114 CUBA AND PORTO RICO 



residences without consideration of danger to adjacent 

 neighbors or the community at large. Furthermore, de- 

 pendents of all kinds, Lepers, blind, aged, deaf, or lame, are 

 allowed to roam as long as they can beg their way. 



The houses of the wealthy are scattered through every 

 part of the city. Some of the finer mansions are very 

 handsome, being built in the classic style. Even in solid city 

 blocks these always have an inner courtyard, or patio, sur- 

 rounded by tall stuccoed colum ns, and ornamented with beau- 

 tiful flowering plants around a central fountain. Song 

 and ornamental birds hang in cages. In the suburbs, 

 where the houses are not in blocks, they are usually sur- 

 rounded by beautiful yards and gardens. It has been said 

 that the handsomest street in Havana is the Cerro, a long 

 thoroughfare running up a hill toward Jesus del Monte, a 

 southern suburb. This is bordered on either side by 

 enormous old villas in the midst of magnificent gardens. 

 The finest of these mansions is built of white marble in the 

 usual classic style. In the midst of a perfect forest of 

 cocoa-palms stands the former summer villa of the bishops 

 of Havana, now a private residence. Then one after an- 

 other follow the handsome dwellings of the Havanese 

 sangre azul, of the Marques dos Hermanos, of the Conde 

 Penalver, of the Marquesa de Rio Palma, etc. The orna- 

 mental cacti in these villa gardens are of immense size and 

 shape. They are principally of the Cereus kind. The 

 door-steps of nearly all these residences are surmounted by 

 recumbent lions, indicative of the aristocracy of their in- 

 habitants. At one residence the lions were lying overturned 

 in the back yard, instead of upright at the front entrance. 

 Upon inquiry as to the cause of this, I learned that the 

 possessor thereof had become incensed because his neigh- 

 bor, a parvenu of low origin, upon whom a title of nobility 

 had lately been bestowed, had recently set up lions on 

 the adjacent door-steps. West of the mouth of the river 

 Armendaris is the handsome seaside suburb of La Mira- 

 nao, where the wealthier residents have constructed taste- 



