, 1888-03-08
THE PARKS OF HAVANA.
The whole city is n FniryIand by Night.
A Great Outdoor Parlor.

49, 'hCAS 80 a. AlAu ny NIEnt
A Great Outdoor Parlor.
All Havana is in the parks or cafes or
ON the housetops at night. AS the sun
goes down it seems as though from every
quarter come thousands for the nightly
outing. The streets, plazas and cafes
dazzle with light iaring from the quaint
est of burners and frames, and the
brilliant colored glass, SO universally and
richly used in decoration, adds a beauty
and charm to countless pleasing scenes.
There is music everywhere. Here in
a half lighted, richly decorated balcony
is a group of men and women chatting
in low, musical tones, or listening to
sweet notes of the guitar. In this en-
trada, with n court filled with rich lights,
plants, flowers, and quaint corridors be-
hind, in an almost oriental background,
are perhaps several families seated half
out upon the street, and among them
somewhere is music. Here, there and
everywhere upon the housetops, among
luxuriant gardens, are merry crowds
singing, playing or dancing. The half
lights of the night hide and reveal.
Sound and light and shadow mingle until
tine ear and sight are ravished by what
Is heard and seen, and what is listened
for and heard in thought. Melody in
word, laugh and song, and from musical
instruments of every nature and in every
place-nothing loud and sonorous, but
everything soft and dreamful-pulses in
harmonious chords above and over and
through the streets.
II whole city is as a fairyland by
night. 1t is the more ~bewildering TO the
beholder. because there are in it one-
mindedness and oneheartedness that
make melody and gayety not only with
the well conditioned, but as truly within
the grimy walls of the charcoal mans
little stall; down at the waterside among
the swarthy boteros; over there in Reg
Ia with the toll scourged stevedores and
~lancheros; up Balquarte, way among the
labor bent lavenderas; and In every odd
and moldy corner where human life
lasts in layers, it lights up all with a face
as free of care as if ever unknown. All
this comes to you, and you know the
fact. You leave those who like to quar-
rel over the involved ethics. But all this
time, when an entire great city has sud
denly resolved itself into a vast pleasure
garden, 70 completely that its influence
seems even to AVE touched and trans
formed, without exception, the direst
conditions, the gayer and more restless
clements swarm the paseos and plazas,
and no European city presents more bril-
liant scenes. But in this one city of the
world, this single rich blossom of the
tropics, all its people, in these hours, are
pleasure givers and pleasure receivers,
and that, too, whatever the individual
condition. There is none SO high and
naughty, or low and l~istless, as to think,
or dare, refusal of this individual conces-
sion, or gift of word and way, to this
universal something we would be quick
to call among u good selves true evil
dence of true lightheartedness and JOY.
l do not believe the world has elsewhere
such q condition and study.
In these nightly carnivals fully 10, 900
equipages, filled with richly attired and
merry occupants, may be seen. During
the early evening the favorite drive is
along Gale Ancha del Norte, by the sea.
Later the Calzado de la Reina and the
Paseo del Tacon are sought. AS the
night advances the great center of this
brilliant life and luxurious activity is in
the vicinity of the larger city parks, to
which the paseos and the Prado lead,
where military bands discourse the lively
or sensuous airs of Spain. Here throng
hosts of pedestrians; but, instead of the
rudeness and clamor usual in such CON
courses in other cities, every ~frequenter
of the locality only intensifies the every
where manifest chivalrous courtesy and
charming consideration that 80 dis
tinguish them. 1t is as though here
were q mammoth reception of the courtli-
est Of men and women. Indeed, it is the
great outdoor parlor of q great city,
where every city is q noble guest. In
the pauses of the music promenading is
continuous. 1t would not then be uncom-
mon for you to see at one time, and in
the one place on the globe where that is
possible, 10000 women of surprising
beauty, of wonderful w-insomeness of
marvellous grace. 1t is not until some
time after midnight that the crowds seem
to diminish; for at some hour Of the
evening every gentleman and every
sonora and senorita in the city makes it a
social obligation or pleasure to be present.
But from midnight until morning, by an
unwritten law, the parks and paseos are
in possession of less dense gatherings,
though an intenser and far more ques-
tionabls character of pleasure seekers
Edgar L, Wakeman in New York Mail
and Express.