The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1905-09-29

aurer air, and the Isle of Pines. which
las more tropical csenery and less
yellow fever.
But now the island Of Ciha is a JOY,
and Havana Is like Hesven--until yot
come 10 nay your bill. Streets 50 wide
you cannot see q creditor on the other
side. payements as smooth as the road
10 perdition, and tropical trees, plants
and flowers, with birds of rare plumage,
you feel like sitting on a cold bench in
the shade and wishing all your friends
were here to enjoy a taste of what will
come to those who are truly good, ID
the hereafter, when suddenly you are
taken With a chill up th spinal cor
umn, and a cold sweat comes out on
the forehead, and the internal arrange
ments 20 on a strike because of the
cold. perspiring cucumber you had for
lunch, and you go to a doctor, who
does not do a thing to you. but q
you out of your boots by talking chol-
era, and giving you the card OF his
partner. the undertaken, telling you
never Il think Of dying in a tropical
country without being embalmed, be-
cause you look so much better when
you are delivered at your home by the
express company. and then he gives
you pills and a bill, and an alarm clock
that e off every hour to take a pill
by, and furnishes you an officer TO go
home to your hotel with you TO collect
his bill, and you pawn your watch and
sleeve buttons for a Storage ticket to
New York.
Dad has not been much good in Ha-
vana, cause ne wanted to see the
whole business in one day. He got a
rOwboat and went out in the harbor
to where the backbone Of the Maine"
acts as a monument to the fellows who
yet sleep in the mud Of the bottom,
and after tying a little American flag
on the rigging that sticks above the
water, and damning the villains who
blew up the good ship, we went back
to town and drove out to the cemetery
where several hundred of our boys are
buried. where we left flowers on the
graves and a Gus in the balmy air
for the guilty wretches who fired the
bomb, and then we went back to the
city and walked the beautiful streets
until dad began to have cramps from
trying to eat all the fruit he could
hold. Then it was all off, and |
was going to call a carriage to take
him to the hotel, when dad saw a ne
gro astride a single OK, hitched to a
cart, who had come in from the coun-
try, and dad said he wanted to ride in
that cart, if it was the last act of his
life, and as dad was beginning to swell
up from the fruit he had eaten I
thought he better ride in an open cart,
cause in a carriage he might swell up
so we couldn't get him out of the door
when we got to the hotel.
So | hired the negro, got dad in the
cart, and we started. but the OK walked
so slow | was afraid we would never
get dad there alive, so | told the negro
dad had the cholera and that settled
it, for he kicked the OK with his heels,
and the OK beloved and run away, and
the negro turned pale from fright, and
! guess the runaway ride on the cob
hlestone pavement was what saved
dads life, for the swelling in dads in
side began to go down, and when we
got to the hotel he got out Of the cart
alone, and l knew he was better. for
he shook himself, gulluped and said,
You think you are smart, don't your"
So | will close. Yours,
TTyN~~NrT%Dy Z