The Cigar-Room Reader of Cuba.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 469, 7 May 1890, Page 4

The Cigar-Room Reader of Cuba.

Owing to a fondness for conversation which the Spanish, in common with all Latin races, possess, and owing to a weakness for gesture with head, arm, and shoulder in conversation, the Cuban workman would lose half his time if left to his own sweet will. Consequently the hands in the cigar-room follow a time-honoured Cuban custom and employ a lector, or reader, who, from a pulpit in the geometrical centre of the apartment, entertains his auditors with the latest Havana newspaper in the morning and with Spanish novels and ballads in the afternoon. Though the lector is on duty during the entire number of working hours, scarcely more than half his time is occupied in reading. Though not recognised officially by the factory owners los lectores are, by a diplomatic subterfuge, accorded privileges by the owners, who provide them with a platform and reading desk, and, in some cases, indirectly furnish them with magazines. Payment for the services of a lector comes from the hands and is voluntary, but is rarely evaded. At the end of the week each operative in the cigar-room is expected to show his gratitude to the reader in the shape of a small cash present As these presents average a shilling per man, the position of the reader is lucrative, yielding in one factory as much, it is said, as £25 .a week. V —— 1 1