and perhaps quite that, socially.  In its immediate vicinity are some of the leading hotels and the principal theatres.  One of the latter, facing the park on its western side, across the Prado, is now known as the Nacional.  Formerly it was the Tacon, a monument to that notable man.  There is quite a story about that structure.  It is somewhat too long for inclusion here, but it seems worth telling.  The following is an abridgment of the tale as it is told in Mr. Ballou’s History of Cuba, published in 1854.  Tacon was the Governor of the island from 1834 to 1838.  At that time, a certain man named Marti was eminent in the smuggling and piracy business, an industry in which many others were engaged.  But Marti seems to have stood at the top of his profession, a man of skill and daring and evidently well supplied with brains.  Tacon’s efforts to capture him, or to break up his business, were entirely unsuccessful, and a large reward was offered for his body, alive or dead.  Mr. Ballou tells the story in somewhat dramatic manner: 

“It was a dark, cloudy night in Havana, a few months after the announcement of the reward, when two sentinels were pacing backward and forward before the main entrance to the Governor’s palace.  A little before midnight, a man was watching them from behind a statue in the park, and after observing that the sentinels paced their brief walk so as to meet each other, and then turned their backs as they separated, leaving a brief moment in the interval when the eyes of both were turned away from the entrance, seemed to calculate upon passing them unobserved.  It was an exceedingly delicate manoeuvre, and required great care and dexterity to effect it; but, at last, it was adroitly done, and the stranger sprang lightly through the entrance, secreting himself behind one of the pillars of the inner court.  The sentinels paced on undisturbed.  The figure which had thus stealthily effected an entrance, now sought the broad stairs that led to the Governor’s suite, with a confidence that evinced a perfect knowledge of the place.  A second guard-post was to be passed at the head of the stairs; but, assuming an air of authority, the stranger offered a cold military salute and passed forward, as though there was not the most distant question of his right to do so; and thus avoiding all suspicion in the guard’s mind, he boldly entered the Governor’s reception room unchallenged, and closed the door behind him.”

In his office, alone, the stranger found Tacon, who was naturally surprised at the appearance of an unannounced caller.  He demanded to know who the visitor was, but a direct answer was evaded.  After referring to the matter of the reward offered for the discovery of Marti, and the pledge of immunity to the discoverer, the caller demanded and obtained a verbal endorsement of the promise of immunity, under the Governor’s word of honor, whatever might be the circumstances of his revelation.  He then announced himself