The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 27, 1898, Page 18

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1898 BAND NIGHT [@h] THE PRADO L A CITY OF PLEASURE LOVERS WHO ATTEND BULL FIGHTS WITH HALF A MILLION DEAD OR MISSING AND DANCE AND GAMBLE DEATH. IN No City in the World Is Just Now So Much in the American Eye as Havana, in Whose Harbor Our Noble Battle-Ship Was Blown Up Here Is a Vivid Picture of Life in the Cuban Capital Last Week. as It Is To-day. HIS sport is purely Spanish. We | Cubans do not enjoy it, and who k that before long it may be pr ed by an act of Co gress?” The speaker was a hand- jome man, with a strong, thoughtful face, as he looked down into the bull ring in Havana several Sundays ago. | Mazzintini, Spain’'s great toreador, had} just brought a magnificent Mexicanbull | to his knees by a quick, daring thrust. The thousands of spectators who lined | the amphitheater, tier upon tier, were | applauding frantically. Hats were be- | ing shied. into the ring with reckles generosity, only to be disdainfully | thrown back to the seats and scrambled | for by the owners. It was not such a crowd as one sees in Madrid or Seville. As the first speak- er remarked, bull fighting, or bull| net a Cuban sport; it is | yanish, and above every- 1 in Havana now hangs | butcherin the dread of Americ and their Con- | gress. Cubans love baseball. They do | not- play it now, ise, silly as it srbade the game. it all the | more, the correspondent of the | New. York Herald, | All through the eager, excited crowd | on that S 1fternoon sat sad-eved | boys in the uniform of Spain, with their Mauser rifles o their knees. Next | tq the president’s box lolled half a doz- | en officers high in command. It had been.rumored in Havana that there was to be another popular outery 4gainst autonomy, and 'the sad-eyed | boy soldiers were there with their Mau- | ser rifles to see to it that the dignity | of the latest Spanish experiment for holding the insulted. Poor autonom! n: be hanged by the went 4nto the bu iy,” and it tak utono- rifles to en- | pect for the 1 the bull ring ana. last bull is butchered and the | crowd files peacefully out of the ring | and starts on a trot -for the ferryboat | that r across the bay, There was Havana's narrow | bull fighting pop- | 2 it on the prom- | the | 3 1 the band plays inspiring martial Around | - and around the park th smoking strong cigarette crowds stroll, or occasjon- | at ice cream | fe: eats ice cream. They most unheard-of fruits Havana make it of the and eat it with delicate little sugar wafers. The stroll is over by 11, and then the cit wrapped in its nerv- ous, f T Away in the hill Within ot of the city, lie the lyn: eved insurgents, watching the lights of the city darken in the streets vatching for an oppor- to steal into the suburbs and back into the bushes with qui- or cartridges. ter night the same scene is ; occasionally a train of cars | is blown up with dynamite and shots | are fired into the disabled train, but| Havana has ceased to be even dis- | | foreclosure of mortgages, but always THE FACE OF In Cuba people | The Arch- | tragic affairs of life. are dying by hundreds bishop of Havana has said that his | parish . registers show over 500,000 | missing since the war began.. Almost | every woman in the street wears deep mourning; plantations are burned and | devastated; the tramp of armed men | and the rattle " of gun carriages awaken all from morning slumbers; food is scarce and becoming scarcer; the bare pecessities of life are dear and becoming dearer; yet the music and the dance go on. There’is money | to gamble at the clubs and pennies | for the poor to risk in lottery schemes. Spain has spent £56,000,000 to put down the rebellion; her representa- tives are pent up in Havana; yet: the national pastime—the bull fight—goes | on every Bunday as if there were no hungry, fiercely determined men in the hills. In fact, people are tired talking | w in society they talk of something | else unless some novel incident oc- | cur: Widows and mothers seem to | have drained their dregs of sorrow, | and go about sad eyed, but composed, | if their grief were too deep for | rs. At Key West I saw the father of | General Aranguren. He is an old man, with an iron face and piercing | eve. He seems to live in a dazed | past. Every night he is about the | village postoffice awaiting news of| anything or anybody. Occasionally a | phantom of the past in the shape of some old friend comes before his eyes and he breaks into boyish ecstasy. He has one son under the sod and an- other “In the bushes,” as they say in Cuba. He doesn’t expect to see the | second one again, so he dreams on and plans to tell the story of his death to the worid. ‘What is left of Cuban soclety wraps | son’s | | itself in_exclusiveness and awaits its | time. The wealthy land owners at the beginning of the war sought re- fuge in Europe or the United States. Most of them ha¢ no thought of re- duced incomes. ‘Then came burned fields and impoverighed tenants; edicts | of the Government forbidding the taxes more and more. reduced, many stopped. In order to protect what they had, many once rich returned to Havana with scarce- | ly enough to buy the coarser necessi- | ties of life. But it is still an X~ clusive aristocracy, as proud as the first families of ruined Virginia, and, like them, rebel to the bene. There is no doubt about where the Incomes were native Cuban aristocracy stands in | this war. They were never frugal | people. On the contrary, the men | spent money like drunken sailors. Nor | were they good business men. The commercial control of the island | passed away from them years ago, and the American, Spaniard, English- | man and German became their mas- | ters. Cubans complain of unjust dis crimination against them by the Span- iards, but where they are against each other in the Spaniard wins. It is ability that tells in the long run. Years of repression | and unjust discrimination have not ruined the Hebrew. Several scions of the old regime were comparing notes on old times one evening in my hear- | ing pitted | end the g. | “Why,” said one, ‘“‘we sometimes came into Havana with big wagons | c | made up my mind to one thing and that | tain Sigsbeee washed the decks of the | | water brought. from the shcre. turbed by these events. An obscure and drove out to the plantations a paragraph in a local paper gives mea- | whole band of music. We would then! ger details, and the incident is dropped. | invite hundreds of our kinsmen and It is truly astonishing how accus- | friends, and keep up a jollifization for semed one becomes even to the most | two, three anl sometimes four weeks.” ‘After that T did not wonder why the | frugal Spanidird or thrifty Yankee got he upper in trade. ; | o man | Dr. | | Just at present the most feare to American tourists in Havana is Brunner of the Marine F pital Corps, stationed in Havana for the purpose of issulng Hhealth permits, without | which no one can land at any of the ports in the State: Dr. Brunner does | his duty with strict impartiality; hence | s unpopularity in' some quarte: It | astonishing how prone we Ameri ns are to evade laws and chuckle in dly at the performance. When we nuot we are indignant and begin to protest and splutter about outrages. There was a long line of expectant ap- plicants for clean bills of health when I made my application. As an act of kindness to those con- templating a visit to Havana it should be stated that every one must be vac- cinated. If you go there without this precaution Dr. Brunner will insist upon having it done and will refuse to issue a permit until a reasonable length of | time has elapsed to note the effect, us- ually tweive days. The first applicants were a smart little bride from Charles- ton and her husband on their weddding | tour. They had been ccinated a | month before and they were all right. The next applicant was a drummer, who tried to pass on the strawberry mark in the middle of his back. Re- sult, the wholesale damnation of the Government, vaccination, medical in- spectors and everything in general. “‘Are these stringent regulations ne- cessary?” 1 asked. X “Why, of course they are,” replied the doctor. “I do not meddle with the politics of the situation, but I have c we is that annexation would be the great- est blessing to the United States from a sanitary point of view. Within the last century the Southern States have lost more money and people by yellow fever and smallpox epidemics, directly trace- able to this port, than the whole nation would lose in five wars. If the United States owned the island the city of Ha- vana would be cleaned out, and made as healthful as any place in the world | situated in the tropics.” This opinion is shared by all the men of any knowledge of modern sani- tary methods with whom 1 talked. The bay of Havana is pinched by two capes at the mouth, and then expands into a large basin. The tide does not ebb and flow sufficiently to carry away the re- fuse matter now dumped into it. As a| result, the whole bay reeks -with foul matter; so filthy is the water that Cap- | | | ill-fated Maire every morning with | The | city itself has oniy the rudest system of sewers, although the water supply is excellent, and was -obtained some years ago at an enormous cost. The best troops in the Spanish ser- vice do not belong to the line, but to that admirable corps of military po- lice known as the Orden Publico. This | is a corps d'elite, composed of young soldiers, Spaniards to a man, all of whom have been selected from the| regular army on account of the| superior intelligence and physical qualities. They perform regular po- lice patrol duty and do it with a de- gree of dignity and courtesy that might well serve as a model for de- portment for the Greater New York police force. Their uniform is dis- tinctly military, consisting of a dark blue tunic faced with red, wide blue trousers with red stripes, and a jaunty cap, something after the fashion of the French fatigue cap, until recently MILTTH MILITARY worn in our army. Ordinarily the, | . armed with a huge revolver, worn | on the left side in a buff mnher} and a short, straight sword. | They are all admirably set up, and | rms, equipments and uniforms are the ve pink of perfection, in striking o« ast to. the slovenliness | and dilapidation of weapons and cloth- | ing that characterize the Spanish sol- | dier of the line. | All tourists who have had occasion o come into contact with an Order | + uolico will testify to his| unfailing courte It was this corps which, equipped as infantry with Rem- ngton- rifles, distinguished itself by the masterly manner in which it handled the mobs during the riots, without once | having occasion to fire a shnt, Although the evidences of war to be n in Havana are.scanty enough, it amazing how frequently the insur- gents manage to run the guard of the outposts and make rorays into the suburbs. Hardly a week passes that | a squadron of a dozen or so reckless horsemen does not make a night raid on the little town of Casa Blanca, across the bay, and a scant quarter of a mile from the palace itself. These raids are made half in bravado and | half for the purpose of looting the few stores in the place to procure supplies | 2 the | of liquors and provisions, and as finale, “before retreating across » General Lee’s breakfast to the offi- cers of the Maine, at the Marianao Yacht Club, on January 30, served as a pretext for a raid by the insurgents, who were anxious to give the Ameri- can visitors an example of their prow- ess. Word had been sent to the nearest insurgent camp that the break- fast was to take place, and arrange- ments_were made for a foray, under hills to the westward, the raiders gen- | Juan Delgado, to attack the town as a erally discharge a few random shots at | | tainment at the club. the city across the bay. sort of spectacular finale to the enter- # SCIENTISTS TELL US HOW WE THINK. - T last scientists seem to be on the point of finding out what happens in the brain when a person thinks. It has long been known that the brain is the thinking organ, but just how the making of thought comes about has been a puzzle. . The celebrated Cabanis solved the matter off-hand by saying that the brain secretes thought as the liver se- cretes bile. This terse saying passed into common use, but soon came to be recognized as a clever speech rather than an explanation of the mystery. Now, however, the most recent re- searches of the microscopists are mak- ing it appear that after all the saying is not so far wrong, but that, correctly in- terpreted, it in some measure expresses the facts. Of course thought, being in- tangible, is not properly. to be com- pared with bile or any other physical substance, but it appears that the pro- cesses in the brain which produce thought, and without which thinking is impossible, are strictly comparable to those changes in the liver and other or- gans which produce the tangible secre- tions. A committee of British physicians, acting jointly, has for some years been giving particular attention to this topic, and their researches, though not yet al- together complete, already show some very interesting results, which, taken together with those of investigators on the continent, let us see a long way into the intricacies of the brain. It hasshown unequivocally, for exam- ple, that a brain cell, which is the really important part of the brain, actually loses part of its substance during ac- tion. The brain cells of persons and of animals that have died during a period of great exhaustion from over-exertion are found to be greatly changed from the condition of the normal cell during times of health and vigor. The cell of the exhausted brain, instead of being plump and full of nervous matter, is found to be hollowed out of “vacuolat- | ed,” a cavity within ijs substance hav- ing formed and being fllled with water. This means that a part of the cell sub- stance has been actually consumed dur- ing the time of brain activity, precisely as coal is consumed when one gets heat. from a furnace. It is found, further, that if an ani- mal whose brain cells are thus ex- hausted is permitted to rest and to sleep its cells rapidly recuperate, new material being, supplied from the blood until the vacuolation has disappeard, and the cell is practically as good as new again. This explains why sleep is necessary to -‘our existence. During waking hours our brains are literally worn away, and sleep is the state dur- ing which the repair shops of the brain make good the damage of the waking hours. Thus the brain of a person who suffers from insomnia is in the condi- tion of a locomotive which is run night and day without going to the repair shops; disaster must ultimately result. It is not sleep alone, however, that rests the brain cell, though sleep is ab- solutely essential to recuperation of the brain as a whole. But not all parts of the brain are involved in any one kind of mental effort. The blood supply of the brain is so arranged that by exvar- sion or contraction of different arteries parts of the brain may be flushed wicu blood and other parts dammed off, 80 to speak, somewhat as the various cur- rents of an irrigated field are regulated by the gardener. And as rapid flow of blood is essential to great mental ac- tivity, this means that one part of the brain may be very actively at work while another part is resting and re- cuperating. Thusit is that a person suffering from brain fatigue may leave his desk and go out into the fields with a golfstick, or on the highways with a bicycle, and, by diverting his mind, give the over- worked cells a chance to rest and re- cuperate. But it must not be overlooked that such exercise involves other brain cells,, which, in turn, become ex- hausted, and that, in the end, for the recuperation of the brain as a whole, sleep is absolutely essential. No recre- ation, no medicine, no stimulant will take its place. The man who does not give himself sufficient hours of sleep, or who is unable to sleep when he makes the effort, 1s literally burning away his brain substance, and can no more keep on indefinitely in this way than a locomotive can run on indefi- nitely without getting fresh supplies of fuel. * In this new view, it appears that each brain cell is a sort of stcrage battery, which can perform a certain amount of work and then must be recharged. This likeness to a battery is further emphasized by the fact that the na- ture of the brain cell's work consists, like that of any other battery, of the sending out of charges of energy along fibers that may be likened to wires. Brain ‘cells, when examined under the microscope, are found not o he simple globular bodies, like many other kinds of cells. On the contrary, they are irregular in shape, and when prop- erly stained, little wire-like fibers can be seen jutting out from them in var- ious directions. It is along these fibers that the messages come to the cell, and other messages are sent out, much as messages go and come from a tele- phone central office. This likening of the brain to a tele- phone central office is a comparison that may be carried to a remarkable length. Indeed, no other comparison serves so well to give one a correct notion of the method of brain action. But until recently there was one phase of the matter that could not be ex- plained. . How is it that the various messages that are surging through the brain are directed to proper channels, among these multitudinous wires? When you call up the central office, you give certain number, and the “hello girl” connects your particular wire with that number. When you are through talk- ing the girl breaks the circuit, and you can no longer communicate along that line. But is there anything simi- lar to this making and breaking of cir- cuits possible in the brain? Astonishing as it may seem, the an- swer is, yes. There is precisely such a serles of changes in the circuits of the brain cells as is effected by the “hello girl” with the telephone wires. The manner of it is this. Recent stud- ies of the brain cell, particularly those made by the Spanish physiologist, Ra- mon Cajal, have shown that many of the wires which lead out from a cell do not go on uninterruptedly to a ter- mination in some other distant cell, as they were formerly supposed to do, but instead terminate in “blind ends.” That is to say, they point out toward other cells, but do nét reach them. Such a fiber clearly cannot convey any mes- sage, because, like a telephone wire that has been cut, it does not lead any- where. But under certain conditions of stim- ulation a very extraordinary thing hap- pens. The “blind” fiber, under stim- ulus from its central cell, lengthens out until it touches a fiber of a neighboring cell, and, presto! with such contact a circuit is completed and a message flashes between the cells. Manifestly, such coming together of the “blind” fibers is precisely compar- able to the “hello girl’s” connecting of your telephone with anather. And as in the case of the telephones, so in the case of the cells, when the communica- tion is completed - the connection is broken, the fibers retract and cease to touch one another, and no further mes- sages can be sent. Sometimes the telephone girl does not understand your order, or reports that the number you want is “engaged” and you cannot send your message. Similarly, in the brain, it seems some- times as if certain circuits one wishes to use-are engaged in other channels, for how often does one ‘‘puzzle his brains” to recall a fact or a name ‘which he feels that he knows perfectly, but which will not come at command? And then how, perhaps hours after- afterward, the elusive name will flash before him as if the telephone girl of his brain cell had atlast succeeded in getting the right connection? . When one reflects that each of these wonderful brain cells is microscopic in size, requiring, indeed, a high power of the microscope to make it visible, and that there are billions of them ‘in a cubic inch of brain substance, one is led to wonder that such mistakes of connection, or failures to connect, do not occur oftener. As it is, the tele- phone office of the brain is easily the most wonderful structure of which we have any knowledge. The most deli- cate piece of mechanism ever devised by human hands is a crude thing in- deed compared with the marvelous brain cell. In time of war it often happens that an invading army will cut the tele- graph wires and destroy instruments and batteries at the central offices, so that telegraphic and telephonic com- munication becomes impossible. A pre- cisely similar destruction of the brain fibers and brain cells occurs under cer- tain conditions of disease. The familiar disease paresis, for' ex- ample, consists essentially of just such a destruction of the brain structures as this. Day by day, in the paretic's brain, disease is making inroads upon the delicate mechanism of the celis, and correspondingly, the ideas that could alone result from the activities of those cells are annulled forever. When such destruction has gone far, involving many sets of cells, it is.as impossible that the paretic's mind should act normally, as that a tele- phone system should operate with lines cut and batteries destroyed. —_————————— It will doubtless surprise many to learn that the dealers in human hair do not depend on chance clippings here and tiere, but there is a regular hair harvest that can always be relied upon. It is estimated that over 12,000 pounds of human hair is used annually in the civilized world for adorning the heads of men and women, but principally the fair sex. The largest supply of hair comes from Switzerland, Germany and the French provinces. There is a hu- man hair market in the department of the Lower Pyrenees, held every Fri- day. Hundreds of hair traders walk up and down the one street of the village, thelr shears dangling from their belts, and inspect the braids which the peas- ant girls, standing on the steps of the houses, let down for inspection. If a bargain is struck the hair is cut and the money paid on the spot. ——————— Few words have a more curious def- inition than “bachelor.” Originally i meant students who had taken their degree. Successful students were crowned with laurel berries, the Latin for which is baccalaureus. These stu- dents were not allowed to marry, for fear the duties of husband and father should interfere with their literary pur- suits. _So finally ‘“baccalaureate” or bachelor” got its present significance. I