circumspection for the band-master to select airs for a
Creole audience. It would certainly never do to give them "Yankee
Doodle;" their sympathies with the "_Norte Americanos_" are sufficiently
lively without any such additional stimulus; and it is well for the
authorities to have a care, for the power of national airs is almost
incredible. It was found necessary, in the times of the old Bourbons, to
forbid the performance of the "_Ranz des Vaches_," because it so filled
the privates of the Swiss guards with memories of their native home that
they deserted in numbers. The Scotch air of "Lochaber no more" was found
to have the same effect upon the Highland regiments in Canada; and we
are not sure that "Yankee Doodle," performed in the presence of a
thousand Americans on the Plaza de Armas, would not secure the
annexation of the island in a fortnight.

The Creoles are passionately fond of music. Their favorite airs, besides
the Castilian ones, are native dances, which have much sweetness and
individuality of character. They are fond of the guitar and flageolet,
and are often proficients in their use, as well as possessing fine vocal
powers. The voice is cultivated among the gentlemen as often as with the
ladies. Music in the open air and in the evening has an invincible
effect everywhere, but nowhere is its influence more deeply felt than in
a starry tropical night. Nowhere can we conceive of a musical
performance listened to with more delightful relish than in the Plaza at
Havana, as discoursed by the governor's band, at the close of the long
tropical twilight.

In the immediate neighborhood of the Plaza, near the rear of the
governor's palace, is a superb confectionary,--really one of the
notabilities of the city, and only excelled by Taylor's saloon,
Broadway, New York. It is called La Dominica, and is the popular resort
of all foreigners in Havana, and particularly of Americans and
Frenchmen. It is capable of accommodating some hundreds of visitors at a
time, and is generally well filled every afternoon and evening. In the
centre is a large open court, paved with white marble and jasper, and
containing a fountain in the middle, around which the visitors are
seated. Probably no establishment in the world can supply a larger
variety of preserves, bon-bons and confectionaries generally, than this,
the fruits of the island supplying the material for nearly a hundred
varieties of preserves, which the proprietor exports