[Illustration: A VOLANTE: AN OLD TIME PLEASURE CARRIAGE]
They did not know then, in Havana, the lyric theatre, although the Havanese were fond of music and the members of Havana society in their gatherings usually provided some musical entertainment by having an instrumentalist perform on the piano, guitar or harp. However, there seems to have existed an Academy of Music, where concerts were given. There is an article in an issue of the Havana paper of that time, the _Papel Periodico_, which refers to a concert given by Senora Maria Josefa Castellanos, whose performance on the harpsichord called forth not only a tribute in verse, but a glowing description of her "rare skill and mastery of which she has given proof in the Academy, with the sweetest harmonies of the best composers." This eulogy is contained in the Sunday issue of January twenty-second, 1792. Besides Senora Castellanos and other skilled amateurs, there was a Senora Doña Maria O'Farrell, who distinguished herself by her musical accomplishments, for another issue of the _Papel Periodico_ contains a sapphic ode dedicated to her by an admirer, who signed the pseudonym Filesimolpos.
It appears that balls as an amusement were not approved of, which seems a contradiction in a society which was by no means puritanical. Although social evenings in private houses frequently ended in a dance, there were few indications that large affairs consisting mainly of dancing took place in the public assembly halls. The _Papel Periodico_ of December sixteenth, 1792, contains an announcement which for its brevity gives room to manifold interpretation. "The gentlemen are informed that there will be a dance today" is so laconic, that one is almost induced to believe that these dances were given at places known only to the initiated. In this particular instance it was subsequently learned that this dance of the sixteenth of December, 1792, took place at the house of a man who was considered "a dangerous reformer of the customs of Havana." Did this dangerous reformer perhaps admit to his dance the ravishingly beautiful and cultured women that had come from Santo Domingo, where they freely moved in society, but were barred in Havana, because they had a white father or grandfather and a colored mother or grandmother? Foreign visitors to Havana at that period were so warm in their praise of these refined unfortunate victims of miscegenation, that they may have converted some of the gilded youth of the smart set or the Bohemia of Havana to their point of view.