The streets are narrow, crooked, and generally unpaved, but they contain some well-built houses. There are, too, several good buildings among the churches, one of which contains the remains of Christopher Columbus. The other large edifices, as the Palace of the Government (shown to the right of the engraving,) that of the commandant of the marine, the arsenal, the post-office, and the building used for the manufacture of tobacco, are less remarkable for their architecture than for their solidity. Besides these, the city contains nine parish churches; six other churches, connected with hospitals and military orders; five chapels or hermitages; the Caza Cuna, a foundling hospital; and eleven convents, four for women, and seven for men. The other public establishments are the University, the colleges of San Carlos and San Francisco de Soles, the Botanic Garden, the Anatomical Museum and lecture rooms, the Academy of Painting and Design, a school of Navigation, and seventy-eight common schools for both sexes. These places of education are all under the protection of the Patriotic Society and the municipal authorities. The charitable institutions consist of the Caza de Beneficiencia, for both sexes, a penitentiary, a Magdalen Asylum, and seven hospitals--one of them contains a lunatic asylum. There are, besides, three theatres, an amphitheatre for bull fights, plaza de toros, and several public promenades, such as the Alameda and the Paseo Nuevo; In Turnbull's "Travels in Cuba," published by Longman & Co., London, 1840, the city is said to contain 3,671 houses within the walls, all built of stone; and in the suburbs, 7,968, of various materials. The number of private carriages for hire amounted, in 1827, to 2,651, and they are certainly now more numerous. In the same year, the population was 122,023--the whites were 46,621; the free negroes, 15,347; the free mulattoes, 8,215; the negro slaves, 22,830, and the mulatto slaves 1,010.
Turnbull, speaking of the Real Caza de Beneficencia, says: "Girls are not admitted to the institution after 10 years of age; and, being entirely supported there, they are completely separated from their parents and their families, until the time of their final removal from the establishment has arrived. They are taught the various branches of needle-work and dress-making, and receive such other instruction as may sufficiently qualify them for becoming domestic servants, housemaids, cooks or washerwomen. They are not suffered, by the regulations, to remain in the house after the age of twenty-one: but, before that time, it is the duty of the junta, or committee of management, to endeavor to procure employment for them earlier in a private family or in some house of business. Should the circumstances of the parents have improved during the stay of their daughter at the institution, they are not suffered to take her away until they have paid her previous board and education at the rate of fifteen dollars a month; but if the girl herself has acquired property by inheritance, or is able to improve her condition by marriage or otherwise, independent of her parents, she is suffered to leave the house without any payment; and, in the event of her marriage to the satisfaction of the junta, a little dowry is provided for her, amounting to $500, from a fund created from prizes in the lottery, the produce of tickets presented to the institution. Six such marriages had taken place, and dowries bestowed from this fond in the course of a single year." This lottery business shows the spirit of gambling so largely developed in nations of Spanish descent. The Mexicans are noted for it, and Santa Ana, who spent his exile in Cuba, and recently sailed from Havana for Vera Cruz, indulged in the propensity to a great extent. But he had two strings to his bow, and whilst playing his fighting cocks was also playing for an empire, and has won the game. How long he will hold it remains to be seen.
HUMOROUS.
[A Very Long Nose.]
A gentleman having put out a candle by accident one night, ordered his waiting man (who was a simple being) to light it again in the kitchen, adding--"But take care, James, that you do not hit yourself against anything in the dark." Mindful of the caution, James stretched out both arms at length before him, but unluckily, a door that stood half open, passed between his hands and struck him a woful blow upon the nose. "Golly gracious!" muttered he, when he recovered his senses a little, "I always heard that I had a very long nose, but I never thought it was longer than my arm!"
[Sol. Smith.]
The American Sentinel, speaking of "Sol. Smith, the Lawyer, Actor, Preacher," &c,. remarks--"We want a few more of such men," To which a Dayton (Ala.) paper replies--"You'll not get them. There are none others like him. He is the first and last of his genus, a solitary specimen of a strange combination of character. Even in the physical way Sol. will be hard to match, for he is tall as a May-pole, and crooked as a pump-handle."