IN AND ABOUT THE CITY. 
87 
trations are characteristic—the 
shoe-seller crying his zapatas 
and zapatillas strung on a rod 
suspended from the shoulder, and 
the seller of laces carrying his as¬ 
sortment displayed in alluring 
array on a staff. Then there is the 
baratillero, whose stock of little 
notions—pins and needles and 
other housewife supplies—is con¬ 
tained in wooden boxes with glass 
ends, carried on the back of horse 
or donkey. 
The Tacon Market, Mercado de 
Tacon, or Plaza de Vapor, is the 
largest in the city, and contains 
the most varied display of Cuban 
products. In the stalls are seen 
red and yellow bananas, plantains, 
oranges, grape fruit, limes, shad¬ 
docks, citrons, sapotas, sapadillos, 
anonas, raameys, mangos, agua- 
cates, guanabanas, pineapples, co- 
coanuts, yams and cassava, and 
other tropical productions, with a 
score of vegetables familiar in laces. 
northern markets; and native 
fruit preserves, jellies and marmalades in enticing display. Suspended 
above are palm-leaf baskets and curiously shaped gourds, commonplace 
enough here, but certain to be prized if taken home as souvenirs. The 
fish, many of them superb in coloring, are kept alive in tanks, from which 
the purchaser makes his selection. For a long period the catching of fish 
for market in Havana waters was a monopoly granted to one Marti by 
Governor Tacon. Marti, a smuggler who had long baffled the authorities, 
at last voluntarily surrendered himself to Tacon and betrayed his con¬ 
federates in return for the reward of the fishing monopoly for twenty 
years. 
In Havana, as elsewhere, one may get a graphic and comprehensive sur¬ 
vey of the fruits and vegetables of the country by an early morning visit 
to the market. The three principal markets are Tacon, Colon, and 
Cristina. Tacon is on the Calzada de La Reina, just off from Colon 
Park. Colon is between Zulueta, Animas and Monserrate streets. Cristina, 
between Mercaderes and Teniente Rey, on the Plaza Vieja, is the oldest^ 
market in the city; it occupies the site of the old palace of the Ploly Office 
