come to these schools filthy, ragged, and squalid, speaking a babel of languages. In a short time they learn English from their native associates; and strict attention being paid to their habits and costume by their preceptors, not a long time is required to metamorphose the young foreigner into a cleanly, respectable American boy; and thus our institutions afford a physical and moral ablution to the soiled humanity of Europe. The remainder of our glance at the lakes is out of the track of the larger boats, or indeed any boats, except at uncertain intervals. From Chicago our destination was to wilder regions, upon whose quiet solitudes the din and bustle of commerce and speculation had not yet broken, but to which they are to reach if the farseeing sagacity of John Jacob Astor is to be taken in evidence. Early on a Sunday morning we were passing the "Door of Death," a passage between a Cape of Wisconsin and a neighboring island, communicating Lake Michigan with its important branch "Green Bay," and on the same afternoon we were entering the Neenah or Fox river. Nine or ten miles from the mouth of the river, the bay shore rises in a broad green slope, dotted over with comfortable looking farms and farm-houses, and giving the idea of an old and well-settled country. The entrance to the Neenah is so tortuous that although the village or port of our destination is close to us on the left hand, eight miles of a winding course are necessary to reach it. The settlement or town of Green Bay is formed of two villages, Astor and Navarino, separated from each other by a small brook; and still, quiet, inactive places they are, and by no means keeping up to what its geographical position would promise for it. A glance at the map will show that this must be the port for an important section of country, which is rapidly filling in. Mr. Astor, looking to the importance of the position, purchased lands here, the town of Astor being principally held by his estate. Navarino also is or has been chiefly in the hands of an individual, and this individual proprietorship is assigned as a reason for the want of prosperity in the place. that a Bourbon, a legitimate sovereign of France, has brought them to this civilization and to these habits. The Rev. Mr. Williams, their pastor, and to whom they are greatly indebted for their improved condition, is now said to be the lost dauphin, the son of Louis the XVI. If so, he has done more for the human family, perhaps, and led a more peaceful and quiet life, than if he had sat upon the throne of his ancestors. This, however, is not the only romance of this region of country. A town bearing the Indian name of Aztalan is situated between the Neenah and Lake Michigan, and from this locality it is surmised went forth the Aztec race to overrun Mexico, and found the empire of Montezuma. At one point the Neenah is within a mile and a half of the Wisconsin, and this barrier being removed an immense circle of water communication is established from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic through the St. Lawrence. The Neenah needs much the aid of art to render it an available stream, being, in its present condition, much richer to the tourist in search of the picturesque than in facilities for commerce. From Lake Winnebago, through which the river passes, to its mouth, a distance of only thirty-nine miles, it has a fall of one hundred and sixty feet, and in this course tumbles over seven different rapids. 1. Winnebago Rapids, 2. Grand Chute, 3. Little Chute, 4. Grand Kakalin, 5. Rapides des Croches, 6. Little Kakalin, 7. Rapides des Perre. The Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians are settled on Lake Winnebago, and have relinquished their Indian habits and government for an agricultural life and the privileges of citizens of the United States, and are represented in the legislature by one of their own number. The Brothertowns, it is said, have entirely lost their language. Having understood that the scenery and rapids of Grand Kakalin, distant twenty miles, were well worth a visit, I procured a horse, and early on a foggy morning started on the journey. The As long ago as 1670 the French had their set- fog soon rolled away and uncovered a bright and lements in this region, and the spare population beautiful day. My road was an obscure bridlearound the town of Green Bay consists now path or trail on the left bank of the river, windof French, Indians, and half-breeds, and the phi-ing sometimes along the river-beach, then through losophy of life seems to be to pass it as easily as the forest, up and down ravines, across narrow possible, and not to agitate themselves by any of the activities of the "go-ahead" and progressive principle. The country abounds in game, and the agreeable activity of hunting is found a sufficient alternation with the more quiet pursuits of their lives. Groups of Indians, dirty, drunken, and worthless, are seen lounging about the town or camped in its vicinity; these are the Menomenees; but the Oneidas, neatly and picturesquely dressed, visit it to sell their products and wares. These latter are said to be the best farmers of the country; and it will be one of the strangest romances of history, if it shall prove to be the fact but deep sloughs. In places the path was so overgrown with bushes as to require great care in keeping it, and several times I, for a short time, lost my way. With the exception of one or two farms at the beginning and end of my journey, I passed only here and there the solitary cabin of a French settler, or the crumbling chimney and tumbling logs of the cabin of some squatter who had disappeared before the first approaches of settlement and civilization. Once, when out of my path, I came upon an Indian wigwam on the edge of a brook in a small valley. Smoke was ascending through the pinnacle of the conical dwell ing, but none of its inhabitants were present. The last five miles of my road were through a clean open forest on the summit of a lofty ridge. From this ridge the road descended to a smooth, green plain, expanding broadly between the foot of the ridge and the river's edge. On this plain were the fields, houses, and barns of two large farms, both of the proprietors being wealthy and gentlemanly half-breeds. This was "Grand Kakalin," pronounced Kokelow, and meaning the stoppingplace of the pickerel. This locality merited all that had been said of its beauty. The river, at this point very broad, went dashing and foaming in a roaring torrent over an inclined plane of flat limestone rocks. Several beautiful wooded islands, the largest of them containing twenty-seven acres, divided the river into many rushing streams, which again united into one broad current before dashing down the greatest inclination of its rocky bed. The opposite shore rose in a fine slope, covered with forest-trees standing open and distinct, like those of a park, without any undergrowth littering the greensward from which they sprung. From the top of the bank the river is seen for a mile curving among the hills before it reaches the break of the islands and rapids, and again it is seen to the same extent after it has returned to its placidity below. From the proprietor of one of the fine farms on the plain, I received in a gentlemanly and hospitable manner the entertainment which my long and unaccustomed ride rendered very desirable, and about the middle of the afternoon started on my return to Green Bay, which I reached at nine o'clock. We have now glanced around the lakes in a running tour, following in the main the general line of travel, but, of course, our rapid movements have left much of interest unobserved and unnoticed. LINES ON A STATUE OF HIS DEAD CHILD, BY RICHARD LANE, ESQ. I see thee in thy beauty! with thy mother by thy sideBut her loveliness is faded, and quelled her glance of pride, The smile is absent from her lips, and absent are the pearls, And a cap almost of widowhood conceals her envied curls. I see thee in thy beauty! as I saw thee on that day But the mirth that gladdened then my home, fled with thy life away; I see thee lying motionless upon the accustomed floor, I SAW thee in thy beauty! bright phantom of the But my heart hath blinded both my eyes, and I can past, see no more. From the N. Y. Evening Post. Havana, April 1, 1849. and the dusky faces and dark eyes peeping into the street and scanning the passers by. At other times, the whole room was seen, with its furniture, and its female forms sitting in languid postures, courting the breeze as it enters from without. In the evening, as I passed along the narrow sidewalk of the narrow streets, I have been startled at finding myself almost in the midst of a merry party gathered about the window of a brilliantly lighted I FIND that it requires a greater effort of resolution to sit down to the writing of a long letter in this soft climate, than in the country I have left. I feel a temptation to sit idly, and let the grateful wind from the sea, coming in at the broad windows, flow around me, or read or talk as I happen to have a book or a companion. That there is some-room, and chattering the soft Spanish of the island thing in a tropical climate which indisposes one to vigorous exertion I can well believe, from what I experience in myself, and what I see around me. The ladies do not seem to take the least exercise, except an occasional drive on the Paseo, or public park; they never walk out, and when they go shopping, which is no less the vocation of their sex here than in other civilized countries, they never descend from their volantes, but the goods are brought out by the obsequious shopkeeper, and the lady makes her choice and discusses the price as she sits in her carriage. in voices that sounded strangely near to me. I have spoken of their languid postures; they love to recline on sofas; their houses are filled with rocking chairs imported from the United States; they are fond of sitting in chairs tilted against the wall, as we sometimes do at home. Indeed, they go beyond us in this respect; for in Cuba they have invented a kind of chair which, by lowering the back and raising the knees, places the sitter precisely in the posture he would take if he sat in a chair leaning backwards against a wall. It is a luxurious attitude, I must own, and I do not won Yet the women of Cuba show no tokens of del-der that it is a favorite with lazy people, for it re icate health. Freshness of color does not belong lieves one of all the trouble of keeping the body to a latitude so near the equator, but they have upright. plump figures, placid unwrinkled countenances, a well developed bust, and eyes, the brilliant languor of which is not the languor of illness. The girls, as well as the young men, have rather narrow shoulders, but as they advance in life, the chest, in the women particularly, seems to expand from year to year, till it attains an amplitude by no means common in our country. I fully believe that this effect, and their general health, in spite of the inaction in which they pass their lives, is owing to the free circulation of air through their apartments. It is the women who form the large majority of the worshippers in the churches. I landed here in passion week, and the next day is Holy Thursday, when not a vehicle on wheels of any sort was allowed to be seen in the streets; and the ladies, contrary to their custom during the rest of the year, are obliged to resort to the churches on foot. Negro servants of both sexes were seen passing to and fro, carrying mats on which their mistresses were to kneel in the morning services. All the white female population, young and old, were dressed in black, with black lace veils. In the afternoon, three wooden or waxen images, of the size of life, representing Christ in the different stages of his passion, were placed in the spacious Church of St. Catherine, which was so thronged that I found it difficult to enter. Near the door was a figure of the Saviour sinking under the weight For in Cuba the women as well as the men may be said to live in the open air. They know nothing of close rooms in all the island, and nothing of foul air, and to this, I have no doubt, quite as much as to the mildness of the temperature, the friendly effect of its climate upon invalids from the north is to be ascribed. Their ceilings are of his cross, and the worshippers were kneeling to extremely lofty, and the wide windows, extending from the top of the room to the floor, and guarded by long, perpendicular bars of iron, are without glass, and when closed are generally only closed by blinds, which, while they break the force of the wind when it is too strong, do not exclude the air. Since I have been on the island, I may be said to have breakfasted and dined and supped and slept in the open air, in an atmosphere which is never in repose, except for a short time in the morning after sunrise. At other times a breeze is always stirring, in the day time bringing in the air from the ocean, and at night drawing it out again to the sea. In walking through the streets of the towns in Cuba, I have been entertained by the glimpses I had, through the ample windows, of what was going on in the parlors. Sometimes a curtain hanging before them allowed me only a sight of the small hands which clasped the bars of the grate, kiss his feet. Aged negro men and women, half streets; the city became suddenly noisy with the Campo Santo, as it is called, or public cemetery rattle of wheels and the tramp of horses; the shops, which had been shut for the last two days, were opened, and the ladies, in white or light-colored muslins, were proceeding in their volantes to purchase at the shops their costumes for the Easter festivities. I passed the evening on the Plaza de Armas, a public square in front of the governor's house, planted with palms and other trees, paved with broad flags, and bordered with a row of benches. It was crowded with people in their best dresses, the ladies mostly in white, and without bonnets, for the bonnet in this country is only worn while travelling. Chairs had been placed for them in a double row around the edge of the square, and a row of volantes surrounded the square, in each of which sat two or more ladies, the ample folds of their muslin dresses flowing out on each side over the steps of the carriage. The governor's band played various airs, martial and civic, with great beauty of execution. The music continued for two hours, and the throng, with only occasional intervals of conversation, seemed to give themselves up wholly to the enjoyment of listening to it. It was a bright moonlight night, so bright that one might almost see to read, and the temperature the finest I can conceive, a gentle breeze rustling among the palms overhead. I was surprised at seeing around me so many fair brows and snowy necks. It is the moonlight, said I to myself, or perhaps it is the effect of the white dresses, for the complexions of these ladies seem to differ several shades from those which I saw yesterday at the churches. A female acquaintance has since given me another solution of the matter. "It is," she said, "because during the ceremonies of holy week they take off the cascarilla from their faces, and appear in their natural complexions." of Havana. Going out of the city at the gate nearest the sea, I passed through a street of the wretchedest houses I had seen; the ocean was roaring at my right on the coral rocks which form the coast. The dingy habitations were soon left behind, and I saw the waves, pushed forward by a fresh wind, flinging their spray almost into the road; I next entered a short avenue of trees, and in a few minutes the volante stopped at the gate of the cemetery. In a little enclosure before the entrance, a few starveling flowers of Europe were cultivated, but the wild plants of the country flourished luxuriantly on the rich soil within. thick wall surrounded the cemetery, in which were rows of openings for coffins, one above the other. where the more opulent of the dead were entombed. The coffin is thrust in endwise, and the opening closed with a marble slab bearing an inscription. A Most of these niches were already occupied, but in the earth below, by far the greater part of those who die at Havana are buried without a monument or a grave which they are allowed to hold a longer time than is necessary for their bodies to be consumed in the quicklime which is thrown upon them. Every day fresh trenches are dug, in which their bodies are thrown, generally without coffins. Two of these, one near each wall of the cemetery, were waiting for the funerals. I saw where the spade had divided the bones of those who were buried there last, and thrown up the broken fragments, mingled with masses of lime, locks of hair, and bits of clothing. Without the walls was a receptacle in which the skulls and other large bones, dark with the mould of the grave, were heaped. Two or three persons were walking about the cemetery when we first entered, but it was now at length the cool of the day, and the funerals began I asked the meaning of the word cascarilla which to arrive. They brought in first a rude black I did not remember to have heard before. "It is the favorite cosmetic of the island, and is made of egg-shells finely pulverized. They often fairly plaster their faces with it. I have seen a dark-skinned lady as white almost as marble at a ball. They will sometimes, at a morning call or an evening party, withdraw to repair the cascarilla on their faces." I do not vouch for this tale, but tell it "as it was told to me." Perhaps, after all, it was the moonlight which had produced this transformation, though I had noticed something of the same improvement of complexion just before sunset, on the Paseo Isabel, a public park without the city walls, planted with rows of trees, where, every afternoon, the gentry of Havana drive backwards and forwards in their volantes, with each a glittering harness, and a liveried negro bestriding, in large jack boots, the single horse which draws the vehicle. I had also the same afternoon visited the receptacle into which the population of the city are swept when the game of life is played out-the coffin, broadest at the extremity which contained the head, and, placing it at the end of one of the trenches, hurriedly produced a hammer and nails to fasten the lid before letting it down, when it was found that the box was too shallow at the narrower extremity. The lid was removed for a moment and showed the figure of an old man in a threadbare black coat, white pantaloons and boots. The negroes who bore it, beat out the bottom with the hammer so as to allow the lid to be fastened over the feet. It was then nailed down firmly with coarse nails, the coffin was swung into the trench, and the earth shovelled upon it. A middle-aged man, who seemed to be some relative of the dead, led up a little boy close to the grave and watched the process of filling it. They spoke to each other and smiled, stood till the pit was filled to the surface, and the bearers had departed, and then retired in their turn. This was one of the more respectable class of funerals. Commonly, the dead are piled, without coffins, one above the other, in the trenches. The funerals now multiplied; the corpse of a "ahi little child was brought in, uncoffined; and an- |chink of gold and silver pieces as the betters other, a young man who, I was told, had cut his stepped into the area and paid their wagers; the throat for love, was borne towards one of the slain bird was carried out and thrown on the niches in the wall. I heard loud voices, which ground, and the victor, taken into the hands of its seemed to proceed from the eastern side of the owner, crowed loudly in celebration of his victory. cemetery, and which, I thought at first, might be Two other birds were brought in, and the cries of the recitation of a funeral service; but no funeral those who offered wagers were heard on all sides. service is said at these graves; and, after a time, They ceased at last, and the cocks were put down I perceived that they came from the windows of a to begin the combat. They fought warily at first, long building which overlooked one side of the but at length began to strike in earnest, the blood burial ground. It was a mad-house. The in- flowed, and the bystanders to vociferate, mates, exasperated at the spectacle before them, estan pele ando”*—“ mata! mata! mata !"† geswere gesticulating from the windows-the women ticulating at the same time with great violence, screaming and the men shouting—but no attention and new wagers were laid as the interest of the was paid to their uproar. A lady, however, a combat increased. In ten minutes one of the stranger to the island, who visited the Campo birds was despatched, for the combat never ends Santa that afternoon, was so affected by the sights till one of them has his death wound. and sounds of the place, that she was borne out In the mean time several other combats had weeping and almost in convulsions. As we left | begun in smaller pits which lay within the same the place, we found a crowd of volunteers about enclosure, but were not surrounded with circles the gate; a pompous bier, with rich black hang- of benches. I looked upon the throng engaged ings, drew up; a little beyond, we met one of in this brutal sport, with eager gestures and loud another kind—a long box, with glass sides and curses, and could not help thinking how soon this ends, in which lay the corpse of a woman, dressed noisy crowd would lie in heaps in the trenches of in white, with a black veil thrown over the face. Campo Santo. The next day the festivities, which were to indemnify the people for the austerities of Lent and of passion week, began. The cock-pits were opened during the day, and masked balls were given in the evenings at the theatres. You know, probably, that cock-fighting is the principal diversion of the island, having entirely supplanted the national spectacle of bull-baiting. Cuba, in fact, seemed to me a great poultry-yard. I heard the crowing of cocks in all quarters, for the game cock is the noisiest and most boastful of birds, and is perpetually uttering his notes of defiance. In the villages, I saw the veterans of the pit, a stronglegged race, with their combs cropped smooth to the head, the feathers plucked from every part of the body except their wings, and the tail docked like that of a coach horse, picking up their food in the lanes among the chickens. One old cripple I remember to have seen in the little town of Guines, stiff with wounds received in combat, who had probably received a furlough for life, and who, while limping about among his female companions, maintained a sort of strut in his gait, and now and then stopped to crow defiance to the world. The peasants breed game cocks and bring them to market; amateurs in the town train them for their private amusement; dealers in game cocks are as common as horse jockeys with us, and every village has its cock-pit. I went on Monday to the Valla de Gallos, situated in that part of Havana which lies without the walls. Here, in a spacious enclosure, were two amphitheatres of benches, roofed, but without walls, with a circular area in the midst. Each was crowded with people, who wore looking at a cock-fight, and half of whom seemed vociferating with all their might. I mounted one of the outer benches, and saw one of the birds laid dead by the other in a few minutes. Then was heard the In the evening was a masked ball in the Tacon Theatre, a spacious building, one of the largest of its kind in the world. The pit, floored over, with the whole depth of the stage open to the back wall of the edifice, furnished a ball-room of immense size. People in grotesque masks, in hoods or fancy dresses were mingled with a throng dressed in the ordinary costume, and Spanish dances were performed to the music of a numerous band. A well dressed crowd filled the first and second tier of boxes. The Creole smokes everywhere, and seemed astonished when the soldier who stood at the door ordered him to throw away his lighted cigar before entering. Once upon the floor, however, he lighted another cigar in defiance of the prohibition. The Spanish dances, with their graceful movement, resembling the undulations of the sea in its gentlest mood, are nowhere more gracefully performed than in Cuba, by the young women born on the island. I could not help thinking, however, as I looked on that gay crowd, on the quaint maskers, and the dancers whose flexible limbs seemed swayed to and fro by the breath of the music, that all this was soon to end at the Campo Santo, and I asked myself how many of all this crowd will be huddled uncoffined, when their sports are over, into the foul trenches of the public cemetery. W. C. B. Matanzas, April 16, 1849. My expectations of the scenery of the island of Cuba and of the magnificence of its vegetation, have not been quite fulfilled. This place is but which brings you hither, takes you over a sweep sixty miles to the cast of Havana, but the railway of a hundred and thirty miles, through one of the *"Now they are fighting." "Kill! kill! kıll!” |