Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1885-04-29


Postal serv1ce-Distrust of the Moon
-Mfsuse of Sacred Names-Gam bling,
Street Cries, Military Display, Etc.,
Etc.
HAVANA, Cuba, April 12.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL CoUR1KR:
During the past fortnight I have been
| jotting down in my capacious note book a
large number of unclassifed facts and i'm
pressions calculated to give some insight into
Cuban life and the workings of the Cuban
mind. In the present letter I propose to
make use of these, believing that they will
appropriately supplement the sketches and
pen pictures contained in foregoing letters.
In the first place it must doubtless be con /
ceded that the last decade has witnessed
something of progress-more of progress
than any previous decade. This conclusion
is forced upon the traveller he reads the
descriptive works published regarding Cuba
ten or fifteen years ago, surveys the changes
which salute his eyes to-day, and converses
with the English-speaking foreigners resi-
dent here He sees the telephone in opera
ton and promenades in the parks under the
poles of disused electric light system. He
looks for that characteristic Spanish vehicle
the yelante, with its two huge wheels, it's ex
traordinarily long shafts and its driver
astride the diminutive island horse, but he
finds that it is supplanted by the four
wheeled victoria, vehicle not so easy-riding,
but capable of turning street corners with
out disjointing the horses neck the while it
house behind with it's six-foot-high wheels.
a venerable 'tdoctor'' who cannot endure the
jolting of an ordinary coach. So also / OBJ
serve the cumbrous two-wheeled drays which
have blockaded the streets here for three
centuries are just beginning to yield to the
respectable modern express cart
The police service has undergone a radical
change within single lustrum. 1t still con-
sists of the serene and the guardia civil, but
their functions have been modernized. The
serene has glazed black hat and goes about
between the hours of p. m. and a. M
carrying dark lantern and staff six feet
long having a spear point at one end. The
serenos numerous, and they stand at
the street corners in pensive uncertainty,
with their absurd weapon and their small,
cleaning bull's-eye lamp. they constitute one
of the most characteristic of Cuban pic
lures. l fancy your American house break
ers would be much obliged if municipalities
in the great republic would equip their po-
lice with give away lantern and a clumsy
pole But up to a few years ago the serene
was still more ridiculous parsonage, for it
was his duty whenever the half-hours struck
to sing out in sonorous, reedy voice, ''Sere
no-o-o! Las diez media, y sereno-o-o-ot"
This was doubtless still further accolnmo-
dation to the house breaking fraternity, but
these ultra-conservative Spanish officials who
make it their business to misgovern Cuba
could not until very lately understand what
a burlesque of police service this system was.
Yet it was not an anomalous system. AS I
write 1 can in fancy still hear the penetrating
''whack-whack" of the Japanese night
watchman's bamboo sticks, and see him
shutting along the streets with his swinging
paper lantern on his arm. The Japanese
theory is that watchman isn't worth hav
ing unless he keeps these clappers going all
the time, so that citizens for blocks around
may know that he is on duty and just about
where he isl They aver that his monotonous
superior security.
Some of these guardians of the peace ap
pear to be equipped with blankets and stools,
provided at their own expense; and have
dim suspicion that they sometimes repose
their weary frames on some friendly thresh-
old (there are no doorstepsl after the univer
sal Waterman fashion.
The guardia civil is modelled after the
French gen d'armes and haunts the railway
depots, theaters, cock-fghts, bull-fghts and
miscellaneous public gatherings. There are
usually two of these civil guardians together
(they might oftentimes be more civil, Just as
in Japan there were pairs of gen d'armes on
duty at the street corners and in public
places. These conservators of the peace are
military in their functions. In the country
they commissioned to accost travellers,
demand passes, ETC., and to this end go
mounted. They serve both day and night
The serene is exclusively night bird, since
there is so little drunkenness here that there
isn't so much need of day police. The word
''sereno" means dew, and I suppose it's ap-
plication to the night watchman comes from
the fact that the LATTER owing to his equip
ment, must necessarily descend upon the
burglar as gently as the falling dew descends
upon the ground where Cuban grass feebly
tries to grow.
The postal service is upon a pretty good
footing now, but some mildewed features
still remain to testify to the slow march of
Spanish ideas. You cannot get postage
stamp or postal card at the postoffice. You
must hunt up one of the appointed agencies
distributed throughout the city in saloons
and cigar stores. Postage is about five cents
in silver from here to America, but the same
price from here to any town in Cuba. Be-
sides this a letter from the nearest town to
Havana, or any Cuban town, addressed to
America, must have double postage. The
postofice now has a collection of very ex-
pensive lock- boxes from New York, and two
hideous grinning faces in bronze, into the
open months of which you thrust your mail
matter. The mail addressed to foreign visi-
tors, poste restante, is decently bulletined
upon the arrival of each steamer; and it is
now possible to get your mail the same day
that the steamer arrives. A few, very few
deposit boxes for mail matter are scattered
throughout the city in obscure hooks and
corners. And mail addressed to the smaller
missent to Europe now.
Thus Cuba does move But there are d
vast number of directions in which the pub
lie service and popular custom are antequa-
ted or curious, or both. The universal fuel
is charcoal, which is expensive and emits I'M
healthy fumes; and for no other reason,
suppose, except that it would be an innova-
tion to build a chimney and use less expen-
sive fuels such as coal. Iee-water is still de-
cried by many and the people sleep in sitting
atmosphere in order to avoid imaginary
draughts. Jewelry and ready made clothing
are sold together, while you will do well to
go to a shoe store if you want that indispen-
sable domestic article, a broom. You will
do we'll to specify what sort OF broom, by
the way, or you may get one of the short
wisp affairs that are characteristic of the
Orient.
Iron ploughs of American manufacture are
in use, but have also seen several of the
primitive sharpened stick ploughs at work
such as the Arabs use in tickling the surface
of the ground in Palestine and elsewhere
Here in the East Indies, the unoffending
moon is regarded by the credulous natives
with great distrust. I have not heard that
the Cubans test their meat in the pot by put
ting small piece of silver in the boiling
water to discover by the character of the dis
coloration whether the meat has long hung in
the moonshine at some time, custom in
vogue in parts of the Orient where I have
travelled. But great care is exercised to
avoid exposure in the rays of the moon, and
it is averre that even the ooots instinctively
lay down in the shadow of bush or build
ing. Physical 'deformities, imbecility and
many of the ills that flesh is heir to are at
tributed to Luna's baneful influence at
sometime or other. Does not our English
word lunatic have its origin in the Latin
word luna na,-moon!
The Cuban matches are way behind the
age. have never yet succeeded in lighting
one without burning the tips of my fingers,
and have concluded that their one rsdeeming