Physically and morally a product of the country which was politically and economically a victim of that type of government, the Cuban of that period had no interests save the quest of comfort and such pleasurable excitement as certain entertainments offered. The women divided their attention between their church and their home, indulged in deadly idleness and senseless extravagance, dressed luxuriantly, but with bad taste, and sought distraction in gossip or gambling. The men, who had caught faint echoes of Voltaire and ideas of the Revolution and were estranged from the church, divided their interests between their business and their friends of both sexes, and also sought distraction in gambling. There was gambling in the home circle, in the houses of friends, in the clubs, even in the convents. It was estimated that ten thousand games of cards were annually imported into Havana. Of places of amusement there was no lack at that time. M. Villiet d'Arignon, who visited Havana fifty years before and was bored by the provincial monotony of Cuban life, could not have complained of lack of entertainment, had he seen Havana at the threshold of the nineteenth century, though his fastidious Gallic taste would perhaps not have been satisfied with the quality of the attractions the Cuban metropolis offered her guests. The native Cuban, and the Spaniard who had settled there, did not wish for anything more fascinating and more exciting than the national fiesta of the bull-fight, the corrida de toros. No true Cuban could resist the trumpet call summoning the population to that most sumptuous spectacle. "These costumes of the age of chivalry, those richly harnessed palfreys, those banderillos (small darts with a bandorol) or stilets trimmed with the colors, with which the neck of the poor beast is seen magnificently larded; this martial music, these cheers of the mousquetaires rendering homage unto the victors, this most eminent magistrate presiding at the feast, this vast arena, this wealth of beautiful women, who have the opportunity of hearing the most drastic, disgusting and obscene exclamations, into which the vulgarity of spectators and toreadors lapses in the heat of the combat. And yet I would not advise the Spanish government to attempt to abolish at least in Havana this sort of spectacle. A revolt might cause the authorities to repent of their temerity."