City of Havana. -- First Impressions. -- The Harbor. --
Institutions. -- Lack of Educational Facilities. -- Cuban
Women. -- Street Etiquette. -- Architecture. -- Domestic
Arrangements. -- Barred Windows and Bullet-Proof Doors. --
Public Vehicles. -- Uncleanliness of the Streets. -- Spanish
or African! -- The Church Bells. -- Home-Keeping Habits of
Ladies. -- Their Patriotism. -- Personal Characteristics. --
Low Ebb of Social Life. -- Priestcraft. -- Female Virtue. --
Domestic Ties. -- A Festive Population. -- Cosmetics. --
Sea-Bathing.
Havana is a thoroughly representative city,--Cuban and nothing else.
Its history embraces in no small degree that of all the island, being
the centre of its talent, wealth, and population. It has long been
reckoned the eighth commercial capital of the world. Moro Castle, with
its Dahlgren guns peeping out through the yellow stones, and its tall
sentinel lighthouse, stands guard over the narrow entrance of the
harbor; the battery of La Punta on the opposite shore answering to the
Moro. There are also the long range of cannon and barracks on the city
side, and the massive fortress of the Cabanas crowning the hill behind
the Moro. All these are decorated with the red and yellow flag of
Spain,--the banner of blood and gold. So many and strong
fortifications show how important the home government regard the
place.
The harbor or bay is shaped like one's outspread hand, with the wrist
for an entrance, and is populous with the ships of all nations. It
presents at all times a scene of great maritime activity. Besides the
national ships of other countries and those of Spain, mail steamers
from Europe and America are coming and going daily, also coasting
steamers from the eastern and southern shores of the island, added to
regular lines for Mexico and the islands of the Caribbean Sea. The
large ferry steamers plying constantly between the city and the Regla
shore, the fleet of little sailing boats, foreign yachts, and
rowboats, glancing in the burning sunlight, create a scene of great
maritime interest.
The city presents a large extent of public buildings, cathedrals,
antique and venerable churches. It has been declared in its prosperity
to be the richest place for its number of square miles in the world,
but this cannot be said of it at the present time. There is nothing
grand in its appearance as one enters the harbor and comes to anchor,
though Baron Humboldt pronounced it the gayest and most picturesque
sight in America. Its multitude of churches, domes, and steeples are
not architecturally remarkable, and are dominated by the colossal
prison near the shore. This immense quadrangular edifice flanks the
Punta, and is designed to contain five thousand prisoners at a time.
The low hills which make up the distant background are not
sufficiently high to add much to the general effect. The few palm
trees which catch the eye here and there give an Oriental aspect to
the scene, quite in harmony with the atmospheric tone of intense
sunshine. Unlike Santiago or Matanzas, neither the city nor its
immediate environs is elevated, so that the whole impression is that
of flatness, requiring some strength of background to form a complete
picture. The martial appearance of the Moro and the Cabanas,
bristling with cannon, is the most vivid effect of the scene, taken as
a whole. It might be a portion of continental Spain broken away from
European moorings, and floated hither to find anchorage in the
Caribbean Sea. One is also reminded of Malta, in the farther
Mediterranean, and yet the city of Valetta, bright, sunny, and
elevated, is quite unlike Havana, though Fortress St. Angelo overlooks
and guards the place as the Moro does this tropical harbor, and Cuba
is the Italy of America.
The waters of the harbor, admittedly one of the finest in the world,
are most of the time extremely dirty. Many years ago a canal was
commenced which was designed to create a flowage calculated to keep
the harbor clear of the constantly accumulating filth, but it was
never finished, and there remains an evidence of Spanish inefficiency,
while the harbor continues to be a vast cesspool. It would be supposed
that in a fever-haunted region, great attention would be bestowed upon
the matter of drainage, but this is not the case in Havana, or other
cities of the island. Most of the effort made in this direction is
surface drainage, the liquid thus exposed quickly evaporating in the
hot sunshine, or being partially absorbed by the soil over which it
passes.
Havana contains numerous institutions of learning: a Royal University,
founded in 1733, a medical and law school, and chairs of all the
natural sciences. In spite of their liberal purposes and capabilities,
however, there is a blight hanging over them. Pupils enlist cautiously
and reluctantly. Among other schools there is a Royal Seminary for
girls, scarcely more than a name, a free school of sculpture and
painting, and a mercantile school, with a few private institutions of
learning. There is a fairly good museum of natural history, and just
outside the city a botanical garden. Still the means of education are
very limited in Cuba, an evidence of which is the fact that so many of
her youth of both sexes are sent to this country for educational
purposes. An order was at one time issued by the government
prohibiting this, but its arbitrary nature was so very outrageous,
even for a Spanish government, that it was permitted to become a dead
letter. What are called free schools, as we use the term, are not
known in the island; the facilities for obtaining even the simplest
education are very poor. Boys and girls, so far as any attempt is made
to educate them, are taught separately, and really under the eye of
the Church. Priests and nuns are the agents, the former notoriously
making a cloak of their profession for vile and selfish purposes. If
we speak decidedly upon this subject, yet we do so with less emphasis
than do the Cubans. The girls are taught embroidery and etiquette,
considered to be the chief and about the only things necessary for
them to know. These young girls are women at the age of thirteen or
fourteen, and frequently mothers of families before they are twenty.
Of course they fade early. In domestic life the husband is literally
lord and master, the wife, ostensibly at least, is all obedience.
There is no woman's rights association on the island, nor even a
Dorcas society. While young and unmarried, the ladies are strict
adherents to all the conventionalities of Spanish etiquette, which is
of the most exacting character, but after marriage the sex is perhaps
as French as the Parisians, and as gay as the Viennese, under the
stimulus of fast and fashionable society.
The reason of the edict issued by the government forbidding parents
to send their children to this country for educational purposes was
obvious. The young Cubans during their residence here imbibed liberal
ideas as to our republican form of government, which they freely
promulgated and advocated on their return to their native island. Even
those who had been educated in France or England, and they were
numerous, readily sympathized with the pupils returned from America,
and became a dangerous element. Long before the first Lopez
expedition, these sons of planters and rich merchants had formed
themselves into a secret society, with the avowed purpose of freeing
Cuba sooner or later from the Spanish yoke.
The low-lying, many-colored city of Havana, called San Cristobel,
after the great discoverer, was originally surrounded by a wall,
though the population has long since extended its dwellings and
business structures far into what was, half a century since, the
suburbs. A portion of the old wall is still extant, crumbling and
decayed, but it has mostly disappeared. The narrow streets are paved
or macadamized, and cross each other at right angles, like those of
Philadelphia, but in their dimensions reminding one of continental
Toledo, whose Moorish architecture is also duplicated here. There are
no sidewalks, unless a narrow line of flagstones can be so called, and
in fact the people have less use for them where nearly every one rides
in a victoria, the fare being but sixteen cents per mile. A woman of
respectability is scarcely ever seen walking in the streets, unless
she is a foreigner, or of the lower class, such as sellers of fruit,
etc. Those living in close proximity to the churches are sometimes
seen proceeding to early mass, accompanied by a negress carrying a
portable seat, or a bit of carpet on which to kneel upon the marble
floor of the cathedral. But even this is exceptional. Cuban etiquette
says that a lady must not be seen on the streets except in a vehicle,
and only Americans, English, and other foreigners disregard the rule.
The architecture of the dwelling-houses is exceedingly heavy, giving
them the appearance of great age. They are built of the porous stone
so abundant upon the island, which, though soft when first worked into
suitable blocks, becomes as hard as granite by exposure to the
atmosphere. The façades of the town houses are nearly always covered
with stucco. Their combination of colors, yellow, green, and blue,
harmonizes with the glowing atmosphere of the tropics. This will
strike the stranger at first as being very odd; there is no system
observed, the tenant of each dwelling following his individual fancy
as to the hue he will adopt, a dingy yellow prevailing. Standing upon
the Campo de Marte and looking in any direction, these changing colors
give a picturesque effect to the range of buildings which surround the
broad field. In this vicinity the structures are nearly all of two
full stories, and many with rows of lofty pillars supporting broad
verandas, including one or two palaces, one fine large club-house,
some government offices, and the Telegrafo Hotel. These varying colors
are not for fancy alone, they have a raison d'être; namely, to absorb
the sharp rays of the constant sunshine. But for some toning down of
the glare, one's eyes would hardly be able to sustain the power of
vision. The vividness with which each individual building and object
stands out in the clear liquid light is one of the first peculiarities
which will strike the stranger.
The dwelling-houses are universally so constructed as to form an open
square in the centre, which constitutes the only yard or court that is
attached. The house is divided into a living-room, a store-room,
chambers, and stable, these all upon one floor, while the family
vehicle blocks up in part the only entrance, which is used in common
by horses, ladies, slaves, and gentlemen callers. If there is a second
story, a broad flight of steps leads to it, and there are the family
chambers or sleeping apartments, opening upon a corridor which extends
round the court. Peculiar as this manner of building at first seems,
it is well adapted to the climate, and one soon becomes satisfied with
it.
With such surroundings it is easy to imagine one's self at Granada, in
far-off Spain, and it seems almost natural to look about for the
Alhambra. An air of rude grandeur reigns over these houses, the
architecture being Gothic and Saracenic. In the more ancient portions
of the town little picturesque balconies of iron or wood jut out from
the second-story windows, where the houses rise to the dignity of two
stories. From these balconies hang little naked children, like small
performers upon the trapeze, until the passer-by fears for their
lives. The travel in the narrow streets is regulated by law, and so
divided that only certain ones are used for vehicles going north, and
others for those traveling south. Thus, vehicles bound into the city
from the Paseo go by the way of Obispo Street, but must return by
O'Riley Street, so that no two ever meet in these narrow
thoroughfares,--a plan which might be advantageously adopted
elsewhere.
The rooms of the houses are lofty and the floors stuccoed or tiled in
marble, while the walls and ceilings are frequently ornamented in
fresco, the excellence of the workmanship varying in accordance with
the owner's means. The most striking peculiarity of the town-house in
Cuba is the precaution taken to render it safe against sudden attack.
Every man's house is literally his castle here, each accessible window
being secured with stout iron bars, reaching from the top to the
bottom, while bullet-proof doors bar the entrance,--the whole
seriously suggestive of jails and lunatic asylums. No carpets are used
even in the parlors, though a long rug is sometimes placed between the
inevitable double row of rocking-chairs. The best floors are laid in
white marble and jasper. The great heat of the climate renders even
wooden floors quite insupportable. The visitor is apt to find his bed
rather unsatisfactory, it being formed by stretching a coarse canvas
upon a framework, with an upper and under sheet. Mattresses are not
used by the natives, who reject them as being too warm to sleep upon,
but the liberality evinced in the shape of mosquito netting is as
commendable as it is necessary.
The public vehicle called a victoria is a sort of four-wheeled calash,
and it has entirely superseded the volante for city use. There are
thousands of them about the town, forming a collection of wretchedly
wornout carriages, drawn by horses in a like condition. The drivers
occupy an elevated seat, and are composed equally of whites and
negroes. The charge for a passage from point to point within the city
is forty cents in Cuban paper money, equal to sixteen cents of our
currency; three times that sum is charged if engaged for the hour. The
streets are in a very bad condition and sadly need repairing. The
roads leading out to the suburbs in every direction are full of deep
holes, and are badly gullied by the heavy rains. The streets, even
about the paseos, are so impregnated with filth, here and there, as to
be sickening to the senses of the passer-by. Once in three or four
weeks somebody is awakened to the exigency of the situation, and a
gang of men is put to work to cleanse the principal thoroughfares, but
this serves only a temporary purpose. We were told that the reason for
this neglect was that no one was regularly paid for work; even the
police had not received any pay for seven months, and many refused to
serve longer. The soldiery had not been paid their small stipend for
nearly a year, but enlisted men sent out from Spain, forming the army,
are more easily kept together and more amenable to discipline than any
civil body of officials could be. "With everybody and everything so
enormously taxed," we ventured to suggest to our informants, "there
should be no lack of pecuniary means wherewith to carry on all
departments of the government. Pray what becomes of all this money?"
The reply was, "Who can say?" with a significant shrug of the
shoulders. With all the exactions of the officials, and with the
collection of nearly thirty millions of dollars annually, but a moiety
finds its way into the national treasury. Peculation is reduced to a
science, and is practiced from the highest to the lowest official sent
out by the home government. "Spain has squeezed the orange nearly
dry," said a distinguished Cuban to us in Matanzas, "and a collapse is
inevitable. We are anxiously waiting to see it come; any change would
be for the better. We were long threatened with a war of races, if we
did not sustain Spanish rule in the island. That is, if we were not
loyal to the Madrid authorities, the slaves should be freed to prey
upon us. Blood would flow like water. The incendiary torch would be
placed in the hands of the negroes, and they should be incited to
burn, steal, and ravish! Cuba should be Spanish or African. There was
a time when this threat had great force, and its execution was indeed
to be dreaded; but that time is past, and no such fear now exists. The
slaves are being gradually freed, and are amalgamating with the rest
of the populace. The slow liberation of the blacks has accustomed them
to freedom, and any organized outrage from that source has ceased to
be feared."
Why all the bells in Havana should be rung furiously and continuously
every morning about daylight, one cannot exactly understand. There
does not seem to be any concert of action in this awful conspiracy
against sleep; but the tumult thus brought about would certainly seem
to be sufficient to "wake the isle from its propriety." From every
square with its church, and every church with its towers, this
brazen-tongued clamor is relentlessly poured forth. In most Christian
lands one good bell is all-sufficient for a church steeple, but here
they have them in the plural, and all striving to excel each other at
the same moment. Of course no one is able to sleep amid such an
outburst of noise, or within the radius of a league. Bells and
mosquitoes are two of the prevailing nuisances of this thrice-sunny
city. Nor must we forget to add to these aggravations the ceaseless,
triumphant crowing of the game-cocks, the noisiest and most boastful
of birds, large numbers of which are kept by the citizens purely for
gambling purposes in the cock-pit. Besides these "professional" birds,
every nook and corner is filled with fowls kept for brooding purposes,
each bird family with its crower.
We have said that the Cuban ladies rarely stir abroad except in a
vehicle, and whatever their domestic habits may be, they are certainly
good housekeepers in this respect. While our ladies are busy sweeping
the city sidewalks with their trailing dresses, these wisely leave
that business to the gangs of criminals detailed from prison to fill
that office, with their limbs chained and a heavy ball attached to
preserve their equilibrium,--though we should qualify this remark by
saying that these condemned men, once so common upon the streets and
highways, were not seen during our late visit to Havana. It is,
perhaps, owing to the home-keeping habits of the ladies that the feet
of the Cuban señoritas are such marvels of smallness and delicacy,
seemingly made rather for ornament than for use. You catch a glimpse
of them as they step into their victorias, and perceive that they are
daintily shod in French slippers, the soles of which are scarcely more
substantial than brown paper. Their feet are made for ornament and for
dancing. Though they possess a roundness of form that leaves nothing
to be desired in symmetry of figure, still they are light as a
sylph,--so buoyant, clad in muslin and lace, that it would seem as if
a breeze might waft them away like a summer cloud. Passionately fond
of dancing, they tax the endurance of the gentlemen in their worship
of Terpsichore, stimulated by those Cuban airs which are at once so
sweet and so brilliant.
There is a striking and endearing charm about the Cuban ladies, their
every motion being replete with a native grace. Every limb is elastic
and supple. Their voices are sweet and low, while the subdued tone of
their complexions is relieved by the arch vivacity of night-black
eyes, that alternately swim in melting lustre, and sparkle in
expressive glances. If their comeliness matures, like the fruits of
their native clime, early and rapidly, it is sad to know that it also
fades prematurely. One looks in vain for that serene loveliness
combined with age which so frequently challenges our admiration at the
North. Their costume is never ostentatious, though often costly, and
sometimes a little too mixed or variegated when seen in public. At
home, however, nothing of this sort is observed. There the dress is
usually composed of the most delicate muslin, the finest linen, and
richest silks. We must admit that one rarely sees elsewhere such
contrasts in colors upon the person of the fair sex as are at times
encountered upon the Paseo. It would drive a French modiste wild to
see the proprieties so outraged. It requires all the proverbial beauty
of these señoras and señoritas to carry off respectably such
combinations as scarlet and yellow, blue and purple, orange and green;
but they do it by sheer force of their beautiful eyes and finely
rounded figures. It must be acknowledged that the element of native
refinement is too often wanting, and that the whole exhibition of the
sex is just a little prononcée. They have no intellectual resort, but
lead a life of decided ease and pleasure much too closely bordering
upon the sensuous, their forced idleness being in itself an incentive
to immorality and intrigue. The indifferent work they perform is
light and simple; a little sewing and embroidery, followed by the
siesta, divides the hours of the day. Those who can afford to keep
their victorias wait until nearly sunset for a drive, and then go to
respond by sweet smiles to the salutations of the caballeros on the
paseos; afterwards to the Parque de Isabella II., to listen to the
military band, and then, perhaps, to join in the mazy dance. That
these ladies are capable of deep feeling and practical sympathy on
such occasions as would naturally draw these qualities forth, we know
by experience. When the patriot forces were poorly armed, with but
scant material, and ammunition was short, these fair patriots gave
freely of their most valuable jewels as a contribution to the cause of
liberty.
A sad instance illustrative of this fact was told us by a resident of
Havana. The young ladies and matrons of a certain circle in the city,
at the commencement of the year 1872, had put their diamonds and
precious stones together to realize money for forwarding supplies to
the insurgents under Cespedes, who was then operating in the vicinity
of Santiago. The jewels were secretly intrusted to a brother of one of
the ladies, a young man who had just reached the age of twenty-two.
His part of the business was the most difficult to perform, but he
finally succeeded in realizing over four thousand dollars in gold for
the gems intrusted to him. Fortunately the money was at once forwarded
to the patriot leader through a safe and reliable channel. Hardly had
the business been accomplished to the satisfaction of all concerned
when the young Cuban was secretly denounced to the Governor-General as
a suspected person. The settings and jewels had all been disposed of
so as to be beyond recognition, and it is not known to this day how
the brother's complicity with his sisters and their friends was
divulged, but presumedly it was through the Jew pawnbrokers. The
brother was arrested and thrown into Moro Castle, where he was
subjected to the closest examination to find out his accomplices.
Loyal and affectionate, he could not be made to speak. He was finally
offered his freedom and permission to leave the island if he would
divulge all. The government reasoned that if they could make a witness
of him they would succeed in serving their own interest best, as by
sacrificing one prisoner they might gain knowledge of many disaffected
people whom they did not even suspect of disloyalty. One of the
sisters of the prisoner determined to assume the guilt, and declare
that her brother was the unknowing agent of her purpose; but when at
last satisfied that this would not free him, she reluctantly gave up
the design. The young Cuban maintained his silence. No publicity was
given to the matter. He was brought before a military tribunal--so
much is known. The sentence never publicly transpired. Like most
political prisoners who pass within the walls of Moro Castle, his fate
remains a secret.
There are two sides to every picture; even light casts its shadow, and
we feel constrained to speak plainly. Social life in the island is
certainly at a very low ebb, and unblushing licentiousness prevails.
That there are many and noble exceptions only renders the opposite
fact the more prominent. This immorality is more particularly among
the home Spaniards, whose purpose it is to remain here long enough to
gain a certain amount of money, and then to return to the mother
country to enjoy it. They look upon all associations contracted here
as of a temporary character, and the matter of morality does not
affect them in the least. Domestic comforts are few, and, as we have
intimated, literature is hardly recognized. The almost entire absence
of books or reading matter of any sort is remarkable. A few daily and
weekly newspapers, under rigid censorship, supply all the taste for
letters. Married women seem to sink far below their husbands in
influence. The domestic affections are not cultivated; in short, home
to the average Cuban is only a place to sleep,--not of peaceful
enjoyment. His meals are rarely taken with his family, but all spare
hours are absorbed at the club. Domestic infidelity is prevalent, and
female virtue but little esteemed. Priest-craft and king-craft have
been the curse of both Spain and Cuba. Here, as in Italy, the
outrageous and thinly-disguised immorality of the priesthood poisons
many an otherwise unpolluted fount, and thus all classes are liable to
infection. Popery and slavery are both largely to be charged with the
low condition of morals, though the influence of the former has of
late years been much curtailed, both in Spain and in Cuba. The young
women are the slaves of local customs, as already intimated, and
cannot go abroad even to church without a duenna,--a fact which in
itself proves the debased standard of morals. The men appear to have
no religion at all, but the women very generally attend early mass and
go periodically to confessional. No one seems to think it strange for
a white man to have a colony of mulatto children, even though he be
also the father of a white family! Many have only the mulatto family,
and seem content. These are generally the home Spaniards, already
spoken of, and when their fortunes are secured they recklessly sever
all local ties and responsibilities and return to Spain. This is no
new thing, as there are many families in Cuba of fair position
socially, and often of considerable wealth, whose members are by the
right of classification quadroons. Miscegenation has greatly
complicated social matters, and in half a century, more or less, it
may produce a distinctive class, who will be better able to assert and
sustain their rights than those who have preceded them.
The class of home Spaniards who have emigrated to Cuba has always been
of a questionable character. The description of them by Cervantes in
his time will apply in our own day with equal force. He says: "The
island is the refuge of the profligates of Spain, a sanctuary for
homicides, a skulking-place for gamblers and sharpers, and a
receptacle for women of free manners,--a place of delusion to many, of
amelioration to few."
One peculiarity which is sure to strike the stranger unpleasantly, and
to which allusion has incidentally been made, whether in public or
private houses, in the stores or in the streets, is that the colored
children of both sexes, under eight and nine years of age, are
permitted to go about in a state of nudity. In the country, among the
Montero class, this custom also extends to the white children. The
colored men who labor in the streets and on the wharves wear only a
short pair of linen pantaloons, displaying a muscular development
which any white man might envy. The remarkable contrast in the
powerful frames of these dusky Africans and the puny Asiatic coolies
is extraordinary. On the plantations and small farms the slaves wear
but one garment, just sufficient for decency. The great heat when
exposed to the sun is the reason, probably, rather than any economical
idea.
The populace of Havana is eminently a festive one. Men luxuriate in
the café, or spend their evenings in worse places. A brief period of
the morning only is given to business, the rest of the day and night
to melting lassitude, smoking, and luxurious ease. Evidences of
satiety, languor, and dullness, the weakened capacity for enjoyment,
are sadly conspicuous, the inevitable sequence of indolence and vice.
The arts and sciences seldom disturb the thoughts of such people.
Here, as in many European cities, Lazarus and Dives elbow each other,
and an Oriental confusion of quarters prevails. The pretentious
town-house is side by side with the humble quarters of the artisan, or
even the negro hut, about which swarm the naked juveniles of color, a
half-clad, slatternly mother appearing now and then. The father of
this brood, if there be an acknowledged one, is probably at work upon
some plantation not far away, while madame takes in linen to wash, but
being possibly herself a slave, pays over one half of her earnings to
some city master. High and low life are ever present in strong
contrast, and in the best of humor with each other, affording elements
of the picturesque, if not of the beautiful. Neatness must be ignored
where such human conglomeration exists, and as we all know, at certain
seasons of the year, like dear, delightful, dirty Naples, Havana is
the hot-bed of pestilence. The dryness of the atmosphere transforms
most of the street offal into fine powder, which salutes nose, eyes,
ears, and mouth under the influence of the slightest breeze. Though
there are ample bathing facilities in and about the city, the people
of either sex seem to have a prejudice against their free use. In most
hot climates the natives duly appreciate the advantage of an abundance
of water, and luxuriate in its use, but it is not so in Cuba. We were
told of ladies who content themselves with only wiping neck, face, and
hands daily upon a towel saturated with island rum, and, from what was
obvious, it is easy to believe this to be true.
Sea-bathing is a luxury which the Northern visitor will be glad to
improve, if the natives are not, and for their information let us
state that it may be safely enjoyed here. Establishments will be found
where baths have been cut in the rock on the shore, west of the Punta
fort, along the Calle Ancha del Norte. Here water is introduced fresh
from the Gulf Stream, sparkling and invigorating, and characterized by
much more salt and iodine than is found in more northern latitudes. It
is the purest sea-bathing to be found in any city that we know of,
refreshing and healthful, producing a sensation upon the surface of
the body similar to that of sparkling soda-water on the palate. The
island abounds in mineral springs, both hot and cold, all more or less
similar in character, and belonging to the class of sulphur springs.
Many of these have considerable local reputation for their curative
properties.
In passing through O'Riley, Obispo, Obrapia, or any business streets
at about eleven o'clock in the forenoon and glancing into the stores,
workshops, business offices, and the like, one is sure to see the
master in his shirt-sleeves, surrounded by his family, clerks, and
all white employees, sitting in full sight at breakfast, generally in
the business room itself. The midday siesta, an hour later, if not a
necessity in this climate, is a universal custom. The shopkeeper, even
as he sits on duty, drops his head upon his arm and sleeps for an
hour, more or less. The negro and his master both succumb to the same
influence, catching their forty winks, while the ladies, if not
reclining, "lose themselves" with heads resting against the backs of
the universal rocking-chairs. One interior seen by the passer-by is as
like another as two peas. A Cuban's idea of a well-furnished
sitting-room is fully met by a dozen cane-bottom rocking-chairs, and a
few poor chromos on the walls. These rocking-chairs are ranged in two
even lines, reaching from the window to the rear of the room, with a
narrow woollen mat between them on the marble floor, each chair being
conspicuously flanked by a cuspidor. This parlor arrangement is so
nearly universal as to be absolutely ludicrous.