The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-05-12
LIFE IN HAVANA.
SCENES IN THE
CUBAN METROPOLIS.
Everybody Rides in the Daytime
Busy Streets at Night-Ladies q
Lounging in the Windows -
Doing the Bear" sl

Lounging in the Windows
Doing the Bear"
AS the traveller enters the harbor of
the City of Havana the most striking OBJ
jects that arrest his attention arc the big
galliot-shaped rowboati by which pas
sengers are transferred from the New
York steamers to the shores of Cuba.
Their colors illuminate the harbor and
add greatly to its foreign and pic
turesque appearance, though the
half-cylindrical awnings are not
priced for their beauty one-tenth
as much as for their shade giving quail
ties. In Havana nobody lets the sunlight
strike him a second longer than can be
helped. The sun is no hotter than In
New York in midsummer but the people
know enough to keep out of its rays.
They carry parasols, ride in covered VIC
torias, sit indoors, or on covered ,piazzas
or balconies, put up. awnings over the
sidewalks, and even stretch
canvass across their narrow
streets. Curiously enough, wherever
there is shade there is coolness. Cuba
seems to lie in the path of some constant
winds that blow softly but steadily over
her surface, so that her people are famed
and cooled by them night and day, and
though these breezes amount to nothing
in conflict with the suns direct rays, they
are so powerful in the shade that step
ping out of the sunshine in Havana re-
minds New Yorker of stepping from q
hot sidewalk into cool cellar.
Nobody walks th. streets in the day
time in Havana. Tumble down, rickety
but everlasting victorias at twenty cents
mile are so plentiful that they seem to
stand in front of every fourth or fifth
house even in the suburbs. The drivers
are always asleep in their seats
and have to be punched and sworn at In
Spanish. Nearly everybody uses the
victorias to shop, to make calls, to go
sightseeing, or even to go from hotel
to cafe, a couple of blocks away. The.
volantes do not cost much more, but
those in Havana are gradually falling TO
pieces, and as no new ones are built they
are growing scarce. The volante is not
beautiful creation, but even on an OF
dinary Cuban road, built on the SAME
principle as the bed of mountain tor
rent, it rides as easily as baby's CRADLE.
Cuban maidens sigh when they see the
American young men take their LADY.
loves riding in one of these vehicles, with
the driver half a block away on horse,
back; and Cuban parents hold up their
hands in dismay at the same sight. The.
Havanese who can't afford to ride stay at
home until dusk, when the sun sets as
suddenly as if the sunset gun in Moro
Castle had brought it down with bang.
By s o'clock at night the three main
streets become as busy as the Bowery on
Saturday night. The air is clearer than
we. see it, except on winter nights, and as
cool as in early autumn at home. The
ladies are out in full force, wearing man
tillas instead of bonaets, and accompanied
by their husbands, fathers, mothers, or
duennas. Some are on the way to the
theatres, and many others are going to
sit in one of the parks on the Prado and
hear the delightful music Of. military
band. .
The windows in Havana are very tall
and broad, and close to the sidewalk.
Whether with or without sashes and
glazing. they are embrasures guarded by
iron bars, more or less ornamental, and
consequently more or less prisoh-like.
The sills are as broad as lounges, and the
young ladies are fond of sitting or half
reclining in them in the afternoons, after
they have dressed for the purpose, and
the setting sun has shaded the street so
that pedestrians begin to appear upon it.
I never in my life saw sight that sur
prised me more than that which met my
gaze, when. after registering at the Paris
Hotel in Santiago. turned the first corner
for stroll and saw one or two beauti-
full girls IN every window of every
house along whole block or more OF
dwellings. The sidewalks were 80 mar
row that my shoulders almost brushed
the plump brown fingers that here and
there clasped the iron bars. The pretty
young women all looked at me with great
curiosity, for was dressed as had been
in New York. and when my eyes met
theirs they still stared, mt boldly, but
lazily. One or two hirted little, rolling
their great black eyes over the edges OF
their fans, and tittering mischievously.
I hurried back to the hotel, and found I
had been reviewed by the elite Of San
tiago.
The same thing my be witnessed in
other cities, but in Havana, of course,
one sees more of it and sees it to better
advantage than anywhere else. 1t was
interesting to watch the young men
'doing the bear" aS they call it there;
that is, walk up and down the opposite
side of the way like bear in cage, ors
sentinel on his post, to attract the atten-
tion and, if pos>ibl.. the smiles of the
ladies who have smittcn them. A passer-
by can see into any house in the daylight,
and what he first sees is parlor with
two rows of rocking chairs facing one
another opposite the window. The floor
may be tiled or not. 1t may have chan
delier and pictures or a rug, or it may
have none of these things. but the two
rows of rockers it is absolutely certain
to have. On these chairs sit the men,
bers of the household in the early even
ing, or at night, to enjoy the cool uir that
plays between the street and the open in
terror court, whose palms and trop-
ical flowers are also seen through the win
dows.
The theatres are enormous and we'll
managed; the clubs are brilliant and
cosmopolitan, except the one that is
Spanish and aristocratic. There are two
or three good hotels, and the market from