2 
PARK AND CEME.TE.RY 
In the ParKs of Havana. 
By I. A. Barnes. 
When the American army of intervention entered 
Havana and assumed the reins of government thev 
found themselves with something like seventeen parks 
ini that city to care for, scattered over various sections 
of the city and along the water front. Some of them 
hardly deserved the name, on account of the smallness 
in area and the condition in which they had been kept 
by the Spaniards. Some of them were mere vacant 
spaces at the sharp angles formed by two streets which 
were not exactly parallel with each other, such as are 
to be observed im Washington, where the lettered 
streets cross the avenues at all sorts of angles ; but 
there were a few of the parks which could lay claim 
to at least having been prettv nice at one time in their 
history, although by reason of the war they had been 
sadly neglected. 
One great trouble was that the. Spaniard’s idea of a 
park is a peculiar one in that he seems to want to put 
a fence or even a brick wall around the parks as soon 
as t'ney are planted. 
The two finest parks in the city of Havana are the 
Columbus (Colon they call it) and the Central. The 
former is said to be the most beautiful small park on 
. the American continent. Then there is the fashion- 
able drive known as the Prado, with its double row of 
trees and elevated promenade in the center. This 
extends from the sea front at the entrance of the har- 
bor and just opposite the historic old Morro Castle 
through the heart of the city to Colon Park. About 
midway of this drive there is located Central Park. 
It is a small park containing probably not more th^n 
20,000 square yards and is at the head of the two prin- 
cipal retail business streets of Obispo and O’Reily (he 
was a Spaniard, nevertheless) and most centrally sit- 
uated, surrounded by the principal theaters, hotels and 
shopping district of the city. 
The thing which particularly attracts the' attention 
of the visitor is the dense shade of the plane, proxiuced 
chiefly by a kind of laurel sometimes called the sacred 
tree of Hindoostan (Ficus rcligiosa) and by the beau- 
tiful flamboyer. The latter is a brilliant sight in the 
month of February when its canopy-like top is cov- 
ered so thickly with a mass of the brightest scarlet 
flowers as to well deserve its name of the “fire tree” 
of the tropics. This floral display is followed by its 
delicately cut, fern-like leaves of a beautiful shade of 
green and so thickly set and overlapping each other 
like shingles on a roof as to give the tree the appear- 
ance of a gigantic green umbrella. iBut both of these 
trees have their drawbacks. While the former seems 
to be just as much in leaf in January as in June, and 
is to be greatly admired for this delightful character- 
istic, still it has a habit of dropping its soft berries on 
the chairs and benches underneath ; and, as the Cuban 
young genteman, as a general rule, attires himself in a 
spotless white linen suit when he goes out on parade 
to enjoy a cigar — you know the rest. The flamboyer 
drops its leaves along in December and the branches 
are entirely bare, with the exception of the long, black, 
ugly seed pods lo or 12 inches in length and hanging 
down in great profusion. In this condition, the con- 
trast between it and the palms and other trees of the 
park is quite marked. 
The photographs do not show the center of the 
park with its wide promenade, children’s playground 
and bandstand — an elevated platform made of stonef 
and cement and about 50 feet across. No chairs orj 
benches are provided for the musicians. The band is 
a splendid one, composed of more than seventy per- 
formers, and they give open-air concerts in this park 
ever}^ Thursday and every Sunday evening of the 
year. j 
There are some benches in the park, but. seating ac-' 
commodations, in the main, are dependent upon the 
company which holds a concession from the Govern-* 
ment to supply chairs for the public, xnaking a charge 
therefor. This privilege (quite a valuable one) is 
sold by the city to the highest bidder and the charges 
J 
