Travels in the United States, etc.,: during 1849 and 1850./ By the Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley.

TRAVELS IN AMERICA.
be possessed of great good taste and discrimination. The fair
Habaneras look particularly well at the opera: we saw some
extremely handsome ones, with the whitest of skins, and the
blackest of hair. In these light gilded boxes they look like hund reds of Peris in magnificent cages, fluttering their fans, as though
about to escape. This incessant movement of nearly innumerable
fans makes the vast airy house seem as if it was hovering on ten
thousand waving wings, and on the point of soaring away to mix
among those gigantescas nubes (huge clouds) so well described by
the authoress I have already quoted, when she says, "Como se
balancean en el aire las nubes gigantescas adornadas de 6palos y
de rubies," when from time to time large gauzy splendid luminous
vapors float on this resplendent atmosphere.
We drove to the opera, and returned in an open volante (one
of Mrs. T's). The air was so deliciously warm, yet fresh
and not suffocating, that on coming out of the house it seemed to
be hotter than it was within. Soldiers are stationed round the
theatre to keep order, and the crowds of volantes rush off with the
utmost regularity.
There was an execution here the other day. The criminal
was a Spaniard; the crime, murder; and he has confessed, since
his detection and imprisonment, a large number of assassinations
that he had committed previously. He made a public declaration
before he was gar-otted, stating that all his wickedness was caused
by the early desertion of his parents, and his total want of education. Mr. C went to see the execution. We passed the
place by chance where it was to take place, the evening before,
and there was already a large throng of persons collected to see
the dreadful spectacle; so they seem as fond of such horrors in
this land of flowers and sunshine, as the citizens of smoky, dusky
London.
Havana is-brilliantly lighted with gas: when there is a moon,
however, the gas is not lighted, as it would be indeed quite a
work of supererogation. There are American omnibuses that run
regularly to the Cerro, and the other suburbs. The Americans
(they tell me) take the lead always in commencing these improvernents, and after being for a while in leading strings under their
tuitionI, the citizens of Havana take the management of these
affairs into their own hands.
No city can well give one an idea of greater material prosperity
than the Havana. The numbers of beautiful shops, teeming with
every article of luxury, grace, and convenience; the magnificent
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