ORANGE SELLER. gay with flags and wreaths of green and flowers. We well remember the appearance of this magnificent body of men as they marched up Calle O'Reiley under arches decked with the Spanish colors, their red Catalan caps and polished muskets flashing and sparkling all up and down the street. Poor fellows! That was in the early part of 1869, and long before this, we fear, many a one has fallen before some Cuban bullet, or surrendered to that still worse enemy of Spanish soldiery in Cuba, yellow fever. One of the principal objects exposed for sale in the streets of Havana is tropical fruit. Havana oranges are known the world over; but there are many fruits too luscious to endure exportation, which lie in their golden and russet beauty at all the fruit stands in the city. These stands are kept by some dark-eyed Spanish peasant, or by Chinamen. Occasionally one sees a huge old black woman settled on the sidewalk, looking as if she had been born there, and never would move away, at her side a heap of oranges and green cocoa-nuts, among which roll half a dozen naked black babies, with an air of sunny contentment so delicious to behold that one forgets to inquire, how about the oranges? But this is the exception. Commonly the fruit is arranged on a neat counter protected by an awning overhead, and often a second put up at the side like a sail. Here one may stop and eat his fill of all kinds of fruit-sapotas, luscious as honey; mammees, with their russet rind and red, pasty pulp; oranges with the yellow peel cut off in a thin, long strip, as a New England girl would peel an apple when her lover's initial lay concealed in the skin-and end off the feast with the milk of a green cocoanut, or a draught of water from the poron, or clay water-cooler, which is to be found on every Cuban table. Another way to obtain fruit in small quantities is to lie in wait for the traveling vendor. Mounted on an immense saddle of straw placed on the back of a mule, he comes slowly up the street, and announces his approach by a melancholy, long-drawn outcry: Naranjas de China, zapotes, caimitos, mamey bu-e-na." From these vendors fruit can be obtained at a ridiculously low price-fifteen little golden Cuban bananas for five cents, a dozen oranges for the same price, including a whole armful of sugar-cane. 66 Another street merchant, and the most picturesque of the whole crowd, is the vendedor de maloja, or corn-stalk vendor. He is sometimes mounted on the mule's back, with the fodder bound in huge, wavy bunches on either side; but oftener he marches on foot, with several little donkeys following close behind, the green corn stalks heaped so high on their backs that they appear like walking corn stacks, with only a tiny nose, two bright eyes, and two little ears peering out in front. These little animals may often be seen standing in the yard of the dépôt by the upper end of the Prado receiving their graceful burden. Here also may be seen the Cuban oxen waiting while the rude ox-carts are loaded with boxes of sugar for transportation to the wharves. These oxen are much smaller than those seen at the North, and often with a fine mouse-colored skin, which gives them a very different appearance from their red many roofs flowers and trailing vines are cultivated in large iron vases. A more charming place to pass twilight could not be found, the spicy evening air drawing over, the distant view of the bay dotted with shipping, with the sea stretching northward, and the city just breaking out into evening light and life at one's feet. It will not do to linger too long, however, for the heavy tropical dew commences to fall soon after sunset, covering every thing with dampness. The Tacon Theatre, a large building on the Pra- | object of which we never could fathom. On do, is also built in the same plain, massive style. Every thing is arranged to promote coolness and obtain currents of air through the buildings. Private houses are built with walls of solid masonry of twenty or twenty-five inches in thickness, and with interior courts, so that all the rooms open out-doors on both sides. As there is seldom, if ever, any glass in the windowsonly blinds behind iron lattice-work-a delicious freshness pervades the houses even during very hot days. Almost all buildings are flat-roofed, and on the azotea, as it is called, the inhabitants find a pleasant evening promenade. All the interior partitions are carried up two or three feet above the level of the roof; and as narrow open-possessing any attractive characteristics. The ings are left through which to pass from one to the other, the roof of a large house assumes the appearance of a succession of small pens, the Among the churches of Havana there are few worthy of notice, and those not from any exterior beauty, the cathedral being the only one façade of the cathedral, which looks on a large square, is built of old, crumbling, yellow stone, with a picturesque tower at each corner. The grace and beauty which it lacked originally has been given it by time and the decaying influence of the sea winds. Irregular and broken cornices, to which cling moss and trailing vines, whose seeds were dropped by passing winds, delight the eye of the lover of the picturesque, and at night-fall the niches and ledges above the entrance become the home of multitudes of doves, who hop cozily about from perch to perch, and fill the air with the sound of their gentle cooing. The towers are hung with many bells, some bearing dates and legends of more than two hundred years ago, and all day long they ring out the hours or sound the call to matins and vespers. The interior of the cathedral is remarkable as being the spot where the remains of Columbus lie in everlasting rest. In January, 1796, they were removed from the city of San Domingo, and placed in the cathedral wall by the altar, with great pomp and ceremony. The spot is marked by a marble slab bearing a bust of Columbus in relief, and an inscription. Of similar interest is the Templete, a small chapel erected on the spot where Columbus knelt to celebrate the first mass on these shores. It stands on the eastern side of the Plaza de Armas, and wears a somewhat neglected appearance. It is opened only once a year-on the 16th of November, which is the feast of San Cristobal, when mass is celebrated in honor of the saint and his namesake, the great discoverer. Turning away from the Templete, one may cross the street and refresh him-; self at the little fruit stand at the corner of the Plaza de Armas, or, sitting in the thick shade of the Laurel de India-a species of banyan he shows equal capacity; in short, in every | steadiness of voice and countenance which alposition, down to a place among the gang who hammer stone along the streets, he is found with his impassive, yellow face bent on the task before him. The Chinese never emigrate with the intention of remaining for life in a foreign country. All the immense numbers brought to Cuba come with the professed intention of staying just long enough to earn money sufficient to return home again with a few hundred dollars to spare. They are very clannish, and remain true to each other in all extremities. On this account they have proved dangerous enemies to both parties during the Cuban rebellion, acting as spies to oblige each other, and conveying their information with signs, and in a language defying the utmost skill of the police detective, their expressionless faces giving no indication of the subject of conversation. Large numbers of Chinamen are sent out to labor on the sugar plantations immediately on their arrival in Cuba. They prove efficient laborers; and as they have no expenses, and command very good wages, they accumulate in a very few years funds sufficient to allow them to carry out the cherished project-a return to their native land. The Chinese, however, are born gamblers; and many a poor fellow who comes to Havana from the country to purchase his tickets for home loses the savings of years in a single night, and dooms himself to still farther toil; or, turning to a life of crime, he spends his days in the city prison or chain-gang, or brings the drama of his life to a close on the garroting scaffold at the Punta. The fear of death deters no Chinaman from a crime, for he regards it only as a short way of reaching the land of his fathers. So strong is his faith that at times some poor fellow, being led to his death, has been loaded with letters and keepsakes by his countrymen for delivery to friends at home. The moral portion of the Chinaman's nature appears as yet to be wholly undeveloped. He will lie on the slightest occasion, and with a most forces one to believe in him in spite of the plainest facts to the contrary. He steals whenever he has an opportunity, and if he succeeds in his operation, and remains undetected, seems to consider it rather a virtue than a sin. We recollect our servant coming to us in great delight, with the information that a friend of his had at last succeeded in purchasing a ticket home. Knowing him to be a lazy, gambling fellow, we asked in some surprise how he obtained money enough. "He stole it," was the quiet, self-satisfied reply. It is unnecessary to state that after that we took special care that our own purse was safe from the touch of light fingers. As cigar and cigarette makers, the Chinese are unsurpassed, and they contribute largely to the success of that branch of industry in Havana. The celebrated cigarette factory of La Honradez employs a great number of Chinamen for the preparation of its dainty wares. The workmen are, for the most part, lodged and fed in the building. Their sleeping apartment is like the cabin of a large emigrant ship, full of berths in tiers, with passage-ways round among them, but every thing arranged with great regard to cleanliness and ventilation. By many of the berths hang emblems of curious devices and printed cards in Chinese-probably charms to secure undisturbed repose to the occupant. Going into the long work-rooms in this establishment, one is singularly impressed by the curious appearance of the workmen, who at first sight-indeed, at second sight too-appear to be all women. Dressed in long, blue or nankeen gowns, with hair braided and wound round and round the head, their almond-shaped eyes steadily fastened on the work in hand, they appear like long rows of automatons all worked by a single wire, rather than living, thinking men. To what extent they are thinking men is still an open question. The problem of poor John Chinaman has been proposed to this generation, but a more difficult subject was never brought forward. Unless Johnny | chief industry of the western end of the island himself works it out by quiet, persistent labor, is the cultivation of sugar-cane; and clumps we fear the solution will always remain in the future. of low plantation houses, from which rise the tall chimneys of the grinding mills, may be seen at intervals of two or three miles all over the country. Often the owners of the plantation reside in Havana, the care of the estate being left in the hands of the administrador, or steward, who resides there with his family. Many of the larger estates are used by the owners as summer residences. They go from the city with their families, often taking with them numbers of foreign visitors, for the hospitality of a Cuban planter is unbounded; and through this influence the plantation life loses frequently some of its primitive character. But there are many estates where visitors are a thing almost unknown, and it is to these that one must look for a true picture of Cuban country life. Cuban vegetation impresses one at first sight with a feeling of disappointment. One naturally looks forward to the luxury and magnificence of perpetual June, and is unprepared for the weary, scrubby appearance of most Cuban gardens, where dead wood and decaying leaves are falling among the fresh green. There is always something out of season. If the roses are in full flower, some other shrub alongside is taking its rest, and looks rusty, so that the whole garden is never in a glow of beauty at once. The running vines, such as jasmine and Madeira, and others not known at the North, are never bare of leaves, so they never get trimmed, and consequently dead branches are intertwined with the living, giving to the arbor or veranda It was our good fortune at one time to spend a very unsightly appearance. But the glory a week at one of these retired plantations, and of Cuba is its palms. Who shall speak of the we look back to that visit as to a dream of palm-tree, that figure of majesty and mystery! some golden age in a land flowing with milk Carrying its beauty of wavy greenness far aloft and honey. We were expected guests, and on in the sunshine, it appears a silent bond be- leaving the train we found a volante in waittween heaven and earth. Scattered all over ing to convey us three miles into the country the open country, and standing like stately sen- to the plantation buildings. The road over tries along the horizon, are vast quantities of which we were obliged to pass was of the very the cocoa-nut and royal palm-the two most worst description. Indeed, it was no road at natural to the soil of Cuba. In the botanical all, but a winding track between rough hedges garden surrounding the quinta or country-seat of cactus and yucca, with dry, stubbly cane of the Captain-General, which lies along the far-fields on either side. There had been a recent ther end of the Paseo, is a magnificent collection of palms of all varieties. Walking through the solemn arches of the grand avenue of royal palms, one may turn to either side, into miniature thickets of fan-palm and plantains, their ragged and curiously swelled trunks standing irregularly here and there among the little heaped-up mounds of turf, which are seen in all Havana parks and gardens, and their long, rattling leaves intermingling overhead. Railway traveling in Cuba is not unlike the same thing in the States. The cars-all of Northern manufacture-are divided into three or four classes, in which one may ride according to the length of his purse and the purity of his complexion. The first-class, which is not unlike an old-fashioned railway carriage in the North, is patronized mostly by ladies and foreigners, the large numbers of traveling planters and military officials going second-class, where they can smoke and make themselves at home. The railroads are well built, and the trains travel with great rapidity. As one is whirled along through the dismal, stony country, and past small station buildings, there is only the palm, dotted here and there over the landscape, to remind the traveler that he is not passing over some barren portion of New England. Although in Havana all the excesses of modern fashionable life are indulged in to a great extent, one has only to travel twenty or thirty miles into the interior to find the most primitive and simple domestic customs. The heavy fall of rain, and except where the limestone rock formed a solid bottom, the wheels of the volante sank up to the hubs in red Cuban mud, and the horses, floundering and stumbling in their efforts to drag the carriage through the mire, covered themselves and the calisero from head to foot with the sticky substance. There were no buildings to be seen during the whole drive, except a few free negro huts standing among the scrubby vegetation, their half-dressed, indolent occupants idling about the sunny door-way. Half a mile from the plantation buildings was a large gate-way, gayly painted in red and blue, which an old negro, too feeble for fieldwork, opened for us to pass through. On approaching the buildings the administrador, who in this case was half-owner of the estate, stepped forward to meet us, followed by a mute procession of about a dozen immense blood-hounds, the faithful and savage guardians of every Cuban plantation. He was a largebuilt, well-preserved man of about sixty years, with a pleasant countenance, and long white hair and beard. His family, both young and old, stood around him on the broad piazza, waiting to greet the strangers with hearty goodwill. We were introduced in turn to each one, and then the dogs were called up to be made acquainted with the new-comers. Eying us with much suspicion at first, they gradually assumed a less savage aspect as their master brought them up to us, patting them affection |