Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1920-03-02
WET BUT NOT WILDLY Frederic j. Haskin

TABANA, CUBA, Feb. 20.-The impress
ii sion which has gone abroad that this
- city is a crowded carnival of revelry,
drunkenness and vice, is largely mistaken.
There are many visitors but not more than
the city can accommodate, and much liquor
but not many DRINKS. The general effect is
one Of spaciousness and quiet rather than
of crowdedness and noise. The life of the old
city flows through it's manipulated portals,
it's narrow shaded streets and brilliant tropi-
cal parks in the leisurely fashion of its wont.
Fifteen or twenty thousand Americans in
Latin city of nearly half a million are not
enough to jar it out of its unhurried Latin
ways
Cuba, it should be added, is undoubtedly in
the midst of a great boom. Sugar, tobacco
and prohibition have put more money into
island pockets than ever they contained be-
fore. To the Cubans, no doubt, is seems that
their city is roaring with life and prosperity,
but it's roar is a mere purr beside the voice
of almost any American city of the same size.
Liquor is here in astonishing abundance
and variety. The exiled American WHISTLES
combine with the native products and liberal
impOrtati0ns from Europe to make this one
of the wettest spots on the face of the earth.
Along the Prado, the central square, and other
principal thoroughfares, literally every door
leads to drink, and the evry air is polluted
Will Inc Uf0dLu OL Inc DdulSu6u u6uOu 1SG
drunks surprisingly few considering the
thousands who are here from arid lands, and
who have braved the terrors of travel on
southern railroads to get here. The native
does not get drunk at all, and the visitor
apparently not very often. When he does,
the tropical climate lays soothing hand upon
his heated brow, and he generally goes to
sleep in some quiet corner of cafe.
None-the-less the presence of unlimited al
cohol has undoubtedly influenced consider
able percentage of those who now visit
Habana, and the crowds in the hotels bars
and Cafes are an interesting collection of the
types who seek the fellowship of John Barley
corn. Here is the chap who leans across the
bar and stares like a crystal gazer into glass
after glass, silent, gloomy, enraptured
caressing the brass rail with a well-accus-
toned foot. Here is that well-known fellow
who haunts cafes the world over, who is per-
suaded that all the joy Of life is where liquor
and pretty women and music meet under
bright lights. Here is the man who seeks
oblivion, and the one who wants merely
something to make him laugh and dream and
forget hell and taxes. These and many others
are here, veritable gathering Of the follow
ers of King John, come to his court Of exile
Yet the loud and rowdy drunk is surprisingly
scarce, and one cannot but feel that the sooth-
ing air is what holds him in check.
The abundance of high percentage refresh
ment is crudely emphasized by the Cuban
barkeepers, who regularly spill about one
thousand gallons of bonded goods day. The
native barman evidently thinks that he is not
discharging his duties with proper dash and
flourish unless he makes lbation to the gods
of waste every time he mixes a drink. In
connecting q daiQuiri, he begins by shaking
up too much liquor in thesharker he then
pours it all into the glass and lets it run over