The Republican journal., 1898-06-09

| - No other pills are lust as good. f"
such times stout cargadores turn an honest
penny, standing knee keep in the puddles
and ''toting' the citizens across on their
shoulders. The city might easily have an
inexhaustable supply of pure water, if
only there were sufficient enterprise among
| the people to cause it to be brought in
| pipes from the neighboring hills. Though
there has always been much suffering and
i'll health resulting from lack of this prime
necessity. no steps have ever been taken
TO inaugurate system of waterworks. A
brief visit will not give the traveller true
| idea of Santiago; one must remain long
enough to get en- rapport with the spirit of
the place in order to understand and
appreciate it, The first impression
gained from its tumble down build
| ings, its rough, neglected, and dirty
streets, naked gamin, abounding pow
erty, lean ours and frightfully abused
mules and horses, is by no means favor
able-even to lovers of the quaint and an
| tique. But after you have become bet
ter acquainted with its hospitable people,
| and have seen the interior of some of its
casas, which We're built a full century be-
tore the first Dutchman had set up
| house on Manhattan Island you discover
/ the charm of the rare old place and find
| yourself in love with it, IN spite of its
! 81,
are confined to no particular locality, but
aie scattered around haphazard and are
as likely to be found sandwiched between
negro shanties or commercial warehouses
as anywhere else. They are all of the
order of architecture which the Mools
| brought into the Iberian penins sula-low
| and large, with enormous windows reach
ing from roof to pavement and having
iron gratings before them; floors of tiles.
square bricks or blocks Of marble and
! inner courtyard with lines and pome-
granates growing around a central foun-
| tain. Toisome and dirty though they
| are the streets of Santiago never cease to
interest; they have such curious signs
stretched across them or protruding over
the narrow sidewalks. and the commod-
| tiles exposed for sale are to us so strange
and often ludicrous The shop fronts are
all open, and inside we see clerks in their
| shirt sleeves flirting with mulatto girls
over gay colored calicoes and gaudy nib
| Dons.
| Ladies of the aristocracy never visit the
shops, but buy what they require from
samples, through their servants. Fat and
comfortable negresses, with enormous
earrings and gorgeous turbans, compared
to which Jacobs coat would be a color
less affair, squat on the ground at the
street corners, with baskets of ''dulcies'
| (sweet meats, fruits and boiled yams to
sell. Half way up the hill is the main
plaza, adorned with statues and thickly
set with trees and benches. The military
band plays here on certain evenings of the
week, when, according to the universal
custom of Spanish America, everybody
turns out to see and be seen. The ladies
in their newest gowns mostly bareheaded,
and many with bare shoulders and arms
glitterng with jewels, promenade in
| pairs, round and round the plaza; while
galants line the walk in triple rows,
! looking on with more or less silent ad-
miration, and the less fashionable portion
of the population observe the beauty
show at a respectful distance. Or rather,
this is what they used to do. They kept
it up bravely until a few weeks ago; but
now, between hunger and anxiety as to
the fate of Santiago, with the American
fleet in front and the insurgents behind,
the plaza is deserted, except as a con-
venient dying place for the starving re-
| cODcentradoes Above the plaza rises the
great cathedral, the largest in Cuba, with
its double towers and facade of porous
stone which gives it singularly mottled
and crumbling appearance. 1t is of the
usual Spanish architecture, with an es-
planade III front, its extremely simple in
terror adorned with garlands of paper
flowers and old Spanish paintings. The
several other churches are all small and
dilapidated, and within their sombre walls
one seems to have stepped back into the
18th century, for the foul air and musty
odors seem to have been imprisoned at
least four centuries. But if Santiago's
sanctuaries are somewhat behind the
times, the saloons and club houses are
certainly up to date, and unaccountably
numerous for population OF only 81, ooo.
There are six "casinos," or club houses,
some of them fitted up with surprising
magnifcence, marble floors, cafes, sa-
Ions de billares, reading rooms, dancing
parlors and all accessories. No Spanish