The times., 1899-02-12
A TRAVELLERS View
OF MATANZAS DE CUBA
Central Provinces as Seen
From a Railway Train.
Features. of Family Life in the
Island.
An Interesting Revelation OF Some
of the Mysteries of the Native
Cuisine

An Interesting Revelation OF Some
of the Mysteries of the Native
Cuisine
Mantazas, Jan. 12-Railway travelling in
Cuba is always uncomfortable and very
expensive-as high as 20 cents Il mile on
some of the roads-and there are peculiari-
ties about it which the foreigner will do
well to understand beforehand For eX
ample: a passenger ticket does not pro-
vide for any baggage in the lire of trunks,
etc, and on each piece is considerable
charge, per ''arroba' or twenty five
pounds. If your trunks are extraordIna-
rily heavy their transportation may cost
more as baggage than your own fare; and
in that case you would better by = regu-
lar ticket for them, Is for another passen-
ger. People are permitted, however, to
carry all manner of truck into the coaches,
free of charge, from household goods to
sacks of fruit, and huge bundles of clothes
tied up in sheets-in spite OF the warning
| conspicuously posted, to the effect when
| turned into English, as follows: "Noticia---
The senores, passengers, are notified that
on this road they will be allowed no lug
gage but one valise, one hat, and one
game cock
The cars are of the first, second and
third classes. Those of the first are cane
seated, tolerably clean, and have few pas
sengers but women. Nearly all the men
ride in the dinghy upholstered second
class cars, preferring TO pay half the price
for equal discomfort, though their wives
and daughters be riding ''primera classo'
on the same train. The third-class cars,
at one-third the frst-class fare, are mere
freight or cattle cars, furnished with rude
benches; and to them are Telegated the
laborers and colOred people. These were
the "ironclads,' bristling with guns, which
during the late war were filled with Span
ish soldiers and attached to every train as
a guard against insurgent raids. There are
no smoking compartments in the Cuban
railway service, because here, as in all
Spanish countries, men smoke everywhere
at table, in the parlor, the theatre-with
never a thought of the lady alongsde-it
being taken for granted that nobody can
possibly object to the odor of good tobacco
any more than to air, sunshine and the
| fragrance of flowers.
Curious Wares cGcrcd.
| Instead of the omnipresent newsboys of
| the North lottery ticket venders board
the train at every Cuban station, and rag
ged peddlers. male and female, scurry
through the cars, or importune you at the
windows offering baskets of cocoanuts
! mangoes, and banane5, dirty-loolung
| bread the spongy white cheese of the
| country, brown slabs of :uaya Jelly. song
| birds in wicker cages, punches OF quail and
plover, tied together by the legs and pitt
f,,Il MI nf gyln
worms. The last named articles of COM
merce find ready sale among curiosity
| seeking foreigners. Each tiny lightning
| bug carries a lantern under his tail, so
/ brightly shining that two or three Of them
| iilumine the darkness better than a tallow
dip. Nowadays there is a lamentable
drought Of the guava jelly that used to
| circulate by hundreds of tons in Cuba, be-
cause the trees which yield such enormous
quantities of guava were mostly destroyed
by one army or the other. The favorite
compete with whose Agreeable taste and
beneficent qualities everybody is familiar
usually comes in bars, like brown soap,
or sealed in cans. In all first class hotels
and private houses throughout the West
Indies it figures prominently at breakfast
and dinner. served with queso Ccheesey at
dessert; and jhe traveller soon considers it
Indispensable.
ne tHbuh IuHChrGOm.
Now and then the train stops to water
at some wayside elevated clstern, and al
ways close by IS a so-ealed lunchroom,
wherein unkempt negresses dispense cof-
fee Catalina wine, and cana rum, together
with unguessable conundrums in stews and
dulcies. The traveller who has not brought
along well-Aled lunch basket finds him
self worse of than the foolish virgins
3 ,yI for he a
chance OF semi-starvation in the long jour
ney between CienfuegOs and Matanzds
But he would better endure the pangs of
hunger than imbibe his peck OF dirt"
prematurely in the miserable, but high
priced food handled by the unwashed
sampled by prowling dogs and naked ba-
bies, and literally pcppered with flea laden
dust.
At every station the scene is the same;
idle habtants, doing the heavy standing
around business in rags and wretchedness;
lean ours searching huugriiy for crumbs
and disputing each find with juvenile
gamins airily attired in dirty skins. and
women, clad only in one scant garment
sitting comfortably in cottage doors, TN
disturbed by the thought that polite So
Ciety might demand more clothing. You
pass through many picturesque hamets,
all bearing the uL1lstakable earmarks of
antiquity and old Spain. Each has its
whirewashed church, with breast high
fencing OF piled-up stones, showing that it
was turned into fort during the war;
and all the warehouses and depots along
the line are protected by similar walls
covered with corrugated tin or iron, with
) loopholes for guns.
Every village has its posada. which
might have sat for Gen. Lew Wallace for a
picture Of the one described in Ben Hur. -
In front OF the posadas groups ot natives
are putting lazily at cigarettes, and rows
of shaggy ponies are tied with their noses
q close TO the open doors People, ponies
houses hedges, are al! stained and dis
coIored with the red soil. ''!se oar Western
Indians arrayed in their war PAIN. This
pigment constantly blowing In billows o!
o fine dust, penetrates' everything, and each
separate grain of dust carries with it an
exceedingly active lea-applrcntly the On
ly Industrious denizens OF this land OF
manana. Hardly a wheeled vehicle is tC
be seen in long days journey Tor tht
country roads of Cuba are fit only io'
equestrians. and not for tie II during {
portion of the year.
The Valley of Matanzns.
t. Nearing Matanzas-Cuba's second city
: in size, which lies within sixty miles OF
= Havana-the prospect undergoes consider
able change Decent houses, with TILED
: roofs and tinted walls are more frequent