Omaha daily bee., 1899-05-16
REJUVENATING THE CUBANs.
Various Reforms Labeled American
in Active Operation.

W SAiLl NOl -
We note with pride that our authorities
in Havana have forbidden the appearance
in the streets Of men wearing uncovered
undershirts. 1t has long been a matter Of
regret and pain among the truly aesthetic
that the laboring men in Havana-men who
have to toll all day in a climate that would
make Washington faint, even during the
summer %solstice, are given to very scanty
measures in the matter of clothing. To be
sure, the same spectacle is familiar in
Washington during June, July and August.
We venture to say that every resident of
the capital has witnessed it year after year
without injurious results to himself or to
his morals.
But Havana, under the new and benefcent
dispensation, is to be redeemed from all
such unpleasant demonstrations. Havana IS
to be made a model city. Sabbatarian laws
are to be enforced with ruthless severity.
Gambling is to be suppressed. The populace
are to be robed in clean white pinafores.
and Puritan observances replace the ribald
gayety of four centuries standing. Team
sters, porters, laborers generally, are for
hidden to adjust their raiment to the eli
mate. Nothing has been said about furnish
ing them with Prince Albert coats and high
collars, but we are coming to that in due
time. 1t is only a question of logic and evo-
luton.
Meany< 'e we are reminded of the master
stroke delivered by that great philanthrCpist
and statesman, Porfrio Diaz, president of
Mexico, some years ago, when he literally
stunned an innocent and artless population
by issuing an edict to the effect that ma
tives appearing in any town or city without
trousers should be arrested and imprisoned
according to the nature and extent Of their
offending. Up to that time the average
Mexican peasant had limited his wardrobe
to a hat, a poncho and a breechclout. He
was happy. He went flying-light. His
poncho covered him as he slept beneath the
arches of CorteZ' aqueducts. His breechclout
was airy and salubrious by day. In the long
afternoons, devoted to siesta, he could chase
the ravenous flea with every prospect Of sue
cess. The presidents edict fell upon him
like a bucket of water. He became sullen,
resentful and low-spirited, In the presence
of that narrowing alternative-no trousers,
no pulque or fandango-he beat his sun
burned brow and shrieked "Caramba!" to
the callous wind.
OF course, it was a mere coincidence that,
about that time, a number of cotton mills,
subsidized by the Mexican government, had
on hand a large and unavailable supply Of
plain brown stuff whose only possible yoca-
tion was the adornment of the native legs.
The result, however, was that soon the pop
ulation appeared IN trousers fealIully ana
wonderfully made, and the breechclout of
poetry and tradition went into the category
with the Aztec pyramids. Let us hope that
some frugal and far-seeing traders in Ha-
vana are now stocked up with shirts of
| cheap and seryiceable calico, the aspect Of
| which will appease the sensibilities of our
authorities, while its use at once beauties
and yentilates the laboring classes Of the
Cuban capital.
In the name of the prophet, figs!