FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 191 



that was not theirs. In peace time at anyrate, the 

 climate was merely hot enough and dry enough 

 to crowd the thousand cafs of the capital with 

 noisy candidates for ensalada, pina fria and other 

 simple but cooling beverages of a land where there 

 is much drinking but no drunkenness. The 

 Cubanos, even more than their cousins of Spain, 

 have a passion for ices and sweet cakes, and men, 

 who in London would be drinking whisky pegs in 

 their clubs, gravely sit in the cafes and put away 

 cream cakes and jam tarts with a wholeheartedness 

 that would shame a schoolboy home for the holidays. 

 Such sugary food is better suited to the fair, yet 

 these never gladden such public resorts with their 

 presence, though they may, for all I know, have 

 their allotted haunts. 



When it rains in Havana, it rains. That is to 

 say, the streets are transformed to lakes and rivers 

 with the swiftness of a change effect at the Hippo- 

 drome, and those who are unprovided with 

 umbrellas stand weather-bound under the arcades 

 waiting for a lull in the storm. Mosquitoes are apt 

 to be troublesome in rainy weather, but the hotels 

 have an ample supply of damaged mosquito-cur- 

 tains. He who likes the comfort of nights immune 

 from such tortures takes his own. 



It is possible to reach Santiago by sea it is 

 possible, when one comes to think of it, to travel 

 in the same manner from New York to San 

 Francisco but few, I imagine, are so eccentric. 

 The railroad journey is certainly a long one, 

 occupying twenty-four hours by schedule, with 

 three hours' grace several nights of the week, but 

 it is certain (which is more than can be said for 



