so expensive by taxation, by export as well as import duties, that it is rare for workmen, even when paid $50 to $100 a month, to enjoy the exclusive use of one of these mean little houses; reserving one or two rooms for his family, he rents the balance.  This condition of affairs is readily understood when it is known that so great a necessity as flour cost in Havana $15.50 when its price in the United States was $6.50 per barrel.

In the densely populated portions of the city the houses generally have no back yard, properly so called, but a flagged court, or narrow vacant space into which sleeping rooms open at the side, and in close proximity with these, at the rear of this contracted court are located the kitchen, the privy, and often a stall for animals.  In the houses of the poor, that is, of the vast majority of the population, there are no storerooms, pantries, closets, or other conveniences for household supplies.  These are furnished from day to day, even from meal to meal, by the corner groceries; and it is rare, in large sections of Havana, to find any one of the four corners of a square without a grocery.

The walls of most of the houses in Havana are built of “mamposteria” or rubble masonry, a porous material which freely absorbs atmospheric as well as ground moisture.  The mark of this can often be seen high on the walls, which varies from 2 to 7 feet in the houses generally.  The roofs are excellent, usually flat, and constructed of brick tiles.  The windows are, like the doors, unusually high, nearly reaching the ceiling, which, in the best houses only, is also unusually high.  The windows are never glazed, but protected by strong iron bars on the outside and on the inside by solid wooden shutters, which are secured, like the doors, with heavy bars or bolts, and in inclement weather greatly interfere with proper ventilation.  Fireplaces with chimneys are extremely rare, so that ventilation depends entirely on the doors and windows, which, it should be stated, are by no means unusually large in most of the sleeping rooms of the poor.  Generally in Havana, less generally in other cities, the entrances and courtyards are flagged with stone, while the rooms are usually floored with tile or marble.  With rare exceptions the lowest floor is in contact with the earth.  Ventilation between the earth and floor is rarely seen in Cuba.  In Havana the average height of the ground floor is from 7 to 11 inches above the pavement, but in Havana, and more frequently in other Cuban towns, one often encounters houses which are entered by stepping down from the sidewalk, and some floors are even below the level of the street.  In Havana some of the floors, in Matanzas more, in Cardenas and Cienfuegos many are of the bare earth itself, or of planks raised only a few inches above the damp ground.