The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1898-04-30
FROUDE ON HAVANA.
Interesting Pen-Picture OF the Gu
ban Capital by the Distinguished
Historian.

James Anthony Froude, who visited Cuba
some years ago, draws fine picture OF
Havana. He says:
Havana figures much in English naval his
tory. Drake tried to take it, and failed.
Penn and Venables failed. We storm
ed the forts in 1740, and held them
and held the city until the Seven Years war
was over | had read descriptions of the
place, but they had given me no clear con-
ception of what it would be like. certainly
none at all of what it was like.
Havana is of city palaces, Il city of streets
and plaZas, ofcolOnnades and towers, churches
and monasteres. The Spaniards built as
they built in CASTLE; built with the same ma
teral. the white limestone which they found
in the New World as in the Old. The palaces
of the mobiles in Havana, the residence of the
Governor. the converts, the cathedral, are a
reproduction of Burgos or Valiadolid, as if
by some AIaddin'S lamp Il Castllian city had
been taken up and set down again, unatered.
on the shore OF the Caribbean sea.
And they carried with them their laws.
their habits. their institutions and their creed;
their religious orders, their bishops and their
inqusition Even now, in her day of eclipse,
when her genius is clouded by the modern
spirit. against which she fought so long and
50 desperately, the sons of Spain still build as
they used to build and the modern squares
and market places, the castles and fortresses
which have risen in and around the ancient
CITY OF Havana are constructed on the old
massive model and on the same lines.
The political future is dark; the government
unmaginably cOrrupt-so corrupt that change
is inevitable, though what change 1t would be
idle to prophesy. The Americans looked at
the island which lay so temphngly near them.
but they were wise in their generation. They
re 1ected that to introduce into an Aug 10
Saxon republic so insOuble an element as
1.O00, 900 Spanish Roman Catholics. alien in
blood and creed, with 800, 600 blacks to swell
the dusky food which runs too full among
| them already, would be to invite an indiges-
tiod Of serious consequences. A few years
since the Cubans were on the eve Of achiev-
! ing their independence like their brothers III
Mexico and South America Perhaps they
| will vet succeed.
The magnitude of Havana and the fullne>S
| of life which was going on there entirely
| priscd me- | had thought of Cuba as Il de-
| creipt state, bankrupt or finance exhausted
| by civil wars. and on the edge of social dis
| solution. and | find Havana now at least IL
| grand. imposing city-a city which might
| compare for beauty with any in the world.
| The sanitary condition is as bad as negligence
can make it-so bad that Spanish gentle
man told me that. were it not for the natural
purity of the air, they would have been all
| dead like flies long ago The tide and har
! Dor is foul with the accumulation of 500
years The administration is more good for
nothing than in Spain itself.
The Moro as Il fertilization l.. ! am told,
| ndetrn>hle against modern artillery, pre-
! senting TOO much surface as a target, but ii is
| all TIE grander to look at. 1t is fine speci-
men of the Naaban period. and is probably
| equal to any demands which will be made
upon it, The harbor is something like Port
| Roval a deep lagoon with Il narrow entrance
and long natural break water between the
| lagoon and the ocean. but what at Port ROYAL
| is Il sand spit eight miles long is at Havana
a rocky peninsula ON which the city itself is
built.
The opening from the sea- is Il half Il mile
wide. On the city side there are low semi
circular batteries, which sweep completely
the approaches and the passage itself. The
Moro rises opposite the extreme point of the
entrance and next to it, further in toward
the harbor on the same side. on the crest and
slopes of a range of hills, stands the old Mo-
70. the original castle which beat off Drake
and divers. sea generals. and which was
captured by the English in the last century.
The lines were probably weaker than they
are at present and less adequately manned.
\ monument is erected there to the officers
and men who fell ia the defense.
The city. as we steamed 10y. looked SIN
gularly beautiful, with its dOmeS and Steeples
and marble palaces, and the glimpses of long
bOulevarlS and trees and handsome mansions
and cool arcadeS Inside we found ourselves
in basin of perhaps three miles in diameter.
full of shipping of all sorts and natiOnalitieS.
The water. which outside is as pure as sap
phire has become filthy with the pollutioms
of a dozen generations. The tide. which
even at the spring has a rise and fall of but
a couple of feet. is totally ineffective to clear
it, and Us long as they have the Virgin Mary
TO pray to the pious Spaniards will not drive
the sewage into the ocean. The hot sun
rays stream down into thick, black liquid
horrible smells are set loose from it when it
is set in motion by Il screw or paddle, and
ships bring up at mooring buoys, lest their
anchors should disturb the compost which
lies at the bottom.
Yet we forget the disagreeable in the
novelty and striking character of the scene.
\ hundred boats were plying TO and fro
among the various vessels with their white
sails and white awnings. Flags of all coun-
tries were blowing out at stern or from mast
head; among them, of course the Stars and
Stripes, flying Iauntly on some splendid
schooner which stood there like Il cock upon
a Aunghil that might be his own if he chose
to crow for it.