MILITARY DESPOTISM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5256, 22 May 1895, Page 4

MILITARY DESPOTISM.

ie< required to keep the lurking embers i from becoming open flame. The city of ,' iHorana is net only the gate to Cuba, i jbut is its centre, its soul, as well. Here is i the- seat 6f its politics, its Government, its j commerce: The entrance to the harbour of r Havana ie brilliant, and with an eye to atage effects matters are so ordered that ; the strange* cornea within it always by the j light ofi day. When I entered it, juat at j daybreak, and having lain half the night | outside and beneath the guns of grim j Moire* Caatl«, the scene that presented it* j self waß on* of extraordinary beauty. Greafc Morro itself , fortress of impregnable rock,, lifted itself from the bluff to the east, the waves of the sea washing its feet.. A little farther back was- Cabana, only less grim, less solid, )ess threatening than Morro; 'while upon $he other side La Ennta ("the point") reached oat its guns toward Morro, the-, fftree constituting, a series^ defences that have provoked the admiration of the greatest modern engineers. Running in between these, we were in the bay, a harbour of good size and most perfectly pbelteredi. orowded with craft of many Borts,.the ships oi a dozen nations making jit. gay with their flags. Beyond the bay, and sloping: firom the higher levels inland down to the very edge of the water, was the uitj» and beyond that the distant mils, and again, beyond, the Rreat fort of Kinoipe crowning-it fril,— — - .- — A OBIM BENTINEL

i boated there to scent far off the approach pf danger* As soon as the sunrise gun had been fired we were in the midst of it, anchored in the middle of the bay— for no foreign veaa»l ever goes to the pier there r— and instantly surrounded by a swarm of iboats- whose swarthy rowers clamoured (vigorously for possession of our persons fend our luggage. These boats, which are ja cross between a prairie schooner and a jvtenetian gondola, are the 'first bit of local (Colour to attract us. They carry broadibowed awnings over the stern to protect pasßengera from the sun, and when we have learned this reason for their curious lappearanae we are impressively reminded jthat we are in a tropic land. There are jother reminders, as soon as we are in the •streets of Havana.

! SABK FACES ABOUND. } There is little hurry. Men predominate 'to each an extent that the sight of a woman, unless one of the lower classes gping to or from her work, or a blackeyed vendor of lottery tickets, iB almost a novelty. There is much noise, maue by the sellers of all sorts of wares, who cry 'them up and down the streets. There is an abundance of colour, in the dress of I the people, in the accoutrements of the i horses and mules that draw the varied ■traffic,, in the tints of the buildings, in the 'uniforms of the soldiers who are every-, where, in the hues of the morning sky above it all. The military are en evidence at every turn. At the wharf so many ■soldiers are pacing to and fro, or lounging : listlessly about, that it gives one the impression of having landed at a military 'post, rather than a commercial seaport of 'some two hundred and fifty thousand {people. It requires some time to get ; away from this impression. Almost every, 'fifth man that one meets wears a military • dress of some sort : barracks and for- ' tresses are strewn about the city and its ; outskirts ad libitum, and bands of march ' ing men and the sounds of martial music i are encountered from morning to night. ; Our way to the hotel is made through : Barrow streets, perhaps fifteen feet from wall to wall, with a narrow ledge of Btone on either side to serve as a footpath. These walks are