The times., 1899-02-12

all the midwinter day. Occasional groups
of splendid palms are seen tossing tneir
green plumes against cioudless SKY Inc
song OF the thrush and the tomeguina is IN
the air and here and ther are evidences OF
cane-planting and garden-makin
But the Valley of Matanzas-the incom-
parable Yumuri. vale Of Paradise. oil the
aborigines-is no longer the beauty spot oil
the world Today it is more like grave
yard of wrecked fortunes and ruined
homes. Each melancholy sound which
marks what was once habitation or
sugar mill is thckly overgrown with bios
soming creepers so quickly does mother
nature hide her wounds in these regions oil
eternal summer. You are struck by the
sickly. nder-sized, half-starved appear
ance Of the cattle, like the lean kline OF
Pharoah's dream-though verdure OF GER
tain kinds is so rank and beautiful for
no rich greenswad grows in the tropics and
hay is never made.
In the Old city
Approaching Matanzas city-hot, hun
grv. weary. and so be-powdered with the
sacred dust Of martyr soif' that your dear
est friend would hardly recognize you-a
sudden whiff of cool air, blown straight
from the Mexican gulf revives you like
uEauSDt VI anu 49,
the broad blue harbor of Matanzas glis-
tening like a polished mirror under the
afternoon SUM- Around the commodious
railway station you find cabs, hacks, ana
yolantes galore, and Jehus who have lately
picked up enough English to assali your
ears with cries OF Here, Senor. Come WIS
me al Hotel del Ferro Carril! Bes' House
el Ciervo d. Dro tthe Golden Stag. Casa
la Lonore, Hotel Endsor, Ell Lion de Es-
uana'" and all the rest OF them
Whatever the old city Of MatanZas de san
| Severino may lack, it is certainly not no.
I tells so far as the number OF them is con-
cerned Their quality is quite different
matter. II really makes little difference
| which one you choose. You may as well
| shut your eyes and go blindly with the
! first cabman, for in any case you Will be
sure TO wish you had tried another.
ON this third visit to Matanzas 1 am so
| fortunate as to be domicilGl in private
house which gives me fine opportunity
/ for scraping acquaintance with CUBAN
! family life. The main features are Tue
/ same from Mexico to the tip OF the South
/ ern Continent; but there are variations III
/ the matter of food.
As in all parts of Spanish America, de-
I sayuno tof bread, with coffee and choco-
| latel is brought TO your bedside early IN
| the morning. Breakfast proper, served IN
ceremonious courses between the hours OF
! eleven anu TWO, Is inc p4u!INiIitIIN 'iIS''l oA
I the day. In Cuba IT Invariably begins with
| eggs in one form or another; either fue-
vas pasadas por aqua caliente literally
! eggs passed through hot watcrl, or nuevas
I fritas tfried eggs, or en- tortilla, an oi!c-
! let Even French cooks are outdone by
! the Cubans in multitudinous varieties Cf
omelets They are compounded with ckCp-
ped ham, kidneys, or meat OF any '.'nd.
with tomatoes, rice, peas, or peppers po-
! tatoes. and fruit; with lemon, cinnamon,
sugar wine mushrooms, fish, Gil. what
not: and they are always delicious. Rice
1 is invariably served with eggs and about
! ninety-nine times out of a hundred, to-
matoes and red peppers are stewed with
| the rice.
Feature of the Menu
The second course is fish of which there
are as many kinds and ways of cooking as
| there are many men of many minds" l
never saw badly cooked fish in Cuba. and
at the poorest table the fried fish is sure to
be a regular chef d oeuvre, done in olive
oil of a beautiful golden brown and with
out a suspicion of grease about 1t, served
with sliced lemon. For boiled fish there
are delicate sauces, the best of which are
compounded with tomatoes or picante
with pepper like liquid fire., or Salsa to-
mato." A Cuban entire, which finds favor
with most Americans, is the land crabs,
tcameronesl FOUND IN all parts or the ISL
and and superior TO the hard and soft shells
of the Potomac.
Next to the fish comes sesos (sheep's
bransj, fried in oil or fricassed, and Il
much more appetizing dish than it ap-
pears on paper; or calf's liver, boiled or
stewed; or a kids head, baked entire; or
giblet stew; or hash of anything under the
sun. Very appropriately. hashes are
called piccadilloes, small sins and ut
least one or two are served with every
meal A hash of rabbits and tomatoes, for
instance, or OF pigs feet and cheese, or of
chicken and rice. is not at all objectiona
BILE. if you only know of what your small
sins consist.
Oddities of the breakfast.
Having thus disposed OF preliminarics,
you now come to the substantial part OF
b. the breakfast. First and foremost is the
ubiquitous "bif steck' tCuban for beef
steak, which there is no lodging If you
are American, for our nation is believed
to be addicted to it as topper to his cups;
but you fail to recognize it a Ia Cabana
without explanation, being chunk cut
from any part of the beef creature between
horns and tail. siz2led in fat to the tough