Morning journal and courier., 1888-03-10
IN OTHER LANDS
CONCLUDED FROM FIRST PAGE. l

and tarry. There were three maidens, well
 grown senoritas with winsome smiles, 8 si
 lent but kindly-faced old mother and host
 of hurly-burly muchachos or boys, whose
 whoops and diversions among the valiant goats and fowls were something startling to
 know. The house was somewhat better than the average. It covered more ground. The portal in front was roomier. The long, tow shed behind was more capacious. The palm thatohed roof was higher. The one or two windows, or holes for light and air, were larger and their stout bars bore traces of l rude ornamentation. There were just two l rooms, the living and sleeping room. The | former was perhaps thirty feet square. The latter, which extended one way the whole width of the structure, was narrower, but 1 still large enough for the entire family's \ sleeping apartment. The rafters held their
 usual endless variety of dried herbs, meats. | garlic in strings, while the walls were cov- | cred with saddles, old arms, machetes and ! endless pieces of the household portable property. Here also, as everywhere in Cuba, | was the naeditative goat, the fussy duck, the l obstreperous game cock and the diligent fiea | Perhaps two acres of ground were enclosed | by a tumble-down stone wall. The most | luxuriant of flowers and vines wreathed in ! and over these; birds of every color and | voice glinted and trilled hither and thither; and the whole spot, again like all Cuba, was ! . natures heaven accursed and disgraced by human ignorance and sloth.
 Great preparations were made for the din ner, or evening meal, over the smudgy char coal urns beneath the porch, and the food was spread upon table similar to all the old inn tables have seen here-wide, thick, ! ponderous and shining with generations of drippings and grease. The food consisted ot ajiaco, @ stew called Cuban all-sorts, roasted ripe and green plantains in the place of bread, sweet potatoes and tassaio de puerco, or barbecued pig. which the beys had chased down and dextrously lariated in the canons hard by. And to crown all there was cheap Catalan wine, Their drinking of this is pe- cultar No glasses are used, but the vile li- ! quid is set on the table in cone-shaped l crystal botella with a long sneut. This goes it's merry round in this order: First to the wife, then the guest, then the daughters, ! then the host, and then to the wild, bad boys. The vessel is never touched by the lips and the open lips never close until the draught is finished. It is shot squarely into the mouth; and it is a pretty sight to see winsome guajiro's daughter with her merry face upraised, her ripe lips parted, display ing her brilliant teeth, her perfect throat ex- posed and moving roluptuously as the draught is taken; while the glittering thread of wine traces an arc of color from her blood-red lips to the blood-red botella held
 high in air above. The crockery was limited at this bountiful and jovial meal, but pewter
 was plenty and we made no fuss about using each others knives and spoons, or, when the
 frequent necessity came, of helping our-
 selves with our handy fingers. After the
 food came cigarettes and cigars, the former
 for myself and the girls, and the latter,
 strong and tremendous, for the head of the
 household and his wife.
 FUN.
 In the evening time there was good deal
 of boisterous fun. These simple folk, know
 ing no harm as the world knows it, cannot
 conceive of it's existence in others. So if
 these fair senoritas, for favor insisted on
 changing cigarettes as we smoked; or em-
 braced me in wild and giggling delight upon
 some unexpected turn in the games of carga-
 tassaio, tutti or loteria at which we merrily
 played; or danced the Habanera with an
 abandon that shook the garlic strings from
 their co5webbed caverns in the roof; or sang
 the love-songs and guarachas of the Cuban
 peRsantry in way that made their plaster
 saints wink; or, as their lover-louts came sheepishly in one by one, challenged them to
 such cavorting Zapoteas, or Cuban break
 downs, as rattled the gourds from the walls, and echoed up and down the mountain cal zada like scores of hail-beats upon a New
 England bsrn-hoor in winter; and if hulking
 countryman, grinning wife, shock-headed
 boys, strapping senoritas and all, save my
 self, got good d-naturedly but uproariously and
 awfully befuddled from frequent draughts
 from the fiery bctells; they must all be par
 doned. For there is no wreng in them. The
 burning, cursed wrong of hopelessness, igno- rance and government so bad and diaboli- cal that it's results are Dore infamous than actual human slavery, is upon the Cuban countryman and these who are within his honest heart beneath his palm-t matched roof EDGAR L. WAKKMAN