The times., 1899-08-13

fashion. With their ill-gotten gains they
bought lands and built manor houses gave
large sums to the priests for ahsolution, and
became pillars OF church and state
One who does not mind hard climbing
finds Trinidad The most charming of cities,
with its Santique casas and palm shaded
gardens, its golden cane on one hand, aid
the Caribbean, dotted with palm -fringed
islands, on the other The population is
now about $4,000, though time was when
ii counted twice that number. Swept by
both mountain and ocean breezes, with
neither excessive heat nor cold from year
to year, the climate is as near perfection
as one can hope to find on this mundane
sphere. Though sanitary measures Of any
kind are unknown in Trinidad, it is by all
odds the healthiest town in Cuba, being
so situated that the harder the rains, the
cleaner it becomes Yellow Jack has never
yet climbed La Villa and the highest death
rate is officially stated as twenty y-one in
1000. The streets of Trinidad are as mar
row as the narrowest in Spanish-America,
but extremely picturesque, with their low
walled, rough-tiled houses, and high
sounding titles over the doors. Like those
of Havana some of them have awnings
stretched across from side to side, afford
ing complete protection from sun and rain.
In the aristoc, attic quarter the casas are
mostly of stone, and some of them are very
imposing, with arched entrances and much
bestuccoed facades. Interiorally, they
differ from those of Havana by having no
dividing walls between the rooms-only
the kitchens and sleeping apartments be-
ing partially partitioned. The rest are a
series OF open arches, vast high -ceilnged
expanses affording free circulation of air
and magnificent perspectives of marble
floors rich frescoes, mirrored panels and
tasteful furnishings.
There are two or three third-class hotels
in the town, and more than a bakers
dozen mesones. 1t is to be hoped that
you will not be left to the tender mercies
OF any of them, having brought letters of
introduction. The citizens are proverbi-
ally hospitable and to them the visit of
foreigner, fresh from the outer world, is
a godsend. The only drawback to the place
is its extreme loneliness, and the feeling
IL produces In the stranger of complete
isolation from his kind. Surely, this is
the heart Of the land wherein it is always
afternoon" Everybody seems to sleep
though the hours of sunshine. Take a
long walk at midday. even through the
business portion of the city, and you will
meet only here and there lazy donkey
or a sleeping dog-not human creature In
| sight, except at rare intervals a sandaled
servant shutting along the shady side of a
wall The nearest approach to life and
! evenings and Sunday afternoons when the
| '.retreta" takes place in the Plaza Ca
rillo. The big square in the middle of the
! town, opposite the governors residence, Is
| a beautiful place, and In some respects
differs from any other plaza l have seen
| in Cuba. In the centre is large, dome
like arbor, covered with vines and roses,
from which stone walks radiate like spokes
| in wheel-all bordered with flower beds
and shaded with ornamental foliage.
Around the outskirts of this park extends
| a broad stone promenade or "Paseo," In
| local parianee, which Is separated from
the main garden by faneiful iron railing,
and from the street by low stone coping.
illumination and the effect is beautiful at
night, amid the dense green foliage, when
bands play and youth and beauty throng
! the paseo.
The Campo del Marie Is another fine,
large plaza near the southeastern end of
| the town, with barracks and drill ground
! for the large Spanish garrison that used to
| be maintained here. The most attractive
resort in the place, to my fancy, is the
point known as the Watch Tower" sever
! al hundred feet above the town, where the
old Ermite de Ia Popa (dermitage of the
! Pope, clings like birds nest TO the
mountain side. 1t is easily reached on
horseback, or in a voiante, by a rustic road
! winding under the pines and palms, past
straw thatched huts and the great military
hospital. To go up at either end of the
day-to see the sun rise above the incom-
parable valley Of the Holy Trinity and IL
lumine the heights that encompass 1t, OF
sink to rest among the green Gays of the
| Western Ocean, is worth having been born
FANNIE BRIGHAM WARD.