A POLYGLOT--ZELL--BEATRIZ’S SCHOOL--IGNORANT GUAJIROS.
Henry went to a little school a few doors off, kept by a Danish woman,
who conversed readily in their native tongue with the French, German,
Russian, Italian, and English consuls, all of whom lived in the
neighborhood. There Henry, now nine years old, was taught to read in
French and Spanish, and, with the quickness of intelligent childhood,
soon learned to speak the latter quite fluently. Zell did our cooking
and ran on errands, and, as the darky also readily acquires a foreign
lingo, it was not long before he could master enough Spanish for
any occasion. He was considered such a _savant_ that he applied for
permission to give English lessons at the corner _bodega_. “Dey’ll
give me four dollars a month jist to go dar and talk evenings,” he
explained; “tell em de names of things, jist like I was a-buying.... I
jist go dar and look at it and say, ‘What’s price dat ar coffee?’ or I
p’int at de box and say, ‘What you ax for dat sugar?’ and den tell ’em
what to say back.” Zell did “go _dar_,” though I never knew the result
of his teachings, pecuniarily or otherwise. He prided himself on his
attainments, and once was heard to tell a man--who, hearing him speak
both languages, inquired where he learned to speak English--that he was
an Englishman!
In time he mentioned his need of a watch, and at Christmas found a
big silver one in his stocking, which he ostentatiously sported when
in full dress; but on several occasions my husband warned him that it
was being left carelessly about the kitchen, where it was liable to be
stolen. Zell came to me one morning in considerable agitation. “Miss
’Liza, you seen my watch? Well, it’s done gorn. I left it on dat nail,
and now somebody is tuk it.”
“What’s that? Your watch gone, Zell?”
“Yes, Mars Jim, I just step out a minute, and lef it on a nail in de
kitchen, all kivered up wid de dish-rag, and now, when I look again,
it’s gorn.”
“Didn’t I tell you so? What’s to prevent anybody from walking into that
kitchen and taking anything they find hanging on a nail?”
“Don’t say anoder word, Mars Jim, I know who’s tuk it; dat big nigger
at Miss Bollag’s is got it. Kase I never lay eyes on dat ar fool but
he ses to me, ‘Hay! Zell, _que hora son_?’ Dat means, ‘What’s time o’
day?’”
“Now listen to me; don’t say another word on the subject; you deserve
to lose it, and it’s gone.”
For several days Zell was downcast and miserable, ceasing to show
interest in his _classes_; but one morning the watch was found on the
nail; and Zell, with eyes gleaming like torches, said, “I know’d Mars
Jim had dat watch all de time, kase he ain’t de kind er man to let no
nigger steal outen his yard and never _persecute_ it.”
Henry’s school was an endless source of interest. Señora Bollag (the
children all called her Beatriz) kept the school in her own bedroom,
although she occupied an entire house. In the very early morning the
pupils began to assemble. Before the sun was fairly up, _volantes_
arrived at Beatriz’s door, and sable maids deposited their little
white-frocked charges, and the _volantes_ drove off. Boys in panama
hats, and full suits of spotless white linen from tip to toe, their
piercing eyes and coal-black hair giving the only touch of what
the artist calls character to the picture, rode up on ponies with
white-robed attendants; and so, long before our American hours for
breakfast, Beatriz’s school was under full headway. I could distinctly
hear the murmur of voices, varied by Beatriz’s sharp reproof, and
the patter of little feet on the uncovered floor. About ten o’clock
_volantes_ and servants on foot with breakfast-trays began to appear.
In the order of their arrival the children retired to a rustic bower
in the back yard where there was a rude table surrounded by a bench;
there, with a snowy spread of napkins, they ate breakfast, with
servants to replenish the claret-glasses, and break the eggs over
the rice, spread the fried bananas over the _tasajo_ or other meat
arrangement; in short, perform such menial service as was required by
all well-bred children in that voluptuous land. One by one they went
to _almuerza_, and returned to lessons smacking their lips and picking
their little teeth. Waiters and _volantes_ severally vanished with
empty dishes and trays. At two o’clock servants were seen crossing
the street from up, down, and directly opposite, with napkin-covered
glasses of _refresco_, made of orange, pineapple, tamarind, or the
expressed juice of blanched almonds, for the thirsty little ones,
who lived near enough to share refreshments with their mammas. Funny
stories reached us of Beatriz’s discipline. If a child presented itself
with an unclean face, Beatriz’s own maid was summoned, with a huge
sponge (such as was used for mopping floors) dripping with water, to
wash it; and a frouzy head was made smooth with an enormous comb kept
for the purpose.
Beatriz Bollag had a flourishing school somewhat on a crude
Kindergarten pattern, for there were little ones learning to spell
with blocks, who spent most of their time playing with dolls. All who
offered were received, however; even Ellie, a grown niece of ours, who
joined us in Cuba, and desired to study Spanish, was not refused. The
school had no opening nor closing hour. The children came when they
were ready, and left when Beatriz had a headache or was tired. She
was at her post every day in the week; there was no regular day for
holiday. The _dias santos_--holy days--of the ecclesiastical calendar,
only were observed; their occurrence, although frequent, was irregular.
She had no license, therefore presented no bills. Each month Henry
was told, “To-morrow is the seventh.” And that meant he must bring
his _tres doublones_ ($12.75) when he came again. And when Ellie was
dismissed, with “To-morrow, my dear,” she understood that to imply her
_onza_ ($17) was due.
The laws were so peculiarly rigid, that it was almost impossible to
obtain a license to teach in Cuba. That parental government is so
zealous on the score of education, so dreadfully afraid that the
pupils would not learn the right thing, or be taught the wrong,
that a teacher’s certificate is hedged about with obstacles almost
insurmountable. Possibly the lives of the saints and church dogmas
bristle around conspicuously in the barrier. No mind can grasp the
lives of all the saints and holy men, and know every _double-cross_
day and its wherefore in the Spanish calendar, and know much of
anything else. An American woman of my acquaintance secured a teacher’s
situation in a regularly licensed school on the _cerro_. Upon her
refusal to obey the orders of the inspectors to discard her text-books
and substitute others so antiquated and replete with errors as to
be almost useless to the present generation, she was debarred from
teaching.
The wealthy class, in order to have their children taught some of the
solid branches besides music and the languages, frequently secure
governesses in the United States. We were often amused at some of the
specimens that came under our observation. A wealthy marquis, who
owned an estate near Havana, had as teacher for his children a coarse,
showy-looking woman, with a broad Irish brogue. She fairly murdered
Lindley Murray. “Me and him,” “They be afther going,” etc., fell from
her lips every time she opened them. So I was not surprised to learn
that she had been a hotel-chambermaid. The marquis was ambitious,
and spared no expense on his daughters, and, when he pompously
congratulated himself on having secured a governess who did not speak
Spanish, I longed to tell him that she was equally ignorant of English.
The priests in the interior villages gather the children together and
teach them that “Nuestra Señora de Cobre” is a patron saint of Cuba,
because she miraculously appeared to two negroes who were paddling
about in a skiff, and pointed out to them valuable copper-mines on
the coast. They are also taught their Paternosters and Ave Marias;
occasionally a pupil is graduated who can read and write; but, as a
rule, the class that inhabit the country towns are very ignorant. An
intelligent officer of the Spanish army, who had been stationed in the
extreme eastern part of the island, told us he was astounded to see,
during some raids upon insurgent camps, how primitive, indeed, how near
to Adam and Eve, the country people remote from settlements were. He
saw women, with even less adornment than Eve was constrained to wear,
picking wild rice and digging roots in the wilderness. When they do not
live in rocky caves, their abodes are rude huts that scarcely deserve
the name. Literally existing from hand to mouth, “they toil not,
neither do they spin.”