Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1907-03-27
SIDELIGHTS ON HAVANA.
CURIOUS CUSTOMS OF QUAINT
COUNTRY.
Incidents of Life In And About The City
Native PecuIiaritieS That Strike a
Tourist-cafes Are Everywhere
The FruitseIIer And MiIkman.
LEPERS IN The VERY HEART
OF THE CITY.

1
OF THE CITY.
II the poor leper who was bounded
| TO death in Maryland. Pennsylvania
| and Virginia. and who died a few
months since. after living in box
car and being hunted down like a
| ferocious beast of the forest, had only
been able to flee TO Cuba. he would
| there have found a refuge at the San
Lazaro Hospital for lepers, located
in the heart Of tho city Of Havana.
That deadly fear of lepers that is
prevalent in the States does not exist
i'm Cuba. People see lepers every day
on the roof garden of tho hopital and
sometimes on the street, although
not frequently. In Havana people
even visit the leper hospital and think
nothing OF it. Leprosy is said here
net to be contagious, but infectious
| il any of the scales Of the infected parts
come in contact with the flesh of n
well person.
The Havana Leper Hospital faces the
Gulf, and is on San lazaro and Oquen-
DO streets. IL was founded in 1881
with money donated by Mexican
priest, whose son was afflicted with
leprosy. It is one of the two leper
hospitals i'm the Island of Cuba, the
other being located at Santa Clara
In 1902 il is said there were between
500 and 600 lepers i'm Cuba. The dis
case is not of contagious type and
those afflicted with IL are decreasing
in number annually.
The leper hospital of san Lazaro
is not inviting. II is dingy looking
and seems badly i'm need of repairs
and a fresh coat of paint. Almost any
afternoon between and o'clock the
visitor may see the lepers, men and
boys eve never saw any women
lepers) sitting out on the roof of the
hospital, place of retreat for all
Cubans i'm the evening hours.
Not far from the leper hospital is
the Charity and Maternity Asylum
for the aged poor, and destitute chill
dren. This is a handsome, commo-
dious, neat and well-kept building
and hundreds of children, the iden-
tity of whose parents is unknown,
are sheltered here. This asylum was
founded in 1894 by Governor General
Luis de las Casa, whose administra-
ton is said to have been one of the
bright spots i'm the history of Cuba.
The institution is under the manage
ment of the Little Sisters of the Poor
and is one of the most beneficent of
IIavana's institutions. One OF the fea-
lures of the asylum that has been in
vogue for years and years, and that
awes the visitor is the turn table. y
ON this the baoy brought To the
hospital Is placed and the table s
turned at the same time n bell is rung
TO announce that a Sister is wanted TO
admit a little stranger To the care of
the institution. Usually the mother
or person bringing the infant leaves
before the caretaker appears, and II
is never known to whom the child
belongs. Some declare the turn-table
is good thing, that parents who dis
card their children cannot again claim
them,after all the care of rearing them
has been placed on the Sisters OF the
Asylum. Others are of different
opinion and believe that the turn
table that conceals the child's iden-
tity and its parentage only encourages
crime and shields immortality.
AT one time the children S hospital
was about to fall into decay for want
of funds. To save ii tobacco firm
that then had the monopoly of cigar
manufacture, purchased one hundred
slaves and devoted the profit of their
labor in making cigars to the support
of the children's asylum. 1t Is one of
the greatest sights in Havana to see
the children who are cared for here at
play or recreation. Hundreds of them
of all sizes color and ages who may
never know mothers love or a
fathers care. is indeed pathetic sight.
In a previous letter we have men
~. . - vaVfn
beautifully located on the Prado near
the Malecon and in sight of MORO
Castle. Here men are kept in dur
ance vile for all manner of offenses.
The prison is clean and well kept.
A horror of horrors i'm the Carcel is
| the room where the garroting machine
is kept. We were about TO say it
was our pleasure to be admitted here,
but it may have been a privilege-ce
tainly not pleasure. OF all cham
bers of horrors this chamber Of torture
rates them all. The sole occupant Of
| this room is a man whose awful face
| will haunt us to our dying day. He
| is serving n seventeen years sentence
which term has been lessened six
years because of this duty of manipu-
| lating the garrote. The executioner' S
face is deathly pale. His eyes are
| abnormally large and dark, and al
most seem ready TO pop out of the
| sockets His hair is red and he has
high cheek bones and sunken jaws.
| Ills face is entirely expressionless.
| His mouth which is large with SEN
i sual lips. droops at the corners and he
is the =! ire Of what he really is
an exeeutionef. II is his business ia
4 IA nv.I 4e
/ criminals by means of the garotte.
| we asked him how many he had ex-
eeuted and he replied six" lie
| demonstrated the working of the ma
/ chine. which has caused the end OF
il -