The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-01-09
CAsAs De CUBA NUEYA
Lii TANA's SUBURBAN TILL1 GES as
THEY LOOK TO-DAY.

Venado the Fashionable Watering
PIace-NIarianos, La Playa and Vinto,
Where Our Soldiers Are Encnmped
and American improvements Are
Already Begun.
Especial Correspondence Of the Journal
and Courier.)
Havana, Dec. 20.-Because readers of
the Journal and Courier are just now
interested in the villages adjacent to
Havana, where our troops are quartered
and American enterprise is already APP
parent, have visited them anew, in or
der to tell you how they look to-day.
In her present transition state, between
Spanish and American control, but
governed by neither, Cuba is as unlike
the fair island of former days, and what
we hope she may soon become, as the
tad-pole shedding it's superfluous tail is
unlike the finished batchian. Before
the war the Vedado was the most fash
ionable resort in Cuba--the Cape May,
Dieppe or Scarborough of the island, to
which wealthy planters and their faml-
lies came every summer for the bathing.
Only three miles from the city and
reached by steam-car, many of the rich
est Havanese have villas there, as well
as business men who go in and out
mornings and evenings So far as ma
ture can make it, no more charming re-
sorts exists in the world than the little
seaside place which now looks so for
lorn and deserted; and in another year
or two, under civilized management, 1T
will doubtless become the winter Mecca
of Americans. The drive thereto Is de-
lightful after the dirty purlieus of the
city are passed There are two routes
the San Lazaro way which lies mostly
along the sea, and the Jesus del Monte
road, leading past the cemetery where
our Maine boys lie; and it is well to
go by one route and return the other.
First along the Prado. thronged with
soldiers and civilians, beggars and Hi
dalgoes of high degree; past the Parque
de Isabel, where bands are always play
ingthe Tacon theater, the Ingleterra, the
Spanish Casino, the lepers' hospital
until the northern edge of the island Is
T6dCneQ ana the AlldHllC lies
before you. The road is about as bad
as road can be- deep mud-holes between
its broken stones alternating with dusty
stretches. Under General Greene's en-
ergetic treatment it will presently be
somewhat improved; but though paved
and drained and cleaned to perfection,
he cannot make the old town fit to
drive in without tearing down half it's
1, A =, ct1. t, txAn ny
three handsome avenues that lead
through parks, are literally "too mar
row to swing a cat in From twelve to
eighteen feet is the rule, the walks on
either side included. In the principal
business thoroughfares two carriages
can barely pass by tight squeezing. at
the risk of locked wheels and entangled
harness. In many of the streets wheel
traffic is regulated by law, carts and
carriages being forbidden to enter dur
ing the hours when most frequented by |
pedestrians At other times, certain of |
the streets are used for vehicles going |
north and others for those going south. |
It frequently happens in driving about |
town that your carriage cannot proceed |
until some obliging policeman has |
cleared the street Of people on foot; or |
maybe there is a regular Broadway |
blockade caused by mule-cart ahead, |
or half dozen donkeys hitchedsin line, |
the nose of one donkey just touching
the tail of the next. The sidewalks--if |
the scanty strips of tagging which |
face the house-fronts can be so called
match the proportions of the streets,
twenty inches being a generous average. |
Two persons cannot possibly walk side
by side upon them, and in passing one
must step into the gutter
1t sounds like an Irishman's remark,
but is nevertheless true, that the best
part Of the city is outside of it-that is
beyond the limits of the ancient walls,
where the buildings, being of later date,
look more in keeping with the times.
Portions of the old walls are yet extant,
crumbling and decayed, but eminently
picturesque. Increased population and
business long since extended their struc-
lures far out into what was once the
suburbs, leaving the walls and their
bitches in the heart of the modern city.
Much of the space they once occupied is
now filed with Havana's handsomest
residences. Building room in that Sec
tion is very scarce and correspondingly
expensive-say forty thousand dollars
for a 'lot," to be entirely enclosed by
the house walls, with no yard except the
central 9atio.
Leaving the Gale San LaZaro, the
Vedado road winds close along the curl
ing surf, with low bluffs on the left.
On one of those hills sits the Castillo
del Principe, the chief fertilization of
the city, and others are crowned with
the newer forts, intended for the ami
hilation of Americans, which the Dons
had no opportunity to use. Anon you
are bounced over huge boulders partial
Iy hidden in the earth, and you wonder ]
what the road-makers of Cuba have
been about during three hundred and I
fifty years. These coral rocks are the t
foundation of the island, built up from ]
the bottom of the sea and in many |
places yet scantly covered with soil. {
Some of the rocks are overgrown with /
the stunted grape-trees of the region; Y
but there is no shade, no grass, no veg !
citation worth mentioning except here c
md there a stately palm tossing it's pu- q
mage against the azure sky. After a q
time you come to houses set close to- r
yether in rows, and by that token you
know the Vedado is reached. American t
soldiers are now encamped on the COM h
non that used to be Background the "a
principal hotel has been converted into II