THE STANDARD GUIDE. 
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an order of nuns who nurse the sick), the Chapel of the Hermanas 
de los Pobres (Little Sisters of the Poor), Carmen (Iglesia del Carmen), 
the Chapel of the Ursuline Nuns (cloistered), and the Church of Nuestra 
Sehora de la Caridad (Our Lady of Charity), in the suburb of La Caridad. 
The most interesting church is La Merced, built about the year 1628, by 
missionaries of Our Lady of Mercy, a Spanish order founded at Barcelona 
in 1250 for the redemption of slaves and captives and prisoners for debt. 
Here in Camaguey, the order died out until only one old priest was left to 
care for the church; and before his death it was taken over by the order 
of Bare-footed Carmelites, of whom there are now fifteen in the monastery 
attached to the church. They came from Spain. The church is open from 
6, to 10 in the morning, and 6 to 7 at night. Admission may be had at 
other hours by ringing the bell at the door of the monastery. Women are 
not allowed within the monastic precincts. 
The architectural lines of the interior are interesting, but the church 
lacks any richness of mural decoration. The high altar of silver is re¬ 
splendent; it was fashioned from 40,000 Spanish dollars; and there is a 
sepulchre of hammered silver, weighing 500 pounds, which contains an 
effigy of the body of Christ; in the processions of Good Friday the sepul¬ 
chre was carried through the streets on the shoulders of bearers who 
contended for the privilege. 
The church is remarkable for its extremely massive construction; the 
walls are from 4 to 8 feet thick. Cannon have been fired from the arched 
roof. We may note in the tower an illustration of the hardness and 
durability of some of the Cuban woods; in the steps where the stair bind¬ 
ing is of jiqui (iron wood) the bricks have been deeply worn, by the tread 
of years, while the wood has been simply polished. 
The great feast day of Camaguey is the festival of St. John the Baptist, 
June 24, Midsummer Day. For three days the city gives itself up to 
merry-making, and the huge Cuban carts go about the streets filled with 
girls, who stop at the houses of their friends to dance. 
One of the quaint places to visit in quaint Camaguey is the chapel of the 
Asylum Padre Valencia, an institution for the aged and the incurable. 
The asylum occupies the San Lazaro Hospital buildings, 1 beyond the 
Tinima River, and is reached by carriage drive across the San Lazaro 
bridge. The commodious buildings surround extensive grounds and 
gardens, and have an air of comfort and good management. The San 
Lazaro Hospital, for lepers, was built by Father Valencia, and its chief 
interest for us centers in the memorials which have been preserved of 
his life and work. The hospital was established by the Ayuntamiento in 
1735, but the enterprise languished until the year 1814, when the institution 
was rebuilt by Valenciano Jose de la Cruz Espi, or as he was affectionately 
called, El Padre Valencia, with alms which he personally begged, and 
