Cuban rarely drinks to excess. I recall an experience
during the earlier years. I was asked to write a series of articles on the
use of intoxicants in the island, for a temperance publication in this
country. My first article so offended the publishers that they declined
to print it, and cancelled the order for the rest of the series. It was
perhaps somewhat improper, but in that article I summed up the situation
by stating that "the temperance question in Cuba is only a question of how
soon we succeed in converting them into a nation of drunkards." Beer is
used, both imported and of local manufacture. Gin, brandy, and anisette,
cordials and liqueurs are all used to some but moderate extent, but
intoxication is quite rare. One fluid extract I particularly recommend,
that is the milk of the cocoanut, the green nut. Much, however, depends
upon the cocoanut. Properly ripened, the "milk" is delicious, cooling and
wholesome, more so perhaps on a country journey than in the city. The nut
not fully ripened gives the milk, or what is locally called the "water," an
unpleasant, woody taste. I have experimented with it in different parts of
the world, in the Philippines, Ceylon, and elsewhere, and have found it
wholesome and refreshing in all places.

The houses in the new Havana are, on the whole, vastly more cheerful
than are the dwellings in the old city. They are of the same general
architectural type, but because of the wider streets, more air and sunshine
gets into them. Some of the best and most costly are along the Prado.
A Cuban house interior generally impresses an American as lacking in
home-like quality. Some of the best are richly adorned, but there is a
certain bareness and an absence of color. As is usual with customs unlike
our own, and which we are therefore prone to regard as inferior to ours,
there are excellent reasons for Cuban interior decoration, or rather the
lack of it. A little experience, or even a little reflection, shows clearly
the impossibility of anything resembling American house decoration in
such a climate as that of Cuba. Our warm colors, hangings, upholstered
furniture, rugs, and much else that we regard as essential in northern
latitudes, would be utterly unendurable in Cuba. There, the marble or tiled
floors, the cool tones of wall and ceiling, and the furniture of wood and
cane, are not only altogether fitting but as well altogether necessary. Our
glass windows would only serve to increase hea