ught by the frolicsome sun in
his ecstasy of morning release. Strange that where nature most lavishes
her wealth of charms and favors, the listlessness of perverse man
responds in ungrateful contrasts rather than in harmonies. Havana
has the interest of age, with the drawbacks incident to hereditary
indifference to progressive change. As in all important cities there are
sharp contrasts in its quarters. With long avenues of stately mansions,
marble-like and colonnaded, and exquisitely designed courtyards, there
are unpaved thoroughfares with an open sewer in the mid-roadway, flanked
by tenement houses with a family in each room. Most of Havana's two
hundred thousand citizens live in one-story buildings, lacking
conveniences which the poorest American considers necessities. The older
streets are mere alleys, about twenty feet wide, of which the sidewalks
take up seven. Light and ample ventilation are obtained by grated
window-openings without frames or glass. The dwellings and public
buildings throughout Cuba are planned to give free passage to every
zephyr that wafts relief from the oppressive heat. This is not because
the thermometer mounts much higher than it does in the United States,
for it never touches the records of our great cities, where a hundred in
the shade is not unknown. From 80 to 50 degrees is the year's average,
and it is this steady continuance of warmth that tries strength and
temper.

In the better districts of Havana the driveways are twenty-three feet
and the sidewalks about ten feet wide. Politeness keeps native and
foreign men hopping up and down the foot deep curb to allow ladies a
fair share of elbow-room on the pavements. Your guest-chamber in a
well-to-do family residence has probably a window twenty by eight feet,
sashless, but with several lace curtains and shutters to suit the
weather. The walls are tinted with the Spaniard's eye for rich color
display, the massive furniture is solid carved old mahogany, and the
graceful mosquito curtains suggest experiences better left untold.
House-rent is high, owing to the heavy taxation, which will doubtless be
modified after American administration has put the city in a sanitary
condition. Flour used to cost the poorer classes from two to three times
its price in the United States.

Before we leave the capital for the interior we must note two or three
of the time-mellowed edifices, which give the flavor of old-world
mediaevalism to the island. The