, 1888-04-08

DtlOE CAlihH II oDdulbh IIONluSS llOIh
which they are descended. If you wish
to see them in the most interesting part
of their labor, walk along the sea at the
head OF. Gale Anche del Norte at from G
to 8 in the morning. AT this time thou
sands OF horses are being bathed in the
ocean. They are brought in droyes of a
dozen or so, tied nose and tail together,
and turned loose upon the beach into the
water. Frequently these stablemen, who
are expert swimmers, ride the leaders and
guide the movements of the groups.
But all the horses show evidence of great
enjoyment, and snort, blow and frolic like
an excited School OF p~orpoises. / have
counted over a thousand horses in the sea
at one time. On Sunday mornings when
the greatest numbers are to be seen, the
ocean is alive with them for a mile along
along the beach, and for a fourth of a
mile off shore. The only other scene
which is anything like a parallel to this is
the occasional frolickings in the sea Of the
wild banker" or bank ponies ] have
watched with equal interest off our North
Carolina coast.
The lechero or milkman and his system
here are worthy of magazine illustration,
Milk for the market and hotels is brought
into the city by immense OK carts in cam
having the appearance of diminutive
cylindrical pagodas, but a large proper
ton of the inhabitants cling with obsti
nate conservatism to the ancient method
of supply. At all hours of the morning
| have met on the highways away put in
suburbs sober droves of a halt dozen
cows accompanied by a half dozen muz-
zled calves as they were being leisurely
driven into the city by a brown faced
countryman and two or three of his bare
footed 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 to a halt, the lows
and calves taking position with military
precision, in single file, along the flag
stone footways of the narrow streets.
Our guajro or countryman is now the city
lechero or milkman.
The urchins run into the customer
house, secure the order. and the lechero
milks the required quantity there and then
before the very eye of the housemaid, the
portero, or el senior himself. In this way
from house to house the queer cavalcade
passes, until COW after COW is MIXED clean,
when the muzzle is in turn removed from
each mothers calf, and the little terneril-
las are free to take %undisputed possession
of the ''strippings." The system has
obvious advantages. The milk is assur-
eddy fresh. 1t would be difficult for the
lechero to secrete a water butt about his
person.
Seated at a little table no more than
two feet square. well within the shade of
the cool entradas of the better private
residences and all public buildings, will be
seen a strangely grim and quiet individual
who is usually the only figure in the fore
ground of a lovely picture comprising
sonRful court, interior galleries, wondrous
marbles and colored glasses, tropical birds
and flowers. This is the portero. Though
the household depends upon this man for
all wise protection and safety, he is not of
it, and he seems to sit eternally at his
little table, oblivious to everything save
his occasional immediate duties, rolling
out cigarettes as though his very life de-
pended upon this task alone. His liveli-
hood practically does, for though a faith
full sort Of animal, he Is poorly. The
many thousand p~orteros of Havana have
become an important factor in cigarette
manufacture. For each 5000, which in a
wheel like package are called una tarea,
they receive I'm escudo, a sum equal to
nineteen shillings in American money.
By and by some one will immortalize
the Havana guadano and its swarthy
guadanerO in song. There is nothing
fragile or dainty about these little harbor
boats or their boatmen, but no Mediter-
ranean port can show you more pictur-
esque waterside characters than are found
in Havana bay. There are upwards of
1000 licensed guadanos. Each boat is
hooded astern TO protect from the sun; is
rugged with a single mast and sail; IS
painted in all sorts of fantastic colors; and
its speed and s~eaworthiness are something
marvellous. In this regard they remind
one of the famous Newport cat boats and
the ''quoddy" boats of our northeast
coast. They are a jangling, ~wrangling lot,
their owners the ~guadaneros, but peacea-
BILE and sunny withal. Most of them live
over at RegeIa, and under the walls of the
Cabana. They are full of song and wine
and sleep, the year round. Many live in
their little boats. They keep alive the
legends of chivalry by murmuring love
songs to everything of the female form;
and in the moonlight Upon the harbor the
whole sensuous night pulses to the ryth-
mic numbers of their wierd guarachas.
Musical and merry are the Havana dull
ceros, or street CONNECTION peddlers. These
are nearly all negro lads, and are the
brightest of the Havana lowly street folk.
A number of large concerns like ia Fill
osofia" and lei Buen Gusto" furnish the
sweets, which are sold on commission by
the dulceros. They are temptingly dis
PLAYED on a light canjou de dulce, which
confection box is daintily balanced upon
the dulcero's head. Each one has his in
dividual sonata call, or song, the effort
being to both compel sales and advertise
the maker of the wares. Here is one |
often hear:
40 vengo de Jesus del Monte,
Donde cantan los s~insontes;-
Numero ciento catorce,
Entire Gonzales Y Oquendo!'
81 come from Jesus del Monte,
Where the hooking birds sing
Number one hundred and fourteen,
Between Gonzales and O~quendo.'
These songs are most melodlously given,
and are always followed by the cry of
"Dul-cel Dul-cel" given i'm a piercing