while the sidewalks are not more than two
feet wide and hollowed down in the centre by the constant trampling of
feet. This applies to the city proper, for, outside the walls, there are
many broad and beautiful avenues. The streets are very noisy and, as a
rule, excessively unclean.

The houses, many of them palaces, wonderfully beautiful within, but
situated on dark and dirty alleys, are all built about a central
courtway. There are no fireplaces anywhere, nor a window shielded with
glass in the whole city. The windows have iron bars, and within those of
the first story is the inevitable row of American rocking chairs.
Through these bars the Cuban lover interviews his inamorata. It would be
the height of indecorum for him to approach nearer, to seek to speak
with her within the walls of her own home, even in the presence of her
father and mother.

Cows are driven about the streets and milked in front of your own door,
when you desire the lacteal fluid. This custom is, at all events, a
safeguard against adulteration.

Ladies do not go into the shops to make purchases, but all goods are
brought out to them as they sit in their volantes.

By the way, the volante (flyer) is the national carriage and no other,
practically, is used in the country. It consists of a two seated
vehicle, slung low down by leather straps from the axle of two large
wheels, and it has shafts fifteen feet long. The horse in the shafts is
led by a postillion, whose horse is harnessed on the other side of the
shafts in the same manner. The carriage is extremely comfortable to
travel in, and the height of the wheels and their distance apart prevent
all danger of turning over, although the roads in the country are for
the most part, mere tracks through fields and open land. Ox carts and
pack mules are used for conveying goods in the interior of the island
outside of the meagre railway lines.

Havana has some beautiful public parks and some really fine statues,
chiefly those of Spain's former rulers.

Its principal theatre, the Tacon, is celebrated throughout the world for
its size and beauty. In regard to theatres, there is one peculiar custom
in Havana: By the payment of a certain sum, beyond the price of
admission, one is allowed to go behind the scenes between the acts. This
privilege has caused great annoyance to many eminent artists.

The cathedral of Havana is rather imposing in architecture, although it
is badly situated, but it is very