The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1888-06-09
HAVANA MARKETS..
A Notable Feature Of Cuba's Far-Famed
Capital City.

A Notable Feature OF Cuba's FRr-Famed
Capital City.
The markets of Havana, rs we'll as
those of other large Cuban cities. are
undoubtedly the finest in the world.
Those Of New York. Philadelphia, New
Orleans and San Francisco are surely
deservedly famous; but when one
considers the actual size. and conven-
fences of the market-houses them.
selves; the countless necessities and
luXuries attainable aside from an
actual food supply; and especially the
bewildoring variety of every thing in
flesh, fowl. fish, fruit, vegetables and
flowers. securable at any one metro
politan Cuban market-housc in any
coastwise city; it IS only honest to
confess that the most noted in the
United States fares but lily by con-
trast.
There are no places in Cuba more
worthy OF repeated visits than the
Havana markets. They are splendid
affairs, Mt lnnst two of them. in them
selves; they furnish rare spectacle
of tropical food and fruit products i'm
possible to equal in months of travel
in the island; and the scenes one wit
nesses as well MS the people who are
met, arc full of pleasure and interest.
They are three in number-Plaza
Vieja, in tho square at the intersection
of Teniente Rey. Muralla, San Ignacio
and Mercaderes streets; Plaza de
Colon, near Parque Central and the
Prado; and Plaza de Vapor, just west
of Campo de Marie. in the new bust.
ness and residence quarter of the city.
Besides these there is an ancient
market and plaza f%requented by the
lancheros, guadaneros and other queer
folk of waterside vocations in old
Regla, across the bay.
The Plaza Vieja must have been
built a couple of hundred years ago.
1t is in the very heart of the oldest
quarter of the city, well down by the
deserted Plaza de San Francisco and
the wharves, where the mournful ruin
of the church of that name. and the
deserted archbishops palace, mutely
attest the glories Of a former time.
The market is small and low, with
%stupendous walls; while the architect.
ure of all the buildings of the locality
is of the most squatty yet massive
character. On every hand are the
century.old structures, each one
strong enough for a fort; while the
pillared columns of facades and sup
porting arches of porchcs with gigan-
tic bases and entablatures are
ludicrously tremendous when the in
significance of the low buildings be-
hind them are considered. Every
stranger who gets sight of this
ancient locality, in former times
tho center of the fabulous
wealth and business activities
Of the Havanese. is drawn to 1t again
and again. Not only have age and
ruin sealed it for decay, but every
present feature of the place intensifies
the impression that one has come upon,
as in u dream. a quaint bit of tho
quaintest Of thousand -year-old Eli
ropean cities. where all the intervene
ing time and progress have swept past.
every thing shriveled and
almost as at Pompeii and Her.
culaneum. The utensils at the market
are precisely such as you could have
found at Toledo. half a thousand years
ago. The architecture Is more Dorian
than that Of ancient Greece. The laz-
zaroni. crouching at the bases of pill
lars and at the edge Of Shiny pools
beneath moldy arches. are sodden.
shriveled, voiceless and apparently as
dead as the yellow mummies Of
Thebes. Negro, mestizos and coolie
servitors about the quaint place are
barred to the waist. and their feet are
like the ancient pilgrim
friars. & E. Wakeman, in CiarinuaA