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PARKS AND PRADO. 
Among the alluring features of Havana are the parks and promenades 
and drives which extend from the water front on the Gulf through the 
center of the city out to Principe Hill. The central parkway is the Prado, 
which connects Columbus, India and Central Parks with Punta and the 
Malecon. Beyond Columbus Park are the drives or paseos La Reina, 
Carlos III., and I aeon. The location of all of these is shown on the map: 
Parque Colon (Columbus Park) was originally a mosquito and fever¬ 
breeding marsh which was drained by the enterprise of that public spirited 
Bishop Espada, whose name is venerated by Cubans for the reforms he 
wrought and the public benefits he secured to them. Tacon laid it out as 
the Campo de Marte (Field of Mars) for a drill ground for the Spanish 
soldiery; inclosed it with a great iron fence, the one which is now in front 
of the Botanical Gardens and the President’ Summer Palace, on the Paseo 
del Carlos III., and asso¬ 
ciated his own name with 
those of the great Spanish 
explorers by calling the 
four gates Colon, Cortes, 
Pizarro and Tacon. The 
bitter fruits of a State 
policy which necessitated 
a drill ground for its sol¬ 
diery were grimly illus¬ 
trated in the ’90s, when 
the Campo de Marte was 
filled with a multitude 
of wretched, starving re- 
concentrados. A year or 
two later the field was 
whitened with the crowd¬ 
ing tents of the American 
soldiers. When the Amer¬ 
icans came into possession 
of Havana and instituted 
that series of public works 
which regenerated the city, 
they cleaned up the parks, 
renovated and improved 
them, and planted grass 
lawns, which were the first 
“habana.” ever seen in Havana. The 
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