The times., 1899-05-21
A SUNDAY IN CUBA.
Few Attended Church. But All Went |
to the Dance
George KEENAN, in The outlOok.)


George KEENAN, in The outlook1
The population Of Baracoa is about sixty-
hve hundred, and Is made up very largely
OF negroes, mulattoes. quadroons or per-
sons with some admixture of African blood.
Ihe dress of the common people, although
wel adapted to the climate is neither
striking nor unusual. and there is little
uispiay OF bright color even in the gowns
ana headgear of the women mos. of the
white men wear either the conventional
drssS Of the civilized world or the Cuban
UNIFORM of brown linen. while the poorer
oiaeks are clothed only in coarse. whitish-
gray cotton shirts and trousers-the former
worn outside the latter. in Russian fash
ion-and a weather-stained straw or palm
leaf sombrero.
The next Sunday after my arrival in
Baracoa was New Years Day, and think
ing that on such an occasion | should see
considerable part of the population. in
holiday attire. at church. attended divine
service that morning in the dilapidated.
barn-like old ediice on the plaza. a lew
steps east of the Twentieth Century Hotel
The interior of the building was as Lare
and tawdry as its neglected exterior had
led me to expect. There was the usual
high altar, covered with tinsel and ar
tidcial flowers. behind the cast-iron chan
eel rail; few long yellow candles were
burning here and there in front OF smoky
pictures of the Madonna; a stone font
stood near the door; coarse pictures, rep
resenting stations of the cross, hung
around the dingy walls. and there were
half dozen unpainted wooden benches
up near the chancel under the high side
pulpit; but the church, as whole, in
point of furnishing and decoration. would
have been discreditable to Roman Catho-
lie community of five hundred souls in
small American village. And yet il was
ttn s,,,It. - In,
town of $500 inhabitants The congrega-
tion was made up of 4 dozen or more negro
and mulatto boys hanging over the chan
eel rail, seventy-five or hundred women
OF all shades OF complexion. who brought
with them cane-seated chairs of their
own. as well as thin rugs or dcormats to
kneel on. and perhaps dozen men and
half-grown boys. standing here and there
along the side walls and about the wide
open door.
The service was conducted by 4 single
priest, with an assistant to hand him his
robes and vestments and small boy TO
swing the censer and it did not differ es-
sentially from the Romish services in our
own churches, except that the languages
used were Latin and Spanish instead OF
Latin and English The choir, which occu-
pied a position near the end of the chan
eel, was composed OF two or three uncul-
tivated male voices supported by saxo-
phone kettle-drum, big brass horn, and
a gcurd rattle, and the music consisted cf
slow, melancholy chants. interrupted and
enlivened now and then by what sounded
like a march from a comic opera For two
or three minutes at time the voices would
sing dolefully to the accompaniment OF
saxophone and horn, and then the whole
orchestra would dash suddenly into .he
quicker and more cheerful melody OF the
or OH
accentuated by the measured throbs OF the
deep toned kettle-drum and the sharp,
staccato clicks of the gourd rattle. / sub
sequently learned that what | mistook FOR
an opera -bouffe march was the Cuban na-
tional air, known as the "Bayamesa, but.
as 1 never heard it before. OF course | did
not recognize it. The service was chiefly
interesting to me as showing the unimpor-
tant part that the church plays in Cuban
life, and the insignificant influence that il
exerts upon the Cuban population. Out of
the sixty-fiye hundred inhabitants OF Bar
acoa there were only twelve or fifteen men
and seyenty-f FIVE to a hundred women who
cared enough about the church to attend
an important Sunday morning service on
the first day of the new year. About IL
o'clock the small congregation was dis
missed, and most Of the young girls, With
a few of the men and the whole ecclesias-
Il.
to the house Of the priest, where they were
going to have holiday dance. dance at
II o'clock in the forenoon. in the house OF
the priest, and with the church choir and
orchestra to furnish music. was an enter
tainment novel enough, l thought to JUS
tify me In breaking the Sabbath-if partici-
patton as a spectator could fairly be called
Sabbath breaking-an at the invitation
of Dr. lie Hardy l went with him to see the
rNnf l..flt
the thing to do on Sunday morning; but,
as Captain Sigsbee said when criticised for
attending a bullhght on that day in Haya-
ma "It was my duty to ascertain the char
acter and temper of the people" and, more
over, Sunday lance was likely to be quite
as profitable to me-even spirituaily-as
an unintelligible church service consisting
chiefly of sacerdotal mummery enliyened
with opera-bouffe music from saxophone.
a kettle-drum, gourd rattle, and brass
horn.
So far as one could judge from the at
tendance. the priests dance was great
deal more popular than his church service.
There was crowd Of interested spectators
of both sexes, all ages, and all shades OF
chocolate brown, opposite the wide-open
door of the front parlor: the parlor itself
was filled with young men and women,
who when | arrived, were marching SOL
EMMY around in a circle 10 the strumming
OF a deep-toned Cuban guitar. and in the
back parlor. or dining room, the priest
himself with perspiring face, was smoking
a cigarette and opening bottles OF beer.
while ne talked hilariously with some OF
his elderly parishioners whose dancing
days were over. but who could still drink,
smoke, and look on. AS | did not care TO
dance thought my proper place was with
this class OF guests. so, when l mad been
presented to the priest and had refreshed
myself. at his urgent invitation with bot
tie of lukewarm beer. l took seat be-
hind the kettledrum TO watch the proceed
ings The first dance was a waltz, the
music for which was furnished by saxo-
phone and horn. with the drum and gourd
rattle to accentuate the time. The dane
ing Of the young men and women seemed
to me to be stiff, awkward, and spiritless.
but as the floor was crowded, they had
little room for free movement. and their
rstiffness and solemnity may have been due
to their efforts to keep out OF one anoth-
er's way. At the end of the waltz there
was another grand walk-around, after
which the guitar the kettle drum, the
gourd rattle. and the scratch-gourd struck
up the queer, barbaric music of the Cuban
"danZon"-a round dance something like
a waltz but with greater irregularity of
movement and with peculiar. voluptuous
swaying of the body suggestive OF the
.'hoochee- -koochee" and other Oriental
dances of the Midway Plaisanee. As some
times executed, this Cuban damon" is i'm
modest, not to say indecent, and at balls
in the larger Cuban tows it is often danced
in way that would be startling. IL not
shocking, to the most hardened frequenter
of the annual French balls in New York,
but in Baracoa l saw nothing about it that
was particularly Objectionable. II seemed