The History of Cuba Volume V Part 26

Just in front of this wall on the west, a wide clearing was made to prevent surprise attacks from the forests beyond. With the felling of the trees, gra.s.s soon grew along its entire length, hence the name Prado, which means meadow, became permanently attached to it, and so the green lawn in front of the old walls of the 17th century was transformed two hundred years later into Havana's most aristocratic avenue.

The princ.i.p.al thoroughfare, leading from the southern side of the Plaza de Armas to the Prado, was called Obispo or Bishop Street, which name it still retains. It is said that the first Bishop of Havana was in the habit of taking his daily walk out along this road to the main gate of the City; hence the name.

Beginning at the water front and running from La Fuerza west, parallel to Obispo, is O'Reilly Street, named in honor of one of Cuba's most energetic Governors-General, who controlled the affairs of Havana in 1763, and who was, as the name suggests, of Irish antecedents. Just north of O'Reilly and parallel to it we have Empedrado Street which won its distinction by being paved from the old Cathedral to San Juan de Dios Park in the time of Governor General Las Casas. South of Obispo came Obrapia Street, or the Lane of Pious Works. Beyond and parallel to it came Lamparilla Street, which earned this cognomen owing to the fact that some progressive citizen in the early days hung a lantern in front of his residence for the benefit of the public at large.

Next comes Amargua Street, or the Bitter Way. It is along Amargura that certain pious and penitent monks were said to practice flagellation.

With shoulders bent, and on their knees, they invited the blows of whips while wending their way out towards the edge of the city. Incidentally they collected alms en route. On the southeast corner of Amargura and Mercaderes Streets a peculiar cross in stucco, painted green, is built into the wall of the house where, centuries ago, lived a high dignitary of the church, before which all pa.s.sing religious processions paused for special prayers.

There is hardly a square within the old walled city that has not some story or legend whose origin goes back to the days of Velasquez, De Soto, Cortez of Mexico, and other celebrated conquerors of the New World.

The Havana of today is a strange mingling of modern, reinforced cement and stone structures, five or six stories high, with little one or two-story, thick-walled, tile roofed samples of architecture that prevailed three hundred years or more ago. City property, however, is increasing so rapidly in value that many old landmarks along the narrow streets of the wall inclosed section are being torn down and replaced with large, well equipped office buildings.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COLON PARK

Colon Park, one of the most beautiful pleasure grounds of the Cuban capital, is also known as the Campo de Marte, and is at the southern end of the famous Prado. It is noted for its marvellous avenues of royal palms. From it the Call de la Reina, once one of the most fas.h.i.+onable streets of the city but now given up to business, runs westward toward the Botanical Gardens.]

With the acc.u.mulation of sugar estates, coffee plantations, cattle ranches and resultant wealth, people of means began to seek summer homes beyond the walls of the old City. All men in those days went heavily armed for any danger that might threaten, while numerous slaves furnished protection from common thieves and highwaymen.

With the development of the outlying districts, trails and roads soon began to reach out both to the west and south, followed some years later by what were known as Caminos Reales or Royal Roads, connecting Havana with Matanzas, Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus, Remedios, Camaguey and Santiago de Cuba.

One road, known still as El Cerro, ran southwest along the crest of a ridge that led towards the western part of the Island and in after years connected Havana with the big coffee plantations in the mountains and foothills of Pinar del Rio. Along this road were built the first suburban residences and country homes of the aristocracy of Havana.

Many of these places were cut out of dense woods, and on one of them, until less than ten years ago, the original owner, the Conde de Fernandina, retained a full square of dense primeval forest, not a tree of which had been removed since the days of Columbus. This remnant of virgin wilderness, located on the corner of El Cerro and Consejero Arango Streets, was for some six years pa.s.sed by the electric car line of El Cerro.

All of this section of the City, of course, was long ago built up with handsome residences that sheltered most of the old Cuban families, who had inherited the right to t.i.tles, coats of arms, and other paraphernalia pertaining to the monarchy of Spain. Tulipan Park marks the center of this aristocratic district, and still retains much of its old-time atmosphere of colonial prestige.

Further south ran another winding trail that gradually ascended a range of hills, forming the divide from which the undulating surface slopes towards the south coast, thirty miles away, where Velasquez located the original site of Havana. This thoroughfare is known as Jesus del Monte, or Jesus of the Mountain, and has become quite popular in recent years on account of reputed healthfulness due to its elevation above the sea.

When the last remnants of the Spanish army returned to Spain in 1899, that portion of the City called El Vedado, or The Forbidden, extending from the Beneficencia, or Orphan Asylum, out to the Almandares River, three miles distant, was nothing but a goat pasture, with a low sea front of sharp coral rocks. Its soil was thin and the district apparently had nothing to recommend it aside from its view of the ocean.

A little dummy engine pulled a shaky, shabby car out to the Almandares, making four trips a day. Just why it ran at all was a mystery to the inhabitants, since there was but little inducement to travel in that direction. The entire expanse of land from the Santa Clara Battery to the Almandares, and miles beyond, could have been purchased for a song, but no one wanted it.

Two years later some "fool American" erected an attractive bungalow on the line, about half way to the Almandares, and not long after, sign boards could be seen with the notice, "Lots for sale," which invariably occasioned smiles, since there were no purchasers. But around the bungalow were laid out pretty grounds, and the suggestion took root. Two men of means erected beautiful places close by, and the building of homes in the cactus-covered flats became a fad.

The price of lots, which began at ten cents a square meter, soon rose to a dollar, then two dollars, five, ten, twenty-five, and today this entire section from Havana to the Almandares and beyond, from the dog teeth coral of the coast, up over the crest of the Principe Hill, is covered with beautiful modern mansions with splendid grounds, and forms the residential pride and show ground of the city.

This marvelous increase in development of suburban property, which seems to continue with leaps and bounds, has long since pa.s.sed the Almandares River and reached out to the Playa and to the Country Club, while even further west land is sold by the square meter and not by the caballeria. All has taken place since Leonard Wood stepped into the Palace as Governor-General of Cuba in the year 1900.

Another well-known highway that played an important part in the early history of Havana was called La Reina. This wide, beautiful avenue begins at the Parque Colon and runs due west until at the crest of the first ridge the name changes to Carlos Tercero, pa.s.sing between avenues of laurels until it reaches the Quinto de los Molinos and the Botanical Gardens. Pa.s.sing on around the southern edge of the Principe Plateau, the avenue continues on to Colon Cemetery, a beautiful spot, commanding a view of the mouth of the Almandares, and that portion of Vedado lying between it and the Gulf. Since Havana has but one cemetery for a city of over 360,000 inhabitants, travel to the last resting place is somewhat constant over this really beautiful road.

The view from the western terminus of Principe Hill is one of the finest in Cuba's capital. It was this crest that the English Colonel Howe, after landing his force of three thousand men in 1762 at the mouth of the Almandares River, ascended and from it saw for the first time the old walled city lying at his feet, in all its primitive glory.

This commanding position on the western edge of the Principe Plateau, with the City of Havana, the Botanical Gardens and the beautiful Quinto de los Molinos lying at its base, was chosen for the site of the University of Havana, and no more appropriate place for an inst.i.tution of this kind could have been selected. In the near future it will undoubtedly become one of the most important seats of learning in Latin America.

Near the head of the western extension of Havana Harbor is the Loma of Atares, on whose summit rests a picturesque 18th century fortress of the same name. The hill rises abruptly several hundred feet above the level plain, and commands all approaches to the City both from the south and the west.

The prado or meadow, that extended along the western front of Havana's embattled ramparts, is today changed into a wide esplanade, along which runs a double driveway for automobiles and carriages. Through the center, between double rows of laurels and flamboyans, are shaded walks, shrubs and rare plants of the tropics. On both sides of this fas.h.i.+onable street, sumptuous mansions, many of them homes of millionaires and distinguished men of this western Paris, have been built since the inauguration of the Republic. Attempts have been made at different times to change the name of this avenue, but the people of Havana, up to the present, have insisted on retaining the term first given it, the "Prado," that always lay between the City gates and the western forests.

On the east lies the former walled city with its narrow streets and antique buildings and picturesque landmarks of bygone centuries. On the west we have the more modern City, that extends for miles both south and west, where beautiful residences have been erected, some of them palatial in size and appointments. Several of the more prominent hotels, too, are located on the Prado where it forms the western boundary of "Parque Central," that delightful retreat in the City's center. In front of the Park was the large gate that gave entrance and exit to the traffic of the old time thoroughfares of Obispo and O'Reilly. Many beautiful club buildings, whose cost ran into millions, are located along the Prado.

At the southwestern corner of the Park is the new National Theatre, a magnificent piece of architecture covering an entire block of ground, and costing some $3,000,000. This theatre is the largest and best equipped place of amus.e.m.e.nt in Havana, and at its entertainments may be found the elite of the Island republic. The season of grand opera continues for approximately six weeks every winter, during which the best artists of Italy, France, Spain and the Metropolitan Opera of New York furnish entertainment to a music-loving audience, whose taste is as refined and critical as any in the world.

The "Parque Central" covers an area equivalent to two city squares, in which many beautiful shade trees, including the evergreen laurel, the flamboyan, date and royal palms, and other plants and flowers peculiar to the tropics, add shade and beauty to the spot. In its center rises an imposing statue in marble of Jose Marti.

From this central point the Prado continues south until it terminates in the "Parque de los Indies." Adjoining on the west is the "Parque de Colon," with an area equivalent to four large city blocks. Stately royal palms, india rubber trees, flowering majaguas, cocoanuts and rare tropical plants, render this park one of the most interesting in the City.

Leading away from the head of the Parque de Colon we find a wide avenue known as La Reina, that extends westward and upward to the summit of Belascoain, where its width is more than doubled in the Avenue known as Carlos Tercero. This continues west between two long rows of shade trees, outside of which are two more drives running parallel to the main or central avenue.

This continues out beyond the Botanical Gardens, the Quinto de los Molinos, whence the main street curves around the crest of the Plateau of El Principe, and continues on two miles to Colon Cemetery near the further end of the Plateau, on the east bank of the Almandares.

Colon cemetery is one of the finest in Latin America. The monument dedicated to the seventeen firemen who perished beneath the falling wall of a burning house, consists of a single shaft some fifty feet in height, surmounted by the figure of an angel, supporting in her arms an exhausted fireman. Cameos in marble of the faces of the men who died in the performance of duty, are cut around the base of the monument.

Another beautiful example of the sculptor's art stands above the tomb of the "Inocentes," where lie buried the bodies of the eight youths who were executed by the Spanish Volunteers, at the foot of the Prado on November 27, 1871. In this cemetery are buried also many of Cuba's famous men and women whose graves are carefully kept, and on Decoration Day are visited by thousands of people, friends, relatives and admirers, who leave their tributes of flowers, kind thoughts and tears.

Music in all its varied forms, from grand opera to the rhythmic beat of the kettle drum, (which plays such an important part in the orchestras of native negroes) probably furnishes the chief source of pleasure and entertainment in the Republic of Cuba. The Havanese have always been a music loving people, and really excellent musicians are common in the Capital.

The Munic.i.p.al Band of Havana, with some eighty artists, under the direction of Guillermo Tomas, furnishes music, either in Central Park or the Malecon, several evenings each week. It is in attendance also at nearly all official functions, and funerals of prominent men, soldiers, and officers of the Government.

This same band has won at different times the admiration and approval of many audiences in the United States, including that of critical Boston, where concerts were given in Symphony Hall in 1915. It was also heard at New York City's Tercentenary Celebration during the fall of the same year. Director Tomas is very proud of the medal awarded to his band by the judges of the Buffalo Exposition in 1901.

Many other excellent bands belonging to the Navy, and to different branches of the Army, are noted for their music, and share with the Munic.i.p.al in entertaining the public during different evenings of the week at the Malecon, and at various parks scattered throughout the City.

The Conservatory of Music located on Galiano Street near Concordia Street has turned out many brilliant artists during its career of half a century or more. Recitals of music are usually held in the National Theatre or in the Salons of the Academy of Arts and Sciences on Cuba Street. In these halls nearly all the celebrated artists of the world have given concerts, and hardly a week pa.s.ses without entertainments by the best local talent.

Next to music, driving, either in automobiles or open carriages, over the beautiful "Careteras" radiating from the City, furnishes probably the most popular form of diversion in Cuba. Nearly every evening throughout the year, the view of the Malecon where the Prado and the beautiful Gulf Sh.o.r.e Drive meet is a scene of animation not soon to be forgotten.

The circular Glorieta, with its dome-shaped roof, supported on heavy stone columns, shelters some one of the famous National bands while hundreds of people in machines, in carriages, on stone benches and iron seats, enjoy the music and between selections chat about the various topics of the day. From eight until ten, under the shadow of the grim old fortress "la Punta," and in the blaze of electric lights which line the Prado and the Malecon, this diversion holds the public, including all grades of society, from the highest officials to the humblest clerk, or girl worker in the tobacco factories, who enjoy the benefits of a true democracy, social and political and financial.

Some two miles west of the mouth of the Almandares, a little inlet known as La Playa, fairly well protected from the outer sea, furnishes the nearest bathing beach for the citizens of Havana and visitors from abroad. Since the temperature of the Gulf Stream which sweeps along this part of the northern coast is practically uniform throughout the year, bathing may be indulged in with pleasure both summer and winter. In the latter season, however, owing to cool winds that sometimes blow across the Gulf from the north, only visitors from the United States and tourists take advantage of this sport. The residents of Havana confine their bathing season largely to the strictly summer months from May until November.

The Havana Yacht Club stands just back from the beach, and from its front extends some two hundred feet out into the water a splendid concrete pier, shaded by canvas awnings, and patronized by members of the club and its guests. This club was established during the first Government of Intervention and counts among its members many of the best families of Havana. The interest in yachting has grown rapidly and every year brings with it interesting sloop yacht and motor boat races, held either at the Playa or at Varadero, near Cardenas.

During the bathing season the Marine Band furnishes music from five until seven in the afternoons. This is enjoyed not only by the members of the Yacht Club, but also by crowds who throng the beach for a mile or more on either side.

The finest beach of Cuba, however, is known as the Varadero, located on the sea side of Punta Icaca, a narrow strip of land that projects into the Bay of Cardenas. Here many of the regattas are held during the summer months, when visitors from the capital go to Cardenas to enjoy the twenty mile stretch of outside surf bathing. Bathing places cut out of the coral rocks along the beach of Vedado are also used, especially by the citizens of that locality.

Fis.h.i.+ng is a sport that furnishes most enjoyable entertainment for those who are fond of it. Handsome specimens of the finny tribe are frequently brought in by men and boys, who drift in small boats along the coast, a mile or so out, and fish both for the table and for profit. Tourists often find amus.e.m.e.nt in going out in motor launches at night and fis.h.i.+ng for shark off the mouth of the harbor. Since sharks are usually plentiful, and of sufficient size to give the angler a tussle before being brought up to the boat and dispatched, this form of amus.e.m.e.nt appeals as a novelty to many who come from the interior of the United States.

The markets of Havana are full of excellent fish that are caught all along the Gulf Stream, between Cuba and the coast of Florida. These are brought in sloops provided with the usual fish well, which keeps them fresh until thrown on the wharf just before daylight. The varieties most sought for, or prized, are the red snapper, known in Spanish as the "Pargo," the sword fish, and the baracuta, which are splendid fish, from two to three feet in length and very game, when caught with hook and line.

Of the smaller fish, the Spanish mackerel, the mullet, the needle fish, and scores of other varieties are always found in abundance. The pompano, peculiar to the Gulf of Mexico, owing to its delicious flavor and its entire lack of small bones is probably the most prized of all, and commands a very high price when it reaches the table of fas.h.i.+onable hotels in the United States.

The game of Jai Alai was introduced here from the Basque Provinces of Spain, during the first Government of Intervention in 1900, and became very popular with both Cubans and visitors from the United States.

General Leonard Wood and his aides soon acquired the habit of visiting the Fronton and spending an hour or so in practice every morning.

Jai Alai is played in a building erected for the purpose with a court some two hundred feet in length, inclosed on three sides by smooth stone walls, perhaps forty feet in height, and having a concrete floor. It is played with two opponents on each side known as the blues and the whites. The ball is similar to that of the tennis court, made in Spain with a high degree of resiliency and costing five dollars. It is thrown from a long narrow wicker basket, or scoop, slightly curved at the point, to retain the ball while swung to the head or end wall. The gloved part of the instrument is firmly strapped to the forearm of the player. The ball is caught in this sling-like scoop, and from its length of some thirty inches or more is driven with great force from the further end of the court to the opposite wall. On the rebound it must be caught by one of the two opponents, on either fly or first bound, otherwise a point is scored against the side that falls.

A three-inch band is painted around the end of the court, parallel with the floor and about four feet above it. The ball must strike the wall above this band, and the science of the play is to drive it into the corner at such an angle that your opponents will find it impossible to catch it as it caroms back.

Once the game starts, the ball never stops its flight through the air, from the wicker scoop to the end of the wall and back, until an error is made which counts against the side that fails to catch it. And since the player cannot hold the ball in his wicker sling for an instant, the action is decidedly rapid and the excitement soon becomes intense.