THE CUBA REVIEW. 



Cuba in Carnival Costume. 



By Eliza Bunting. 



CARRIAGES GAY WITH "SERPENTINA" CROWDING THE A\ALECON. 



HILE the Cubans do not go in for the wonderful pictorial display 

 of barges, floats and other vehicles of similar grandeur that one 

 sees at the New Orleans Mardi Gras or the annual Battle of the 

 Flowers at Nice, yet there is about their spring carnival a distinct 

 flavor, an atmosphere peculiarly its own. 



Earh' on the Sundaj- morning preceding Ash Wednesday you 

 will be awakened by the fusillade of fireworks which usually an- 

 nounce a fiesta of some kind on the island and if curiosity draws 

 you to your balcony, you will see on the street crowds of children, 

 usually of the poorer classes, prancing about in costumes quaint and 

 hidicrous with hideous masks turning their pretty baby faces into 

 grimaces of changelings. Unlike, however, the bedraggled fancy 

 costumes donned on Thanksgiving Day and New Year's by youngsters of this 

 country, all the carnival dresses — no matter how cheap — of these children of 

 the south have »a certain artistic value and are worn with the inherent grace 

 of their race. ^lany of them are composed entirely of thin colored tissue paper, 

 which by putting skirt upon skirt ad lil)itum is made to resemble a ballet 

 dancer's costume, but which in the tumult of the day suffers di^^astrously and 

 leaves many an olive tinted body nearly bare by nightfall. 



One of the most effective costumes, worn by a little dark eyed midget, who 

 holding out her tiny tambourine, begged in wheedling tones for "one cent, ' 

 was composed entirely of rags torn into even strips about two inches wide and 

 si.xteen inches long whose fluttering ends were most ingeniously gathered in 

 at the waist and then left to fly as she whirled along. 

 Walking along the side streets approaching the Paseo del Marti (Prado) which 

 is the center of gayet}', one sees every shop closed, flags out on balconies, murmurs 

 from an interested populace, standing in doorways, of "Americana — Simpatica Ameri- 

 cana," for despite the large number of resident Americans in Havana, and the even 

 greater number of annual tourists, an American, and noticeably those of the gentler sex, 

 always causes a pleasurable thrill of excitement among the natives, and they are all con- 

 sidered that untranslatable word "simpatica," which means everything that is delightful. 



