Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-18

and children. Every room is q smoking
room, and every car smoking car
and vet a second-class car, blue with
the billows of smoke, is not so offensive az
many street corner in Pittsburg, for there
seems to be no bad tobacco used in Havana.
1t is like the Irishman's whisky-"There'
no bad whisky"
Tobacco Comes Well Taxed.
But unless you have a national bank be.
hind you, you will best not load your trunks
too heavy with Havana tobacco when you
return to the States, for thanks to Brer Nc.
Kinley the tariff is something appalling.
One recent passenger on the Mascotte,
brought in, in his satchel, cigarettes that
cost him S4 in Havana. The tax demanded
was $50 30-only 757 per cent of their first
cost
But we are getting away from Havana;
there is much there to see that is beautiful
and interesting; the crumbling old wall that
once marked the bounds of the city, but
now runs zigzaging through it; the church
marking the spot where Columbus knelt to
hear the first mass read in the New World;
the great Cathedral where, the Cubans will
tell you, rest the ashes of that same Colum-
bus, and they look hurt if you don't be-
lieve them; the botanical gardens, and
grounds of the Captain Generals summer
palace, where may be seen artificial grottos
and waterfalls, majestic palms, and pro-
fusion OF brilliancy and foliage that is only
possible in this land OF perpetual summer.
All about them, on leaves, tree trunks,
everywhere, you will see the graceful little
chameleons peeping shyly at you from safe
cover and hurtling away to absorb the color
of some other hiding place.
Then there are charming drives by the
coast, and novel bathing pools Exclusively
for the convenience OF visitors) cut in the
solid rock in the surf. There is no beach,
and these unique substitutes combine the
functions of bath and humping machine,
for the surf breaks over them in such force
that the victims are pommelled against the
sides merciIessly.
A Trip 10 1Iatanzas.
But q visit to Havana will not be COM
plete without day at Matanzas and a ride
in that novel vehicle, half cart and half
blackboard, the "volanta." The ride there
py rail, S5 miles, is one o. increasing inter-
est to Northern eyes; cactus hedges, gay with
morning-glories, make a pleasing change
from our endless barb wire fences; beyond
them waving groves of royal and cocoanut
palms lift their graceful heads, often to
hundred feet. Thatched cottages are ap-
preached by stately avenues that palace
might envy, Wnlle aIOunu IneM are Cdugnb
most unexpected glinfpses of Cuban life.
Little brown cuplds, as devoid of covering
as a Mexican dog, run out and gaze anxious
ly after the whirling train; others are play
ing on the soft black ground while their
parents are at work. and their look of per-'
feet health and contentment suggests more
intimate relation with the soil than we
wearers of store clothes are apt to keep in
mind.
Rich valleys present waving sea of
sugar cane. its light green fanked in the
distance by dark mountains. Along the
road, almost in reach of your hand from the
car window, bananas are growing and ripen-
ing in wild luxuriance. There are many
quaint things too; yon porker, haltered and
hitched to the fence, suggests different
customs from those prevailing at home; these
squalling, futtering chickens, carried
through the train for sale at back country
stations, indicate that PUCK. Judge, Life,
and all the latest publications, have no
monopoly on the travelling public in all