We have been told that we could walk all over the town in an hour, and
we resolve to try it.
[Illustration: A STREET IN SAN JUAN.]
The streets are narrow and dark, but well paved and clean. They ought to
be clean, for they are swept by hand every day. The sidewalks are so
narrow that only two of us can walk abreast, so we take to the road.
This is used as a highway for people as well as vehicles.
Naked little children of all ages and colors play about the streets and
on the sidewalks. Colored men and women, smoking black cigars, saunter
idly about. Street venders carrying their stores upon their heads or
backs, or in large panniers upon tiny ponies, fill the air with cries
announcing their wares.
Judging from the number of the venders of drinks we see on the streets,
every one in San Juan is thirsty. We are, at any rate, and very
delicious we find their ices and sherbets, their iced orange, lemon and
strawberry waters, iced cherries, milk, coffee and chocolate.
[Illustration: DULCE (SWEETMEAT) SELLERS IN PUERTO RICO.]
Fruit sellers under the arcades and in stalls tempt us with their
attractive wares; but the fruits are new and strange to us, and we
hesitate about buying.
The hack drivers are asleep on closed carriages at the hack stand. Long
lines of clumsy carts, with high wheels, rumble over the cobblestone
pavements with a dreadful clatter.
In the open doorways of shops we see men and women manufacturing
articles for sale. Some are making chairs, some shoes, some jewelry,
some boxes, and, in one place, we see a number of workmen making
coffins.
We are interested in observing that flags of different colors are used
as signs, and that the walls are painted with brilliant pictures. In the
quarter near the sea, the brandy stores, built of reeds, have round them
swarms of beggars of every degree.
The laundry shop we find just outside the city, beside a large creek. A
laundry not built by hands! Here women stand knee-deep in the stream,
with the hot sun beating down upon their heads. They are doing their
laundry work. The clothes are cleaned by soaking them in water and
pounding them with stones. We wonder if there are any buttons left on
the clothes after this treatment, and resolve not to trust our clothes
to this laundry.
We note outside the city wall a broad concrete walk; along this walk
seats, trees, and rude statues; and between the walk and the wall an
ornamental garden.
Having now taken a general stroll, we will rest up preparatory to our
visit to the points of special interest.