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THE CUBA REVIEW 



POINTS FOR TRAVELERS IN CUBA 



SOME "dON'ts" for THE AMERICAN WOMAN TRAVELER IN CUBA 



Can a woman travel alone in Cuba is the subject of a briglit article by Kathleen Hills 

 in Leslie's Jl'cekly of New York. 



She says that it was a small, white, weak and timid little woman who made the trip 

 to Cuba because of ill-health, and she winds up her article by saying that "no woman 

 need be afraid to take the trip alone." Part of her impressions are as follows: 



"My first gHmpse of Havana will never be forgotton. I had left New York in a flurry 

 of snow-; I found Havana bathed in warmth and sunshine. Roses vied with tropical 

 flowers of every hue and description ; I ceased to think of the north winds that blow 

 about my northern home. 



"Havana is picturesque beyond description, with its funny little houses and stores, 

 with windows open to the very ground, so that you scarcely feel that you are indoors — 

 with its quaint, narrow streets in which one team can just about pass another; with 

 sidewalks so narrow that to pass another person you must step into the gutter ; with its 

 motley throng of many shades, races, creeds and nationalities. History is not new in 

 Havana and the sight-seer is rewarded by views of old castles, fortresses and battle- 

 ments, churches and shrines centuries old. You can ride almost anywhere for practically 

 nothing, in a queer little phaeton with a horse that trots better than it looks. English is 

 spoken much and often — and most of the time badly — but you can get along fairly well. 

 There are many English-speaking guides to pilot you for a dollar or two. 



"There are a few 'don'ts' for a woman to remember when in Cuba. Don't mind having 

 men look at you inquiringly on the street if you are alone. Cuban and Spanish women 

 of the better classes do not go out on the street. How do they shop, you say? They go 

 in their carriage or their automobile ; or in a hired phaeton, they are driven to the shop, 

 do their shopping and return immediately. But the Spaniard or Cuban knows an Amer- 

 ican woman in a minute. He knows her independence and her habit of going unchap- 

 eroned, and he marvels. If he speaks to you, ignore him; if he persists, turn him over 

 to that peculiarly garbed man on the corner who wears a blue linen suit and cap and 

 who carries a revolver as well as a club in his belt. He looks like a brigand, but he is 

 only a policeman. 



"Of course you will visit the hotels, restaurants and cafes, and you will be surprised. 

 In America a private dining-room is not usual ; in Havana most of the cafes have a 

 number of small dining-rooms partitioned off at the sides of the main dining-room. It 

 IS better, if ladies are in the party, to occupy one of these small rooms rather than to sit 

 in the main dining-room and be in full view and hearing of those on the sidewalks. 



"Even at the best hotels in Cuba, don't look for butter, milk, cream or cofifee like you 



Tennis Club Building and court in fashionable Vedado, Havana. 



