Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-03-09
Two Kinds of Americans
BY Frederic ]. Hsskln

HabAna, Cuba, Feb. 28.--The other
| night In a crowded cafe We witnessed a
meeting between two family parties Of
/ Cubmns who were evidently old and dear
| friends long separated They greeted
each other In the emotional Cuban man.
ner, everybody embracing everybody else
| The men embraced each other as well as
| the women, laying check TO cheek and
haInmering each other or. the back with
vehcmence and loud humping noise
after the fashion Of ring fighter deliver
| ing kidney punch in a clinch. There was
ono fine old gentleman with white hair
and long white moustaohe who was es-
pecially enthusiastic in his greetings, and
| one could see that some Of the younger
members Of the party were trifle em-
| barrassad by his heroic caresscs, giancing
around and appearing i'll At ease.
| And they had some right TO feel i'll Mt
| ease, for all of the Americans in the cafe-A
meaning by Americans, citizens Of the
| United Stntes--regardcd this exhibition
of charming local custom ne free show.
They all stopped eating TO look on, and
they all laughed openly, az though this
was the funniest thing they had seen in
long time.
CUBA UTTERLY FOREIGN
The incient illustrated the fact, which
is 80 apparent here, that there is very
little sympathy or understanding or
natural human intercourse between The
Iatin-amcrcan 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 mem
ory Of Theodore Roosevelt is worshipped,
where the government is modelled after
our own, the man from the United States
finds himself none-thc-less III an utterly
foreign country. He would scarcely feel
at home il he went TO Abyssinia, or Thibet.
He has absolutely. nothing in common
with these fellow-Americans of his, except
that he belongs to the same species OF
mammal There arc some ten thousand
North American residents in Habana and
nearly twice that many visitors; yet IL is
rare thing to see Cubans and Americans
together on the streets or in the cafes
And the thing which inpresses you
is that these two kinds of Americans, who
share the ownership Of hemisphere arc
kept apart chiefly by such superficial
differences as those OF language and social
custom. No doubt there are some funda-
mental differences, too, but IL il the super
fetal ones which prevent the two from
really knowing each other. IL they can
speak and associate together, men can
thrash out and settle the most profound
differences OF politics, regiigion and point
of view; but il they cannot understand
each others remarks or tolerate each
others manners, they remain eternally
foreign to each other.
Now the Cuban's manners are very
strange 10 the American. The Cuban is at
once more polite and less hypocritical.
l. - &sfIs
he thinks, and much more so in showing
what he feels.
IL Is most interesting. for example. To
compare the evening promenade on the
Prado here with the similar event which
takes place every warm afternoon on
Fifth avenue in New York, or II Street in
Washington, and in a less pretentious and
formal way in n host of other cities. In
point Of fact, this promenade is one of
the irnnlemorial and universal customs
You find some form or trace of 10 almost
everywhere, and even IN villages of no
more than n thousand souls there is
usually certain hour when the girls go
for a walk and the fellows gather IN
front of the drug store 70 watch them
go by.
This mutual interest of the sexes in each
other is the real motive, Of course, in all
these proTnenades, from the least 10 the
greatest. But in the United States our
traditional Puritan hypocrisy makes it
incumbent upon Us 20 conceal the fact
that we walk down Fifth avenue mainly to
look at the girls. Ii man wants 70 stop
and look at woman on Fifth avenue. il 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 interest This explains
why so many men are found absent-mind-
edly looking at window displays of mil
linery and ladies footwear.
CUBAN Washers.
The Cuban feels under no obligation to
conceal his interest. When young wom-
an who pleases ms eve passes him on the
Prado, he stops, turns around, crosses one
foot over the other, leans on his cane, and