The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-04-20
HOLY WEEK IN HAVANA
LATIN AMERICANS IS SACK CLOTH
 IND -ISHES.
Good Friday and Easter-kneeiing Beside the Now Empty Tomb of Chris tOpher Colupnbus,

Beside the Now Empty Tomb of Chris
 tOpher Columbus.
 Especial Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier.)
 Havana, April 3.-Lent in Cuba bears little resemblance to the penitential season in the United States and north- ern Europe, and though the people are exceedingly devout, it seems to be well nigh shorn of it's rigors. First in the matter of weather We felt it wholly disjointed and unnatural proceeding to drive to midnight mass on Christmas eve through air as balmy as New Eng land June, flower scented and murmur- ous with a gentle sea breeze playing amid the feathery foliage of the palms. And how much more unreal at Easter, with the thermometer skylarl1ng to- ward the nineties. The ahtars in all the churches were glittering mountains of waxen candles, priceless laces and frost work embroideries on cobweb pima, em- powered in strange exotic blooms; and the congregations of men in cool white linen, and women in thinnest muslins, with neither wraps nor bonnets but the lace mantilla, completed one's bewilder- ment.
 Even protracted Lenten fast could not be very severe in this tropical isle Of always simple living, pure air and lav- ish fruits If one chooses to deny him. self the morning coffee or chololate, which is served with bread immediately on rising there are sweet, juicy, incom- parable oranges to slack ones thirst, while a golden Cuban banana contains nourishment enough for full meal. Depend upon it, the old monks we read about, who lived on figs, raisins and goat s-mlk cheese, did not fare badly. In this country it would be no depriva- tion to go without butter, or the import ed compound that passes under that x l1onored name, for wagon grease and soap-fat is savory in comparison. If one is heroically bent upon veritable modification of sense and spirit to atone for some grievous sin, he might perhaps shut his eyes to the small black dots that are sprinkled through the excellent roll allowed with his morning coffee, and let them go the natural way with the bread, instead of disgustedly pinch ing them out with their enveloping crumbs and hiding them under his plate rim. That would indeed be penance of 
 inuuisition days, for every black dot is flea as recognizable in it's minute anat- omy and articulation as flies in amber. It is an open question whether the sweet light, well-baked bread which is so creditable to Havana bakeries could possibly be made entirely without the wicked flea which no Cuban pursueth; since in the daintiest private housekeep- 4I,o ;eJo iDc make life burden, swarming the beds, the wardrobes, the cane-seat chairs and couches even the seams of the marble floors. Every carriage, car or other public vehicle is literally alive with them; and one invariably returns from a promenade with polka dotted hose and undergarments It is taken so much as a < matter of course-this pest of fleas-that " nobody wonders when the person to whom he is talking suddenly retires for private hunt, or smiles to see the priest in the pulpit reach down to scratch a leg in the midst of prayer or exhortation
 As for abstinence days in Cuba, the most carniverous of mortals could have nothing to complain of where the en- circling seas are swarming with an infi- mite variety of the very best fish in the world Havana's superb fish market built by the half-pirate, half-smuggler and whole escoundril, Marti is worth to the bon vivant, the naturalist and the artist, taking long voyage merely to look at. But on palm Sunday women, x at least may realize that Lent is q peuitential season. Think of being com pelled to kneel on a hard stone floor three hours at a stretch! The stocks. the Dillory and the Iron Virgin were as nothing to this pious torture, While some seats are owned by the privileged few, there are no peWs in Cuban churches nor chairs and kneel1ng benches for hire as in Europe. The sWellest thing for ladies to the manor $ born is to have a footman, or small black page in gorgeous liveries to carry "prayer- carpet" and spread it wher- ever he can find room on the church floor; and then, when the soft knees of his mistress are crooked upon it, to drop on one corner behind her for his own de- votions The men of the congregation stand throughout the services, leaning against the walls in solid phalanX talk ing things easy after the manner of the lazy sex expecting to get into heaven on x the merits of their daughters, wives and mothers. The women, however. in- stead of rising to the feet at intervals, as in other countries keep right on kneeling from start to finish, regardless of bodily torture, relieving the position, when flesh and bones can endure no more by settling back upon the heels in a kind of capital attitude. Only born Havanese can do it gracefully In a few minutes the foreigner wobbles sideways in a demoralized heap, and feels good deal more like Cinderella in the ashes than a decorous church com municant.
 The Palm Sunday gospel. when read, Is very long indeed and thrice longer when chanted. To kneel continuously throughout the performance, without the slightest external support. is to the g novice an experience which for painful ness throws far in the shade q walking tour to Mecca, with the dryest of peas in the tightest of shoes Instead of the sprigs of box or hemlock, used in colder countries, whose leaves scatter them- selves broadcast before one can get the blessed branches home, veritable palm