The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-03-01
TRADITIONS OF HAVANA
OTHER DAY GLoRIEs-TRIALS
 OF THE CITY RECALLED.
It Presents Beautiful Picture from the Bay, But its Marrow Streets
 are Serious Fault.
Havana Correspondence of New Tor

To the passenger on a ship entering or leaving the harbor, Havana presents a very beautiful appearance with its low buildings of pink. blue, yellow. or white refectfng the suns light. Usually 1t Is the light of the sun rising, for passenger steamers come In at that time more often- CT than later in the day.
 When one walks along the streets he does not find the same beauty; they are so narrow and the houses so closely crowded together. The pavements, too, are very narrow, as they were stolen from the already narrow street. There are many handsome buildings, but they cannot be seen to advantage
 To relieve this crowded condition there are open spaces here and there, in which are trees and grass and flowers to refresh the eye, and benches where the weary may rest. These are not uniform in shape, some being square, some oblong, and some irregular. Not one of them has drive in it, for none are of sufficient size, so 1t Is amusing to see among the excursions advertised for tourists, "a drive to see the parks of the city" The city was scarcely founded before parks were laid out in 1t; one of the three large ones of early days was called the New Square, because 1t was laid out after the other two. and yet Its date was 1859.
 Havana was founded fifty years before our oldest town-1514 saw it's beginning. At first 1t was on the south coast, but within few years was moved to its present location. It has not always been the, chief city of the island, as 1t Is today, and did not become the capital until 1858 Prior to that time the seat of Government was at Santiago. and we may be sure that that city presented a far more pros porous appearance at that time than 1t does today, when its finances are at a very low ebb. Although very small, Ha- vana was a place of considerable import ance in 1892, as shown by the fact that the Spanish King called it a city in an order.
 Seventy-five years later the Spanish Queen gave the city permission to use the escutcheon, which we see in many public buildings and in the reception room of the Presidential Palace. I may add that we see it on boxes of some brands of Havana cigars. It consists of three castles of silver on blue field, indicating the three forts which guarded the harbor then as they do today, and a key of gold, since Havana was called the key to the New World, strategic position which modern military authorities do not deny the island or, at least so far as con- serves an important part of the New
 World, the Gulf of Mexico. A crown sur mounts the whole, and the shield was considered one of great honor.
 On one of his voyages Columbus touch- ed at the spot where the city now stands. Sailing into the land-locked harbor he and his men landed and knelt to say a mass under a spreading ceiba tree. The site Is now marked by small chapel of white stone protected by an iron fence. An inscription tells the passer-by why the chapel was erected. It stands in the heart of the city, across the Plaza de Armas from the Presidents Palace. A number of points about the city bear Columbus 5 name, the cemetery and the largest park
 being among them, for Colon" is the
 Spanish for our English Columbus" The
 city itself incorporates his given name in
 It's name, san Cristobal de la Havana,
 being it's full title, though It Is doubtful if one person in a hundred knows it. Havana, like the remainder of the is-
 land, and not only the island but the oth-
 CTS of the West Indies. was settled by members of the oldest and most distin- gushed families of Spain, of the nobility itself, many of them having come over with De Soto in 1639. or in other expedi- tions of adventure or conquest. Many dis tinguished families also came from Ja- maica at the time that island was taken | by the English in the seventeenth cen tury. The descendants of many or these are in Havana today, proud of their an cient lineage, and many of them bear tl | ties that were granted centuries ago. Il | there were such a thing as Havana city directory one might find in it many of tht same names which adorned the pages 0! | the city's history 200 years ago.
 | 1 have mentioned the exodus of many Spanish families from Jamaica. The feel | Ing between the English and the Span | iards in this part of the world must have | been far from cordial in the seventeenth century In old books We read of the manner in which the English were per | mitted to go about in this island at tha | time-blindfolded. And the same accoun says that when English prisoners wer' taken they were treated worse than i ] their captors had been Turks At the pc | riod during which these things were GUS | tomary there came a prophecy that in ( short time the English would go abou the island as freely as the Spaniards. In the last years of the seventeenth cen | tury England wrested rom Spain by | treaty the right to traffic n slaves witl | the island. And so the West Indiamen' sailed over the seas with their loads O. | human freight destined for Cuban planta 1 itons Spain was most jealous of the com merce of her colonies, and refused to per | init the ships of any nation to carry pro ducts to them direct. Cuba had to buy everything from Spain, who had bough | 1t in the markets of the world. During | the continuance of England's slave trade she ignored this prohibition under th' pretense of sending supplies to her slave agents. In reality sbe sent great many
 more articles than these persons could use.
 l The dress of the people was exactly the
 same as that in Spain, the fashions being brought from there frequently by the vls it's of Spanish ships to this port. The richness of dress of citizens and splendol of their mode of life was greater thar
  to reliable historian. According to the same authority there was little op' portunity to accumulate wealh, for al though some incomes were very large, the necessities of life were so expensive that they ate up most of them. A few citizens of the eighteenth century were possessed of very abundant means Among the ex- pensive articles of import mentioned by writers were slaves.
 Travellers here two centuries ago re- marked on the polite manners or the na' tives, both Of high and low degree. just as they do today. It is one or thelr char acteristics which has not changed
 For many years there were two butch
 CTS who provided the city with meat; one
 supplied citizens, convents, and hospitals the other the land troops. Times have changed since then, for the native butch
 CTS no longer have a monopoly Of meat inasrnuch as a goodly share of 1t comes
 from the North. A relic of those past
 ages remained up to the time when the
 first American Military Governor cut of
 the right of a certain family to gather
 A fee for every head of cattle killed
 whether for public or private use. The
 damage suit for quarter of million dollars brought by the family against General Brooke for So curtaillng their privileges has been before the public very recently. Privileges similar to these were common, and one family had the exclus-
 i've right to all of the sand along the shore
 within a certain distance of the city Even now some person collects fee oi Gpanish silver from one