OBISPO AND O’REILLY. 
The shopping district best known to the visitor in Havana is in Calles 
Obispo and O’Reilly, two of the old narrow streets through which 
wheeled vehicles are permitted to pass in one direction only. The impres¬ 
sion of narrowness is intensified by the heavy cornices and overhanging 
balconies, and the signs which are suspended above spanning the street; 
while in the sunny hours awnings are stretched across from roof to roof, 
completely covering the street and creating a subdued yellow-toned light 
or dusk, which gives the street with the succession of open shops and their 
varied stocks of goods exposed to view the air of an Eastern bazaar. There 
is also, as one looks down Obispo street from the Albear Park, something 
reminiscent of the Midway. Calle Obispo is Bishop street. When the 
Conde de O’Reilly came to Cuba in 1763, and named the streets of the 
city, which before that time had been unnamed, he called this one O’Reilly 
after himself. 
A peculiarity of shops in Havana is that as a rule they do not bear the 
names of the proprietors, but are called by some fanciful name, as Las 
Ninfas (The Nymphs), La Esperanza (Hope), Truth, The Fair, Modesty, 
Patience, Galatea, La Diana, or some other nom de guerre. It is true that 
our illustrations do not illustrate this peculiarity, but observation will show 
that the signs like those in the pictures are not the rule, but the excep¬ 
tion; they are American innovations, not the characteristic way of the 
Cubans. 
The Cubans have a taste for prodigality in grandiloquent or pretty names. Every 
shop, the most humble, has its name. They name the shops after the sun and 
moon and stars; after gods, and goddesses, demi-gods and heroes; after fruits ana 
flowers, gems and precious stones; af+er favorite names of women, with pretty, 
fanciful additions; and after all alluring qualities, all delights of the senses, and all 
pleasing affections of the mind. The wards of jails and hospitals are each known 
by some religious or patriotic designation; and twelve guns in the Morro are named 
for the Apostles. Every town has the name of an apostle or saint, or of some 
sacred subject. The full name of Havana, in honor of Columbus, is San Cristobal 
de la Habana; and that of Matanzas is San Carlos Alcazar de Matanzas.—R. H. 
Dana, 1859. 
Another time-honored custom of the Cuban merchant is to eat his meals 
in his shop. If we pass along the street at breakfast time, eleven o’clock, 
and look in at the shops, we shall see business suspended, the table spread 
in the middle of the room, and the shopkeeper and his clerks sitting down 
at their meal in the midst of their goods. The custom is universal through¬ 
out Cuba with the Spanish shopkeepers. The clerks, also Spaniards, un¬ 
married, live in the shop and boaird with their employers. They know no 
other dining room, nor parlor nor living room than the shop. 
In Calles Obispo and O’Reilly the tourist will find many articles suitable 
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