, 1886-07-28
TWO SUNNY CUBAN HOURS.
A Delightful Brcakfast-A Group OF Sem
oritas and Ninas-NIakIng Hats

a D"eltghtful brcnkfnst-A group VI ot"-
oritas and ~Ninas-aTaking Hats
The hostelry was a posada y fonda, a
grocery, a confectionery and bakery
combined; and it is here the celebrated
pan de Paula or Paula bread, so noted
throughout Cuba, is made. A delight
full little breakfast was served. Among
the dishes new to me were ajaico, a ma
tional Cuban dish of meats and vege-
tables, which, told in the fewest English
words, would be known as Cuban all
sorts: pan de cascade or cascade bread,
made of the roots of the yucca grated,
formed with milk into thin paste pat
ties on plates, and %unflavored, dried
quickly. though not baked, in ovens;
and a Cuban country cheese, similar to
the German schmeerkase or our own
cottage cheese, but compressed, par
tally dried, and possessing n delicate
flavor. Many Cubans add sirup to this
cheese as a dressing. spreading the mkt
ure upon bread in the place of butter.
We sauntered about San Francisco de
Paula, climbing the mountain to inspect
the old church, which. in this peculiar
atmosphere, seemed to us from the val
ley below a tremendous structure loom
ing against the steel blue sky, but which
on approaching dwindled to a little old
pile of century-eaten stone, with no win
dows, with but one door, and with n
chime of bells no bigger than the bells
our American cows rattle, half muffed
in clover, at the flies in the meadows.
But the climbing showed us where there
were more enhancing studies than the
quaintest of old churches. Every home
in this village nest was like a bit of old
Doric salem set in aframe of honeysuckle,
jasmine and rose; and every pillared por-
tico, wide and big as the house itself, was
a scene for an artist and tudent of sim
pie toll and glowing beauty. Here, too,
was n delightful surprise in the pleasing
discovery that the delicate beauty, the
Cuban woman, could work. These were
the sweetest of Cubanas and every n
was as busy as pretty. And what bright,
engaging groupings they were as we
passed, making our admiration as plain
in our eyes and loiterings as they all
showed us in their own eyes and bushes
they were glad that they pleased! I'M
conscious beauty may give unconscious
grace, but conscious, honesty beauty
ever wins the truest and most grateful
admiration.
You must know we were chivalrous
caballeros, the don and myself, and that
nj good women are Indifferent to true
interest and admiration in any country.
SO it was with no rudeness on our part
nor alarm on theirs that we soon found n
Urott, of COMA fu-aptu uannrftoo and
ninas, presided over by two or three
pleasant yet grave and serious senoras,
picturesquely bestowed upon a great
bower-embowered portico, singing dainty
snatches of Spanish ballads, bandying
back and forth harmless jests, and full
as the vines of blossoms of the alert ag-
gressions and repulses of budding wom-
anhood. San Francisco de Paula's homes
are all diminutive factories of the cool,
light hat known in our country as
the palm leaf" the same being a lead
ing ar,icle of export from Yucatan to
the states, though it is said the Ameri-
cans are only sent the inferior grades;
and here these fair maids, in setting of
architecture, of quaint environments,
and blossoms prettier than ever given us
on the operatic stage, were making their
dainty and deft fingers fly marvelously.
The ninas, or little girls, split the leaf of
the already bleached palma guiana, of
fan palm, with thin-bladed knifes, each,
little one true and dextrous in her work
and rarely making a wrong stroke or de-
stroying a slender strand.
We set h entire coterie in a flutter
by contracting for the making for Zach
of us of a hat, the dicker being gravely
conducted by the don with one of the
discreet snnoras; and no two men were
ever put in n pleasanter waiting than we
during those two sunny Cuban hours.
With the delicious hospitality of these
Cubans everywhere we must needs be
made as comfortable as royal guests, and
while the stately don was placed in n
great rocking-chair near the fair girl
whose nimhle hands were already weav-
ing the snow-white strands of his SOM
brero, without any ado l must accept a
plaited-grass hammock swung by the
side of the enhancing senorita whose
dexterous fingers futtered among the
r~ustling palm-strands with the rapidity
Of the swift coming and going of the
bushes upon the perfect face. The old
senoras beamed; the young senoritas
kept up an undertone of gay s%allies, in
terspersed with gurgles of laughter; the
little ninas giggled Historically; a crowd
of fat negroes looked on grinningly; the
don rocked b%enignly to and fro in his
capacious chair; l swung leisurely in my
plated hammock, and l pledge you that,
looking lazily through our curling
cigarette smoke, as the old senoras
smoked with us, l saw much romance
and situations in the real scene and sur
roundings of this one Cuban portico as
the comedy-opera makers might utilize
with exquisite pleasure and delight
Elnnr l. WnInnnnn in Cbicnnn Nam