The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1905-03-24
KIMBALIA SOUTH DAKOTA FRIDAY, MARCH "A, 1905
A Pen PICTURE OF HAVANA
Mrs. S. j. Snyder of Sioux Falls Writes Yer!
Interesting Description of Havana

OI 116H6n6
it; In fact all Of their baking is very
crude. All kinds Of fruit is plentiful,
very cheap, and very luscious. Steve
got a big, juicy pineapple, dozen of
such big fat bananas as we have never
seen before, and three monster oranges
for Is cents. Our money is worth
dollar and thirty-tive cents in Spanish
money and they will take our money,
but rather give the price in theirs.
The things they make here, which
are very few indeed, are quite reason
able, but imported goods are out of
sightas far as price goes-the duty
being so high, and license being re.
Quired to sell them.
There is no residence portion. every
one living over the stores They all
own stock, haying COW, a horse,
couple OF pigs in almost every instance
which live in another part OF the
house. Dirty, no indeed. We passed
a beautiful parlor on the street ad-
joining which was COW barn with
twelve beautiful sleek cows, and not
even a suspicion of an odor. The wom-
en- scrub those places as an American
woman does her kitchen, and ther use
a kind of lime to dsinfect. Even
President Palma OF the beautiful
! "White House" lives just the same.
There are no buildings of wood in
the city, everything being constructed
OF massive stone, cementcd outside
and inside, beautifully painted. The
whole structure is handsome, with
beautiful cream tint IN most cases.
There is always an inner court which
is large and usually filled with all
kinds of tropical plants, which are used
as a sitting room and for the children,
so that each room in the house is an
outside one. The floor of the rooms
are all marble or stone, the windows
haying no glass but huge shutters of
| wood or iron. which is all the wood
one sees in a house. The beds are all
single ones, no mattresses, nothing
but finely woven spring, covered as
we do our tables with Canton flannel,
linen sheets and a spread. The pill
lows are filled with cat-taiIs, the whole
being covered with some huge canopy
of gauzy material to keep off the draft
This being a tropical climate, all
things have only one object-coolness
One blessing for which they are all
thankful is that there are no flies and
only a few mosquitoes. We think the
climate is about as near perfect as
anyone could desire. Yesterday it was
80 degrees in the shade, quite unusual
here, but today it is raining and de-
lightfully cool; there is always a nice
sea breeze one gets in the shade.
We visited the Colon burying ground
where our own dear boys were once
buried, it being the most beautiful
resting place for the dead on the is
land. That is saying great deal.
There is something distressing to US
Americans, in connection with the
burying of their dead here. Vaults are
prepared for them in advance and
when buried the bodies are thickly
covered with quick lime and in few
weeks there is nothing left but the
bones. For this the relatives are heav-
lily taxed, and if unable to pay, up
comes the bones, and they are thrown
in a large pit with thousands of others
After the Americans came, they made
such Il fuss over this CHASTITY bone pile
that the authorities consented to cover
them They could teach US few
things, but generally speaking they
have no brains. They manufacture
nothing, invent nothing, and Uncle
Sam makes them keep clean or disease
would be carried to our American
POI is. They must be shown how TO
do and then they do all right.
We visited the famous MORO Castle
and Cabanna's fortress, and a descrip-
tlon of these vast structures by u ten
derfoot like | am could not possibly do
them anything like justice. They were
built by the Spanish two hundred years
ago and are still guarded by Cuban
soldiers at every turn. They contain
monster cannons and enough cannon
lG' balls with which to conquer the world.
There is SO much Of interest here and
all so new to US, SO much of real true
beauty, the kind which abides.
The tourists are coming in on every
steamer, but they make a short stay,
as this is an expensive place in which
to live.
We took a trip in the country and
enjoyed 1t immensely.
Everything that is planted grows,
but from appearances there must be
very little brains behind it. The soil
is very dark red and the most fertile
on the globe, it is SAID We have such
nice Things to eat-sliced tomatoes,
lettuce. radishes. turnips, and lots of
things cf which ! never heard before.
All the Americans seem to know one
another and we all speak to each other
as that is the only English which we
hear. The Spanish language is very
easy and were we to stay here six
months ! am sure we could master it,
They do not observe Christmas here
and all the greetings which we had
were given Us by an old Chinaman as
I.,n NOV 1lo