HAVANA
"Oh Queen of many-coloured garb
And red-tiled crown!--in glory
The poets who
Have sung of you
Have set your name and story.
"No fairer Queen, they sing, than you,
The fairest of the daughters
Of Southern seas
Who take their ease
Beside the sunlit waters.
"And I, as they, would sing thy praise
As is to be expected;
But ere I sing,
Oh Queenly Thing,
Won't you be disinfected?"
W. J. LAMPTON.
Whatever may be said of Havana, the capital city of the Island of Cuba,
however sonorously its high-sounding name, San Cristobal de la Habana,
may be rolled forth, what titles of Queen of the Antilles, Key of the
New World, or other titular effervescence may be thrown about it by the
sentimental Spaniard, or the vivid-minded visitor, the plain, prosaic
fact remains that Havana for centuries has smelt bad, and man's other
four senses are utterly routed from any field of enjoyment when his nose
goes on the warpath. Unfortunately Havana has, for this reason, never
been the city of delight that Nature intended it should be for at least
one third of every year of its existence. In the great majority of
instances bad smells arise from a condition of sanitary neglect which
means bad health; and Havana has been, to all intents and purposes, a
plague spot for centuries. Yellow fever is always present, malarial
diseases of all kinds are prevalent, smallpox rings the changes at every
opportunity, and every ill that tropic flesh is heir to has found a home
and government encouragement in Havana.
This chapter on Cuba's capital city is thus introduced because, before
anything else is done looking to the reorganisation and the regeneration
of the city and the Island, thorough measures for the health of the
people must be formulated and put into immediate and active operation.
With the new order must come thousands of new people; and if these
newcomers, accustomed, as the poorest of them are, to better sanitary
regulations and conditions than have existed in Havana and Cuba, are
permitted to enter the Island and inhale its deadly stenches, Cuba will
become an international cemetery and it will receive a backset worse
than the worst Spain ever did for it.
Whatever Havana is now commercially, the time was when it ranked eighth
among the commercial cities of the globe, and the wealth of its people
was of the fabulous kind which characterised everything in the New
World. The city was founded about 1519, and it received its name, San
Cristobal de la Habana, from a small town of that name established by
Velasquez near Batabano, on the south coast. This was practically the
first settlement, but the second town absorbed the settlers of the less
important place. So large was the hope of a great future for the new
town that Diego Velasquez, the first Governor of the Island, called it
Lláve del Nuevo Mundo, the "Key of the New World." Later, Las Casas
obtained a grant of civic rights for it, and it became the permanent
capital. It was burned by the buccaneers in 1528 and was rebuilt by De
Soto, who discovered the Mississippi, and he surrounded the city by well
constructed fortifications. It was captured and sacked by the pirate
Jacob Sores in 1556, but was refortified, and in 1573-1589 Philip II.
built the castles, Morro and Los Tres Reyes, which still exist. In 1628
an attack of the Dutch fleet was repulsed, and in 1762 it was taken by
the British. It was restored to the Spanish July 18, 1763, who held it
until December 31, 1898, when it passed into the hands of the United
States as trustee for the people of Cuba.
The approach to Havana from the sea is most pleasing to the eye, the
narrow entrance to the harbour (one thousand feet wide) being flanked on
either side by castellated forts, the best known of which are Morro
Castle and Cabañas, whose names are familiar to all Americans since the
Spanish-American war. The harbour is three miles in length by one and
one half miles in width, is naturally very fine and of ample capacity
for the business of the port; but the Spanish authorities have, for four
hundred years and more, permitted it to be filled with the filth of the
city and the sediment from various small streams which empty into it,
until now a large part of it is useless for navigable purposes, and it
is a constant source of ill-health to both native and visitor. The
natural depth of the harbour is forty feet, but it has filled up to such
an extent that an available depth of only about eighteen to twenty feet
is possible. The tide on the Cuban coast rises and falls only about two
feet. The water-front of the bay, comparatively of small extent, is
lined with docks and piers, some of them built of iron, and of the first
class. Still, the bulk of the shipping business is done by lighters, and
the harbour is alive with small boats. Two lines of ferry-boats connect
Havana with Regla, across the harbour, where the principal coal docks
are situated. The harbour sea-wall, which is backed by a wide street
lined with parks and fine buildings, gives to the city a most attractive
appearance from the water.
Havana has a fluctuating population, variously estimated at from two
hundred thousand to three hundred thousand souls; at present it is
probably not greater than the former number. The people represent the
best there is in Cuba, in point of wealth, education, and progress, and
they are largely Spaniards, either Spanish-or Cuban-born. The city is by
far the largest and richest in the Island, and has always been to Cuba
what Paris is to France. The city is especially noticeable in that its
houses, built of the absorbent, porous stone of the Island, are painted
in yellows and pinks and greens and blues and whites, with a prevailing
red in the tiled roofs. Of the seventeen or eighteen thousand houses of
the city, three-fourths are of one story and only about two dozen have
four stories. The people live very closely together; the rich and the
poor, the good and the bad, are strangely huddled, all of them more or
less regardless of the simplest laws of sanitation. It is not so great a
wonder that the health of the city is so bad, as that any health exists.
Rents are high, with the result that as many poor persons as possible
live in one house, and the moral health suffers no less than the
physical. If any animals are owned--as, for example, horses--they find
quarters on the ground floor. Except in the best houses (and some fine
specimens of elegant homes exist in the city), modern conveniences are
unknown. Iron bars take the place of glass in the windows and doors, and
windows are always open in dry weather. The domestic life of the
Havanese is an open book to all who wish to look upon it as they pass,
for the houses open directly upon the street, and the lower story is on
the street-level. Most of the floors are laid directly on the ground,
and it would seem as if the people did all in their power to maintain a
low degree of health. All the good houses have marble floors.
Churches are numerous all over the city, the Cathedral in which the
remains of Columbus are said to have reposed being the chief in point of
interest.[13] The women of Havana constitute a large portion of the
congregations; the men give little attention to church attendance.
The Government buildings are numerous, but neither modern nor beautiful.
The cigar factories and tobacco warehouses are commodious structures;
indeed, some of the former occupy what were at one time official or
private palaces. The retail stores are usually small places, with the
stocks of goods mostly in the windows.
There are numerous parks. The Parque Central, the first in importance,
is the fashionable centre of the city. About it are hotels, theatres,
public buildings, and cafés; a band plays there during certain evenings,
and at night it is a blaze of light and alive with promenaders. The
streets in old Havana, that portion originally within the walls, are
very narrow; often the sidewalks are not wider than two feet, and
sometimes they are entirely lacking. In the newer portions of the city
the streets are thirty-three feet wide, with five-foot sidewalks. Some
of the streets are paved with blocks of stone in poor fashion, and some
are dirt roads which are almost impassable in the wet season. Naturally,
this condition of the streets does not improve the public health. Some
effort was making when the war began, looking to street improvement, and
contracts were let to an American firm; but the war stopped all
operations in that direction. The handsomest street in Havana is the
Cerro, running up the hill back of the city, and lined with handsome
villas in grounds and gardens of tropical loveliness. Here many of the
aristocracy reside. Another fine public promenade-street is the Prado,
which follows, as nearly as may be, the line of the old walls. The
Prado, and the Paseo de Tacon, are the Champs Élysées of Havana, and on
many nights the former is as brilliant as that famed Parisian promenade.
Havana lies so low that a wind tide will inundate the streets near the
water; and as much of that portion of the city is built on made-ground,
the material being of the worst sort of refuse, it is scarcely to be
expected that health will abound. Owing to the narrowness of the
streets, the possibilities for street-railway building are small,
although there are twenty-seven miles of track in the city, with cars
run by horse power; in the suburbs by steam dummies. The field for
development in this line presents especial attractions for American
capital, and the future promises much. The cab system of Havana was
unusually good before the war. At that time there were six thousand
public vehicles, with a maximum fare of twenty cents, and many were so
cheap that labouring people could afford to use them as street-cars are
used in this country. The volante, once the national vehicle of Cuba,
has been relegated to the rougher roads of the country districts. There
is also a 'bus line, doing about three times the business of the
street-cars.
The sewerage system is in a deplorable condition, and the last effort
made to improve it was stopped by the war. What should be done is a
problem to be solved by American engineers, and had Colonel Waring, of
New York, not fallen a victim to Havanese filth, he would no doubt have
done for the city what Spain in all her years of possession failed to
do. The task is now upon the shoulders of General Ludlow, whose
efficiency is beyond question. The city is lighted by gas and
electricity, the works being operated by a Spanish-American company,
controlled from New York City.
The water supply of the city has been excellent since the new aqueduct
was completed, in 1893, after thirty-two years of delay. The water is
gathered from about four hundred springs in the neighbourhood of Vento,
ten miles from the city; it is calculated that they will yield nearly
forty millions of gallons every twenty-four hours. The aqueduct, tunnel,
and receiving basin cost $3,500,000. The reservoirs, four miles from the
city, with a capacity of eight millions of gallons, cost $566,486, and
the laying of pipes, etc., $1,566,374, or a total of over $5,000,000.
The works are owned by the city.
The telephone system, owned by the Government, is leased to the Red
Telefonica de la Habana, and had, previous to the war, twenty-one miles
of line and fifteen hundred subscribers.
Two companies comprise the fire department of the city, and these are of
the old-style "volunteer" variety. One of the companies is supported by
the city, the other by private enterprise. Fires are rare and seldom
extensive, the annual losses not aggregating half a million dollars, and
insurance companies find Havana risks most desirable.
The death-rate of Havana is about 33 per 1000, a figure 25 per cent. in
excess of the majority of American cities. In one year (1893) there were
6610 deaths to 4175 births, showing a loss in population of 2435. While
yellow fever and diseases due to lack of sanitation are the chief causes
of death, it is noticeable that 20 per cent. of the deaths are due to
consumption, a disease not generally understood to prevail in the soft
air of the tropics. The proportion of illegitimacy, which is 147 per
1000 births in Austria, the leading European country in this regard, is
over 250 in Havana among the whites. What it is among the blacks is
unknown.
There are 120 tobacco manufactories of the first class in the city, and
many of lesser rank, and thousands of people find employment in them.
Some of the larger factories employ between 400 and 500 hands each. The
shipments of cigars from Havana from 1888 to 1896 reached the enormous
total of 1,615,720,000; the United States taking 739,162,000, or
somewhat less than half. Owing to the heavy tariff, the shipments
decreased from 188,750,000 in 1888 to 60,000,000 in 1896 and for several
years previously. Ninety-nine per cent. of the Cuban cigars received in
the United States come from Havana.
Havana easily leads the other seaports of the Island in commerce, about
one-third of all the shipments from the Island coming from that port. An
average of 1200 vessels a year clear from the port, with an aggregate
tonnage of over 1,500,000. In 1894, 1309 foreign vessels entered the
port, having a tonnage of 1,794,597 tons.
Commercially, Havana occupies a most important position, and when by the
adoption of modern ideas in all matters of progress she has regenerated
herself, cleansed herself, rejuvenated herself, there is no doubt that
she will take her place among the rich and powerful cities of the world.
The Botanical Gardens are situated on the Paseo de Carlos III., next to
the Captain-General's estate. They were originally intended for giving
practical lessons in botany to the students of the University of Havana;
but there was so much disorder during these lessons that they had to be
suppressed. These gardens are on one of the most beautiful places in the
outskirts of Havana and have been comparatively well kept. Some ten
years ago a stone and iron wall that had surrounded the Campo de Marte
was removed from there and placed around the Botanical Gardens. If the
Spanish Government had attended to the cultivation and preservation of
tropical plants and fruits in the way that has been done in the British
colonies, especially in Jamaica, these gardens would be to-day of the
greatest utility; but with the characteristic slackness that they have
shown in all the branches of administration of public affairs they have
neglected botany, and, from a scientific point of view, the gardens are
of little or no value. Probably a scientist could find in some of the
gardens for the cultivation and sale of flowers just as valuable
material as he could here. Let us hope that under the new regime the
necessity of studying the tropical flora will be realised.
[Illustration: HAVANA, FROM ACROSS THE BAY.]
Education in Havana and in all Cuba is in a very primitive
condition--old-fashioned, theoretical systems are general, and the lack
of practical applications of the different subjects taught is greatly
felt. This difficulty is mainly due to the fact that the Government has
hitherto controlled education in all its branches, and, far from
applying to its improvement the receipts from other sources, it has
attempted to arrange matters in such a way that the bulk of the expense
should be borne by a portion of those receiving instruction. In the last
Cuban budget the revenue from matriculation fees alone reached $90,000.
These fees are paid by students of all schools which are not free. If
to this the other items, as, for example, "examination fees" and
"inscription of certificates," are added, the receipts will probably
reach $150,000, nearly two-thirds of the total sum of $247,000 yearly
appropriated for public instruction in the same budget.
Under Spanish Government control all teaching is divided into three
classes: first, or primary instruction; second, or elementary
instruction; and professions. To follow these courses, a student must
have matriculated and passed the examinations of the preceding ones,
either in Spain or a Spanish Government college, no foreign titles being
respected. There is only one examination required to pass from first to
second instruction; the third instruction, however, is a five years'
course, divided as follows:
First year: Latin and Spanish grammar, geography.
Second year: Latin and Spanish grammar, Spanish history.
Third year: Arithmetic
and algebra, universal history, rhetoric, French, English, or
German.
Fourth year: Geometry and trigonometry, philosophy (logic,
ethics, and psychology), and languages (French, English, or
German).
Fifth year: Physics, chemistry, natural history,
agriculture, physiology.
After being examined in these each year, the student passes the Bachelor
of Arts examination, which consists of two oral exercises on the
subjects he has studied during the previous five years. To enter the
professional courses at the University a candidate must show the title
of A. B.
It must be said to the honour of some schools, that, although they have
been bound to follow the plan of studies ordered by the Government, they
have not confined themselves to it strictly, and other courses have been
taught in them in addition. The best schools in Havana are the Jesuits',
the Pious schools, and one or two others of a smaller number of
students. There is a class of cheap day-schools both in the city of
Havana and throughout the Island which is very objectionable; the
instruction given is very bad and the children are so neglected that
they acquire in a very short period of time a number of vicious habits
and lose all idea of morality and self-respect. Cuban children are
generally gifted with remarkable memories, and this is taken advantage
of by some of their teachers, who cram their heads with stuff which they
cannot understand and which consequently proves utterly useless to them.
The University of Havana is established in the old convent of Saint
Dominic in the centre of the city, facing the back of the Governor's
Palace. The building is over three hundred years old and is a typical
specimen of the old Spanish monastical architecture; the quadrangles are
surrounded by arched cloisters, the stone steps are long and wide, and
the walls are six feet thick of solid masonry. All the mortar on the
outer wall has long since fallen off, and the building has more the
aspect of an old-fashioned fortress than of a peaceful temple of
contemplation and learning.
When the old Dominicans owned the convent they instituted a free school
for children, and as the requirements of the city became more pressing
they extended their teaching to other and higher branches of learning,
among which the study of law, medicine, and philosophy was included.
They also had an annex school for special instruction.
At present the lectures are given by graduates of Spanish universities
who have taken the degree of Doctor in the course they may have
followed. The number of students, in some years, has reached two
thousand. None of them sleep in the building. To be a professor it is
necessary either to have acquired distinction in the vacant chair of the
special profession, or to be the best in a public contest against all
the others aspiring to the chair, or to be appointed by the Crown.
The students of the Havana University wear no caps and gowns, but the
professors on every official occasion appear in their "togas" and caps,
which are black, with tassels, lining, and cuffs of the colour of their
respective faculties. Medicine is yellow, Law is red, Science is dark
blue, Philosophy and Letters, light blue. Pharmacy, purple, and so on.
In spite of strict orders from the rectors and professors and covert
threats from the Spanish Government officers, no student has attended
lectures on the 27th of November since 1871, when seven students were
unjustly accused by the Spanish Volunteers of having desecrated the tomb
of a patriot. It was in vain that a brave Spanish officer, called
Capdevilla, showed that the scratches on the glass of the coffin were
covered with moss: all he succeeded in doing was to provoke the
Volunteers, who did their best to kill him, and to spoil his career; he
lived twenty-seven years more and was never promoted. He died in
Santiago. The students were executed two days after their arrest. When
the son of the man whose tomb had been the cause of so much villainy
went to Cuba for his father's remains, twenty years after that event, a
notary public attended the ceremony and the son was a witness to the
declaration that all was in exactly the same condition as at the time of
the burial. A monument was erected to the memory of the students after
the Spanish Cortes had declared that they had been innocent of the
charge that had been brought against them. There is a significant statue
of a blindfold woman with broken scales in her hand on one side of the
monument whilst History on the other side appears recording.
After this disgraceful act it is not surprising that the students of
Havana University furnished such a ready contingent to the ranks of the
rebellion.
When in Havana last September the author, accompanied by Admiral
Sampson, paid a visit to the Boys' Technical School. It was just
starting up again after the blockade, and though there were not many
scholars, the opportunity was afforded to observe the possibilities of
this admirable institution. Many specimens of the boys' work were given
to the author, and on returning to the United States some of them were
shown the President, who expressed gratification at these signs of
industrial life and a hope that the school would be provided for in the
new budget of the Island. The Havana Provincial School of Arts and
Trades is an institution for the promotion of technical knowledge among
workmen and the training of youths (preferably artisans' sons) in the
theories and practice of trades. It is maintained at the expense of the
Deputation of the Province of Havana.
The first courses given in this school commenced in 1882. In 1889,
thanks to the efforts of its founder, Don Fernando Aguado y Rico and
some zealous assistants, some shops were added to the school. They
succeeded in having an increase allowed in the appropriation voted by
the Provincial Deputation. The present cost of the school is $16,350 a
year. This school is absolutely a free school. The instruction is
divided into day courses and night courses. In view of its limited
resources, to provide for boarders in the institution has, thus far,
been impossible, consequently all the pupils are day scholars. A good
deal may be said of Mr. Aguado's work in this school. It is to be
regretted that, like so many others who work for the public good, the
results should not correspond to the labour. He conceived the idea of
creating this school a few years after graduating from the University of
Havana. After several unsuccessful attempts he managed to start his
enterprise, and since then the improvement of the instruction and the
general welfare of its scholars have been the main object of his life.
The acquisition of a lot of ground and the building of a suitable house
for the shops for mechanical training have been the most important steps
taken since the foundation. The new building is outside the city and is
high and airy. Part of the ground purchased will have a building erected
for an agricultural and industrial museum.
It is to be regretted that this school, which is the only one of its
class in Cuba, should furnish accommodation for only the limited number
of 491 pupils. A city of 250,000 inhabitants, like Havana, should be
able to provide more for this object. It is to be remarked that, out
of the number mentioned, as many as 316 take night courses.
[Illustration: THE PRADO, HAVANA.]
There is perhaps no branch of instruction that may lead to such
important developments in Cuba as the training of her youths in the
mechanical trades; the want has been felt for a long time, and with the
only exception of this school no efforts have been made to alleviate it.
The Cuban, being naturally quick, makes a good mechanic, but unless he
is trained to his work and has some knowledge of technicalities he can
never reach the degree of skill which the modern mechanic requires to
master his trade. However bright a man may be he can never acquire
perfection in any branch of industry if he confines himself to the
results of individual practice and personal observation. In a place like
Cuba, where the wealth and prosperity of the country depend materially
on one industry like the sugar industry, which is worked with huge
machinery, there is no excuse for bringing over every year foreign
engineers and mechanics to oversee any important repairs that may be
necessary, or to erect new plants. One would expect that being
constantly on the ground, seeing daily the working of this machinery,
those interested would acquire such complete mastery of the processes
that, far from having to depend on outsiders, they would be making and
suggesting improvements. The explanation is, as has been stated, merely
the want of technical knowledge; give the Cubans complete mechanical
instruction, technical and practical, and tangible results will be seen
in a remarkably short period. Let us hope that Mr. Aguado will continue
working with the zeal and ardour that he has shown heretofore, and that
ere long he may enjoy the satisfaction of seeing his work completed in a
way that may exceed his most sanguine expectations.
Havana feels the want of good hotels. There are some where a certain
degree of comfort may be had by paying high prices, but even then it
falls short of what can be obtained in other places at very much lower
rates. Travellers in Cuba have to be satisfied with taking what they can
get in this respect, as among those of so-called first-class standard
there is little difference between one hotel and another. Anybody who
has been in Havana during the winter months can have no doubt how
profitable an investment would be an hotel on American lines. As every
steamer arrives there is a rush for rooms most uncomfortable for
travellers, to say nothing of their disappointment after they have
succeeded in securing what, judging by the rate, they expect to find an
unusually fine apartment, and which actually turns out to be a small
whitewashed den, with very second-rate furniture and an iron bed. No
curtains, no carpets, and bare walls. The most frequented are the
Inglaterra and Pasaje hotels. Besides these, there is the Louvre, which,
though much smaller than the other two, is beyond comparison more
comfortable and better furnished.
There are several theatres in Havana. The Tacon, now owned by American
capitalists, is the third largest in the world.
The Church of the Merced (Mercy) is the most fashionable in the city.
The Belen (Jesuit) is the most frequented. It has, connected with it, a
school, a laboratory, an observatory, and a museum of natural history.
More men go to the Church of Santo Domingo than to any other because
more pretty women go there.
Fine suburbs of hill and seashore hedge Havana in. Notable among these
are Jesus del Monte, the highest point, 220 feet; Cerro, Chorreta Vedado
(beautiful and fashionable), Marianao, eight miles out; Regla, across
the harbour, famed for its bull-ring and large sugar warehouses;
Guanabacoa, Casa Blanco, Playa de Marianao (seashore); La Cienaga,
Puertos Grandes, and others of less importance. These places are of
varying quality, from the very fashionable to the kind which exist
because existence there is cheaper than in the city. The roads
(_calzadas_) leading out of Havana are, as a rule, good, though, owing
to the war, some are just now in bad repair.
Weather observations have been made in Havana since 1859. The rainy
season continues from June to November; the rest of the year is dry,
although about one-third of the rainfall of the year comes in the dry
season. The average rainfall is about 50 inches. The temperature varies
from 64 degrees to 85 degrees, and the humidity, which rarely falls
below 75, makes the heat most oppressive. The early morning and late
afternoon and evening are the hours devoted to business and pleasure.
The Jersey mosquito is a silken-winged messenger of mercy compared with
his cousins in Havana.
There are many asylums and hospitals in the city which are not lacking
in funds or attention, but they are all conducted upon antiquated
notions, which greatly lessen their usefulness. As in other Catholic
cities, Sunday is the amusement day of the week, and all the Havanese
are out in gala attire on that day after morning service at the
churches. There are many parks and promenades. The Alameda, the Plaza de
Armas, the Parque de Isabella, and the Prado are the chief places of
resort.