The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1898-08-27

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-eyen 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 buy
ing them, because the great cigar rae
tories Of Havana, producing brands
that are known to smokers all over the
world, are interesting institutions. They
occupy buildings so nearly resembling
the ordinary dwelling house that they
would be mistaken for them by a
stranger except for the odor.
Quaint Cuban Houses.
The Cuban house of the better class is
of the ordinary, typical construction. 1t
is enormously heavy, built of adobe or
soft stone, to withstand earthquakes
and to resist heat. The rooms are enor-
nous. with ceiling from fifteen to twen-
| ty or twenty-five feet high, all floors
even in the bedrooms, being of stone,
and the windows covered with great
| iron bars.
The houses of the lower class look no
different from without, but are awful
within, and there the cause of Havana
scourges of yellow fever is at once APP
parent. The city is badly drained. The
bay. with no free course of water, and
comparatively little tide, Is reservoir,
uncleansed, of the city's offal. 1t breeds
disease, and in squalor where personal
uncleanliness is added to the perils In
Cured by municipal neglect, the houses
of the poor have become the incubators
of pestilence. Havana has many beau
tiful parks, squares and public places
The squares are all ornamented witt
: royal palms and here and there an or
ange or banana tree, and here and there
!. an Indian laurel.
No city in the world is furnished will
such an abundance and variety of foods
as Is Havana, with the possible excep
ton of San Francisco. The earth ant
the sea give to its people all the best o
their fruits. The great market OF lila
yana is without an equal, SURPRISING
as 1t does, the famed French market o
New Orleans. This market covers a.
area equal to that Of an America
E block. and it is all under single roo1
There are numberless booths in whic
are exposed for sale all the fruits OF tn
tropics, sea fish, fresh water fish, meat'
game, leather goods, jewelry and sue
curios as only seaport visited by IN
commerce of the world can pick u
There are seen men, women and chi
dren of every nationality upon tn
earth. The wonder is how so small
town can gather to itself such a vic
range of humanity.
The population of Havana is mike
! and its morale is very low. The como
] tion Of the women remind a wide
= travelled man of the women of Il
Orient. They are clOse-kept and 1--we
tropical idleness Misrepresentation
common. and it is no rare matter to III
a Cuban family of very good social
sition and of considerable wealth col
posed of persons that would be class
as ouadroons in America. Havana
a citv of grand surprises for the foreii
= visitor. A political mite as It IS III CO.
he harrison with London, there are sluI
It in Havana that cannot be matched
ut the metropolis of the world.
er AS Place of Residence.
re Havana has infinite charms as
re Mace Of residence. It's climate, its W
CHI citation. the cheap rate at which Q
IL, can buy all the delieacies of the tau
mt the romance in the very air, the ca
ult With which a little labor will yield
on large return, the proximity of the 8
Ia. its middle distance between the Inv
Grating north and the tropical COZ
Of tries of the southern continent, the p
he fusion Of its fruits and flowers
MS these things make it most desira
her place to live. and there is no doubt q
aot thousands Of Americans had been u
m long ago were It not for the blight
IDS and depressing rule of Spain-a T
,nt that tends to ruin commerce ana EN-
md mise wherever it has sway.
nee In 1850 the seat of Spanish offic
of dom in Cuba was transferred from :
nee tiago de Cuba to Havana. an early
- ,,,t,or NJ fhe cify'S Importance I