The Havana Lottery. -- Its Influence. -- Hospitality of the
Cubans. -- About Bonnets. -- The Creole Lady's Face. -- Love
of Flowers. -- An Atmospheric Narcotic. -- The Treacherous
Indian Fig. -- How the Cocoanut is propagated. -- Cost of
Living in Cuba. -- Spurious Liquors. -- A Pleasant Health
Resort. -- The Cock-Pit. -- Game-Birds. -- Their Management.
-- A Cuban Cock-Fight. -- Garden of the World. -- About
Birds. -- Stewed Owl! -- Slaughter of the Innocents. -- The
Various Fruits.
There is a regularly organized lottery in Havana, to which the
government lends its name, and which has semi-monthly drawings. These
drawings are made in public, and great care is taken to impress the
people with the idea of their entire fairness. The authorities realize
over a million dollars annually by the tax which is paid into the
treasury on these most questionable enterprises. The lottery is
patronized by high and low, the best mercantile houses devoting a
regular sum monthly to the purchase of tickets on behalf of their
firms. One individual of this class told the writer that no drawing
had taken place within the last ten years at Havana in which the firm
of which he was a member had not been interested to the extent of at
least one doubloon, that is, one whole ticket. The mode usually is,
however, to purchase several fractional parts of tickets, so as to
multiply the chances. On being asked what was the result of the ten
years of speculation in this line, the reply was that the books of the
firm would show, as it was entered therein like any other line of
purchases. Curious to find an authentic instance as an example, the
matter was followed up until the result was found. It seemed that this
house had averaged about four hundred dollars per annum expended for
lottery tickets, that is, four thousand dollars in the last ten years.
On the credit side they had received in prizes about nineteen hundred
dollars, making a loss of twenty-one hundred dollars. "But then,"
remarked our informant, "we may get a big prize one of these
days,--who knows?"
The lottery here proves to be as great a curse as it does in Italy,
where its demoralizing effects are more apparent. The poorer classes,
even including the slaves and free negroes, are regular purchasers,
and occasionally a prize is realized among them, which stimulates to
increased ventures. A few years since, some slaves upon a plantation
near Alquizar purchased a single ticket, clubbing together in order to
raise the money. These Africans drew a prize of forty thousand
dollars, which sum was honestly paid to them, and they purchased their
freedom at once, dividing a very pretty amount for each as a capital
to begin business on his own account.
"And pray what became of those liberated men?" we asked of our
informant. "Singular to say I can tell you," he answered. "Others felt
the same interest you express, and they have been followed in their
subsequent career. There were sixteen of the party, who realized equal
portions of the prize. They were valuable slaves, and paid an average
of fifteen hundred dollars each for their free papers. This left them
a thousand dollars each. Two returned to Africa. Four joined the
insurgents at Santiago, in 1870, and were probably shot. The remainder
drank themselves to death in Havana, or died by fevers induced
through intemperate habits." "Did you ever know a man, white or black,
who drew a prize of any large amount, who was not the worse for it
after a short time?" we asked. "Perhaps not," was his honest reply. A
miserable creature came into the vestibule of the Telegrafo Hotel one
day begging. After he had departed we were told that a few years ago
he was possessed of a fortune. "Why is he in this condition?" we
asked. "He was engaged in a good business," said our informant, "drew
a large prize in the lottery, sold out his establishment, and gave
himself up to pleasure, gambling, and drink. That is all that is left
of him now. He has just come out of the hospital, where he was treated
for paralysis."
Honestly conducted as these lotteries are generally believed to be,
their very stability and the just payment of prizes but makes them the
more baleful and dangerous in their influence upon the public. As
carried on in Havana, the lottery business is the most wholesale mode
of gambling ever witnessed. Though some poor man may become
comparatively wealthy through their means, once in twenty years, yet
in the mean time thousands are impoverished in their mad zeal to
purchase tickets though it cost them the last dollar they possess. The
government thus fosters a taste for gambling and supplies the ready
means, while any one at all acquainted with the Spanish character must
know that the populace need no prompting in a vice to which they seem
to take intuitively. No people, unless it be the Chinese, are so
addicted to all games of chance upon which money can be staked.
Spaniards, and especially Cuban Spaniards, receive credit for being
extremely hospitable, and to a certain extent this is true; but one
soon learns to regard the extravagant manifestations which so often
characterize their domestic etiquette as rather empty and heartless.
Let a stranger enter the house of a Cuban for the first time,
especially if he be a foreigner, and the host or hostess of the
mansion at once places all things they possess at his service, yet no
one thinks for a single moment of interpreting this offer literally.
The family vehicle is at your order, or the loan of a saddle horse,
and in such small kindnesses they are always generous; but when they
beg you to accept a ring, a book, or a valuable toy, because you have
been liberal in your praise of the article, you are by no means to do
so. Another trait of character which suggests itself in this
connection is the universal habit of profuse compliment common among
Cuban ladies. Flattery is a base coin at best, but it is current here.
The ladies listen to these compliments as a matter of course from
their own countrymen or such Frenchmen as have settled among them, but
if an American takes occasion to express his honest admiration to a
Creole, her delight is at once manifest. Both the French and Spanish
are extremely gallant to the gentler sex, but it requires no argument
to show that woman under either nationality is far less esteemed and
honored than she is with us in America.
The bonnet, which forms so important a part of a lady's costume in
Europe and America, is rarely worn by the Creoles, and strangers who
appear on the streets of Havana with the latest fashion of this ever
varying article are regarded with curiosity, though so many American
and English ladies visit the island annually. In place of a bonnet,
when any covering is considered desirable for the head, the Cuban
ladies generally wear a long black veil, richly wrought, and gathered
at the back of the head upon the clustered braid of hair, which is
always black and luxuriant. More frequently, however, even this
appendage is not seen, and they drive in the Paseo or through the
streets with their heads entirely uncovered, save by the sheltering
hood of the victoria. When necessity calls them abroad in the early or
middle hours of the day, there is generally a canvas screen buttoned
to the dasher and extended to the top of the calash, to shut out the
too ardent rays of the sun. Full dress, on all state occasions, is
black, but white is universally worn by the ladies in domestic life,
forming a rich contrast to the olive complexions of the women.
Sometimes in the Paseo, when enjoying the evening drive, these fair
creatures indulge in strange contrasts of colors in dress. They also
freely make use of a cosmetic called cascarilla, made from eggshells
finely powdered and mixed with the white of the egg. This forms an
adhesive paste, with which they at times enamel themselves, so that
faces and necks that are naturally dark resemble those of persons who
are white as pearls.
There is one indispensable article, without which a Cuban lady would
feel herself absolutely lost. The fan is a positive necessity to her,
and she learns its coquettish and graceful use from childhood. Formed
of various rich materials, it glitters in her tiny hand like a gaudy
butterfly, now half, now wholly shading her radiant face, which
quickly peeps out again from behind its shelter, like the moon from
out a passing cloud. This little article, always costly, sometimes
very expensive, in her hand seems in its eloquence of motion almost to
speak. She has a witching flirt with it that expresses scorn; a
graceful wave of complacence; an abrupt closing of it that indicates
vexation or anger; a gradual and cautious opening of its folds that
signifies reluctant forgiveness; in short, the language of the fan in
the hand of a Cuban lady is a wonderfully adroit and expressive
pantomime that requires no interpreter, for, like the Chinese written
language, it cannot be spoken.
It may be the prodigality of nature in respect to Flora's kingdom
which has retarded the development of a love for flowers among the
people of the island. Doubtless if Maréchal Niel roses, Jacqueminots,
jonquils, and lilies of the valley were as abundant with us in every
field as clover, dandelions, and buttercups, we should hardly regard
them with so much delight as we do. It is not common to see flowers
under cultivation as they are at the North. They spring up too readily
in a wild state from the fertile soil. One cannot pass over half a
league on an inland road without his senses being regaled and
delighted by the natural floral fragrance, heliotrope, honeysuckle,
sweet pea, and orange blossoms predominating. The jasmine and Cape
rose, though less fragrant, are delightful to the eye, and cluster
everywhere among the hedges, groves, and coffee estates. There is a
blossoming shrub, the native name of which we do not remember, but
which is remarkable for its multitudinous crimson flowers, so
seductive to the humming-birds that they hover about it all day long,
burying themselves in its blossoms until petal and wing seem one. At
first upright, a little later the gorgeous bells droop downward and
fall to the ground unwithered, being poetically called Cupid's tears.
Flowers abound here which are only known to us in our hothouses, whose
brilliant colors, like those of the cactus, scarlet, yellow, and blue,
are quite in harmony with the surroundings, where everything is aglow.
There was pointed out to us a specimen of the frangipanni, a tall and
nearly leafless plant bearing a milk-white flower, and resembling the
tuberose in fragrance, but in form much like our Cherokee rose. This
plant, it will be remembered, was so abundant and so pleasant to the
senses as to attract the attention of the early explorers who
accompanied Columbus across the sea.
There seems to be at times a strange narcotic influence in the
atmosphere of the island, realized more especially inland, where the
visitor is partially removed from the winds which commonly blow from
the Gulf in the after part of the day. So potent has the writer felt
this influence that at first it was supposed to be the effect of some
powerful and medicinal plant abounding in the neighborhood; but on
inquiry it was found that this delightful sense of ease and indolent
luxuriousness was not an unusual experience, particularly among
strangers, and was solely attributable to the narcotic of the soft
climate. By gently yielding to this influence one seemed to dream
while awake, and though the sense of hearing is diminished, that of
the olfactories appears to be increased, and pleasant odors float on
every passing breeze. One feels at peace with all human nature, and a
sense of voluptuous ease overspreads the body. Others have experienced
and remarked upon this sensation of idle happiness. The only
unpleasant realizing sense during the enjoyment of this condition is
the fear that some human voice, or some chance noise, loud and abrupt,
may arouse the dreamer from his trance.
Specimens of the Indian fig, as it is called here, will be sure to
attract the visitor's eye on his inland excursions. It clasps,
entwines, and finally, serpent-like, kills the loftiest forest
monarchs, and taking their place, firmly roots itself and becomes a
stately tree, fattening upon its ill-gotten possession. Its unfading
leaf of vivid green is beautiful to look upon, in spite of its known
and treacherous character. In many respects it typifies the Spanish
discoverers of this beautiful isle, who gradually possessed themselves
of its glorious heritage by the destruction of its legitimate owners.
The manner in which that prolific tree, the cocoanut palm, is
propagated was a curious and interesting study for a leisure hour, the
germination having been with us heretofore an unsolved riddle. Within
the hard shell of the nut, among the mass of rich creamy substance,
near the large end, is a small white lump like the stalk of a young
mushroom, called the ovule. This little finger-like germ of the future
tree gradually forces itself through one of the three eyes always to
be found on the cocoanut. What giant power is concealed within that
tiny ovule, apparently so soft and insignificant! Having pierced its
way through the first shell, it then gradually rends the outer coat of
fibrous covering and curves upward towards the light. Into the inner
shell which it has vacated, it throws little fibrous threads which
slowly absorb the albumen, and thus sustain its new life as it rapidly
develops. First a few leaves grow upward, which from the very outset
begin to assume the pinnate form of the cocoanut leaf, while,
stretching earthward, a myriad of little threads of roots bury
themselves in the ground. Though the tree will grow to a height of
sixty feet or more, these roots will never individually exceed the
size of the fingers on one's hand. In five or six years the tree will
produce its first cluster of cocoanuts, and for several years will go
on increasing in fruitfulness and yielding a bountiful crop for fifty
or sixty years. It was a constant wonder how these cocoanut trees
could sustain an upright position with such a weight of ripening fruit
clustered beneath the shade of their tufted tops.
As regards the cost of living in the island, it may be said to average
higher to the stranger than in the United States. At the city hotels
and large boarding houses the charge is modified from four or five
dollars per day; if a special bargain is made for a considerable
period, it is customary to give a reduction on transient rates of ten
or fifteen per cent. Among the small towns in the interior, at the
houses of entertainment, which are wretchedly poor as a rule, the
charges are exorbitant, and strangers are looked upon as fair game.
This, however, is no more so than in continental Europe, where, though
the accommodations are better, the general treatment is the same. The
luscious and healthful fruits of the country form a large share of the
provisions of the table in Cuba, and are always freely provided. A
fair quality of claret wine, imported from Spain, is also regularly
placed before the guest free of charge, it being the ordinary drink of
the people; but beware of calling for other wines, and particularly
champagne, unless you are prepared to be swindled by the price charged
in your bill. Of course you get only imitation champagne,--that is to
be expected; you do the same nearly everywhere. There is not enough
pure champagne manufactured in Europe to supply the Paris and London
markets alone. The mode of cooking is very similar to the French, plus
the universal garlic, which, like tobacco, appears to be a prime
necessity to the average Spanish appetite. One does not visit Cuba,
however, with the expectation of finding all the niceties of the table
which are ordinary comforts at home, and therefore he is quite content
to enjoy the delightful fruits of the country, the novel scenery, the
curious vegetation, and the captivating climate, which cannot fail to
compensate for many small annoyances.
One of the most pleasant and healthful resorts for a temporary home on
the island is probably the small but thrifty town of Guines, situated
about forty-five miles from Havana, with which it is connected by
rail; indeed, this was the first railroad constructed in Cuba, that
between Matanzas and Havana being the second. Both were mainly the
result of American enterprise and capital. There are now a little over
nine hundred miles of railroad in operation, and more is urgently
demanded to open internal communication with important sections. The
water communication along the southern and northern coasts is mostly
depended upon, and a very well organized system is sustained by three
or four lines of domestic steamers. The immediate locality of Guines
is thought to be one of the most salubrious and best for invalids on
the western division of the island, and is largely resorted to by
Americans. It has generally more of the comforts considered necessary
for persons in delicate health than can readily be obtained in
Havana, and one has here the quiet and retirement which it is
impossible to find in the metropolis.
Here will be seen, as in all towns large or small in Cuba, a curious
place of amusement of circular form, called a "pit," where the natives
indulge their national passion for cock-fighting and gambling
combined. It is astonishing how pugnacious and fierce these birds
become by careful training; the instinct must be in them or it could
not be so developed. When brought together and opposed to each other
in battle, one must die, and often both do so, for they will fight as
long as they can stand on their feet. The pit is always crowded, and
the amount of money which changes hands daily in this cruel mode of
gambling is very considerable. Women not infrequently attend these
contests, but only those of the pariah class, certain back seats being
reserved for them, while here and there may be seen a shovel-hatted
priest, as eager in the result as the professionals themselves. The
cock-pit is a circular building, thirty or forty feet in diameter,
resembling on the outside a huge haystack. The size, however, is
regulated according to the population of the immediate neighborhood.
The seats are raised in a circle, one above another, about a central
ring in which the contest takes place. The ground is covered with
sawdust or tan. The birds are of a native game breed, and are subject
from chickenhood to a peculiar course of treatment. The English
game-cock is prized here only for crossing with the native breed. He
cannot equal the Spanish bird in the necessary qualities of pluck and
endurance.
The food of the game-cock when in training is regulated with great
care, carefully weighed, and a certain number of ounces is given to
him three times a day, so that the bird, like a race-horse, is never
permitted to grow fat, but is kept in what is called fighting
condition. Some days before a contest they are fed with a few ounces
of raw meat once during the twenty-four hours, which, being kept
always a little hungry, they devour with avidity. Greater care as to
diet and exercise could not be taken by pugilists training for a
conflict. The feathers of these fighting-cocks are closely cropped in
a jaunty style; the neck and head, to the length of three inches, is
completely plucked of all feathers, the comb being trimmed close to
the crown. The flesh which is thus left bare is daily rubbed with rum
until it becomes hardened and calloused. Brief encounters are
permitted among them under proper restrictions, when they are young.
No fear is felt that they will seriously injure each other, until they
are old enough to have the sharp steel gaffs affixed upon the spurs
with which nature has supplied them. Then, like men armed with sword
and dagger, they attack each other with fatal earnestness, making the
blood flow at every stroke. It is singular that the birds are so
determined upon the fight that no amount of loud cries, or challenges
between the betters, or jeers by the excited audience, disturbs them
in the least.
The author witnessed one of these exhibitions at Guines. The
fighting-ring of the cock-pit was some twelve feet in diameter, the
seating capacity being arranged for about a hundred persons or more,
and each bench was fully occupied. The two birds pitted against each
other were carefully weighed, and the result was announced to the
audience. They were then passed in review, held in the hands of their
respective owners, and betting at once commenced as to which would
win the victory. In the mean time the two birds seemed quietly
awaiting their time, and by the knowing way in which both surveyed the
surroundings and the assembled people, they really appeared as if they
understood the business in hand. There was no struggling on their part
to get out of the hands of those who held them. Presently they were
passed into the care of the umpires, two of whom officiated, and who
then affixed the steel gaffs to the spurs of the contestants. The two
birds were then placed on the ground inside of the ring, opposite each
other. No sooner did they feel themselves fairly on their feet than
both crowed triumphantly, eying each other with fell intent.
Then commenced a series of bird-tactics, each partially advancing and
pretending to retreat as if to draw on his antagonist, pecking the
while at imaginary kernels of corn on the ground. In the mean time the
audience almost held its breath in anticipation of the cunningly
deferred onset. Presently the two birds, as if by one impulse, rushed
towards each other, and a simultaneous attack took place. The contest,
when the birds are armed with steel gaffs, rarely lasts more than
eight or ten minutes before one or both are so injured as to end the
fight. The money staked upon the fight is won by those backing the
bird which survives, or is longest in dying. When the artificial spurs
are not used, and the birds fight in their natural state, the battle
sometimes lasts for an hour, but is always fatal in the end to one or
the other, or both. Eyes are pecked out, wings and legs broken, necks
pierced again and again; still they fight on until death ensues.
During the fight the excitement is intense, and a babel of voices
reigns within the structure, the betting being loud, rapid, and high.
Thus in a small way the cock-fight is as cruel and as demoralizing as
that other national game, the terrible bull-fight, indigenous to Spain
and her colonies.
Cuba has justly been called the garden of the world, perpetual summer
smiling upon its shores, and its natural wealth and possibilities
baffling even the imagination. The waters which surround it, as we
have seen, abound with a variety of fishes, whose bright colors,
emulating the tints of precious stones and the prismatic hues of the
rainbow, astonish and delight the eye of the stranger. Stately and
peculiar trees enliven the picturesque landscape. Throughout the woods
and groves flit a variety of birds, whose dazzling colors defy the
palette of the artist. Here the loquacious parrot utters his harsh
natural notes; there the red flamingo watches by the shore of the
lagoon, the waters dyed by the reflection of his scarlet plumage. It
would require a volume to describe the vegetable and animal kingdom of
Cuba, but among the most familiar birds are the golden robin, the
bluebird, the catbird, the Spanish woodpecker, the gaudy-plumed
paroquet, and the pedoreva, with its red throat and breast and its
pea-green head and body. There is also a great variety of wild
pigeons, blue, gray, and white; the English lady-bird, with a blue
head, scarlet breast, and green and white back; the indigo-bird, the
golden-winged woodpecker, the ibis, and many smaller species, like the
humming-bird. Of this latter family there are said to be sixty
different varieties, each sufficiently individualized in size and
other peculiarities to be easily identified by ornithologists. Some
of these birds are actually no larger in body than butterflies, and
with not so large a spread of wing. A humming-bird's nest, composed of
cotton interlaced with horse-hair, was shown the author at Buena
Esperanza, a plantation near Guines. It was about twice the size of a
lady's thimble, and contained two eggs, no larger than common peas.
The nest was a marvel of perfection, the cotton being bound cunningly
and securely together by the long horse-hairs, of which there were not
more than three or four. Human fingers could not have done it so
deftly. Probably the bird that built the nest and laid the eggs did
not weigh, all fledged, over half an ounce! Parrots settle on the sour
orange trees when the fruit is ripe, and fifty may be secured by a net
at a time. The Creoles stew and eat them as we do pigeons; the flesh
is tough, and as there are plenty of fine water-fowl and marsh birds
about the lagoons as easily procured, one is at a loss to account for
the taste that leads to eating parrots. The brown pelican is seen in
great numbers sailing lazily over the water and dipping for fish.
Strange is the ubiquity of the crows; one sees them in middle India,
China, and Japan. They ravage our New England cornfields, and in
Ceylon,--equatorial Ceylon,--they absolutely swarm. When one,
therefore, finds them saucy, noisy, thieving, even in Cuba, it is not
surprising that the fact should be remarked upon, though here the
species differs somewhat from those referred to, being known as the
Jack-crow or turkey-buzzard. In the far East, like the vulture, the
crow is considered a natural scavenger or remover of carrion, and the
same excuse is made for him in Cuba and Florida. But is he not more of
a freebooter and feathered bandit,--in short, a prowling thief
generally? Nature has few birds or animals upon her varied list with
which we would find fault, but the crow,--well, having nothing to say
in its favor, let us drop the subject. Parrots, paroquets, tiny indigo
birds, pedorevas, and robins,--yes, these are all in harmony with
mingled fragrance and sunshine, but the coal-black crow, with his bad
habits and hoarse bird-profanity, bah! When these West Indian islands
were first settled by Spanish emigrants, they were the home of myriads
of birds of every tropical variety, but to-day the feathered beauties
and merry songsters have been entirely driven away from some of the
smaller islands, and decimated on others, by the demand for bird's
wings with which to deck ladies' bonnets in Europe and America.
Sportsmen have found it profitable to visit the tropics solely for the
purpose of shooting these rainbow-colored creatures for ornaments.
Aside from the loss to general interest and beauty in nature caused by
this wholesale destruction of the feathered tribe, another and quite
serious result has been the consequence. A plague of vermin has
followed the withdrawal of these little insect-killers. It is so
natural to look for them amid such luxuriant vegetation that they
become conspicuous by their absence. Now and again, however, the ears
are gratefully saluted by the trilling and sustained notes of some
hidden songster, whose music is entirely in tune with the surrounding
loveliness, but truly delightful song-birds have ever been rare in the
low latitudes, where there is more of color than song.
Those agriculturists who possess sufficient means confine themselves
solely to the raising of sugar, coffee, and tobacco, the former
principally employing capital. Indian corn, which the first settlers
found indigenous here, is quite neglected, and when raised at all it
is used before ripening, almost universally, as green fodder; very
little is ripened and gathered as grain. It is found that horses and
cattle can be kept in good condition and strength, while performing
the usual labor required of them, by feeding them on a liberal
allowance of cornstalks, given in the green state, before the corn has
begun to form on the cob. The Cubans will tell you that the nourishing
principle which forms the grain is in the stalk and leaves, and if fed
in that state before ripening further, the animals obtain all the
sustaining properties which they require. The climate is particularly
adapted to the raising of oranges, but there is very little attention
given to propagating this universally popular fruit, more especially
since the increased production which has taken place on the other side
of the Gulf Stream in Florida. Three years after the seed of this
fruit is deposited in suitable soil in Cuba the tree becomes ten or
twelve feet in height, and in the fourth year rarely produces less
than a hundred oranges, while at ten years of age it commonly bears
three and four thousand, thus proving, with proper care, extremely
profitable. It will be remembered that it is the longest lived of
succulent fruit trees. There are specimens still extant in Cuba known
to be one hundred years old. The oranges produced in Florida are of
equally good quality, and bring a better price in the market, but the
crop is subject to more contingencies and liability to loss than in
Cuba. The frost not infrequently ruins a whole season's yield in the
peninsula in one or two severe nights, while frost is never
experienced upon the island.
It seems unreasonable that when the generous, fruitful soil of Cuba is
capable of producing two or three crops of vegetables annually, the
agricultural wealth of the island should be so poorly developed.
Thousands upon thousands of acres of fertile soil are still in their
virgin condition. It is capable of supporting a population of almost
any density,--certainly from eight to ten millions of people might
find goodly homes here, and yet the largest estimate at the present
time gives only a million and a half of inhabitants. When one treads
the fertile soil and beholds the clustering fruits in such abundance,
the citron, the star-apple, the perfumed pineapple, the luscious
banana, and other fruits for which our language has no name, not
forgetting the various noble woods which caused Columbus to exclaim
with pleasure, and to mention the palm and the pine growing together,
characteristic types of Arctic and equatorial vegetation, we are
struck with the thought of how much Providence and how little man has
done for this Eden of the Gulf. We long to see it peopled by men who
can appreciate the gifts of nature, men who are willing to do their
part in recognition of her fruitfulness and who will second her
spontaneous bounty.
Nowhere on the face of the globe would well-directed, intelligent
labor meet with a richer reward, nowhere would repose from labor be so
sweet. The hour of rest here sinks upon the face of nature with a
peculiar charm; the night breeze, in never-failing regularity, comes
with its gentle wing to fan the weary frame, and no danger lurks in
its breath. It has free scope through the unglazed windows, and
blowing fresh from the broad surface of the Mexican Gulf, it bears a
goodly tonic to the system. Beautifully blue are the heavens and
festally bright the stars of a tropical night, where familiar
constellations greet us with brighter radiance and new ones charm the
eye with their novelty. Preëminent in brilliancy among them is the
Southern Cross, a galaxy of stars that never greets us in the North.
At midnight its glittering framework stands erect. That solemn hour
past the Cross declines. How glorious the nights where such a heavenly
sentinel indicates the watches! "How often have we heard our guides
exclaim in the savannas of Venezuela," says Humboldt, "or in the
deserts extending from Lima to Truxillo, 'Midnight is past, the Cross
begins to bend.'" Cuba is indeed a land of enchantment, where nature
is beautiful and bountiful, and where mere existence is a luxury, but
it requires the infusion of a sterner, a more self-reliant,
self-denying and enterprising race to test its capabilities and to
astonish the world with its productiveness.