PARKS AND PRADO. 
57 
streets, mounted backwards on a mule, and whipped at various designated 
points in the city until his full complement of lashes had been received. 
When Tacon chose this site for his prison, the spot was far outside 
the city wall, and near-by, where the Students’ Memorial now stands, 
was the place of public execution. But however remote from the life of 
Havana the Carcel may have been when it was established, the growth 
of the town and the .extension of the park systems have given it a con¬ 
spicuousness and nearness to the city’s pleasure grounds which are 
seriously deprecated. It thrusts itself upon the notice of the throngs 
of the Prado and the Malecon, and is out of harmony with the sur¬ 
roundings. The American government of intervention entertained a 
plan to remove the jail prisoners to the Hospital Militar, at the head 
of the harbor, and the penitentiary convicts to the Cabana, and thus to 
make the splendid building available for public offices; but the scheme 
was abandoned. A more recent proposition is a plan to utilize the 
magnificent site for a hotel. The Carcel was listed in a city schedule in 
1900 at $464,000. 
Just beyond the northern end of the Carcel, where, an armed guard keeps 
watch by day and by night, is the Students’ Memorial. The simple panel is 
LAURELS OF THE PRADO. 
