The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-04-19
The dd1ithita 1au Eagle Tuesday gor11o april g. ses

war has made is the presence OF a larger
number OF soldiers than ever. But on Sun
/ day Havana Is as active and buoyant and
| active as II ever was.
SUNDAY Is THE HOLIDAY.
Sunday Is Havana's holiday. There are
| no bull fights going on now. as the people
are TOO poor from the war 10 support
| them But rhere are other amusements,
! SO that Sunday maintains violent con-
trast with the balance Of the week Every
store, nearly. is open. The newspapers
are published In editions throughout the
day. The cafes ere filed from morning
till night. The one theatre which has not
seccumbed TO the depression puts On the
very best operas and sells every seat II
Is a day 20 entertain and pay calls and
g spend hours IN the parks. So much
| license is given to every form Of recrea-
| non on Sunday that it Is actually posi-
BILE 70 go out of the city for several miles
IN the country without disturbance from
the soldiery. despite the war.
As for the churches, thousands OF wo-
men religiously attend. In Cuba rhe
| church and her children are a woman 5
life. She soon loses her husband as her
| companion IN her home She does not
read She never heard Of new woman.
| She has her little circle Of friends like
! herself. and some day dies But she has
| been faithful 20 the church. and the most
| striking thing about a service in the
| great cathred1al Is the presence OF the
women of Havana and the absence of the
men 1t Is said here that most men go
to church but three times In their lives
xUba ho I'D oh raff RI ne 7ad
| and when dead-and the church Is as rigid
in It's requirements Of the first two visits
as the departed is to be received there
at last.
WHERE COLUMBUS Is BURIED.
The cathedral is really one Of the finest
edifces IN Havana Il Is built 10 last
for ages. IN st are the remains OF Chris
TOPPER Columbus-that is, the tomb is
there, beside the alter and the inscription.
1t Is also duly authenticated that the re-
mains are there, 100, but even Spa1iards
nod doubtfully when asked. as 1t true?"
The lottery is the curse of Havana One
Of the first cries heard on the street In
the morning Is the shrill voice Of a Cuban
yelling that he has lottery tickets for
sale It Is often the last sound heard at
night IN the cafe women annoy you In
cessantly, offering any part from one
tenth to q whole ticket or more. In the
stores some one gently touches you on the
arm. 1t Is a lottery ticket peddler. AS
the theatre crowd comes out It is not the
cab drivers and news boys, but lottery
ticket sellers, A card is sent to your room
IN the hotel. It's strange name indicates
the courteous attention Of some citizen,
who bows low. smiles, talks Of the
weather and the beauties of Havana,
and then offers to SELF a lottery ticket. In
the botanical gardens, at the custom
house gates, at the very cathedral doors.
the long yellow sheets are thrust into
every face tin it would seem that all
Cuba must gamble to support SO formida-
BILE a company Of fakirs.
EVERYBODY IS POLITE.
All the storekeepers are courteous and
unobtrusive. They are so polite that one
feels as if he were rudely trespassing In
entering their stores to purchase Money
is generally plentiful in Havana. and as
there is not a savings bank in the island
and Cubans are born spendthrifts, it is
striking to note the general excellence
of everything offered for sale American
r
man wares are popular but everything is
Of the highest grade, and a native or
Spaniard will never buy anything but
the best.
A visitor experiences great difficulty in
purchasing anything Enthusiastically
Cuban in the stores, but that is because |
Cuba produces only two things, sugar |
and tobacco, and buys everything she uses |
even buys back her sugar refined.
The easiest thing to buy is cigars. and /
they cost astonishingly less than In the /
states. There is an experience in buying /
them. because the great cigar factories |
of Havana, producing brands that are /
known to smokers all over the world. are |
interesting institutions. They occupy
buildings so nearly resembling the ordi- /
nary dwelling house that they would be [
mistaken for them by stranger except /.
for the odor.
QUAINT CUBAN HOUSES
The Cuban house of the better class is
of the ordinary. typical construction It
IS enormously heavy, built of adobe or
soft stone, 10 withstand earthquakes and
to resist heat. The rooms are enormous
with ceilings from fifteen to twenty or
twenty-five feet high. all floors. even in
the bedrooms, being OF stone, and the /
windows covered with great iron bars.
These windows have a grewsome suggest
iveness Of cells. dispeIled only by the art
full glance or laughter of the women who
stand peering out or recline lancuidly on
swaying hamrnocks or rockers within.
They are the counting places Of the
youth Of the islands. and are. curlouslv
enough. preferred, because the whispered
condolences there are free from the pres
emo OF parent, aunt or guardian. which
Is taevttable when the young couple meet
within. the house The young man. stand
ng outside the bars day after day. IS
known to every neighbor and passerby as
ne senor1ta's sweetheart
The houses OF the lower class look no
1tferent from without but are awful
within, and there the cause Of Havara's
;coUrges Of yellow fever is At ones. a.
parent The CITY Is badly drained The
bay with no free course OF water and
little tide IS q reservoir
of the cIty's o1aL 1t breeds
disease. and n squalor where per.oral
;rcieanliness IS added % tie perils i-cslr-
ed oy municipal neglect, the houses .of
ne poor have become The incubato-s O.
'sstusacA
PARKS AND SQUARES
Havana has many beautiful parks.
Qua-es ard public places The squares
re al orHaceu-ej wteh ROYAL -alr.s I'd
leTs ard -hars a. Grange o. banana treA
I'd here and there II Indian laurel TIA
7.aza &C -a-E1aS which fron-s ;he palace .
4: TIE captain general ard ,hs Pzr7aa
= ISABELLA R-e capital examples q z7es.