THE CUBA REVIEW. 



27 



Some Phases of Camaguey 



CITIES, like people, have a distinct individualit)- of their o\Yn and certain salient 

 characteristics which distinguish them. Havana, for instance, is a gay coquette, 

 smiling, brilliant, frivolous and alluring, displaying her charm and beauty to 

 the most casual passerby. Camagiiey, on the other hand, might be likened to 

 an old duenna, wrinkled of visage and formal of manner, but with a gleam in her faded 

 eye that hints of the romance of Moorish days and a fund of historic anecdote which 

 she will unfold for you on closer acquaintance. 



Untouched as they have been until recently since the sixteenth century by the 

 modernizing influences of contact with other and more progressive peoples, the inhabi- 

 tants of Camagiiey still retain their formality in social intercourse of the ancient Spanish 

 regime, and typify its conservatism more than any other city on the island. The old 

 Spanish families looked with a sort of horrified amazement at the free and easy manners 

 of the first American tourists who flocked to Camagiiejr with the opening of the new 

 railroad and hotel. This feeling was shortly changed to a sort of tolerant indulgence 

 when they saw how really harmless were our informal independent ways. 



During the daytime the long narrow streets of Camagiiey are almost bare of the 

 ladies of this quaint city, but as one drives through them in an antiquated hack drawn 

 by a horse as seemingly venerable as the town itself, a glimpse is often caught of a 

 dim interior behind a quaint Moorish screen or equally ancient wooden-barred window 

 like those of Cairo, where in two absolutely straight rows and facing each other on 

 either side of the window sit the women of the household rocking — rocking and for- 

 ever rocking. Or if you glance above you on a second story balcony you may see a 

 dusky-eyed belle with a rose behind her ear who will gaze at you with demure interest 

 while manipulating her fan as only women of southern blood know how. 



It is in the evening, however, when the scars and ravages of a city even so battered 

 by time as Camagiiey are made beautiful and suggestive of romance by the "mystical, 

 magical moonlight" of the tropics, when one feels to the full the subtle spell of the lan- 

 gourous island. Then the youth and maiden meet in the historic plaza with its four 

 palm trees and now silent fountain and promenade around and around in a tireless, 

 animated circle, the men, according to etiquette, walking in one direction and the girls 

 promenading in the other, their intercourse with the sterner sex limited to formal bows. 

 In fact, as far as I could observe, the only place where the senoritas and their admirers 

 did more than smile and bow was at the weekly dances. 



Camagiiey has two boasts, the finest climate on the island and — the prettiest girls. 

 Certain it is that the air there in contrast to the seaport towns has a delightful dryness, 

 the ever present breeze is invigorating and one can exercise even in the heat of the day 

 without that feeling of lassitude which a moist atmosphere induces. I noticed this par. 

 ticularly in the daily horseback rides we would take to one or another point of interest, 

 unreachable except on one of those sturdy little Cuban ponies. An amusing thing about 



