, 1888-04-22

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
faded nag which brought them, the indO-
lent human who owns them, and the
black and hairless pigs themselves, are all
asleep, and will remain so until some pur.
chaser %awakens them. Here again is a
group of goats, country boys and skinny
ponies. The mother goats are tied to
one pillar, the kids, which are b~leating
p~itifully, are tied to another, and the boys
and sleeping nags form a sort Of barricade
between.
Presently a fat negress appears, pur-
chases a kid, demanding a stripping of
goats milk to bind the bargain, filings the
struggling animal over her shoulder and
disappears amid charges and counter
charges Of goats and boys. and a perfect
bedlam of bleatings. Here, there and
everywhere are piles of fodder, pouches
OF oranges, pack saddles OF roots, herbs
and salads. pyramids of green and ripe
cocoanUts like cannon balls in an arsenal,
piles of painting chickens, groups of
shaggy donkeys, herds of sucking calves,
crates Of gaIne-cock and shared wood
pigeons and other forest fowl; but never
IN owner upon his feet and alert for sales.
All these truckmen from the country lie
in the midst of their belongings sodden
as the ~mendigos around the pillar bases
of the chimetul churches. Take it or
leave itl'' is their unvarying maxim.
Within the booths and markets the
types of Incidence are not so marked and
aggravating. The stallmen are a bright
or class, They have something of the
alertness of our own marketmen; and the
shrill voices of the querulous mestizos
women; the interminable %shrugglngs and
CALCULATIONS of approval or protest at
kind or price; the clapg and jangle of the
ancient steelyards and scales, and the
merry chatter of u thousand persons of all
color and degree; add constant interest to
constantly varying scenes. In or near
this quarter of the city-over San LaZaro
and Gale Caluarte way-live the densest
and most hideous mixtures of humans
known to man. Plaza de Colon is their
market.
The f~iercest of Malays, the most shriv-
eled and repulsive of Chinese, the most
hideous and ferocious of genuine African
blacks, the most horrible and abandoned
of whites, jnter-bred, and still more loath-
some in startling types, all gather here.
The most terrible creations OF a Dante's
ulluu vi Il bOlC . DCIGll bdlliOl iulillSu
such impish groupings. Among these the
Chinese coolies are the most horrible.
! Eyeless, legless. armless, noseless, hair
less, %earless, or in some other striking
way maimed as | nave never elsewhere
seen persons in the semblance of men,
they seem as though they had all passed
through some awful c%yclonic CONFUSION of
nature, with life preserved, as illustration
of the most hideous carcasscs which may
still retain the human soul. And these
ghouls practically control this market.
They have a great Chinese theater within
it. There are over 40. 900 like them
throughout the island of Cuba.
{ But over at the splendid Plaza de Va
por market there are different scenes and
life for study. This is undoubtedly one
of the finest market structures in the
world. The architecture is similar to that
of Plaza de Colon, though the interior is
the perfection of arrangement. All the
stalls where meat, fowl and fish are ex-
posed for sale, are filled with great iron
framed tables, which, at certain hours OF
each day, are bodily holsted by steam
power to an elevation permitting thor
ough flooding through steam-forced hose
OF the slanting trenches beneath. The
whole place is a marvel of convenience
and cleanliness. 1t is located in the very
heart OF the new Havana, and its pa
irons are wholly Cubans and Spanish
families of wealth, the finer cafes and the
great hotels like Gran Pasaje, lnglatera
and TELEGRAPH. Underneath the massive
arched porches, which surround the en-
tire building, are countless little shops
and stands with most artistic displays of
wares, reminding one iOrclbly OF the
- L. r IL d.. -
these, in which the most gorgeous OF
flowers, the quaintest of blioutry. the
c~ostliest of laces, your choice Of Cuban or
Spanish lottery tickets, and every imagl-
nable cheap and costly tritie from domi-
noes to diamonds, are temptingly ex-
posed, presenting everywhere bright and
attractive pictures to the streets. Be-
hind the tremendous walls, and between
them and the market proper, reached
through splendid arched entrances are the
prettiest cafes in the world, with dainty
tassellated fl )ors, equisitely tiled walls, a
wealth of shining mirrors. and copper and
silver.
These are always bright and gay with
mozos or servants in white, and clean,
trim Cuban habitues in their handsome
linen suits. A number of these cafes are
given over to the exclusive use of the
g~uajiros from the country. matarifes or
butchers from the corralles, jardineros
from the little truck farms in the suburbs,
and compradores who pass their lives be-.
hind these market stalls. At all hours of
the day and night these cafes are filled
with the most picturesque groups of men,
bright with yellow and crimson sashes,
romantic in their capas often of hairy
hides of deep forest beasts. saucy in lang
ling spur, ferocious whip and tremendous
sOmbrero, and fierce and p%ortentious from
their savage machetes broad as your hand
aud half as long as their own 1.-THE, wide
trousered legs. But they are a harmless
lot, happy and sunny hearted day and
night long in their excited %pretensions of
labor. The visitor is astounded at the
vast varieties of food that can be found in
this market. There is nothing to com-
pare with it in a single market of any
American or European city. Briefly,
every article displayed in the most stump
tuous American markets, including every
known brand Of American canned goods,
is here, and, besides this, every fruit,
vegetable, herb and flower produced in
this land of Undesirable luxuriance, and
.b,t 700 NOT in hriaf eaasoDu but ayarv