Times-promoter. (Hernando, DeSoto County, Miss.) 1898-1970, 1909-03-25
LETTER FROM CUBA
Major Dockery Goes Shopping in Havana
and Tells Experience.
Havana. March sth, 1909.

l 1ouCi LHIOWSI dHu utu SO, auu IOuIlC
it kept by an Atlanta man and Eng
lish speaking people and very goot
fare at 81 day.
We are served good cup of coffee
at seven and square meal called
breakfast at eleven and dinner at six
The cooking is different from ours,
but is good. The bread is extra good.
1t is baked in pones as long as my
arm and / am told each pone IL
wrapped in a palm leaf while cook
ing. They serve great deal of fruit.
! don't think the oranges and grape
fruit equal to thatsof Florida, but you
have never eaten good pineapple
till you have eaten one fresh from
the field in Cuba. d have heretofore
had contempt for it, but now less
than three slices half an inch thick
and without sugar is not satisfying at
all. The fruit stands sell it peeled
and quartered like our stands sell pop
corn and it is eaten in the street and
everywhere. / Icafled for a lemonade
today, was told they had no lemons
but would make me an apple ade, /
found it very delicious.
Our eating placeis in the patio or
middle of the house, open to the sky
above and surrounded by palms and
beautiful flowers. The servants are
dignified but very polite and serve us
nicely.
The things and scenes are SO differ
ent from anything / ever saw before
and SO interesting to me. ] don't
know where or how to begin a letter.
Cuba, as you know is in the hot zone
and is now as hot as our August.
Everybody in shirt sleeves and white
dresses. The houses are built in Pc
culiar style, general of stone or Of
concrete and the walls two or more
feet thick, rarel more than two
stories high, but at that are as high
as our three-story houses. The tors
are fat and bannisters around and is
the place where social gatherings are
held at night. / don't think saw a
glass window in the city. The houses
are large, generally built the size of
the block or square upon which thes
stand and colonade all around and
painted fancy color. I have seen
more columns than in all my life be-
fore. They support the overhanging
roof or balconies extending over the
street and are very pretty with arches
at the top. The windows and doors
are protected by an iron grating or
bars like our jails, but the fine houses
have fancy iron or brass grating that
shows very finely against the fancy
painted blind or shutter inside. My
room in the hotel is twenty feet from
floor to ceiling, the door twelve feet
high and is protected by iron bars
ike our jail and wooden shutter in
side to be shut If I wanted to. The
windows are four feet square, pro-
5ected by bars as the door is, but
nave to tiptoe to see out. The CEN
ire of the building is an open space
with palms and pretty shrubs and
lowers growing in it and is used as
Ill the large hotels and fine houses
or the dining room.
/ am on The Prado, the fashionable |
street, and is the prettiest street
,ver saw. 1t is the residence, club
ind hotel street. The houses are all
,uilt alike but the variety of color
ind fancy ornamental columns and
,rating is very pleasing to the eye.
cream color seem to be the favor
te, but you see light blue, green,
white and pink intermingled, and the
'ariety Of color and beautiful archi-
ecture renders the colonade, extend
ng as far as you can see, very pretty.
he houses are built upon the level
nd you step into the door from the
treet. am describing the old Span
sh Havana. Since the Americans
rove out the Spaniards everything
, changed and new buildings and
are up-to-date. The streets
( commerce, or upon which trade is
one, are marrow. The street cars
I'M but one way and it frequently
scrouges' carriage or vehicle to
ass when meeting q car. Some
sreets are so narrow that carriages,
rays and other vehicles 60 one wayI
My and the side walks are frequent
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