FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128  
129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   >>   >|  
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. CHAPTER VIII. Sabbath Scenes in Havana. -- Thimble-Riggers and Mountebanks. -- City Squares and their Ornamentation. -- The Cathedral. -- Tomb of Columbus. -- Plaza de Armas. -- Out-Door Concerts. -- Habitues of Paseo de Isabella. -- Superbly Appointed Cafes. -- Gambling. -- Lottery Tickets. -- Fast Life. -- Masquerade Balls. -- Carnival Days. -- The Famous Tacon Theatre. -- The Havana Casino. -- Public Statues. -- Beauties of the Governor's Garden. -- The Alameda. -- The Old Bell-Ringer. -- Military Mass. On no other occasion is the difference between the manners of a Protestant and Catholic community so strongly marked as on the Sabbath. In the former, a sober seriousness stamps the deportment of the people, even when they are not engaged in devotional exercises; in the latter, worldly pleasures and religious forms are pursued, as it were, at the same time, or follow each other in incongruous succession. We would not have the day made tedious, and it can only be so to triflers; to the true Christian it will ever be characterized by thoughtfulness and repose. The Parisian flies from the church to the railway station to join some picnic excursion, or to assist at the race-course, or he passes with a careless levity from St. Genevieve to the dance booths of the Champs Elysees. In New Orleans, the C
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128  
129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
universal
 

chairs

 

rocking

 

Sabbath

 

Havana

 
sitting
 
manners
 

Protestant

 
Carnival
 

difference


occasion

 

Appointed

 
Catholic
 

seriousness

 
stamps
 

Gambling

 
Lottery
 
community
 

strongly

 

marked


Tickets

 

Habitues

 

Beauties

 

Governor

 

Concerts

 

Statues

 

Public

 

deportment

 

Theatre

 

Casino


Garden

 
Alameda
 

Military

 

Ringer

 

Masquerade

 
Superbly
 

Isabella

 
Famous
 

pursued

 
station

picnic
 

assist

 
excursion
 
railway
 

church

 

thoughtfulness

 
characterized
 

repose

 
Parisian
 

Elysees