Morning journal and courier., 1888-04-07

highways away out in the suburbs sober droves of half-dozen cows accompanied by half-dozen muzzled calves as they were being leisurely driven ints the city by a broHn-faced countryman and tive or three of his barefooted boys. Arrived in Havana
 these rustic groups become the travelling milk supply. Almost without guidance the animals seek the beginning of the "milk route" and on reaching the door of the first customer come te a halt, the COWS and calves taking position with military precision, in single file, along the fagstone footways of the narrow streets. Our gaajiro or countryman is now the city lechero or milkman. The urchins run into the customers house, secure the order, and the lschero milks the required quantity there and then before the very eye of the housemaid, the portero or el senor himself. In this way from house to house | the queer cavalcade passes until COW after \ COW is milked clean, when the muzzle is in | turn removed from each mothers calf, and | the little ternerillas are free to take undispu- ted possession of the "strippings." The ! system has obvious advantages. The milk is I assuredly fresh. It would be difficult for the
 lechero to secrete a water-butt about his per- l son.
 THE GATEKEEPER.
 Seated at little table not more that two fest square, we'll within the shade of the cool entradas of the better private residences and I all public buildings, will be seen strangely grim and quiet individual who Is usually the only figure in the foreground of lovely pic- ture comprising songful court, interior gal \ leries. wondrous marbles and colored glasses, tropical birds and flowers. This is the DOT ! tero. Though the household depends upon ! this man for all wise protection and safety, | he is not of it, and he seems to sit eternally l at his little table, oblivious to everything l save his occasional immediate duties, rolling | out cigarettes as though his very life dependA ' ed upon this task alone. His livelihood prac- ! tically does, for though 8 faithful sort of an | imal, he is poorly paid. The many thousand porteros of Havana have become an impor- | tant factor in cigarette manufacture. For each six thousand, which in Q wheel-like package are called una tarea, they receive un | eseudo, sum equal to nineteen shillings ia American money.
 THE BoATMEN.
 By and by someone will immortalize the
 Havana guadano and it's swarthy guadanero | in song. There is nothing fragile or dainty \ about these little harbsr-boats or their boat ! men, but no Mediterranean port can show you more picturesque waterside characters than are found in Havana bay. There are | upwards of two thousand licensed guadanos. Each boat is hooded astern te protect from ! the sun; is rigged with single mast and sail; is painted in all sorts of fantastic col | ors; and it's speed and seaworthiness are ! something marvellous. In this regard they
 remind one of the famous Newport catboats and the "quoddy" boats of our northeast coast They are jangling, wrangling lot,
 their owners, the guadaneros, but peaceable and sunny withal. Most of them live over
 at Regla and under the walls of the Cabsna. They are full of song and wine, and sleer ! the year round. Many live in their little boats. They keep alive the legends of chiv- | airy by murmuring love-songs to everything l of the female form; and in the moonlight | 4La r11, k1,a rI01a ,Srv1t l pulses to the rythmic numbers of their weird | guarachas. a
 THE STREET PEDDLERS.
 | Musical and merry are the Havana dulceres
 or street confection peddlers. These are I nearly all negro lads and are the brightest of the Havana 1owly street-folk. A number of large concerns like sIa Filosofa" and tE Buen Gusto'' furnish the sweets, which are
 sold on commission by the dulceros. They
 are temptingly displayed on light canjor ! de aulce, which confection-box is daintilJ
 balanced upon the dulcero's head. Eacl
 one has his individual sonata call or song
 the effort being to both compel sales and ad' | vertise the maker of the wares. Here is ont often hear:
 "Io vengo de Jesus del Monte,
 Donde cantan los sinsonteS;
 ! Numoro ciento catorce
 | Entre Gonzales OquendoI'
 | ''I come from Jesus del Monte,
 | Where the mocking- birds sing;
 ! Number one hundred and fourteen, ! Between Gonzales and Oquendo"
 These songs most nelodiously giveI
 and are always followed by the cry of "Du (-ce!-Dul-ee-r given in piercins treble. and a list of the wares rendered witt
 all the unctuous diablery of the merriest ne gro minstrelsy. During the hush and silence I of holy week the dulcero is not permitted te ! sound his curious calls. He then sells candy I images of saints, and slyly attracts customer l by playing all sorts of rollicking numbers ir rythmic staecato with bits of hard wood ol
 bone upon the edge of his tempting box.
 THE READERS.
 A singular evidence of the aspiration to l wards enlightenment under difficulties in any | land is in an odd class of folk have discov ! cred here in Havana. Books in Cuba are few
 and costly. There are not as much news anG miscellany in any single issue of a Havans l newspaper as are given in three columns o1
 any American daily. But the intellectua hunger must be satisfied, and there havt grown cut of these conditions large number ! of lectors or readers. These go from ont | shop to another, and often from house tc
 house among the lowly, and read and com
 ment upon the insignificant worlds newi ! which the lifeless papers occasionally print
 They are we'll paid; for, as they must roal
 like mad bulls in their readings so that th' five hundred or one thousand hands in | great cigar factory all catch the precious
 words, they soon lose their voices altogether ! In the full tide of his prosperity, or certain
 decay, the Cuban lector is as stern and pom
 pous as the American actor.
 | THE wAsHERwoMEN.
 ! The lavenderas or washerwoHen of Havan l are brave, hard-working class. They ar chiefly negro women or mestizes in all tn ! varying shades. Many of these carry ol
 quite little business in the quaint patlos ! the lower quarters. Among their help vii
 be found old African women with the triba
 brands upon their blue-black jaws; Chimes
 coolies, withsred to skin and bone; hand
 some mulatto girls; and not infrequently de
 cayed and forlorn whites-all living and toll
 ing together in apparent lazy, sodden goo
 nature. Among these lavenderas is re
 Aarkable character named Louise. "Louise
 is mulatto, born and bred in St. Thomas
 Her mother was a black woman, and he father rich Danish consignee at Charlott I Analie. If you are much about the vessel , and bay here you will know Louise. Ther is scarcely @ seaport in the world where sh
 is unknown. She is the only human bein iA Cuba who conducts a business as mono poly without dividing the spells with tn , Spanish government. No sea captain enter . ing Havana dare attempt clearing withou paying tribute to her. She does the washin for all, and woe be to him who attempts t \ 0lS6rt tFaQe rom neT. one lS over SIX lee high, spare and square, withNa wonderful
 turban on her head and an expression c seorn oA her face. She seemingly speak , every known language, and vessel ha scarcely passed Moro castle before she is seel 5 in her own guadano alongside the craft, ii F advance of the customs officials, gettin the first news and particulars. It is sai
 she can tell you the name of every vesse
 that has entered the harbor for the las ! twenty years, it's tonnage, it's home port it's master and it's trade, and is in as mucl l demand for information and advice at tn wharves and among the shipping interest," ) as old Gonzales, the richest ship-chandle ) in the world, himself.
 |, THE CARTMEN.
 There are several thousand mule and OK carts in and about Havana. You canne find in Cuba dray or four-wheeled wap , on This Cuban cart is literally . gres } affair The wheels are frequently ten fee in diameter, the felloes six inches broa