Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-12
where music is furnished frequently at the

where music is furnished frequently at the
expense of the municipality. The gov
! ernors palace is imposing building that
monopolizes one side of the plaza The
other three sides occupied by clubs.
hotels schools and private residences.
] There are a good many automobiles around
the town. You can hear the .'honk. "
| honk. ''honk' night and day, nearby and
| in the distance, and by application to the
hotel keeper you can hire one by the hour
He will tell you the roads are, fine, and
judged from a Spanish standard they are
| unusually good, but in Europe they would
be condemned impossible. Formerly
everybody who visited MatanZas rode about
in volante, vehicle peculiar to this
town-a one-horse shay with two immense
wheels six seven feet high and sort
OF cradle hung low between them upon
very elastic springs which gave ~buoyancy
of motion that was unpleasant to some
people, but Immensely agreeable 10 others.
One horse was htcl1ei between very long
shafts SO that his tail was six or eight feet
from the dashboard. The position rode
n second horse outside the shafts ard
attached to the vehicle except by the
| traces. For long journey or q mountain
climb d third horse was hitcE2d on the
ether side with strap connecting its
bride with the bit of the animal between
the shafts. A rice in voante was al
ways novelty anticipated with great
pleasure by visitors to Matanzas. Auto
mobiles are not nearly so picturesque or
comfortable or satisfactory, although II
C.ust &c admitted that they enable a visitor
whose time is limited to go father and see
more CT the surroun ding country because of
their greater speed
Summit of Mortserrat
The favorite excursion is to the summit
of Montserrat, small modern church at
the top of the highest hill in the neig,ibor-
hood of the city, where there is an image
of the Holy Virgin and a Christ child on the
altar as black as coal. Images of the Holy
Mother and the babe Jesus with black
faces and hands are found frequently in
Latin America. and are worshiped with
as much devotion as the white ones by all
classes of people. The black Virgin of Mont
serrat IS enshrined upon altar of cork
fash:oned to represent the famous shrine in
TIE monastery of Montserrat, the sacred
mountain Of the Catalan province Of Spain
which WAS built in the ninth century for the
shelter of a wooden figure of the Virgin
which. according TO the legend was carved
by st. Luke and taken from Rome to Spain
by St Peter himself. 1t was there th2t Ig-
natus LCyola founded the Society of Jesus
and therefore the monastery has ever since
been one of the principal headqua rters of
the Jesuts.
The church of Montserrat in Matanzas
was built by Catalan immigrants, who are
quite numerous in this vicinity. and they
brought the coiored image of the Virgin and
Child from Spain. Several remarkable mira
cles are attributed to them and the walls
of the chapel are hung with votive offer
liiSS ana tokens or SfatltuGe brought here by
plouS people who have been relieved from
distress or cured of disease or protected
from danger by the intercession of Our
Lady of Montserrat.
The Famous Yumuri Valley.
From the terrace that surrounds the
chapel the Wis tor obtains a view of the
famous Yumuri valley, which has been cx-
tensively advertised and is considered the
most beautiful in Cuba. One can see a
lovely landscape dotted with groups and
colonnades of royal palms, and other sump-
tuous foliage The level spots are carpeted
with the velvet green of the sugar cane;
the meadows are gray from the ripened
grass; the corn fields have deep tan color
and the tobacco plants are bright and lus-
trous in the sun. On eiiher side of the val
ley are high ranges of hills partially COW
cred with foliage and partially broken with
rugged rocks. But there are thousands of
other valleys equally beautiful and pictur-
esque in New England. northern New
York, and in the Appalachian and Blue
Ridge mountains You can see them from
the windows of any train upon the South
ern railroad in North Carolina or Tennes-
see. where as the phrase goes they are too
numerous to mention. But we cannot blame
the CubanS for bragg .ng about the Yumuri
valley. because it is the only one they have
On the other side of town, about three
miles distant, are some remarkable caves
plantation upon which they We're discov-
cred by a Chinaman in 1851. Working one
day in a limestone quarry he aston
iShed when he drove his tfowbar with more
than usual force into the rocks to have it
slip from his hands and disappear from
sight In the earth. Recovering from his sur
prise he made an examination, and soon