The New York herald., 1922-02-19

T EFT us for moment apply the miracle
of alchemy to transmutation Of
the physical rather than metallurgi
cal. N< ~'s.T.
Out of seemingly distant past let us
bring the Barbary Coast-that avenue of
old San Francisco where human derelicts
of the Seven Seas gathered nightly to
daunt the Thousand Vices to the conster-
nation of travellers from the Atlantic coast
Let us stop to gather in Clark street of
old Chicago, where grimy windows were
hung with scarlet and where the lips Of
women smiled through the night but quiv-
cred through the day.
Let us go even further back and assem-
BILE the Tenderloin of the New York that
has passed-the old Tenderloin, with all
its fiamboyance of sordid, smirking, gar
ish luridness
Then from here and there, as one would
gather the ingredients Of sauce or a
flavor, let us bring the odds and ends of
wickedness that once fourished in the vi
entities of such places, for example, as the
stockades of Reno and Sacramento and
Fresno e
And, mingling them all and stirring the
caldron with reminder of the Eighteenth
Amendment, lo!- -
There passes before us in panoramic re-
view the night life of Havana
Made Up of All Phases
of Forgotten Life in u. S.
For out of the human impulses of no
single city, out of the minds of no single
group of gamblers or parasites, could there
be born the plan for such tableau as the
Havana of to-day-the Havana that has
come into existence since prohibition pre-
sents the visitor from the States. II is
the creation of those who have been driven
out of San Francisco and Chicago and New
York-the refugees from Fresno and Reno
and Sacramento, who have preceded the
crowd to the oasis where life may lawfully
be made just one long cocktail trail.
Or course there is another side to Ha-
vana. There is the stately, beautiful, ro-
mantle side; Its splendid homes and it's
hearty hospitalties; it's beautiful women
and gallant men-tbe Havana that is Sc
date and calm, reminder of Seville and
with shadows that seem to be flung from
an Alhambra.
But that Is not the side the Americans
go to examine. Americans seek the night
life, the false, un-eal Havana, and find it.
and become paliid and wan and broke un-
der its spell-or tired and bored and re-
solveful that home is the sweeter after all.
When one has seen Havana at night he
returns to his hotel with two problems.
First, who enjoyed it most, he or Havana?
Second, he is puzzled about that other
American, the one who has been there be-
fore and knows all the places to CO. Al
ways there is such an American to be met
in the train going down.
This other American asked you whether
You had ever been in Port Said or Hong
Kong or Calcutta or Yokohama or even
Vienna, ten or more years ago. You shame
fully confessed you hadn't, and that prior
to fifteen years ago you had never stepped
outside the boundaries Of the home village,
where the night life was devoted in its en-
tirety to heavy but respectable sleep.
MY dear fellow" replied the other Amer
lean, "you are due for an awakening I've
seen 1t all-all I tell. you and, take it from
me, this Havana After Dark has 1t on all
those places. Don't forget to see the NOV
les. Insist upon seeing the movies down
in the San Isidro district.
"Hit the trail after tea two or three
afternoons. Don't miss anything in Mari
anao. Be sure to take In the Plaza Roof
and make the Prado your home on Sunday
afternoons.
"And then there's Sloppy Joe's and the
McAipine cabaret and, Of course, the
Jockey Club and-well don't let anybody
bunk you. It's all there-beautiful Sin In
all her gold, ivory and diamonds. Go to IL,
my dear fellow, and watch your step"
We went First, we looked UP our old
friend Fausto Campuzano, Cuban young
man, who may or may not know every
thrilling thing between New York and