Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-14
THE TROPICS QUEEN.
Quaint Old Havana and Its Proud
Citizens Graphically Sketched
BY LILLIAN SPENCER'S FACILE PEN
A Place Where People Would Rather Beg
Than Work, and Where
EVERY NAN Is CONSTANTLY IN LOVE
~ LILLIAN SPENCER'S FACILE PEN
EVERY NAN Is CONSTANTLY IN LOVE
rcoRREspoNDExcE OF THE DISPATCH ]

rcoRREsPoNDENcE OF THE DIsPATcH.I
HAVANA, April I'll am in Cuba.
came by the steamer Niagara direct from
New York. Going to Europe is bad; going
to Cuba is worse. The seasickness of an
European voyage is mild in comparison
with the seasickness Of the Gulf of Mexico.
1t is all very well to talk about
the pleasures of sailing in South
ern seas, but Southern seas are
not quite what they are cracked
up to be. They may do in theory or in.
books, but in reality-well, they have got
to be tried to be fully understood. In the
first place the steamers are small and stuffy,
the cabins narrow and the berths mere
shelves. The first spasm-that's the only
word that expresses it's experienced, not
after day or so. as any well-regulated sea-
sickness ought to be, but almost immedi-
ately.
The docks once cleared, the little ship
commences to sport. While she is sporting
the passengers are rolling off the cabin sofas.
This is only the beginning of their agony,
Five days later they drag their languid
bodies on deck, and sit in disconsolate, hos
fate which imposes the necessity of living
upon them.
VARIETIES OF sEASICKNESS.
There are said to be three stages of this
malady, of which no one has ever died, or
been cured. The first is the victim who is
afraid he will die; the second is the victim
who doesn't care whether he dies or not, and
the third the unfortunate who fears he will
live in spite of himself. This last stage
came to me early in the day and fingered
persistently by me until landed in Havana.
Even then 1 felt as if 1 were walking on
air, and that my bed was rocking, sinking,
sliding and plunging after the most sp-
proved Cape Hateras fashion. The food on
these steamers is very, very good, but as
you never eat a mouthful, you feel all the
more aggrieved. Such a state of affairs you
consider nothing more nor less than ''the
irony of fate, and i'll your belief you are
not far wrong.
If you want to see a splendid sight, and
one that will linger in your memory even
longer than the seasickness, rise early the
morning you reach Havana. and watch
the sun come up out of the opalescent bill
lows like a huge ball of fire. At the first
peep of day you will witness spectacle
once seen, never to be forgotten. Out of the
mystic haze, gradually, almost impercepti-
bly,, grows the ouGlines of the city. So dim,
so uncertain, so feeting, are the pale, sill
very shadows, that only for the incessant
rumble Of the ships bowels and the swish
of the glittering waves, you would imagine
yourself sailing in some phantom sea. Pale
and spectral in the distance CLEANS the
gilded towers of the low-lying, many-colored
walled city, over which hangs green cloud
lined with lurid patches of gold.
A GRAND PANORAMA.
As the shades disperse, huge doorways,
fanked by pillars and surmounted by pom
derous intels, come in view. Through
your glass you can see that they
open upon rambling paved courts:
Here and there can be discerned
Seville or Granada. To the left loom the
dark embattled walls and towers of Moro
Castle, with its great blinking light, and
beyond is the harbor, which has no dock or
landing pier, but which is filled with small
boats and picturesque boatmen to
carry passengers from the ship. All
steamers must unload in the harbor.
1t would never do to permit
foreign vessels to come too near. Moro Castle
is fortress, and the Spaniard will tell you
it is impregnable. The Cuban will shrug his
small shoulders and say nothing
Havana is called the Queen of the
Tropics" By night she is as bright and
frivolous as was Pompeii; by day she is
dirty, crowded, dingy. wearing an air of
crumbling decay and looking as rusty and
sun scorched as do all places where the
whole year is summer time. There are
parks, and believe che average Cuban re-
CARDS them with pride, but it is a poor kind
of pride that can find anything worthy of
admiration in these barren squares, where
never blade OF grass mods to the breeze, and |