The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-04-27
EVERY DAY LIFE IN THE CUBAN
CAPITAL. '' ''3a -. -
Brigandage Rampant in the Interior
Spirit of the Daily Press-A Rain OF
American Newspapers.
Especial Correspondence of the Journal
and Courier)
Tulipan Suburb, Havana,


and Courier)
Tulipan Suburb, Havana,
April II, 1899
| This good year of '99 seems to present
a singular misfit of seasons over all the
western hemisphere, the summer in Gu
ba is as uncommonly cold for the lati-
tude as was last winter in the United
States. The oldest inhabitant of this
sunny island does not remember anoth-
err April when double blankets were
needed at night, and when everybody
who was so fortunate as to possess an
overcoat, wore it in the chilly mornings
and evenings. Although the rainy sea-
son was scheduled by the almanac to
begin month ago and clouds threaten
at intervals every day, no showers have
yet descended to refresh the thirsty
earth. After seven months of uninter-
rupted dryness, the face of the country
is like the desert of Sahara, dust blow
ing in binding clouds-trees, hedges,
houses, people, every object animate and
inanimate powdered white as the miller
in his mill. To keep halfway clean is
impossible and ones traditional peck
of dirt" is all to quickly acquired and
|
vent the floors and furniture and every
object you touch and taste from being
perpetually coated with the fine white
powder, every grain of which carries an
| lnhnitessimal but exceedingly active
flea. Yet the bakers go about the streets
with their loaVes in open wagons, or in
uncovered baskets carried on their heads
and food of all kinds, cooked and UNI
cooked, is exposed for sale outside the
shops, unscreened from dust and YER
min. The strongest anti-vegetarian is
soon cured of his appetite for meat sus-
pended in the sun beside a shop-door,
| is bad enough--but worse to see 1t de-
| livered from the butchers cart Having
received his order for so many pounds
| of carne (meaD per diem, as we order
| ice, the butcher drives around in the
| morning, foote's a horn to announce his
arrival, selects chunk of the proper
weight and throws it in at the door with
the long, sliding roll of champion ten
pin player The raw mass bounds along
the dusty floor, losing nothing in transit
yet leaving a bloody trail on it's way to
the patio, where it often lies long unno-
ticed, until a servant happens to STUN
BILE over it. Only one thing in the line
of food can be counted on as absolutely
clean in Cuba, and that is lecka pura, as
the milk is called which is taken direct
from the COW, before your eyes, at the
door. 1t sells for fifteen cents the glass;
but alas. is said to be more unwhole-
some even than the meat, as all the cat
tie of Cuba are diseased. BY the way
a change for the better in this line is
promised for the near future. Mr.. W.
G. Darwin, owner of the Charleston, S.
G.. stock-yards, have recently formed a
partnership for importing cattle from
the United States to various points in
Cuba. The stock handled will all be
raised in Georgia, the Carolinas and
Tennessee, up-country cattle to be ship
ped to the island for slaughter, and
those from the lowlands exclusively for
breeding purposes Their first shipment,
of 300 head, was made about a week
ago.
But you would better eschew while in
Cuba, as none is made here and the i'm
ported stuff is generally too rank to be
tolerated. The bread however, is excel
lent, if one can overcome his natural re-
pugnance of the tiny black specks with
which it is literally peppered, each
speck meaning a well-baked flea. Each
small, sweet, loaf is wrapped in ban
ana leaf before baking, which gives to
the crust it's delicate brown. You may
furnish the flower yourself, if you like,
receiving from the baker an average of
80 lbs of bread for 100 lbs. of -four.
Speaking of the dust, which gives to
everybody an irritating throat trouble
producing hacking cough and intoler-
able thirst-reminds one of new order |
lately promulgated by Chief Of Police
Menocal. Some time ago his force
We're deprived of cigarettes, which are |
to the Cubans as the very staff and |
main-stay of life; and now he has for
hidden the men to drink even water
while on duty, under the penalty of two
dollars fine for each violation Of the |
law. If the poor fellows obey it literal
ly, they must suffer fortunes while on
duty in these hot and dusty streets, and !
if each drink Of water is to be purchas-
ed at the price of two dollars, the whole
Of their meager salaries will supply |
each man with about two drinks a week.
Probably the reason for the singular Or
der is found in the rumor that the de-
parted Spaniards poisoned the wells of
Moro, Cabanas and other parts of the
city. Havana's comparatively new wa
ter-works are all that could be desired
in the way of healthfulness and abound
ance; but there are many ancient wells
In the poorest and most unsanitary sec
tons, whose contents have long been
deadly without the aid of Spanish pois-
On The first reservoir, erected by the
queen of Spain for her loyal Havanese
subjects, about fifty years ago, was
greatly enlarged and improved in 1890,
and now no city in the world is more
supplied with pure. living"
water. The reservoir crowns a hill in
he outskirts of the Cerro suburb, half
mile or so above the new headquar-
ers of the American National Red
Cross. Walking out to look at it one
pleasant evening not long ago, / found
vast, marble-h oored tank of beautiful
y clear water, forty feet deep fed by
he Tulipan river. Front and rear are
aced by lofty and somewhat spectacu-
ar arch, whose strawberry pink facade
cts forth in big, black capitals the glor-
es of the Royal family of Spain, from
way back down to the young Alfonso ,
XIII, and incidentally of the Spanish
GOVERNOR general under whose regime
he improvements We're made. ,