The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-25

Havana, Jan. z4.@-Havana fs mod- ern city of the size of Washington. It has 3oo,ooo inhabitants ,and about one- third of them are negroes. exactly the same proportion as in the capital of the United states. The city is mod ern in the sense that nearly all of the advantages of the. age of steam and electricity are obtafnabie, in the sense that the hotels are thoroughly cosmo- poiitan. Yet there are many things that are out of the ordinary. and which are distinctively Cuban, although some of them have their origin in the Unit. ed States Government.
 For Instance, there is the money system. An American business man who lived in Havana for nine years has learned to carry o-less than i've purses sin his pockets at all times. One Is dedfeated to American silver, an- other to American gold and paper, the to Spanish gold and French gold. Each one of the sixteen daily newspapers In Havana carries at its mast-head the daily prices of money exchange. But the current market prices do not rule in all business transactions. so that great care must Dc exercised.
 When the Americans first took hold of Cuban affairs in 1899 the unit of the monetary system was the Spanish
 
 was worth so cents in American money. That rate or exchange was then estabs ished, ofncially, and 1t remains in force so far as the Government and the chartered public service corpora tions are concerned AS q matter of fact, the Spanish peso is now worth S4 to S7 cents. Tn ordinary commerce the exchange Is at that figure. One may take an American d6ilar Into any one of the scores of money changing shops. each displaying the sign. "cam- bio de moneda." and set about si.f5, in Spanish silver.
 But at the postoface. or at the rail- way oflce, or on the street car. the Spanish dollar Is worth only SO cents. As Spanish silver Is the money of the people, and Is almost the only cur rency in use in daily transactions, and Is the standard of prices In all nier- cantiie esta b1ishments, the arbitrary standard works a great hardship. It also opens the avenue, for consider able peculations on the part of Gov. ernment employees A stamp clerk at extra hundred dollars in Q week by selling stamps for Spanish money at 60 cents, and then. turning that money into American at 85, settling In Amer" ican money from his own pocket. The wise man carries all sorts of change, and he makes money by 1t. The banks have two sets of books. one for span ish money and one for American. Checks must show what kind of money ie on deposit to be drawn against In the larger transactions Spanish and French gold are generally in use. As the people have no other money but Spanish the steam railroads and the street railways greatly enhance their profits by the double system Of ex" change. Some day Cuba may have money system of It's own, certalnl one of the crying needs of the hour is reform in the currency system.
 The banking. like every other con. siderable business in the island, Is in the hands of foreigners. The Spanish control the mercantile business. and they do most of the banking business Canadian bsnks are much in evidence, and, since the days of the war, Amer ican bankin@ capital is a prominent factor. The Eubans themselves have little to do with the banking of the country, except as they have been taken into partnership by the Ameri- cans. ssa's ss-r ''-s '''s''
 The clash of American notions and Cuban ideas sometimes leads to ridic. ulous situations. One of the newest and finest building in Havana is the Hotel Seville. Architecturally, t IS replica of some famous Moorish pai- ace, Practically, it is designed to De the first really, truly, American hotel in Cuba. Every convenience invented by Manhattan hostelries was installed before the hotel was opened for Dusi- ness. Even the rates were reminiscent of Broadway. The proprietors, Span- isfl Cuban firm which already owned several hotels in Havana, decided that thev would complete the list of at- fractions by giving their walters an American schooling. Head walters ana several assistants were imported From Continental Europe vie New rorK. they had been long enough In Gotham 10 adopt the Ang1o-Saxon methods what ever may have been the quality Of their English.
 These koreign head walters began to do revolutionary things. They declar- cd that walters must not smoke m tne dining room while serving patrons. The give uyt their cigarettes. but they con- ciuded to eonfne their smoking to the kitchens Then the tyrannical head walters ordered the whole stan to shave their mustaches. A Cuban rec veres his asustache as an Arab reveres the beard of the prophet. This was an outrage to which the hot blood of Cuba Libre could not submit. Between job and mustache there was but one possible choice-the job must go.
 Whefeupon the English speaking guests of a dozen hotels found them- selves face to face with the problem of ordering a Spanish breakfast from Cuban person who knew not the signi- ficance of the words ham and eggs" There was a walters strike. The wait CTS lost out, of course. and the raw strike breakers got the jobs But the waiter in the Havana hotel may be seen today blowing his blue cigarette smoke through the ends of his curl ing mustaches It was victory for Cuba Libre.
 The institution of marriage has been greatly pOpularized since Anglo-Saxon ideas of morality followed the Stars and Stripes into Cuba. The religion of Cuba is mortified at the frequency of divorces in the United States. but un- der Spanish rule 1t had made the mar. riage fees so high that only the, rich could afford a wedding ceremony. The poor people mated and lived together without sanction of authority, civil or ecclesiastical. Since the rise of Amer ican influence, a great change hes been effected. The fees have been reduced, the ceremonies simplified and marry Ing is now almost as easy as in the States. Protestant missionaries have devoted much time to educating the people along this line Catholic priests