118 CUBA AND PORTO RICO 



neatly freshened with color. Outside of the busy thor- 

 oughfares and marts or the crowded homes of the poor, 

 which are no worse than in the down- town streets of New 

 York, one rarely meets a foul smell. The unsanitary con- 

 dition of the city is largely due to causes which are hidden 

 from public sight, such as the crowding of tenements, the 

 miserable cesspools, and the imperfect sewerage, which 

 befouls the beautiful harbor. The city, we are informed 

 by trustworthy engineers and the highest medical authori- 

 ties of our country who have studied the yellow-fever 

 question in Havana, could be made one of the most health- 

 ful in the world. Until recently it was badly supplied with 

 water, and its sewerage is still abominable. In 1895 a 

 modern system of waterworks was installed by New York 

 engineers, who also prepared plans for the solution of the 

 sewerage problem. The city is well policed. Numerous 

 patrolmen dressed in handsome military uniforms guard 

 the various corners, while gendarmes mounted on fine 

 horses are stationed at various places. 



West of Havana, in the Vuelta Abajo district of Pinar 

 del Rio province, there are (or were) many pretty towns. Of 

 these, Cabanas, Mariel, and Bahia Honda are on the northern 

 sea-coast, and have small landlocked harbors which to a 

 certain extent are miniature duplicates of Havana Bay. 

 These towns are very prettily located. The chief places 

 in the interior are Gruanajay, Pinar del Rio, and San Cris- 

 tobal. Guanajay is situated on the principal highway that 

 runs through Vuelta Abajo, and had a population of about 

 four thousand inhabitants. It is a fine type of the smaller 

 Cuban towns, possessing a pretty public square, around 

 which are built some very imposing houses. The town lies 

 in the heart of a beautiful country, about twelve miles from 

 the north shore, between which and it are a number of 

 large sugar-estates situated in a rolling country. 



San Antonio de los Bahos was a small and pretty town, 

 with well-built houses and about five thousand inhabitants, 

 twenty-three miles from Havana, on the road to Guanajay. 



