Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-09
OLD G A M A G u E Y
A SURVIVAL OF THE CENTURIES
IN INTERIOR CUBA.
From -Four Track News.

JOY to the man behind the camera for in
Camaguey the sixteenth century clasps
hands with the twentieth. across streets
so narrow that each carriage driver should
possess pilots license to navigate them
in safety.
The Spaniards who built the town were
Influenced by the Moors in their achitect-
ure and domestic art; the Cubans who add
ed to II were influenced by both, and dur
ing the American occupation still another
national influence has been added to the
cosmopolitan tangle.
Until recently Camaguey was so isolated
and its accommodations for travellers were
so unique in their discomforts that IT re-
manned well-nigh unexplored. Even today
it Is unknown to the average winter Wis
itor. though 1t is easily reached now from
Havana or Santiago by way of the Cuba
railroad. which has its chief offices in this
least of modern towns. large and COM
Portable hotel has recently been opened for
tourists and soon the medieval streets
will resound with the voices of American
visitors. enjoying the picturesqueness
which has hitherto been the privilege of
the few who braved the unknown horrors
of the small Cuban hotel in search of the
new and the quaint.
As yet the city is Americanized only in
It's greater civic cleanliness, it's paved
streets and the bringing In of the tele-
phone and electric light
The traveller may rummage in quaint.
dark shops for souvenirs of the old Span
ish regime, and add a wholly novel series
of figures, vehicles and landmarks to the
camera record of his winter trip; he may
see cock fight, party of Cuban boys
playing what they fondly imagine is base
ball. and a number of washerwomen
cleaning the family linen in stream and
drying II upon adjacent bushes. And these
are but a few of the daily scenes which
Will help to gaily furnish forth his letters
home.
And so Camaguey queer tumble of all
the centuries from the sixteenth to the
twentieth, will remain to many a distinct
picture long after the encroachments of
the new have forced the old into the re-
mote country districts
The town was moved inland to it's pres
ent location early in the sixteenth century
that it's inhabitants might escape the Wis
its of the pirates who infested the coast
1t Is still frequently known by it's ancient
name of Puerto Principe, which it bore
when it stood upon the site of the scarcely
less medieval town of Nuevitas some fifty
miles away
The date of the founding of the town is
unknown; certain it is, however. that it
among the first settlements of note in
Cuba, and the gray old cathedral is said
to have been erected in 1530-two years be-
fore Havana was declared the capital of
the island.
The history of the Cuban town is always
written in its churches and other religious
buildings. and no town has a more inter
esting one than this The cathedral has,
ere now, served as fort; from it's square
tower cannon has belched forth soldiers
have slept and fought where now the con-
gregation prays, and its huge, heavy wood
en- doors show the marks of bullets
Perhaps more interesting yet is the
Church of the Mercedes, built in 174S by
the monks of that order. The altar is
richly and quantity decorated in silver,
which produces a beautiful effect under
the light of the candles in the arched
gloom Of the church Here, elsewhere.
the women form the bulk of the congrega-
ton. but across the threshold of the mon
astery next the church. no female foot
may step.
The order was founded centuries ago for
the purpose of converting the Moors to
Christianity but it's usefulness long gone,
It has been permitted to die out in Cuba.
The monastery is now in possession of the
barefooted Carmelites, quaint figures NOV
ing, shadow-like, or cloistered in dim cells.
The houses are extremely picturesque;
gay with color-blue. mauve. orange and
pink. White houses are forbidden by law
and. indeed. under the brilliant Cuban sun
shine they would be dazzling to the eye.
The windows have either gracefully
wrought iron bars or queer Moorish
screens gay with paint perhaps tar
nished gliding. and the kitchen, with it's
stove Of blue and white tiles and especial
little charcoal fire for each vessel, is
thing to see and remember.
Camaguey retains it's conservatism:
courtship is still conducted with the lady
on the balcony and the lover in the street
below. and society. as we know it, is I'M
dreamed of Perhaps for this reason the
scene in the plaza when the band plays,
upon stated evenings, is especially gay.
About the plaza circle carriages contain
ing women in festal attire. while the in
closure is filled with gay groups of care
fully chaperoned girls, and Whitehead
youths admiring from decorous distance.
The plaza at Camaguey has at each of
Its four corners a royal palm which has
curious history. These palms were plant
ed after the ten years war in memory of
four Cuban patriots; martyrs to the cause.
The trees were carefully tended by the
Cubans, by whom their history was gen
orally known, the facts, however, being
carefully kept from the Spanish officials
The rural guard is picturesque sight,
In its uniform of trim and natty khaki,
n
his best in the saddle.
The funeral of Camaguey is not it's least
picturesque sight. The poorer classes car
ry the coffin through the streets with
heads uncovered. and instantly the head
OF the passer-by is also uncovered out of
respect to the dead. On foot follow the
mOurners in humble everyday garb: and
yet the coffin is decorated with silver and
banked with flowers. The mourners are
all males, for Cuban woman follows
even her dearest to the grave.
The pedder is a useful parsonage in
tamaguey; welcome visitor al many
door. He has his regular route and is a
man of business. Sometimes he is a char
coal seller, with his wares tied in huge
bags across the back of mule; sometimes
he Is a vendor OF eggs and fowls; the for
mer carried in large fiat basket on his
arm. the latter tied together in each hand
alive but apparently Indifferent to their
fate.
The shoe peddler is seen so often that it
would seem If the whole of Camaguey
purchased its shoes at its own front door.
frame from which they depend on tiers
The shoes are OF a surprisingly gay APP
pearance, among which the slipper of red
or blue, or even yellow is much in evil
dence, for. after all, the shoe in Cuba is
most frequently a slipper.
Some peddles carry miniature deparf
ment store to their customers small
carts piled so high with household needs
from lace to tinware, from calico to face
powder, and drawn by a sturdy goat, COM
ically dwarfed by his load, which seems
TO cause him no distress.
The babies of the po6ier classes in Cam
aguey. as elsewhere in Cuba, to
JOY pleasant immunity from clothes for
they play about the streets and doorwayS
in natures garb in perfect comfort and
Edenic innocence, wearing, at most, sin
gle garment or perhaps Il pair of shoes
And this Is possible throughout the sunny
year, for there winter winds to
chilli Caulaguey is a city of summer.
Sassafras Tea.
From McClure's Magazine