ublic men that lollipops have on the juvenile population, and that the
one and the other are ready to sacrifice a great deal to obtain
possession of the luscious morsel. However, as we live in an age of
miracles, we may yet see even a rope of sand, mud, and steel-filings,
hold together.--Pardon this digression, and let us back to Cuba.

The Cubans usually dine about half-past three; after dinner some go to
the _Paseo_ in their Volantes, others lounge on the quay or gather round
the military band before the Governor-General's palace. Look at that man
with swarthy countenance, dark hair, and bright eyes--he is seated on a
stone bench listening to the music; a preserved bladder full of
tobacco is open before him, a small piece of thin paper is in his hand;
quick as thought a cigarette is made, and the tobacco returned to his
pocket. Now he rises, and walks towards a gentleman who is smoking; when
close, he raises his right hand, which holds the cigarette, nearly level
with his chin, then gracefully throwing his hand forward, accompanies
the act with the simple word _Favor_; having taken his light, the same
action is repeated, followed by a courteous inclination of the head as a
faintly expressed _Gracias_ escapes his lips. In this man you have a
type of a very essential portion of the male population. Reader, it is
no use your trying to imitate him; the whole scene, is peculiar to the
Spaniard, in its every act, movement and expression. Old Hippo at the
Zoological might as well try to rival the grace of a Taglioni.

The promenade over, many spend their evenings at billiards, dominoes,
&c., adjourning from time to time to some _cafe_ for the purpose of
eating ices or sucking goodies, and where any trifling conversation or
dispute is carried on with so much vivacity, both of tongue and of
fingers, that the uninitiated become alarmed with apprehensions of some
serious quarrel. Others again, who are ladies' men, or of domestic
habits, either go home or meet at some friend's house, where they all
sit in the front room on the ground-floor, with the windows wide open to
the street, from which they are separated only by a few perpendicular
iron bars. Yankee rocking-chairs and cane chairs are placed abreast of
these windows, and facing each other like lines of sentinels; there they
chat, smoke cigars, or suck their fingers, according to their sex and
fancy. Occasionally a merry laugh is heard, but I cannot say it is very
general.