The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1915-10-07
INTERESTING TRIP
TO CUBAN ISLES
A Decidedly Vivid and Descriptive Article
Pertaining TO Cuba: With Its Cities
Havana, Guiaes. and Pinar del Rey. Its
Industries; Exports and Imports
Taken from, the Mentor.
Continued from last week.)

covers full square. 1t is an old,
but substantial. stone building and
does thriving business.
For the man not speaking Span
ish, and who is with his first cargo
to Cuba, the best advice he can take
is to Immediately pay some Custom
House broker twenty or twenty-five
dollars to take care of his business
for him. You will find so much red
tape and graft that you cannot de-
pend on the papers your broker, in
whatever city in the United States
you sail from. furnish you.
One of the many pleasurable
sights in Havana is the "Paiado"-
the only wide street in Havana-on
a Saturday afternoon or an even
ing between five and seven. Here
it is and at these hours that Ha-
vana's best take their pleasure.
From the Hotel Inglaterra to the
water front, then along the water
front to the Leper Hospital, is prob
ably distance of three and one
half miles. Up and down this
course you will find almost every
kind of vehicle from a ten-thou-
sand-dollar car to the poor one
horse cab. Not hansom- they
are all in New York. Here you
will see the beautiful senoritas in all
their finery; and, if you stay in the
same place, you will probably see
the same party twenty or thirty
times, because in the whole trip
there is but one place to stop unless
you are going to some private resi-
dence. That one place is the Me-
rimar." / am not certain that
have spelled the name right but
that is the way it is pronounced.
Here, every evening, they have a
moving picture show in the open,
and you can be served with any
light refreshment you desire. This
place was originally built for gam
bling Casino bv Garfield and Bur-
ridge-those gentlemen who owed
so much to Santiago. 1t was orig
inally built to become one of Monte
Carlos rivals; but after securing the
concessions from the Cuban Govern
ment the Government found that it
would probably take away consider
able of their gain, and it was oper-
ated for but short time.
In speaking as l do, don't. feel
that / am taking too much Liberty
as one of the main sources of Cuban
revenue is the Lottery" Now, as
everyone knows, this particular spe-
cies of gambling effects only the
very poor classes; and you will find
Lottery tickets in homes where you
won't find bread. They have a
drawing once month and there are
about twenty prizes ranging from
the capital prize which sometimes
amounts to as much as $4,000
down to prizes Of 500. But then
the poorer classes of Central Amer
lea and the West Indies love to
gamble. / have seen men train a
fighting cock for six months to
eventually pit him for fifty cents.
To their mind the labor of training
is as nothing compared to that great
JOY on the day of the fight.
But if this sort of gambling is an
evil that makes you sympathize with
the poor Cuban, there is one even
greater than that, and one that
ought to make every decent Cuban
bow his head with shame. Not far
from the Red Light district and very
near the residential section is thea
tire of the moving picture variety.
Between pictures there are acts by
the lowest kind of actor and actresses.
The films, 1 can't imagine where
they are produced, represent every