Honolulu Republican, Volume IV, Number 499, 17 January 1902 — CUBAN HOME LIFE. [ARTICLE]

CUBAN HOME LIFE.

Coffee. Cigarettes, Rocking Chairs and Comfort Generally. From the Baltimore American. The Cuban householder takes the passing stranger wholly into his con fldence. The houses are usually onestoried and have great windows extending from the ceiling to the ground. Iron bars protect the win dows. bat there are no panes of glass. No curtains obstruct the view and oue sees the family at its meal or the housewife at all her various duties. with entire freedom. In the evening the ladies of the house, elaborately gown»d and lavishly powdered. sit in the window and chat with passing admirers. Visitors who call for a more prolonged stay are invariably seated in a huge rocking chair, one of two long rows of chairs which face each other and are always at right angles to the street, so that whoever passes the window can. at a glance, see even- one jn the room. The rocking chair is a part of Cuban life, without which one cannot imagine Cuba. Everywhere, from the office of Governor General Wood in the magnificent palace, to the humblest hut away in the interi or. you find the rocking chair. In the banking bouses, in lawyers’ offices. in the squares, everywhere except in the churches one finds a big rocking chair. Walk along any street in Havana and you see everybody lazily lolling to and fro. The lamp on the table or the electric light swinging from the ceiling throws a bright radiance over the room. The complete publicity of every word and act does not appear to annoy any one. The visitors rock and smoke, many of the ’adies joining in an occasional cigarette. The coffee urn stands on a side table, and at intervals dainty cups are filled or refilled with the strong, black coffee which in Cuba is drank as im moderately as tea in England. Tb" talented daughter of the house plays the piano. Curiously enough, instead of the dreamy Spanish airs that one would . expect to hear, the Cuban girl's repertoire la limited to the **€•«” •

songs and ragtime rubbish that hu now happily nad its day in the state*.