The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-10-21

issue "f the contests. which otherwise are interesting examples of the trained skill of men rarely gifted
 physically. The merchants of the city complain that the game Is cause of many .defalcations among the clerks who become addicted to 1t. Many suicides are attributed to the same source The pelota season ,s just now beginning. The ulayers are brought from Spain at great expense' The profit, however, s enormous, as' except for the pleasures of the sense. it Is the principal entertainment ar- fected by the young men f the city
 Nothing is more calculated to shotk the eyes of fastidious person tha'. the kind of literature which Is onerea freely for sale at the Havana booN stores The fashiest sort of French novels. in paper covers decorated with disgusting pictures, occupies the most conspicuous place at practiaily every stall. It is the rarest thing to see any book, even of this .iptlon. :n Cuban home. Libraries are practi" cally unknown in private houses. feo" ple are often found reading the news papers, but this seems to oe the high" est range of the average taste m Literature. Among the women inte:- let is hardly recognized even yet, ana | hardly any attempt is made to cat ,r to this part of her nature. She reads scarcely anything. The French nov els of which have spoken gre bought
 chiefly by young men. Thus their i'm. seeds are laid for that indulgence In vice which seems to be dpping the vitality of the Cuban race. It 's lcomparatively rare to see young Cu' ban with the robust physique and wig or proper to his dawning manhood Nearly all of them are prematurelS old and worn.
 No institution in Havana dispenses A more celestial benehcence. or Is
 more sorrowfully significant of the prevailing moral disorder in Havana than the great founding asylum pop
 ularly known by the beautiful nam' lof La Benefciencia." In a far cor liner of this enormous building th'
 visitor is shown little white washe'
 room containing two beds, in which
 every night, Vincentian Slst
 sleeps In the wall there is "littl
 door" as 1t is called-a sort of dumb
 waiter with an opening into thu
 street on one side. and into the room
 on the other. Here distracted mo
 ther may deposit her child without be
 ing seen by human eye. :irn the con
 trivance and thus ring the chime Q } bells which Is affixed to it. The siste
 
 misery, and from that time on it |
 in the care of the institution At tht
 moment the establishment contain
 900 foundlings. ranging in age iron
 a few days to 23 years. ~he Bench ciencia is over a hundred years oio , and is one of the richest institution in Cuba, hardly any rich man or wo man dying without leaving some Joe quest to it in his or her will
 The good sister who conducted : over the building a few days az
 said that comparatively fcw' childre , were received through the 'littl door" Most of them are unblushingl , l delivered hy the mothers at the fro1
 door, with the frank warning tha [ unless the infant could find sheite , there, it would be tossed into the se' 8 The crime of infanticide seems to h v prevalent The sister added that , spite of the open doors of the Benet D ciencia abandoned babies are sti | picked up from time to time in tn y streets of the city.
 : The moral problem Is the one whic t Secretary Taft must deal with If [ t wishes to do anything permanent