Coeur d'Alene evening press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1907-1929, 1908-06-15

! about 1t, but the public certainly
/ does not.
Havana from the waterfront looks
Oriental and appears not unlike an
Egyptian city. See that big build
ing on the hill?" says Whiskers.
We'll, that was built by a good old
spaniard named o'Reilly." Then
we remember that the three Irish
names "o'Reilly," "o'Donnell' and
"o'Farrell," which are interviewer
with Spanish history. These three
families are believed to have gone
to Spain with Wellington's army and
to have located there about the time
of the Peninsular campaign. Their
descendants have been in Spanish
politics and have planted their
names in both the Philippines and
Cuba. An O'Donnell was once Cap
tain-General of Cuba; an O'Farrell,
who by the way was a cousin of the
late John O'Farrell of Boise, was
mayor of Havana, and every city in
Cuba has street named O'Reilly.
Our ship moves up to the dock
where a gang of Cuban laborers of
various shade of black and white
made the lines fast and arranged
the gangway. 1t seems almost like
getting back home to hear the
soft, musical Spanish again. Going
ashore we take trolley car for
army headquarters and as we glide
through the city we note the clean
Illness that prevails everywhere. Ha-
vana claims the title of ''cleanest
city in the world" and is probably
entitled to it; not because the Gu
bans have made 1t SO voluntarily,
but because they have been forced
to 1t by the U. S. Army. The troops
here are quartered right near the the
city in a fine location overlooking
the sea. There / met Jim MacNab
of Salmon City and Joe Gilbraith of
Moscow; they are both captains in
the army now.
/ improved the afternoon by
rambling about Havana for it is an
interesting old city Crossing the
channel in a row boat | walked
through MORO and Cabanas and
found them much larger than they
appeared from the water MORO is
the more interesting of the two, as,
in addition to being a fort, it is
a famous old prison. / stumbled
through it's gloomy old underground
dungeons, harmless enough now, but
once the terror Of Cuban patriots.
While here / made the surprising
discovery that MORO was once held
by American troops while England
was at war with Spain. An ac-
count of the siege of Havana in
1882 written by an English admiral
mentions 1000 American troops who
came down in sailing ships and
helped the English. This was, of
course, while we were a British
colony and loyal to England.
Cabanas is much larger than Nor
70 and is really tremendous
fort, though somewhat out of date
now. The Cuban soldier who show
ed me through spoke Spanish fluent
ly and waxed eloquent in his des-
cription of the place. Pausing final
ly on one of the highest battle
ments, he contemplated the mighty
structure with a smile. and said:
"Ah, Cabanas; ell rey de Espana-"
then l knew he was starting on the
field-glass story and SO quickly
changed the subject.
After dark, it seemed that the
entire population of Havana $780,
000) came out on the Prado This
is fine wide avenue or boulevard
opening out into a plaza where a
band was playing and thousands of
people were sitting on the benches
conversing and enjoying the music.
Brilliant cafes lined the street, auto
mobiles darted to and fro and silks
and diamonds were much in evil
dence. Havana is a sort of little
Paris in this respect. This plaza
arrangement, providing place where
the people can meet in the evening,
is wise provision that the Span
iards have made in every one of
their towns and cities. Our Ameri-
can towns could profit by it.
At p. m. the train bore us
out of Havana toward the interior
of the island The country was
principally rolling hills and appeared
much more solid and sanitary than
the Nat marshes and rice fields of
the Philippines. Palm trees dotted
the landscape everywhere and, as
we made the trip by moonlight. it
seemed almost like a trip through