The parallel may be pursued still further: the loveliest ladies of Rome gazed with rapture upon the dying agonies of the gladiators who hewed each other in pieces, or the Christian's who perished in conflict with the wild beasts half starved to give them battle! The beauteous señoras and señoritas of Madrid and Havana enjoy with a keen delight the terrible spectacle of bulls speared by the picador, or gallant horses ripped up and disembowelled by the horns of their brute adversaries. It is true that the ameliorating spirit of Christianity is evident in the changes which the arena has undergone; human lives are not sacrificed wholesale in the combats; and yet the bull-fight is sufficiently barbarous and atrocious. It is a national institution, and, as an indication of national character, is well worthy of attention, however repulsive to the sensitive mind. The queen of England is sometimes present on the race-track, so also the queen of Spain occupies the royal box at the great bull-festas of Madrid. A skilful bull-fighter is a man of mark and distinction. Montez was regarded by the Spaniards of this generation with nearly as much respect as Don Rodriguez de Bivar in the days of the Moorish wars, to such a point has the vaunted chivalry of Spain degenerated! Sometimes Spanish nobles enter the arena, and brave peril and death for the sake of the applause bestowed upon the successful torero, and many lives are lost annually in this degrading sport.
Few professional bull-fighters reach an advanced age; their career in the arena is almost always short, and they cannot avoid receiving severe wounds in their dangerous career. Pepe Illo, a famous Spanish picador, was wounded no less than twenty-six times, and finally killed by a bull. This man and another noted torero, named Romero, were possessed of such undaunted courage, that, in order to excite the interest of the spectators, they were accustomed to confront the bull with fetters upon their feet. Another famous picador in the annals of the arena was Juan Sevilla, who on one occasion was charged furiously by an Andalusian bull which overthrew both horse and rider. The savage animal, finding that the legs of his fallen antagonist were so well protected by the iron-ribbed hide of the pantaloons the bull-fighters wear that it was impossible to make an impression on them, lowered his horns with the intention of striking him in the face; but the dauntless picador, seizing one of the bull's ears in his right hand, and thrusting the fingers of the other into his nostrils, after a horrible struggle compelled him to retire. Then, when every one looked to see him borne out of the ring dying, he rose to his feet, called for a fresh horse and lance, and bounding into the saddle, attacked the bull in the centre of the ring, and driving the iron up to the shaft in his neck, rolled him over dead. "O," says an enthusiastic eye-witness of this prodigious feat, "if you had heard the vivas, if you had witnessed the frantic joy, the crazy ecstasy at the display of so much courage and good fortune, like me you would have envied the lot of Sevilla." Such are some of the dangers and excitements of the bull-ring; such is the character of some of the scenes which the gentle ladies of Cuba have learned, not to endure, but to welcome with delight.
To look upon these ladies, you could not possibly imagine that there was in them sufficient hardihood to witness such exhibitions. They are almost universally handsome, in person rather below the height of the sex with us, but with an erect and dignified carriage, and with forms always rounded to a delicate fullness, displaying a tendency to enbonpoint quite perfection itself in point of model.[39] The hair is always black and profuse, the complexion a light olive, without a particle of carmine, the eyes—a match for the hair in color—are large and beautifully expressive, with a most irresistible dash of languor in them.[40] It is really difficult to conceive of a homely woman with such eyes as you are sure to find them endowed with in Cuba. They have been justly famed also for their graceful carriage, and, indeed, it is the very poetry of motion, singular as it may seem when it is remembered that for them to walk abroad is such a rarity. It is not simply a progressive move, but the harmonious play of features, the coquettish undulation of the face, the exquisite disposition of costume, and modulation of voice, rich, liquid and sweet as the nightingale's, that engage the beholder, and lend a happy charm to the majestic grace of every attitude and every step. It is a union, a harmonious consort of all these elements, that so beautifies the carriage of the Cuban ladies.
The men are, also, generally speaking, manly and good-looking, though much lighter, smaller and more agile, than the Americans. The lazy life that is so universally led by them tends to make them less manly in physical development than a life of activity would do. It seems to be an acknowledged principle among them never to do that for themselves that a slave can do for them,—a fact that is very plainly demonstrated by the style of the volante, where the little horse is made not only to draw after him the vehicle and its contents, but also to carry upon his back a heavy negro, weighed down with jack-boots and livery, as a driver, when a pair of reins extending from the bridle to the volante would obviate all necessity for the negro's presence at all. But a Creole or Spaniard would think it demeaning to drive his own volante; the thing is never seen on the island. The climate, we know, induces to this sense of ease. With abundance of leisure, and the ever-present influences of their genial clime, where the heart's blood leaps more swiftly to the promptings of the imagination—where the female form earliest attains its wonted beauty and longest holds its sway over the heart—the West Indies seem peculiarly adapted for romance and love. The consequent adventures among the people are very numerous, and not, oftentimes, without startling interest, affording such themes and plots as a French feuilletonist might revel in. An ungraceful woman is not to be found on the island; whether bred in the humble cottage of the Montero, or in the luxuriant mansion of the planter or citizen, she is sure to evince all the ease and grace of polished life. Your heart is bound to them at once, when on parting they give you kindly the Spanish benediction, "Go, señor, in a good hour."
The nobility of Cuba, so called, is composed of rather original material, to say the least of it, and forms rather a funny "institution." There may be some thirty gentlemen dubbed with the title of Marquis, and as many more with that of Count, most of both classes having acquired their wealth by the carrying on of extensive sugar plantations. These are sneeringly designated by the humbler classes as "sugar noblemen," nearly all of these aristocratic gentlemen having bought their titles outright for money, not the least consideration being had by the Spanish throne as to the fitness of the individual even for this nominal honor, save a due consideration for the amount of the would-be noble's fortune. Twenty-five thousand dollars will purchase either title. And yet, the tone of Cuban society may be said to be eminently aristocratic, and, in certain circles, very exclusive. The native of old Spain does not endeavor to conceal his contempt of foreigners and the Creoles, shielding his inferiority of intelligence under a cloak of hauteur; and thus the Castilians and Creoles form two quite distinct classes in the island,—a distinction which the home government endeavor to foster and promote in every way, for obvious reasons of their own.
The sugar planter, the coffee planter, the merchant, the liberal professions and the literati (this last a meagre class in numbers), stand about in the order in which we have written them, as it regards their relative degrees or social position, but wealth has the same charm here as in every part of Christendom, and the millionaire has the entrée to all classes. The Monteros, or yeomanry of Cuba, inhabit the less-cultivated portions of the soil, venturing into the cities only to sell their surplus produce, acting as "market-men" for the cities in the immediate neighborhood of their homes. When they stir abroad they are always armed cap-a-pie with sword and pistols,[41] and, indeed, every one carries arms upon the inland roads of Cuba. Formerly this was a most indispensable precaution, though weapons are now rarely brought into use. The arming of the Monteros, however, has always been encouraged by the authorities, as they thus form a sort of mounted militia at all times available, and, indeed, not only the most effective, but about the only available arm of defence against negro insurrections. The Montero is rarely a slave-owner himself, but frequently is engaged on the plantations during the busy season as an extra overseer. He is generally a hard taskmaster to the slave, having an intuitive hatred for the blacks.
The Monteros[42] form an exceedingly important and interesting class of the population of the island. They marry very young,—the girls from thirteen to fifteen, the young men from sixteen to twenty,—and almost universally rearing large families. Their increase during the last twenty years has been great, and they seem to be fast approaching to a degree of importance that will make them, like the American farmers, the bone and sinew of the land. The great and glaring misfortune of their present situation, is the want of intelligence and cultivation; books they have none, nor, of course, schools. It is said that they have been somewhat aroused, of late, from this condition of lethargy concerning education, and that efforts are being made among them to a considerable extent to afford their children opportunity for instruction. Physically speaking, they are a fine yeomanry, and, if they could be rendered intelligent, would in time become what nature seems to have designed them for,—the real masters of the country.
There is one fact highly creditable to the Monteros, and that is their temperate habits, as it regards indulgence in stimulating drinks. As a beverage, they do not use ardent spirits, and seem to have no taste for the article, though at times they join the stranger in a social glass. I doubt if any visitor ever saw one of this class in the least intoxicated. This being the fact, they are a very reliable people, and can be counted upon in an emergency. As to the matter of temperance, it needs no missionaries in the island, for probably there is not so large a tract of territory in Europe or America, as this island, where such a degree of temperance is observed in the use of intoxicating drinks. Healths are drunk at table, but in sparing draughts, while delicious fruits fill up the time devoted to dessert.
There is probably but one vice that the Monteros may be said to be addicted to, or which they often indulge in, and that is one which is so natural to a Spaniard, and the appliances for which are so constantly at hand, in the shape of the cock-pit, that it is not a wonder he should be seduced by the passion of gambling. Many of the more intelligent avoid it altogether, but with others it appears to be a part and parcel of their very existence. In the cities, as we have already shown, the government encourage and patronize the spirit of gaming, as they derive from its practice, by charging exorbitant licences, etc., a heavy sum annually.