Edward Sullivan wrote this squib in 1851 on his visit to The Havana, Cuba.
"A Cuban audience is the most enthusiastic I ever saw, applauding and encoring in the most reckless manner. They throw pigeons decked with ribbons without end on the stage to their favourites, and as most of the pigeons have doubloons tied under their wings, the attention is appreciated. It used to be a great amusement, sitting in the boxes and watching the swells in the stalls, with their baskets full of pigeons. I have seen as many as twenty or thirty on the stage at once. One night I was very much amused with watching the manoeuveres of two young dandies,; they were sitting quite close to theorchestra, and had a great basket between them, of which they seemed to take particular care; the lid was continually rising and falling in a most remarkable manner, and the whole basket seemed every now and then to be convulsed with throes of violent agitation. I wondered what it could contain, not supposing pigeons were strong enough to agitate the whole basket, or that they could have enough to fill a hamper. At length, after some wonderful pirouetting on the toe from an active wiry old lady who was dancing, my attention was suddenly attracted by a great commotion in the neighborhood of my two friends below: both were on the floor, and I thought at first they were fighting; they were both struggling violently with the hamper, which seemed in a most strange state of internal convulsion, when at length what was my astonishment to see a huge peacock extracted with great difficulty from the hamper, and then launched forth, flapping and screaming, towards the stage; either the bird was nervous at thus appearing suddenly before a crowded house, or else it must have carried a great weight of doubloons, for instead of reaching the stage, where I suppose it was intended to expand its tail, and strut about emblematical of the grace of the lady that was dancing, the original motion imparted to it when launched into space ceased short of the foot-lights, and it fell in the centre of the orchestra, nearly driving the French horn down a stout musician's throat who was puffing a solo, and half smothering the big fiddle who was playing the accompaniment; this of course stopped the preformance for some time, and drew the attention of the house on the owners of the peacock; they at first seemed rather proud of their performance, but on the big fiddle jumping up from his prostrate position, and shaking his bow at the authors of his discomfurture, admist the roar of laughter of the whole house, they began to look rather sheepish."
Now I don't know how much of this story to believe. Edward Sullivan's daily log of his tour through North and South America, is supurbe in capturing the environment, the events and the people of the areas he visited. I have no doubt that his encounters through New York, Canada, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, and down the Mississippi to New Orleans are authentic. Certainly one can trace his travels on a map and vouch for his accurate description of the country which is essentially unchanged.
As asides, Sullivan comments with great insight of causes weather and climate; describes tobacco culture and the famous Havana cigars; politics, government and slavery; hardship on the prarrie; Irish immigrants, Indians, Negros; sailing, Christopher Columbus and other explorers; &c. His commentary about the Peoples is rustic, amusing, and candid.
The Lasso - The hide rope, instead of being fastened to the peak of the saddle, as is the case in those countries, is plaited into the horse's tail... It always struck me that it would either pull the horse's tail out by the root, or else throw him down; and so it would, but the horses become so cunning and so fond of the sport, that the moment the lasso leaves the hand of the rider, instead of stopping short, as I always imagined was the method, they gallop off at a slight tangent as fast as they can, when, if the lasso is round the leg, the slightest jerk brings the bull to the ground. So little actual force and so much knock is there in it, that many men will throw bull after bull with a mere jerk from the shoulder, without laying any strain whatever on the horse.
Treatment for a cold - ...I had been suffering frm a severe cold, which annoyed me very much, and on casually mentioning the circumstance to our hospitable host, he said he could immediately cure it; and sending up a tub of cold water with two or three gallons of new rum, told me to bathe myself well in this strong grog. It was certainly an improvement on the simple cold-water system, and it effected a most complete cure. I doubt whether it would have been a very safe remedy for a British tar afflicted with slight cold and fever.... Hieroglyphics... are found on the Egyptian sculptures, and so far from hydropathy being the new discovery that its disciples affect to believe, it is an undoubted fact that it was well known and practised by the ancients... pp 406.
The author forewarns the reader in his preface that his diary is written, as a dwarf viewing the American scene /from the shoulder of giants (meaning those who had passed before him and describe America and its people, as example, Audubon, Catlin, Irving, Cooper, Grant, Bartram, Crevecoeur &c.)
You be the judge. At the very least, it is a most well written and amusing book. At best, an encapsulated view of history as only one living at the time could write. For comparison, one might read P. T. Barnum's reminescences of the times.
*** With much gratitude to the Center for Western Studies at Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for the loan of this most delightful, ancient and worthy book.
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