Omaha daily bee., 1899-02-15
HEARD ABOUT TOWN. !

i8Ts 81 txs III ftS ri III J&S
81 understand the Plant people are con-
templating putting up a palatial hotel in
Havana" was the information vouchsafed
by Phil German, a New York importer who
has just finished trip through Florida and
incidentally took run over to Cuba. my
but something in the way of hotel is
needed he went on to explain, "or Ameri-
cans will have to give Havana the go-by for
some time to come.
1.-THE best hotel there for white man
is the Inglaterra,' which is Spanish for
England To man accustomed to travel
it is one of the most uncomfortable taverns
he could find. The architecture on the out
side is not so bad, but the arrangement OF
the rooms is abomnable. The builders Of
it must have labored under the impression
that light and air should be considered as
luxuries or extras for they have made no
provision for either.
your room opens out onto a balcony
running around the interior court of the
structure, and in place of any windows
there is pair of massive wooden doors
which, when you shut yourself in at night
and bar them absolutely, exclude every
breath of air. while in the daytime the only
way you can have any light is to leave the
doors wide open.
"This style of making a room like dun
geon was probably due to the necessary
precautions against belligerents, but now
that the martial order of things in Cuba
has given way to the commercial era of
business development the time has come
for a white man to demand white mans
accommodations l will admit that there are
some rooms in the building which have
street frontage and they have what might
be considered a makeshift for windows,
namely, an opening with vertical iron bars
as nearly a jail-lik affair as could pcs
sibly be conceived of. At night this is
closed by means of heavy wooden doors
which shut from the inside
when / was in Havana it was common
gossip with the Americans that the Plant
system would start in the near future to
build first class, modern hotel to cost
81 900 000 | do not vouch for the truth of
this but | think it quite probable in view
of the good opportunity which presents itself
for money making. Havana and Cuba should
prove profitable commercial field for us
in time, and hotel to accommodate the
rush of trade representatives and promoters
ought to be paying investment The bet
ter class of residents, Spanish and Cuban,
would also flock to it, for they have the
Latin propensity for the elegant and are
best pleased when they can put on lot
of style.
1.-The present Hotel Ingaterra is the head
quarters for horde of schemeTs and pro-
moters, and all the talk is up in the mil
lions. Some of the schemes are as Utopian
as can be, but the woud-be developers are
equally sanguine whether they have
scheme that will hold water or not"
However, some islands were eventually
reached which Sorenson declared were the
coveted Solomon islands. The vessef was
soon surrounded by natives in their peculiar
boats all looking amiable enough Soren-
son had been in that shape before and he
knew the intentions of the copperskins,
even though they did wear countenances of
the utmost friendliness. He knew they
were getting ready for a feast of mems
meat and did not care whether 1t was So
cialist or otherwise The upshot of it was
that the whole outfit had to fight for their
very lives and the ship came back. Such
lot of disgusted ysionaries you never
saw. Their beautiful day dreams of Pacific
paradises had given place to the most hide
Gus Nightmares"
But how about the islands being popu-
lated with women only?" Brewster was
asked.
"oh. that was only a tale of the sea.
Sorenson was a ships carpenter and he
could reel off yarns that would keep a
land lubher's mouth open for hours at
time. Anyway, when the seekers for
some farof Utopia saw the real thing in
the fiesh-mostly aesh-they did not care
straw for the feminine charms of the
Solomon islands beefsteak in an Amer-
can port was more to their liking about
that time"
Mr. Brewster says the development of
the mining resources of his section is