Morning journal and courier., 1888-04-21

brave company have claimed the spot and it's weird habitues for their own. Butup above, where the erumbling roofs are touched by the glowing sun, all along the narrow calles in every direction, are such bits of angle, arch and capping key; such gems of barbar- ic color; and such rare and ancient architec- tural fancies in oriel, fo1iation and dainty 1ace-like balconies like aecks of sea-foam flung upon gray old rocks; as never else this side the Atlantic thrilled poets thought or warmed an artists heart.
 THE PLAZA DE COLON AND THE PLAZA DE
 vAPoR.
 The Plaza de Colon and the Plaza de Va- DOT, however, are outside the old city's for- tressed walls. They are extraordinarily large structures for Cuba, each one covering an entire block of ground. The first one, first built as population and business began creeping from the old quarters out towards the frowning El Principe and the pretty half mountain, Jesu del Monte, from it's style of architecture is already old in appearance. It is quadrilateral, two lofty stories in height, the second supported by mammoth round arches upon pillars fully four feet square, projecting beyond deep and lofty peristyle surrounding the entire structure. Under meath this cluster all manner of booth, shops, diminutive fairs and beggars. An interior open court, the facade of whose lower story is similarly treated, contains still another structure more lofty than the encircling one, and this in turn shows pillared porticoes and galleries to the interior of the cutter building. The floor of the great court is covered with massive stone hagging; and within this open space you will find every manner of Cuban countryman; every saleable product that here finds purchaser; and every grotssque outfit of beast and pannier with which the food and fruit of the island are brought in scrimped measure from the half-worked sitios or farms to the indolent consumer. Here upon a scant heap of lengua de vaca grass are a brace of cochinillos or little Cuban pigs, all leg and head, their legs still tied with the same twisted grass just as they have been flung over the rush pouches for their ride of leagues from the country. The jaded nag which brought them, the indolent hu- man who owns them, and the black and hairless pigs themselves, are all asleep, and will remain so until some purchaser awak- ems them. Here again is group of goats, country boys and skinny ponies. The mother-goats are tied to one pillar, the kids. ,whfeh are bleating pitifully. are tied and the boys and sleeping nags form sort zof barrfcade between. Pres ently a fat negress appears, purchases a kid demanding stripping of goats milk Ees bind the bargain, fings the struggling animal oyer her shoulder and disappears amid charges and counter charges of goats and boys, and perfect bedlam of bleatings. Here, there and everywhere are piles of fod- der, pouches of oranges, paek-saddles of roots, herbs and salads, pyramids of green and ripe coeoanuts like cannon balls in an arsenal, piles of panting chickens, groups of shaggy donkeys, herds of sucking calves, crates of game-eock and snared wood-pigeons and other forest fowl; but never an owner upon his feet and alert for sales. All these truckmen from the country lie in the midst oR f1aip ho1o1cirocra cod5nY1 ha around the pillar bases of the chimeful churches. "Take it or leave itl'' is their un- varying maxim. Within the booths and stalls of the market the types of indolence are not 50 marked and aggrayating. The stallmen are brighter class. They have something of the alertness of our own mar ketmen; and the shrill voices of the queru- Ious mestizos women; the interminable shruggings and ejaculations of approval ol protest at kind and price; the clang and jan. gle of the ancient steelyards and scales; and the merry chatter of thousand persons oi all color and degree; add constant interest tc constantly varying scenes. In or near thi quarter of the city-oVer San Lazaro an6 Calle Baluarte way-live the densest anC most hideous mixtures of humans known tt man. Plaza de Colon is their market. Th' fiercest of .Malays, the most shriveled and re pulsive of Chinese, the most hideous and fe. rocious of genuine African blacks, the most horrible and abandoned of whites, inter bred and still more loathesome in startling types all gather here. The most terrible creations of Dante's mind or Dore's pencil canno furnish such impish groupings. Among these the Chinese eoolies are the most horri ble Eyeless, legless, armless, noseless, hair less, earless, or in some other striking waJ maimed as I have never elsewhere seen per- sons in the semblanee of men, they seem as though they had all passed through some aw. full cyclonic convulsion of nature, with life preserved, as illustration of the most hideous soul. And these ghouls practically control this market. They have great Chinese the ater within it. There are over forty thou sand like them throughout the island of Cuba.
 But over at the splendid Plaza de Vapol market there are different scenes and life fol study. This is undoubtedly one of the finest market structures in the world. The archi lecture is similar to that of Plaza de Colon, though the interior is the perfection of ar- rangement All the stalls where meat, fowl and fish are exposed for sale are filled with great iron framed tables, which at certain hours of each day are bodily hoisted by steam power to an elevation permitting thor ough flooding through steam-forced hose ot the slanting trenches beneath. The whole place is marvel of convenience and eleanli ness. It is located in the very heart of the thew Hayana," and it's patrons are wholly Cubans and Spanish families of wealth, the finer cafes and the great hotels like Gran Pas aje, Inglatera and Telegrafo. Underneath the massive arched porches, which surround the entire building, are countless little shop and stands with most artistic displays O wares, reminding one foreibly of the brett, shops of the Paris Louvre; and these, il which the most gorgeous of flowers, thu quaintest of bijoutry, the cossliest of 1aces your choice of Cuban or Spanish lottery tick cts, and every imaginable cheap and costly trifie from dominoes to diamonds, are tempt ingiy exposed, presenting everywhere origin and attractive pictures to the streets. Be hind the tremendous walls, and between then and the market proper, reaching through splendid arched entrances, are the prettiesi cafes in the world, with dainty tessellatei floors, exquisitely tiled walls, wealth O shining mirrors and copper and silver These are always bright and gay with mozo or servants in white, and clean, trim Cuban habitues in their handsome linen suits. 4 number of these cafes are given over to th exclusive use of the guajiros from the coun try, matarifes or butchers from the coralles
 iardineros from the little truck-farms in th
 suburbs, compradores who pass their live
 behind these market stalls. At all hours o the day and night these cafes are filled witt the most picturesque groups of men, brigh
 with yellow ana crimson SaSneS, rOm8 8nC1c Il their capas often of hairy hides of deep forest beasts, saucy in jangling spur, fero
 cious whip and tremendous sombrero, ant Afelce and portentous from their. savag
 machetes broad as your hand and half a
 long as their own 1.-the, wide-trousered legs
 But they are harmless lot, happy and sun
 ny-hearted day and night long in their exci
 ted pretensions of labor. The visitor is as
 founded at the vast varieties of food that cal
 be found in this market. There is nothing
 to compare with it in a single market of an,
 American or European city. Briefly, ever.
 article displayed in the most sumptuou
 American markets, including every know
 brand of American canned goods. is here
 and besides this every fruit, vegetable, hert
 and flower produced in this land of inde
 scribabIe luxuriance, and that too not il
 brief seasons, but every hour in every day il the year. Think of twenty-six varieties O
 sweet potatoes constantly exposed for sale
 There are between forty and fifty varieties O
 herbs and vegetables used in salad-makin,
 alone. Nor can one form any conception un til it is seen of the Cuban supply of food birds. I was shown and counted mysel eighty-three different kinds of birds, com prising thirty-seven distinct species; whil the magnifcence and lusciousness of vegets bIes and fruits are positively beyond compre hension by us who exist in rigorous chimes