The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-06-03


 fever makes an annual visit and car ries off many victims, but that it does not remain the year around A more favorable field for the study of anato- my could hardly be found than Santi- | ago de Cuba, where living pictures" abound in the thoroughfares, drapery | of any sort for boys and girls of the lower classes under ten or twelve years of age being thought entirely su- perfluous. When it rains in these re- gions-and how it does rain during certain seasons, reminding one of the Bible sinile that 'the windows of heaven were opened'-these marrow, perpendicular alleys become filled with torrents of such impetuosity that no one can cross them on foot, and even horsemen hesitate about ascending the steep grades with their unknown pit falls. At such times stout cargadores turn an honest penny, standing knee deep in the puddles and "toting" the citizens across on their shoulders. The city might easily have an mex haustable 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 ill-health resulting from lack of this prime necessity, no steps have ever been taken to inaugurate a system of waterworks.
 A brief visit will not give the travel CT 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 it's tunf- ble-down buildings, it's rough, neglect ed, dirty streets, naked gamin, abound ing poverty, lean CUTS and frightfully abused mules and horses is by no means favorable even to lovers of the quaint and antique. But after you have become better acquainted with it's hospitable people, and have seen the interior of some of it's sasas which were built full century before the first Dutchnan 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 it's many shortcomings. The finest man. sions are confined to no particular To- cality, but are scattered around hap- hazard 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 Moors brought into the Iberian peninsula, low and large with enormous windows reaching from roof to pavement and having iron gratings before them; floors of tiles, square bricks of blocks of mar ble and inner courtyard with Times and pomegranites growing around central fountain. Toilsome and> dirty though they are, the streets of Santia- go never cease to interest; they have such curious signs stretched across them or protruding over the narrow sidewalks, and the commodities ex- posed 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 mulat- to girls over gay-colored calicoes and gaudy ribbons. Ladies of the aristoc- racy never visit the shops, but buy what they require from samples through their servants. Fat and com fortable negresseS, with enormous earrings and gorgeous turbans com pared to which Jacobs coat would be a colorless 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 Cra r,iS 6, A ,,,ar dx tI1r to see and be seen. The ladies in their newest gowns, mostly bareheaded, and many with bare shoulders and arms glittering with jewels, promenade in pairs round and round the plaza; while gallants line the walk in triple rows, looking on with more or less silent ad- miration, and the less fashionable por- tion 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 de- serted, except as a convenient dying place for the starving reconcentrados.
 Above the plaza rises the great ca thedral, the largest in Cuba, with it's double towers and facade of porous stone, which gives 1t a singularly mot tied and crumbling appearance. It is of the usual Spanish architecture, with an esplanade in front, it's extremely simply interior adorned with garlands of paper flowers and old Spanish paintings The several other churches are all small and dilapidated and with in their son1bre walls one seems to have stepped back into the fifteenth century, for the foul air and musty odors seem to have been imprisoned at least four centuries. But if Santia- go's sanctuaries are somewhat behind the times, the saloons and club houses are certainly up to date and unac- countably numerous for population of only thirty-eight thousand. There are six casinos" or club-houses, some of them fitted up with surprising magnif- icence-marble floors, cafes, salons de billares, reading rooms, dancing par lors and all accessories. No Spanish American town of any size is destitute of these anti-domestic institutions, whatever else it may lack. Where the male population may pass the even- ings and get rid of their surplus cash. T,hara annaa to ha no skeleton con-