The age-herald., 1902-03-09
NED BRACE. TALKS ABOUT THINGS HE SAW
 AND EXPERIENCED ON A VISIT TO HAVANA

ing of the department store. Few shops are more than 20 by 40. Most of them are much smaller
 There are no more bull fights in Ha, vana- This amusement was done awaJ with when General Wood became Gov ernor-General. Cock-hghting was also prohibited. The amusements of a muscu. lar nature are now baseball and Jai-Alai (pronounced hi-ali) The latter game is of exceeding great interest It is played in a court about two hundred feet lona by thirty feet broad with a cement floor and walls of stone with smooth cemented faces on three sides These walls are forty feet high. The players have a curv- ed, long and narrow basket strapped to the right arm in which ne ball is caught and hurled at the end wall It bounces back, strikes the floor and must be caught on the fly or first bounce and hurled back at the wall. -Four men play-two on side. First one side catches the ball then the other. Failure to catch il means point for opposing side. The game is thirty points. With evenly. matched sides it takes nearly an hour ts finish the game. French pools are sold and books are made on the game dur. ing it's progress. The interest in it is in. tense.
 General Wood is a spectator at everJ game. Indeed the General rents thC court on off aays for practice and is sait to be fairly good player -.4mself.
 I hear that a court for this game fl being built in New York. It is to cos, half million dollars. The court here in Havana where the population is only 250OOO and land comp paratively cheap cost to construct, less the cost of the land, about $75O0O. So the game, besides being one of great skill, costs much to prepare to play It is, however, well worth the price charged to see 1t. The expert players are practiced from boyhood.
 
 The lenten season in Havana is one of much jollity. Sunday was the feast day. After the Jai-Ali game the carnival pro- cession was held. Everybody was upon the streets in masque afoot and in gaud- fly decorated carriages. Confetti was ev- anywhere and the. people were exceeding jolly and gay It was indeed a carnival of fun to the Cubans and sight of much interest to Americans.
 The masque balls in the evening were beyond description from our point of view. To the observer from the galleries they were gay to extremes. Yet they were those of Latin races everywhere that annual feasts of gayety are held
 The beasts of burden of Havana are mules. They are as rule gaudily decor sted in heavy brass mounted harness with many red and blue tassels about the briddle. They pull great carts mount ed on wheels five feet, eight inches high and one mule will pull as much as four thousand pounds. Of course all the streets are paved with granite blocks. Other- wise such loads would be impossible. few streets have been asphalted under American rule; and some vitrihed brick have been used; but neither will with stand these burdened carts, and an ef- fort Is being made to adopt law to do away with two wheeled carts in favor of four wheeled wagons. But the cart owners are naturally fighting it. Four wheeled wagons mean two mules in place of each one now, and oats and hay, all of which comes from the United States, are expensive.
 The sugar trust, believing that Cuba must in time be annexed is getting its oar into the island. The American Sugar Company has recently bought thirty thousand acres of Cuban sugar planta- tions. It has invested O,OOo, 900 in Cuban land and equipment.
 The American Tobacco Company has likewise invested heavily here. It has bought six of the largest tobacco fac tories including the Book, the Henry Clay, the la Corona and others, investing about six million dollars in and about Havana.
 Americans have likewise started Ice factories, breweries and stores here and all are doing we'll I have met a dozen Birmingham boys here In the government service who look prosperous and are seemingly enjoying themselves.