The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-04-12
HAVANA OF CUBA.


Had Travelled Much.
Havana looks best at a distance. The
greater the distance. the handsomer the
city looks. The approach to the harbor
is indeed very impressive. On the right
looms up Moro Castle, which has all the
romantic aspects that the most magma
tive person can desire. Built of soft
stone, it is ~honeycombed by the weather,
but its decay is softened by a multiplicity
of blending colors and shades which
make the effect very pleasing to the eye.
On the right of the harbor entrance the
mass of hte city lies. In the distance the
houses seem to be cream-colored palaces,
but as you approach nearer you see the
painful marks of discoloration and dirt.
The houses are low, seldom exceeding
two stories.
These people don't propose to take any
chances with earthquakes, though how
they got this prudential notion into their
heads. when they. seem so entirely care
less of all other earthly happenings, is a
puzzle to a careful observer. Let it be
remembered that it cannot strictly be
said that the steamer lands at Cuba at
all. She does not. In it's paternal desire
to foster the internal interest of the
island. the Spanish Government makes
the wharfage so high as to be practically
prohibitive. Only Spanish vessels really
land at the dock. Our steamer came to
anchor about a quarter of mile from
the shore. and was instantly surrounded
by a multitude of clumsy bumboats, filed
with a bowling. and screaming mass of
boatmen. hotel drummers. and the Like,
who were clamoring for our custom in
the language of Cervantes. 1t costs
IS to carry yourself and trunk to the
hotel.
The Plant Company does not pay this.
1t sells you a .;cket to Havana, but it
gives o the pleasant alternative of
either walking ashore with your trunk
ON your back or paying an additional
charge big enough to carry you on a
Sound steamer from Fall River to New
York. After the officials have gone
through the ltiresome process of looking
at your passports, and, becoming assured
that you do not come to overturn the
Spanish Government, you are allowed to
go ashore. Then you have another bless
ed season at the Custom House. I ann
tod that this may be avoided if you are
willing to "see'' the proper authorities;
that nothing win convince them of the
pacific nature Of your intentions so quick
" as an American ~greenback of the
proper denomination. It IS even asserted
that YOU might smuggle an entire invad-
ing army into Cuba if you are willing to
stand the expense of properly seeing"
the right people. But we refused to
tempt these ineorruptibles. and so were
Obliged to wait.
Old Havana would have filled the soul
of the Third Napoleon with terror. 1t
resembles unreconstructed Paris in the
of its streets. Or course, the
should protect people from the sum-, and
in some of the Cuban streets the upper
balconies OF the houses are Amos with
in touching DISTANCE. The principal retail
soonest retail stores in the city. and yet
there is only room for two ordinary car
riages to pass each other, and the side
walks range from about fourteen TO
ftwenty-four inche wide In some places,
If you meet a lady, you must step into
the street to let her pass.
Here o find Bethany dream OF a UNI
versal umbrella realized. Some of the
awnings stre.cal from house to house.
thus affording complete shelter from sun
and rain. There can be no. do0rsteps, and
the first floor of the house is on the level
with the pavement. The windows reach
the ground. and are heavily barred with
IRON. After the sun has gone down, the
curtains behind these ~prison-like bars are
drawn aside, land you catch hurried
giances of the inner life of Havana
You see the uncarpeted stone floor. You
see the children, white, black and brown,
living In that condition Of Edenic limo.
cence that antedates the earliest fig-leaf
costume |. Children-well, I do not be-
lieye There are as many children con-
densed ON amy other spot on this hen5s-
phere. And smells-there are more smells
than children.
Having been IN the slunns OF many Eu,
ropean and American cities l did
think 1t was hardly possible to increase
NV repertoire of smells, but I was mis-
taken. You are told that Havana has
natural drainage. You are rejo.ced. 1t
certainly has no other kind of drainage.
1t is natural, and It Is obnoxious, no to
saw obtrusive. The smells seem to Lie in
strata, and yet, k certain geological
formaty of deposit has been disturbed by
some Internal or external force:
the odors permeate and pervade each
Other. and thus produce rare combina-
tons. which are startling in their unique
affect. You go into an African district OF
this crowded city, and you find the natu,
raj flavor of Ethiopia emphasized and
saccentuated'-as the new novelist says
by an odor in which the onion and the
carrie have united their natural glories.
Snd one smell differeth from another
smell in glory. It is he Land OF the rose
and the orange blossom, but IN the mat
ter of perfume the rose and the orange
/ have powerful rivals. But what / start
ed to say was that | am surprised the
reyolut,onists do not use the narrow
efreets of Havana for sbarricading pur-
noses. as the French used to do IN old
Paris.-St. Louis "Globe-Democrat."
A POVERTY soOIABLg