venders were, and what we would have the next morning for breakfast. The band did it's best to divert our attention, but it could not take the limp out of my legs that had per ambulated steadily for four hours on a sugar plantation that very day.
 In the midst of my desperation one sweet ly solemn thought entered my soul and dis titled an unexampled peace there. I saw ice cream restaurants in the vicinity, in which it was my duty to refresh the harem of which had been thus unexpectedly made the proprietor. After several hours, as it seemed to me, during which the chief senori- ta assured us a score of times that this was the ''last time around '' a sudden commotion occurred, and we perceived that Romeo had turned up and dropped his sullenness when informed as to how matters stood. E'Now we will sit," said the radiant Cubana "you take those chairs and we will be here near by" So we pumped down into couple of chairs and continued our vigil in sitting posture. Presently Spaniard came up to with medallion on his Panama hat and some slips of paper in his hand. He began some edify ing discourse in Spanish, and thinking that he had some tickets to uncertain enter tainment for sale, I motioned him away. He persisted and began to punctuate his remarks with the multitude of gestures for which these islanders are noted when they get eXci- ted. Thereupon automatically took it upon myself to order him away in polished Eng lisb, illustrated with Anglo Saxon gestures. At this juncture an angel of mercy who sat near by and spoke English remarked, ''The man represents company in charge of the chairs. The price for resting in ordinary chair is ten centavos, four cents-in a chair with arms, twenty centavos. You notice that the chairs are mum bered and he will give you the checks" So I swallowed my morti- fication and paid the wretch. It seems that the Spanish government has rented out even the chair space in the park to certain parties.
 After that we were besieged by lottery ticket vendors, who were nearly frantic to eff feet sales in view of the fact that drawing came off on the morrow, beggars, eripples, mosquitoes and other no less pleasant things. We commented upon the singular beauty of the faces about us, male and female alike. r@1 h17@a a{f c1yi hv complexions characteristic of southern Flu rope seem intensified and clarified in this tropic island. The eyes are always striking and often dangerous by reason of their ex- pressive beauty. Perhaps it is best that un- der such circumstances the fair sex should be kept under such surveillance until the priest has changed their name before the altar. It is said that for girl and her lover to be seen on the street together, day or night, is fatal to her reputation. So the Cuban mai dens continue to do their shopping and take their exercise under 8 system of rigid esplon- age, not even being permitted to converse with their intended husbands alone in the event of a call.
 At length we were released from our sponsible position, and counting our retinue to see that none had been left behind, we conducted them safely back to the hotel, where repaired to my distinctively Cuban bed and tried to absorb sleep out of piece of canvas stretched tight as a drum head be- tween four iron posts, with mosquito cano- py overhead and two sheets supplied in or der to create the impression that it is bed Gan impression which does not appear on the surface)
 When I see the sweet Cubanas putting on their bonnets now bolt I am not equal to the grave responsibility implied in superin- tending female seminary. Besides, l don't like to be used as a tool. Yet tame is this Cuban walk-around which may be witnessed on the plaza, it is infinitely preferable to the barbarous cruelties of the ring which consti- ute the other popular amusements of this curiously organized people. How men and women can be entertained by watching two blood -bespattered roosters peck each others eyes out, or by witnessing the efforts of men to force blind-folded horse to his feet that he may be further rended by furious bull, when the entrails of the poor whinneying an- imal are dangling from his abdomen, passes my fraii finite comprehension. The gambling and the lottery ticket operations in which the same people engage form an intermediate plane of enjoyment, though hardly the hap py mien after which we are told to seek
 The picture of one phase of Cuban life that is suggested in this first letter from Spanish America is of course only prelimina. " to more serious sketches and researches in a score of important directions. EMILE