The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-02-21

| the statement that the Cuban bar-keep-
L rs out-Herod Herod in the matter of
manufacturing cocktails with energy
and dispatch. The native compounder
selzes two glasses-one very large and
heavy, the other small and thin. With
frantic haste he fills the former with
Jumps of ice, the latter with the liquors,
bitters, sweets and whatever else may
be required in the compromising Of a
cocktail. Then, with a swinging move
ment which can be acquired only by long
practice, he dashes the ice and fluids
from glass to glass, as il his life de-
pended on it, clicking the crystal like a
pair of castanets, until all is thoroughly
amalgamated in the big glass Then,
without losing a second Of time, he filings
the mixture through strainer into the
little glass, which must be exactly even
full; and then the recipient is expected
to dash it down his throat with the
same furious energy, to smack his lips
and say it beats New York "all hollow"
and call for more.
The funniest thing in the line of drink
ing is to see the Cubans imbibe water
from a "monkey-jug," or perone. The
vessel, by the way, which is found in
every house and hotel bedroom, is a de-
light to the foreigner, not only by rea-
son of it's artistic beauty, but because it
keeps the water cool in a comparative
iceless country There are jugs and
jugs, of varying shapes and sizes-all of
gray clay, moulded in quaint design.
The commonest are round and slender,
with two holes in each near the handle,
which is on top. One hole is perhaps an
inch in diameter, through which to pour
the water into the jug, and the other, in
a knob which marks the place, is not
larger than the hollow Of a goose-quill.
1t is the old story Of the bung and the
spigot. Filled with water, the jug Is
hung on peg or any convenient projec-
ton, in spot that is draughty. The
currents of air cause the thick, porous
clay to perspire, like patient recover
ing from Santiago fever" and the re-
suit is that the water Is rendered cool
drinking is not to touch the vessel with
the lips, but to open the mouth wide,
and, holding the jug up, to tilt 1T until
tiny stream trickles down the throat,
describing a siX-inch curve and strik-
ing square on the root of the tongue.
Apparently the highest social institu-
ton of Cienfuegos is the Sunday even
Ing promenade in the plaza, and with
out 1T I really do not know how the
young people of the aristocracy would
manage to mate and marry. During all
the week senoritas of the upper class
are kept under rigid restriction, never
permitted to walk abroad alone and con-
stantly watched by parents and duen-
mas, as if expected to rush to the bad If
allowed the smallest opportunity This
system Of eternal vigilance would
guardians as to the opening buds We're 1t
not so soon over. AT the age of thir-
teen a Cuban girl is considered quite old
enough to marry, and her parents hunt
up a son-in-law without delay-unless,
as is more commonly the case, some sub
rosa lover announces himself, or a
match, satisfactory to paterfamilias
was arranged for her with the son of
friend while the pair were yet in their
cradles. The beauty and charm of the
fair Cubans are as evanescent as ire
sistable while they last. Like the love-
ly wild flowers of their island, they ma
ture very early, but fade as rapidly.
The prettiest girl will be plain before
she is thirty and a handsome middle
aged woman is not to be found in Cuba
if anywhere outside the temperate
ne.-Correspondence of the Philadel-
phia Record.