Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-03-11

HABANA, Cuba, Feb. 2S.-The other
night in crowded cafe we witnessed meet
ing between two family parties of Cubans
who were evidently old and dear friends long
separated They greeted each other in the
emotional Cuban manner, everybody embrace
ing everybody else. The men embraced each
other well as the women, laying cheek
to cheek and hammering each other on the
back with vehemence and a loud humping
noise, after the fashion of a ring fighter de-
livering a kidney punch in a clinch. There
was fine old gentleman with white hair
and long white moustache who was espe-
ciaIy enthusiastic in his greetings, and one
could see that some Of the younger members
Of the party were trifle embarrassed by his
heroic caresses, glancing around and appear
ing i'll at
And they had some right to feel i'll at
ease for all of the Americans in the cafe
meaning by Americans, citizens of the Uni
ted States-regarded this exhibition of a
charming local custom free show. They
all stopped eating to look on, and they all
laughed openly, as though this was the
funniest thing they had seen in a long time.
The incident illustrated the fact, which is
so apparent here, that there is very little
sympathy understanding or natural HUI
man intercourse between the Latin-Ameri-
can and the Anglo-American. Here in Cuba,
Just ninety miles from his native land, in
country which his own country helped to set
free, where the memory of Theodore Roose-
modelled after our own, the man from the
United States finds himself none-the-less in
an utterly foreign country. He would scarce
ly feel at home if he went to Abyssinia, or
Thibet. He has absolutely nothing in COM
mon with these fellow-Americans Of his, ex-
cept that he belongs to the same species Of
mammal. There are some ten thousand North
American residents in Habana and nearly
twice that many visitors; yet it is a rare
thing to see Cubans and Americans together
on the streets or in the cafes.
And the thing which impresses you is that
these two kinds of Americans, who share the
ownership of hemisphere, are kept apart
chiefly by such superficial differences as
those of language and social custom NO
doubt there are some fundamental differ
ences, too, but it is the superficial ones which
prevent the two from really knowing each
other. If they can speak and associate to-
gether, men can thrash out and settle the
most profound differences Of politics, reli-
gon and point of view; but if they cannot
understand each others remarks or tolerate
each others manners, they remain eternally
foreign to each other.
Now the Cubans manners are very strange
to the American. The Cuban is at once more
polite and less hypocritical. He is much less
frank in telling you what he thinks, and
much more so in showing what he feels
1t is most interesting, for example, to
compare the evening promenade on the
Prado here with the similar event when
takes place every warm dlL6TuOOu Oh F4IIH
avenue in New York, or T street in Washing
ton, and in less pretentious and formal
way in a host of other cities. In point Of
fact, this promenade is one of the immemo-
rial and universal customs You find some
form or tract Of it almost everywhere, and
even in villages Of no more than a thousand
souls there is usually a certain hour when
the girls go for a walk and the fellows gath
er in front Of the drug stores to watch them
go by.
This mutual interest of the sexes in each
other is the real motive, of course, in all
these promenades, from the least to the
greatest. But in the United States our ira
ditional Puritan hypocrisy makes it incum-
bent upon us to conceal the fact that we walk
down Fifth avenue mainly to look at the
girls. If man wants to stop and look at "a
woman on Fifth avenue, it is customary for
him to stall in front of a shop window and
pretend to look at the goods before he turns
his eyes toward the real object of his inter-
est. This explains why so many men are
found absent-mndedly looking at window
displays Of millinery and ladies' footwear.
The Cuban feels under no obligation to
conceal his interest. When young woman