The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-09-03
LIFE TN HAVANA.
The Social Life and Curious Customs of
the Cubans at tEome-Extravagantw Ways
of Doing Things

of Doing Things.
From a Havana Letter in the New Haver
Courier.
The Cuban matches are way behind
the age. have never yet succeeded in
Lighting one without burning the tips ol
my fingers, and have concluded that
their one redeeming virtue is the per-
sistency with which they burn when
once lighted.
No true born Cuban will carry his
satchel to the depot, however small il
may be, or however short the distance.
l hear refined ladies calculating "Dios
mio!" or "Jesus" or Gave Maria Puris.
sima" over the slightest occurrence
with the same innocent nonchalance
with which I have heard the French
ladies say "Mon Dieu!" and the German
ladies say "Mein Gott?" This fashion
of making common use of names that are
sacred is demoralizing the world over.
rhe Moslem wonders "if God is 60
ing to have 1T rain to-day" and even
the Bedouin robber prays that "the
peace Of God may rest upon you;'
and this show of piety has robbed
sacred themes af all their power with
those people. The Catholic church
has gone further in Cuba, and even the
streets, the stores, the people, the ships,
the sugar plantations are named after
saints or Christian virtues. AS in Cam
ton, China, the translated names of
some of the streets are high sounding
in the extreme, rs for instance that of
the g street of Pious Works" Hotels,
brick-yards, jails, regiments and tobac-
co shops all advertise themselves under
such titles as Sacred Heart, Faith
Hope, Charity, Conception, Annuncia-
tion, ETC.; while likely enough the pro-
prietor's first name was Jesus. Thus
the people come to be careless in the
use of hallowed names, although q ca
pacity for literal profanity is not one
of the accomplishments of the Spanish
language.
Whatever the people do they do ex-
travagantly. 1 have seen young man
with three monster gold rings on one
little finger; and both ladies and men
plaster their faces with powder till they
look ghastly beyond DESCRIPTION,
Ii you look into the sitting room of a
well-to-do family you will observe two
long rows of cane seat rocking chairs,
placed exactly opposite each other, and
leading usually to a window The az
rangement has an aspect of stiffness
which you will at once feel; but this as
pect of stiffness is sensibly emphasized
when you learn that it is an infexible
Cuban rule for the ladies to sit in one
row and the gentlemen in the other.
There is no twilight in Cuba. The sun
drops redly out of sight in the gulf,
and-it is night, The day has no after
math; the stars hurry to supply the
place OF the departed orb, and away to
the south the southern cross augments
their industrious twinkline.
One would think Havana har Dor
would be full of excursion steamers,
bu5 | have never been able to find one.
The Havanese have not yet discovered
this popular American variety of amuse-
ment.
Nature is very kind to the lower ami
pig comes out, leaving him sleek and
shining, while the wool of the sheep un-
lergoes change in texture. But ma
5ure does not single out the Cuban hen
for such favors. On the contrary, the
feathers of the hen remain as numerous
as anywhere else, and in view of the fact
that there is no cold weather, the hen
is delnded into laying all the year
around, her product being such dim.
mutive eggs as YOU may see at any
bodega in town.
1t is customary to keep the volante
aud the family horses in an apartment
in the house.
You will have no difficulty, if you are
out bright and early any morning, in
seeing the Cuban milkman about sup
plying his round of patrons. He drives
his mich kline before him from house
to house. and directs the lacteal stream
into such dish as the family may pro-
vide, right in the presence of the house
maid. Thus the citizens are assured of
an undiluted liquid, though I sometimes
fancy | would prefer to have tie pro-
duct of those emaciated, bruised Cuban
cows diluted-and that very sensibly.
l have seen the same system in other
countries, notably with goats instead of
cows in the cities of Athens and Cairo.
Gambling is as popular here as in
New Orleans, and / guess more so, al
though l have not entered any dens
analogous to those of the Rue Royale
as yet. Monte is the only game pro-
hlbited by law
The street cries are extraordinary,
though not to be compared with those
of Japan. You will not hear them at
all, perhaps, at one of the swell hotels,
any more than those of Yokohama in
one of the foreign hostelries there
But once get into real Havana, and you
will fancy q riot must be brewing. You
hurry down stairs expecting to witness
some shocking atrocity, but find that it
IS only the man with fruit, onions, or
eggs for sale, eomplacently notifying
his run of customers of his readiness to
serve them. Sometimes he is on foot
loaded down, and again he is accom-
panied by shambling old crate of a
horse.who bears the burdens while his
master does the bawling.
Akin to this is the method of signall-
ing by a shrlll hiss-so common in Paris.
The newsboy block away, the cab,san
on the other side of the street, the wait
ar at the further end of the cafe, are all
summoned by the everlasting "Ps--t!"
And, strange to say, there is penetrate
ing quality in the signal whereby it
May be heard above all the rattle and
roar OF the street traffic, and at times
when an ordinary "Halloa!" would be
impotent.
I cannot educate myself out of MOTTO
ing small things, and must therefore
confess that it always makes me mad to
see the natives wear the heels of their
shoes fattened under the heel of the
foot after the heathenish fashion of the
Turks and Arabs.
OF course there fs, q perfect passion