The record-union., 1897-02-28

jests. What Paris is to France, Ha-
vana is to Cuba. 1t is the center of
the islands life, activities and recrea-
ton The times may be hard, but to the
Lydian measures of their favorite and
characteristic city CubanS disport
themselves with intensity of enjoy
ment. Here are the only good theaters
of the island, and two opera companies
can draw crowded houses on the same
night. Here are the best Spanish club
houses. and play runs high in gilded
gaming houses. Here is the hustle
caused by the daily movement of a
population of 250000, and under the
glare of electric lights the city loses the
aspect of faded grandeur and is again
the most brilliant and gayest Capital of
Spanish America.
The bull-ring remains, as in former
years, the favorite amusement of the
Cubans, but the performances are less
frequent and the sport is poorer. The
cOckpitS are the cheapest and most
popular entertainment, and Sunday
would be incomplete and dull without
many of these revolving exhibitions.
The spectators become fairly delirouS
with excitement as the battle proceeds.
Betting on the result runs high. and
many poor montero has all that he
has in the world staked upon one bird
or the other A passion for gambling is
the heritage of the Spanish blood-like
administrative corruption. The popu-
larity of the lottery is explained by the
same race instinct In other Spanish
American countries the lotteries are
conducted for the benefit of churches
and hospitals; but here the Govern
ment monopolizes the business as a
permanent source of revenue
The new woman is altogether un-
known in Havana. There is not even
a woman's club here In fact, in this
regard the city is actually mediaeval.
The women of Cuba are short in
stature, plump and well-rounded in fig
ure, graceful and supple in movement,
With dark eyes that flash at night and
melt by day. Like the beautiful wild
flowers of the Cuban woods. they ma
ture very early and they fade as rapid
ly. The prettiest girl will be plain long
before she is 80. Handsome women in
middle life are never seen in the tr0p-
les, but only in the temperate zone
The beauty and charm of Cuban wo-
men is eVanescent, but real and ire
sistible while ii lasts.
y CHANCE FOR SKETCHES.
"On its picturesque side" says a
writer in Cuba and the Fight for Free
DOM, the artist will find Cuba a rich
field for the exercise of his talents. He
will find such sights as will fill his soul
with joy; types of strange people; lovely
nd
houses; curious old cathedrals, gray and
worn with age; priests in long black
cassocks and severe of countenance:
pretty Cuban girls with great, dark
eyes; turbaned negro women and chill
dren selling lottery tickets on the
streets; beggarS picturesque in their
dirt and rags; queer carriages and carts
of ancient style and build, and bull
fighters strutting proudly up the
Prado."
All Of the interest Of Cuba does not,
however, center in Havana The cities
on the southern coast, formerly the
strongholds against the rowing pirates
and buccaneers of the Spanish Main. are
quaint and curious. One does not have
to possess a vivid imagination to pic
ture Velasquez as he sailed into the
beautiful harbor of Santiago, nearly
four centuries ago, and gazed with de-
light on the fertile valleys before him.
Santiago Harbor seen a daybreak'
says Mr. Ford, lis a glorious spectacle,
which stirs the pulses of the most slug
gish traveller and remains in the memory
silhouette of enhancing beauty. The
rockbOund coast sullenly opens it's gram
its gates, and jealousy guards the en-
trance to a spicious bay fianked by
mountains. One of the giant cliffs slop-
ing abruptly seaward is crowned with
a gray and yellow fortress. So narrow
pass directly under the antique battle
ments and Moorish turrets, and the SEN
tinels on the stone terraces and the
prisoners behind the barred windows
are almost within call, save that the
breakers underneath the green bank are
filling with Uproar the cavernouS depth
of the rocky buttresses. The harbor
opens and widens as the ship sails on
until it is a placid expense of sheltered
water with blue Mountains encircling it,
and the city, a long way in the dis
tance, transfgured in the golden light
of tropical morning. Like Rio it lies
among hills, With mountains encamped
about it, with islands bristling with for
and with seaward defenses
which could be made impregnable, even
With meager engineering skill. Like
Rio also. it is a foul and shabby town,
of it's magnificent surround
ings.
Santiago was founded by Velasquez
in 1a14, and the streets have never been
swept to this day. There are incrusta-
tions Of mold on the Cathedral walls,
and there is the dust of ages on the low
browcd tiled roofs of the crumbling. di-
lapidated. tiled houses. In other Span
towns dirt is painted over
or whitewashed at least once in a de-
cade: but here it passes for time stain
and is considered quaint and venerable
The streets are padded with lime and
filth, and the city, with its population of
IL, ,0o0, is in the worst possible sanitary
NO EMPIRE STATE EXPRESS
TRAINS HERE.
Cuban railroading is simplicity itself.
The trains run about when they please
and how they please. and in making up
the trains cattle. instead of engines, are
to draw the cars together. One
can argue from this that it is a great
deal easier to obtain a good cattle-driver
In Cuba than an expert engine-driver
Matanzas, not far from Havana on
the north coast, is in decadent mood |
1t once ranked next to Havana. but
the rich planters have become impov- |
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