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1 HAVANA I
rn ,\ AND .•. 8}
1 . ITS PEOPLE). 1
gj
& A City of Pleasure Lovers, Who Attend Bull Fights
z§ With Half a Million Dead or Missing and Dance
|g and Gamble in the Face of Death. ||§
No city in the world is just now so
much in the American eye as Havana,
in whose harbor our noble battle ship
was blown up, says the New York
Herald. Here is a vivid picture of
life in the Cuban capital as it is to
day:
"This sport is purely Spanish. We
Cubans do uot enjoy it, and who
knows that before long it may be pro
hibited by an act of Congress?" The
speaker was a handsome man, with a
strong, thoughtful face, as he looked
down into the ling in Havana
several Sundays ago. Mazzintini,
Spain's great toreador, had just
brought a magnificent, Mexican bull to
his knees by a quick, daring thrust.
The thousands of spectators who lined
the ampitheatre, tier upon tier, were
applauding frantically. Hats were
being shied into the ring with reck
less generosity, only to be disdainfully
thrown back to the seats and scram
bled for by the owners.
It was not such a crowd as one sees
in Madrid or Seville. As the speaker
I have just quoted remarked, bull
fighting, or bull butchering, is not a
Cuban sport; it is essentially Spanish.
Cubans love baseball. They do not
play it now, because, silly as it may
seem, Weyler forbade the game.
This only makes them love it all the
more.
All through the eager, excited crowd
on that Sunday afternoon sat sad eyed
boys in the uniform of Spain, with
their Mauser rifles over their knees.
Next to the President's box lolled
A TYPICAL, srANISH SOLDIER.
half a dozen officers high in command.
It had been rumored in Havana that
there was to be another popular out
cry against autonomy, and the sad
eyed boy soldiers were there with
their Mauser rifles to see to it that the
dignity of the latest Spanish experi
ment for holding the island was not
insulted.
The last bul! is butchered and the
crowd files peacefully out of the ring
aVid starts on a trot for the ferryboat
that runs across the bay. There was
no outcry, and Havana's narrow
streets swallowed up its bull fighting
population only to disgorge it on the
promenades of tho Central Park when
the lights are lit and the military band
plays inspiring martial airs. Around
and around the park the crowds stroll,
smoking strong cigarettes or occasion
ally breaking ranks to eat ico cream
at one of the numerous cafes.
All Havana eats ice cream. They
make it of tho most unheard of fruits
ENCAMPED NEAR THE PUNTA.
ctar straight sword. They are all admir
1, ably set up, and their arms, equip
< meats and uniforms are the very pink
112 rmrfection, in striking contrast to
" and dilapidation of
thing that characterize
" of the line.
' ive had occasion
<vitli an Order
testify to his
s this corps
y with Bern-
H-8&
ing; plantations are burned and de
vastated; the tramp of armed men and
the rattle of gun carriages awaken all
from morning slumbers; food is scarce
and becoming scarcer; the bare neces
sities of life are d ear and becoming
dearer; yet the music and the dance
goon. There is money to gamble at
the clubs and pennies for the poor to
riek in lottery schemes. Spain has
spent £50,000.000 to put down the re
bellion; yet the National pastime—the
bull fight—goes on every Sunday as
if there were no hungry, fiercely de
termined men in the hills. In fact,
people are tired talking war; in society
TITK TOAD 0 - ritlNCirAL BTBEET IN HAVANA.
they talk of something else unless
some novel incident occurs. Widows
and mothers seem to have drained
their dregs of sorrow and go about sad
eyed, but composed, as if their grief
were too deep for tears.
What is left of Cuban society wraps
itself in exclusiveuess and awaits its
time. The wealthy land owners at the
beginning of the war sought refuge in
Europe or the United States. Most of
them had no thought of reduced in
comes. Then came burned fields and
impoverished tenants; edicts of the
government, forbidding the foreclosure
of inortgagos, but always taxes more
and more. Incomes were reduced,
many stopped. In order to protect
what they had, many once rich re
turned to Havana with scarcely enough
to buy the coarser uecessities of life.
But it is still an exclusive'aristocracy.
There is no doubt about where the na
tive Cuban aristocracy stands in this
war. They were never frugal people.
On the contrary, the men spent money
like drunken sailors. Nor were they
good business [men. The commercial
control of the island passed away from
them years ago, and the American,
Spaniard, Englishman and German be
came their masters. Several scions of
the old regime were comparing notes
on old times one evening in my hear
ing.
"Why," said one, "we sometimes
came into Havana with big wagons
and drove out to the plantations a
whole band of music. Wo would then
invite hundreds of our kinsmen and
friends, and keep up a jollification for
two, three, and sometimes four weeks."
The best troops in the Spanish ser
vice do not belong to the line, but to
that admirable corps of military police
known as the Orden Publico. This is
a corps d'elite, composed of young
soldiers, Spaniards to a mau, all of
whom have been selected from the
regular army on account of their su
perior intelligence and physical quali
ties. They perform regular police patrol
duty and do it with a degreo of dig
nity and courtesy that might well
serve as a model for deportment for
tho Greater New York police force.
Their uniform is distinctively military,
consisting of a dark blue tunic faced
with red, wido blue trousers with red
stripes, and a jaunty cap, something
after the fashion of the French fatigue
cap, until recently worn in our army.
Ordinarily they are armed with a huge
revolver, worn on the left side in a
buff leather sheath, and a short,
ington rifles, distinguished itself by
the masterly manner in which it
handled the mobs during the riots,
SPECTATORS AT A BULL FIGHT.
•without once having occasion to fire a
shot.
Although the evidences of war to be
seen in Havana are scanty enough, it
is amazing how frequently the insur
gents manage to run the guard of the
outposts and make forays into the
suburbs. Hardly a week passes that
a squadron of a dozen or so reckless
horsemen does not make a night raid
on the little town of Casa Blauca,
across the bay, and a scant quarter of
a mile from the Palace itself. These
raids are mailo half in bravado and
half for the purpose of looting the few
stores in the place to procure supplies
of liquors and provisions, and as a
finale, before retreating across the
hills to the westward, the raiders gen
erally discharge a few raudom shots
at the city across the bay.
To M»kr Slioen Last Lone.
A man who has been a patron of
boot stands for thirty years has learned
something about shoes and how they
should be cared for.
"I do not buy the most expensive
footwear," he said, "because I con
sider it to be a waste of money, but a
pair of shoes will last me two years
before they show a sign of a break.
They have to be relieeled always and
sometimes half-soled, but the nppers
are good generally when I get tired of
them and throw them away. It is all
a matter of supplying the leather with
the oil that it got from the animal in
a natural way when it was hide and
untanuod. If you will remember,
tannic acid is used on the hide in
preparing it for commerce, and that
is very drying. Indeed, leather in
which too much of it has been used
can never be made durable. It cracks
and breaks ins, little while. lam
talking now of black shoes.
"Insist always that your bootblack
use a slight quantity of oil when
giving you a shine. Rubbing a little
of it on with a rag will do. It sinks
in readily and, as it prepares the
surface, you get a better and more
lasting shine. No bootblack will do
this unless you tell him. After the
oil and blacking have been put on,
see that the final polishing is done
with a piece of canton tiannel. Never
allow any one of the prepared polishes.
They are all injurious. Three oil
shines a week, and you will find your
shoes lasting as long as mine do."—
Chicago Times-Herald.
Drinking Without Cups.
The campaign for the sanitary
baked pencils for use "ti'e public
schools will not end thocg- o' g<jf one
of the health officers to S .e the
ways of the microbe. Dr. Unrty,
Secretary of the State Board of
Health, has been interested in read
ing of public drinking device which
goes the individual communion cup
ono better in disposing of cups alto
gether in driuking. It is a drinking
fountain placed on a pedestal, so as to
be in the reach of the average human
mouth. From the midst of the basin
projects a little nozzle, shooting up u
jet of water not very large nor violent.
To drink a person simply lets the little
water jot play into his mouth and
takes his till. The jet may be turned
on or off. As there are no cups, and
the same water never touches two
pairs of lips, there is no chance for
microbes which seek to travel from
one mouth to another. The argument
is that, as long as the water itself is
pure, this is an absolutely safe method
of public drinking.—lndianapolis
News.
Apiilp# HS Bruin Food.
German analysts say that the apple
contains a larger proportion of phos
phorus than any other fruit or vege
table adapted for renewing the essen
tial nervous matter of the brain and
spinal cord. Scandinavian traditions
represent the apple as the food of the
gods, who, when they felt themselves
growing old and feeblo, resorted to
this fruit for renewing their powers
ot mind and body. A modern maxim
teaches us "To cat an apple before
going to bed, the doctor then will bee
his bread."
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.
There was recently opened at Leices
ter, England, a new municipal techni
cal art school, in which there is a de
partment devoted to instruction in ho
siery and knitting.
One of the heaviest locomotives of
ordinary pattern ever made is now
running over the Great Northern rail
road. It weighs niuetv-five tons, ex
clusive of the tender.
Draughting compasses are being
made with a flexible rubber suction
cup on one end to fasten to the paper
and hold tho instrument while the
circle is being drawn.
A statistician affirms that the major
ity of people who attain old age have
kept late hours. Eight out of ten
who reu. ii the age of 80 have never
gone to bed till after 12 at night.
The Belgian government is contem
plating the establishment of an over
head single rail between Brussels and
Antwerp. It is expected that a speed
of about ninety miles an hour will be
obtained.
If dry ropes are soaked for four days
in a bath containing twenty grains of
sulphate of copper to a quart of water,
they will be preserved for a consider
able time from the attacks of animal
parasites and rot.
Coal is not only a source of heat
and light, but a storehouse of colors,
medicines, perfumes and explosives.
From 140 pounds of gas tar in a ton of
coal over 2000 distinct shades of ani
line dyes are made.
A device for the prevention of ves
sels from foundering, recently tested
with success in London, consists of
gutta percha bags fixed under the
decks which, when inriated with car
bonic; acid gas, raised a vessel loaded
with brick and sunk to the deck level.
Green is the color most beneficial to
the eye iu diffused light, and reds and
pinks the most harmful. In a stroug
direct light, however, blue and neu
tral tints are the best for the eyes,and
pure white the most harmful, as is
proved by the phenomena snow blind
ness.
The president of the Agassiz associa
tion, H. 11. Ballard, recently caught an
ant near its hill, ohut it up in a box,
carried it 1 r>o feet away, and set it free
iu the middle of a shady road. What
followed he thus describes : "It
seemed at first bewildered. Then it
elimed to the top of a ridge of sand,
erected its body as high as possible,
waved its antenn:e for several seconds,
and then started in a straight line for
home."
A London hospital physician has
sent a circular to all the London hos
pitals, protesting against permitting
cut flowers to be kept in hospital wards
or in sick ro mis. A pot of growing
plants he believes to be free from
germ-collecting possibilities. A small
bunch of violets, or a few pinks, which
the patient, can handle, would be per
missible, but not large bunches of flow
ers kept in water. These he would
bar from sick rooms.
The Cricket a* a Thermometer.
Professor A. N. Ddlbearcontributes
Co the American Naturalist the fol
lowing interesting uote regarding the
variation of speed in the chirping of
crickets. He asserts that the varia
tion of speed depends so closely on
the temperature that the height of
the thermometer may be calculated by
counting the number of chirps to the
minute. Says Professor Dolbear:
"An individual cricket chirps with
no great regularity when by himself,
and the chirping is intermittent,espe
cially in the daytime. At night, when
great numbers are chirping, the regu
larity is astonishing, for one may hear
all the crickets in a field chirping
synchronously, keeping time, as if led
by the wand of a conductor. When
the numbers are so great the resting
spells of individuals are unnoticed,
but when the latter recommence they
not only assume the same rate, but
the same beat as the rest in that field.
The crickets in an adjoining field will
have the same rate, that is, will make
the same number of chirps per minute,
but with a different beat, as one may
easily perceive by listening.
"The rate of chirp seems to be en
tirely determined by the temperature,
and this to such a degree that one
may easily compute the temperature
when the number of chirps per min
ute is known.
"Thus at (50 degrees F. the rate is
80 per minute.
"At 70 degrees F. the rate is 120 a
minute, a change of four chirps a min
ute for each change of one degree.
Below a temperature of 50 degrees the
cricket has no energy to waste in
mu-ic, and there would be but 40
chirps per minute."
S<»np Mml<> From the Peanut.
A thrifty woman once discovered
that the salted peanut and the salted
almond are not very unlike except
in the matter of cost. So that the
plebian nut lias already had a more or
less good domestic standing. Now
comes Professor S. P. Sadler with a
statement that will insure it a high
place in trade.
Its oil, of a pale yellow color and
"of agreeable flavor," is to supersede
olive oil. "When once freed from
the acid found iu it in its raw state,"
says the professor, "peanut oil does
not tend to become rancid as easily as
olive oil."
Not only are we to dress our salads
in peanut oil, but we are to wash onr
hands with soap made of the oil.
Castile soap, with the Spanish name,
will be banished from all patriotic
American households, and peanut oil
soap is to take its place.—New York
Journal.
I>escrit>pd If Not I>eflned.
Teacher—What is velocity?
Pupil—Velocity is what a man puts
a hot plate down with.—Philadelphia
■all.
THE MEDAL OF HOKOR.
Greatest Prize Which the United States
Bestows Upon Its Soldiers.
The American Medal of Honor, it
self of no intrinsic value and bestow
ing no rank or privilege, has been the
sole reward of many of the most
thrilling deeds in American history.
The deeds which this medal recognizes
are not familiar to the public, but it
is more difficult to win than the Vic
toria Cross of England, the Iron Cross
of Germany or the Cross of St. George
of Bussia, though it is hardly so
famous as these even iu onr country.
The American Medal of Honor, as
all the world know, or should know,
is presented by the War Department,
and will continue to be, upon all who
"distinguish themselves iu action."
The order was founded by Washing
ton, so that the country has never
been without thin power bestowing a
mark of distinction on its heroes.
The simplicity of American institu
tions has been responsible perhaps
for the fact that this order is not morj
famous than it is. Unlike the cerj
monies in European countries, there
is no parade of troops in presenting it
and no official ceremony of any kind.
It is sent, to the hero through the
mails, and the name of the man who
wears it does not appear iu the Annual
Register or the almanac.
The original order was founded by
Washington in the year 1782. At
first merely badges were used, which
usually consisted of a narrow piece of
white cloth worn on the left arm.
The order at that time carried with it
the privilege that the wearer should be
permitted to pass all guards and sen
tinels as the officers were permitted
to do. And Washington added to this
order this characteristic sentence:
"The road to glory in a patriot army
and a free country is thus opened to
all."
In the year 1802 the order empower
ed to confer the American Medal ol
UNITED STATES MEDAL OF HONOE.
Honor was created and was amended
iu 1803. In this year the sum of
820,000 was appropriated, and tho
interest of this has ever since been
used for this purpose. The American
Medal of Honor has up to the present
time been conferred upon about ;"iOO
heroes, many of whom are still living.
Uemedies For SieeplesMiess.
Sleep with your head high.
Eat a light supper before you goto
bed.
Take a hot bath before you retire.
Apply a rubber bottle of cold water
to your forehead.
Apply cold compresses toyourliead.
Apply electricity to your head.
Take plenty of exercise, and avoid
excitement.
Lie with the back of your neck on
a hot-water bottle.
Have plenty of cool fresh air in your
bedroom, avoiding draughts.
lloucli on the Florist.
Orchids must bloom as they aro ad
vertised to, the English Court of Ap
peals lias decided. A man who bought
a bulb for SIOO, which he was told
would produce a white flower, amd
after cultivating it for two years ob
tained a purple blossom, has recovered
§250 costs from the vender.
Oldest Banknote.
The oldest European banknote is
Swedish, dated 1(561. But the British
Museum, in London, has a Chinese
note three centuries older.
A Rocking Stone Weighing !i7O Tons.
About u league distant from the
town of Tandii, India, stands a bal
ancing rock. It woiglis 270 tons and
THIS BOOKING STONE WEIGHS 270 TONS.
is so nicely posed that it may be made
to Jcrack a walnut, and so firm that
when an ambitious man once yoked a
thousand horses to it he was unable to
displace it.
The richest Princess in the world is
the Crown Princess Louise Josephine
of Sweden and Norway, and married
to the Crown Prince of Denmark.
A TEMPERANCE COLUMN.
THE DRINK EVIL MADE MANIFEST
IN MANY WAYS.
Seven Stages of Hum—Only One Fault, or
the Bad Story of a Man Whose Great
Ability Did Not Prevent Him From
Landing In the Pooi-hoiiae—A Lesson.
All the world's a tavern,
And all the men and women ineroly
drinkers;
They have their cocktails and thoir whisky
straight,
And one man in his time drinks many
quarts.
His course being seven stages. At first a
clear head.
Sober and steadfast in all good resolves;
And then thi morning bitters, with cherry
red
And slice of mellow pine, creeping like
snail
Unwillingly to work. And then the tippler,
Sneaking back again, with a woeful story
About pains internal. Then a toper.
Pull of strange oaths and loaded to the
guard.
Jealous in potting, soddon, and nulek to
imbibe,
Seeking the bubbling repetition
Even at the bottle's moutli. And then the
drunkard,
In grumbling bolly with poor liquor lined.
With eyes bleary and beard for days uncut.
Full of rash words and prone to quarreling;
Aud so he plays bis part. The sixth stage
shifts
Into tho grim ami ragged roustabout,
With carbuncles on nose and patch on head,
His shrunken face unshaved, while bar to
bar
He beats his way; and his once manly voice,
Unhinged by sloth and thirst colossal,
pleads
And whimpers for a drink. Last scone
of all.
That ends this sad and shameful historv.
Is beastly sottishness and foul oblivion—
Sans rum, sans beer, sans pipe, sans every
thiug.
—J. W. Postgate, in Chicago Times-llerald.
Only One Fault.
I was riding through a pretty country
town named H—, when I chanced to no
tice a concourse ot people in the church
yard, evidently encircling au open grave.
It was a warm day, and I had ridden ten
miles, so I drew rein under some trees that
arched the road, to allow the horse to cool
and rest.
Presently a villager came towards me and
I said,
"There is a funeral to-day in your town?'
"Yes—Stephen. Ho was one of tho larg
est-hearted men lever leuow. Wo all owed
something to Stephen."
Then he added, ia a tone of regret, "He
had only one fault."
The light fell in pencil rays through tha
trees. I sat in silence,enjoying tho refresh
ing coolness.
The man resumed the subject:
"He had great abilities, Stephen had. We
sent him to the Legislature three times.
They thought of nominating him for Gov
ernor. 15ut," ho added, sadly, "Stephen
had one fault."
I made 110 answor. I was tired and
watched tho people slowlv disperse.
"A very generous man Stephen was. Al
ways visited thesiok—he was feeling—when
any one was in trouble. The old people all
liked him. Even the children used to fol
low him in the streets."
"A good man, indeed," said I indiffer
ently.
"Yes, he only had one fault."
"What was that?" I asked.
"Only Intemperance."
"Did it harm him?"
"Yes, somewhat. He didn't seem to have
any power to resist at last. Ho got behind
hand aud had to mortgage his farm and
finally had to sell it. His wife died on ac
count of the reverse; kind of crushed, dis
appointed. Then his children, not having
the right bringing up, turned out budly.
His intemperance seemed to mortify them
and take away their spirit. He had to
leave politics; 'twouldu't do, you see. Then
we had to set him aside from the church,
and at last his habits brought on paralysis,
and wo had to take him to the poorhouse.
He died there, only forty-live. There wore
none of his children at tho funeral. Poor
man, ho had only one fault."
Only one fault!
The ship had only one leak, but it went
down.
Only one fault:
Tho temple had only one decaying pillar,
but it fell.
Only one fault! Home gono, wife lost,
family ruined, honor forfeited, social and
religious privileges abandoned, broken
health, poverty, paralysis aud tho poor
house.
One fault, only onel—Sacred II"arl Re
view.
Quite a IMfferenee.
A correspondent of the New York Sun,
pointing out tho difference between a com
munity wheroin tlie drink truffle Is re
pressed by law, backed by a strong public
sentiment, and one within whose boun
daries there Is no such aversion to drink
and drunkenness says:"l live for eight or
nine months every year near a New Y'ork
village of u population of say "000. The
other four months I live near a New Eng
land village of about the same size. In the
New Y'ork village there are twenty-odd
saloons or bars; in the Now England no
saloons or bars. In this same New Eng
land village the savings-bank has $1,100,-
000 on deposit. It has a public library of
(iOOO volumes, splendidly housed, as Is Its
public reading-room. It has a paid lire
department, concreted streets and side
walks, two largo anil elegant hotels in
which, if any of your readers can find a
bar or other evidences of liquor-selling,
they are smarter tbau tho wealthy and
public-spiritod citizens who are so known
and determined in their support of tho pro
hibitory law that nobody dares run the
risk of un attempted violation. This vil
lugcV'ig Its high school in one of tho ilnest
bulldi.. ' 'u tlie country; Its intermediate
school In another elegant edifice, anil Its
primary school and kindergarten beauti
fully housed. It picks up in u carriage the
smaller children aud conveys them to and
from school at tho public expense."
"The writer then describes the New York
village'with its twenty-odd saloons, anil
states that it has no public library or read
ing-room, no paid lire department, no con
creted streets or sidewalks, aud only oae
school building.
A l'owerful Sermon.
A powerful sermon was preached the
other day in a police station In Brooklyn.
A woman of sixty years of age was picked
up In tho street helplessly intoxicated, and
taken to a police station. She was allowed
to remain unconscious iu a cell for live
hours, when she was removed to a hospital,
where she soon died. The woman was tho
widow of a hotel-kepper in Philadelphia,
and had been a hard drinker for twenty
years, a frequent inmate of the almshouse,
and the penitentiary 011 Blnekwell's Island.
If that was not an eloquent temperance ser
mon, wo do not know what telling preach
ing is. lndependent.
The l'rcsl>3-tcriuitA :tlld Temperance.
Tho new circular adopted at Pittsburg by
tho Permanent Temperance Committee of
the Presbyterian General Assembly to bo
issued to the presbyteries, suggests to
church courts that it is thoir duty to "fore
warn parents of the temptations that may
beset thoir sous as they enter upon college
life," but does not name or suggest any col
lege In which those temptations seem to be
more potent than in another, it does state
that "the Presbyterian Church has long
been teaching that temperance is total ab
stinence from intoxicants—not their mod
erate use—and that the traffic (In Intoxi
cants), licensed or unlicensed, is a curse to
be constantly combated by every Christian
citizen."