The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-13
HAVANA TAXES TO THE BICYCLE.
Why Wheeling Will BE Good
Thing for the Cubans.

| havana Letter IN New 4Ork sun.
You can scarcely go on any street that
you do not find bicycle store urging the
merits of some wheel, and now they are
practically all American wheels that are
! finding a market There are so many of
these stores that some of them are sure
to come out at the wrong end of the
financial horn before the season is over.
Havana may be wheel-mad, but certainly
enough wheels will not be purchased TO
make profitable all the agencies that have
| been established. Most of the agents are
| Cubans They have found it possible with
| little capital to embark in business, ana
| the number of white Cubans without EN-
| ployment is so great that there has been
| an oVerrush to make a living in this way.
| The pride of these people is such that
they would rather starve than do manual
or mental labor. That is for the Spanard
and the negro. SO they have all opened
bicycle stores and become merchants in
minute. If it could only last it would
be blessing, but the chances are heavily
against it.
Havana is not a good wheel city because
of its bad pavements. In the heart of the
town there is no place except the Prado,
| from Central Park to the Plfnta, about ten
New York city blocks where the riding
| is decent. Here there is a macadam or
alleged maeadam pavement. The stone
used for a surface covering is, however
the prevailing soft limestone found here
| about which has degenerated into mud
or dust, according to the weather, but still
| it is better than the block-paved streets
which are rough, and so narrow and
crowded as to make wheeling unpleasant
and even dangerous. The Prado, on the
other hand, is very wide, there being
| 6i ci6 Of M
! paseo or promenade. The wheelmen and
WheelwOmen do not confne themselves to
the roadway. Even in the afternoon when
| the paseo is crowded, bicycles tear up and
| down the smooth course, to the great an
| noyance of all the promenaders. If there
are any police regulations on the sub
! ject of bicycles, they apparently do not
| touch this point for the police make no
effort to prevent the Invasion of the pedes-
| TRANS domain. This should really be
| prevented, for there is really no other
place in Havana where two persons can
walk together in comfort. If two people
start out shopping or sightseeing on foot
in this city, and attempt 10 converse. one
of them must certainly be in the street
lodging cabs, while the other may walk
along the foot path, which is alleged to
be a sidewalk. In the entire old part of
the city people go single file because of
the narrowness of the sidewalks which
! rowness of the streets So exaggerated is
this defect that the municipal ordinances
of the city require all vehicles to go down
Obispo street and up O'Reilly street, these
being the two principal shopping streets
and main thoroughfares down into the
business district.
Outside of Havana there are several
good roads, some a heritage from the
Span!ards and others the result of Ameri-
can energy.The shore road from Havana to
lei Vedado was rebuilt by the Americans
but the same mistake was made here that
was made on the Prado. Soft limestone
was used as a top cover and 4 is now he
ing ground TO dust. IN pleasant weather
ID is siiM fine for wheeling. but if il is 20
compare favorabfy with the Matchmaking
of the Spaniards it Will have to be redone
1t there was anything a Spanish engineer
could do It was to build a road. When
he got through the state may have had
an enormous bin to pay but il had q
mighty fine highway. The road from Ha-
vana 10 Guines, after getting outside the
city limits is a splendid piece of work and
simply ideal for wheeling. II is what the
Spaniards call a calzado, and, although
built years ago, Is as smooth and hard as
asphalt. 1t stretches away across the ISL
and, forty miles 10 the city limits of
Guines and there stops as abruptly as
though IL plunged into an abyss Upon
reaching the end one plunges into hollows
and humps, fearful for wagon and wheel
alike. The treasury of the island stopped
at the gates of Guines, even if insular
authority did not.
There is another road similar 10 this
running 20 Guanajay. The road out
through the Cerro 90 Mariana Is also fine
for wheeling, except that where il has
been patched by the American authorities
the same soft limestone has been used,
with consequent mud and dust
AS in the States years ago. the men are
leading in the bicycle craze, but the fair
sex is beginning to follow. The fashion
able people have not yet taken IL up and