The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-09


 of magnificent distances" court yards and corridors. Double doors of stained glass; extending half way up, afford some privacy to the bedrooms, while admitting free circulation of air. The beautiful floors are of white and colored marbles, laid in patterns, like patchwork quilt walls fresooed and painted in panels the rafters hidden by white canvas stretched taut over- head; and the great windows, without glass and open from floor to ceiling, are furnished with iron bars outside and latticed shutters within, Nothing can be more picturesque than the an- cient casas of Santnago-all succeed and painted in tlme- mellowed tints of rose pink, sky blue, peagreen and yellow; their projecting roofs of red tiles covered with the moss of centu- rles, their quaint verandas, barred windows and enormous doors. But every one of them is typically Castil- ian in character-a brave and beautl- full front, dwindling to unparalleled poverty and meanness behind the out ward showing. Like other palaces of the old regime, ours was extremely dirty, infested with vermn and void of every convenience. Soap, water and eternal vigilance have somewhat mod flied the aforementioned evils and ne- cessity mothers many make-shifts In the latter line. The hired furniture, 1 for which alone we pay twenty-five dollars per month (the rent of the empty house is fifty dollars American l gold) consists in a hundred chairs, marble-topped stand and cane couch 1 in the parlor rickety side-board and | dining table, two useless kerosene | lamps, and in each sleeping apartment | a wardrobe dresser and bare iron | bedstead, without mattresses or cov- | ering, Fifty United States dollars | bought a very limited supply of pots, pans and dishes-and most of those articles are lacking which are consid- l cred indispensable in every northern 1 kitchen. Hence "the mother of inVen- tion' turns every emptied tin can into service, it's edges neatly hammered with a stone; every crate, box and meal-sack Is eagerly seized upon and devoted to some important use, and a | lard pail Is regarded as little short of l boon from heaven. Have we occa- | sion for bread board and rolling pin, | the clean bottom of dish-pan serves | the former purpose, while glass bot | tie does excellent duty in the latter ca pacity. Every trunk masquerades as couch or table; wardrobe is pantry, l cupboard and locker: the sheets of an army cot answer for table-cloth, and a cambric petticoat has been converted into napkins. To be sure, we might dispense with such luXuries as the two | last named, but when the wearied l nurses return at night aching in every l fibre from a long days toll, their re- | fuge should bear the nearest possible resemblance to a real home. If the reader imagines that under these con- ditions the house mothers task is an easy one, let him or her come and try it awhile! We are subsisting upon army rations eked out by Red Cross l supplies, such as beans, bacon, hard l tack, corn meal, timed beef and cof- fee-plentiful and good in quality. The daily menu-bacon, fried mush and coffee for breakfast; timed beef, beans and hardtack for dinner-will sustain life indefinitely and serves ex- | cellently well even every day for a week. But eternal sunshine grows | monotonous in time, and the best things pail when too often repeated Our kitchen is a fair sample of Castil- i ian character in architecture Beyond the vast, marble floored sala and din- | ing-room, long, arched corridor leads past open court-yards and rows of bedrooms to the rear of the casa
 where some holes in the thick adobe walls-Windowles doorless, dark and destitute of every convenience, consti- tute the culinary department. There is neither table, chair, shelf nor cup board. The dishes are washed on a mound of adobe, out in the open pa- tio, where, if Cuban customs were strictly followed they would be left till
 wanted, to dry themselves at leisure in the sun. The so-called range is an adobe altar, breast high and faced with broken tiles, with three holes in it, the size of small plant-pot. In each hole you build a separate charcoal fire
 bottom side up, so to say-that Is
 with the kindling on top. It smokes
 of course, like "all possessed" while you fan 1t vigorously with anything al hand; and by the time the blaze gets well going" the charcoal has burned out and you must begin again. Over these tiny fires all the cooking is done
 there being no oven, no gas, no other alternative. As cultivators of the Christian graces, these Cuban ranges are without parallel: and when one has so possessed her soul in patience that she can prepare a three course dinner without once mislaying her 1 temper she is surely ripe for a better world.
 | Our servants match the kitchen to a | T. They are elderly negresses, with families of their own, and like mother birds, they nightly convey to the home nest every morsel of food not carefully | every day costume is distinctive, if not locked up in the wardrobe. Their ev- | appropriate. 1t consists of single voluminous white skirt, very short 1T
 front and trailing far behind, with 8 1 low-necked bodice and short, puffeG sleeves, leaving the skinny arms bare to the shoulder. The front of the cor l sage is elaborately embroidered anc secured by string at the top, tied SC
 loosely, if tied at all, that a strip o1 l