New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1871-04-13

and, too, the people accept this Invitation to /
incidence right heartily.
The land is rich, but the people are poor !
The comforts and convenisnces Of civilized life
are scanty indeed. Especially is this manifest
in the country. The state of things here forci-
bly, illustrates the proposition, that where Ma
ture does most there man will do least.
THAcKRRY says Men are generally about as
lazy as they can afford to be- Here Nature
does almost everything, and man does about as
much as nothing. Where man does nothing,
he of course sinks into nothingness. 1t is an.
der the lash and sting of some urgent necessity
that the world gets its best work and achieves
its greatest triumphs. The strength of our
hands are known only when life or limb, or
something equally valuable, depend upon our
hold. The people Of Santo Domingo are ap-
parently unconscious Of any such sting of ne
cessity. Their great want is a sense OF want.
They are uncousciously living without the
things they ought to get out Of life.
l say this not because the people of that
country dispense with much that we in this
latitude find necessary to health and comfort
Much that We toll for and cannot well do with
out in our climate, is not only unnecessary in
Santo Domingo, but would be nuisance. Our
stoves of various patterns, our soft beds. sofas,
lounges, cushions, and curtains, with our air
tight" houses, of course, everybody knows
would be wholly out Of place in Santo Do
ningo, or any other tropical country. Your
cushions would be sure to invite ard shelter
vermin, which would add little to domestic
comfort and do much to disgust you with life in
this land of perpetual summer. Clothing, for
which we toll and strive INCREASINGLY, is unneces-
sary here for little else than ornament and de-
eency. As for the children, little in that line
is needed at ala little cotton slip for boys
and girls alike, up to FIVE and six years, is all
that is wanted for health, comfort, and decency
The atmosphere, soft and balmy, clothes them
as it clothes the grass of the field.
Richly, however, as the people are supplied
by nature, l say again, their condition is sus-
ceptible of vast improvement. They ought to
be better fed, clothed, and sheltered, and can
be. Their houses are miserable, even for that
convenience or for decsncy. The country
sbounds in timber suitable for all manner OF
building purposes, as well as for the manufac-
ture Of the most beautiful furniture. Her
mahogany and her satin wood, which adorn the
dra wing rooms of Europe and the United
chests in the houses of her own people. Ii
would be the easiest matter in the world to
build So bstsntial houses. and to nicely furnish
them of the various aud beautiful woods of the
country. AS to the matter OF clothing, to
obtain which one.fourth of all the labor Of our
latitude is required. comparatively no labor or
expense are demanded in Santo Domingo. With
out sweat and toll the cotton-tree is at your
door, and people have only TO spin and weave
to be decently and abundantly clothed. Neither
Manchester nor Lowell need have one customer
here. Coffee, cocoa, and cotton may be had
for the picking. Cattle, pigs, goats, and do
mestic fowls flourish, while the waters of the
bays and rivers are abundant in excellent fish.
There h scarcely one Of the garden vegetables
of the temperate zone which may not ut some
attitudes be produced in this delightful coun-
try. / have seen excellent corn, beans, peas,
radishes, cabbage, potatoes, elephants, Irish
and sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and equashes,
and almost every other description Of food for
| man and beast, growing in the highest state OF
perfection in different parts Of this island. As
to temperature, one may select for himself A
few miles up or down the fertile sides of its
1,louo IF fol ford Inn OF
every variety for choice. The pine and the
palm. the one implying cold and the other
tropical heat, are near neighbors, and are only
separated BY valley and mountain. Nature is
everywhere bountiful and everywhere beautiful.
Whence, then, comes the squalor and destitu-
ton and misery of the people of Santo Domin-
go, Why have they made so little progress in
the matter of civilization Is there not some
thing in the very nature of the country to ex-
tinguish aspiration and arrest the spirit of pro
gress? Can man really work in this country
Let me give you my views.
There is not a shadow Of doubt in my misd
that men can work in Ssnto Domingo. They
can do so aud be healthy and strong. On the
wharves of Santo Domingo l have seen men
working from morning till night in the burning
sun, and they were the very picture of health
and vigor. To saw mahogany with q cross-cut
saw all day, and every day in the week, would
be a trial 10 Northern muscle. The men saw
at work in Santo Domingo seemed to stand i,
as well as the same WORK would be borne in our
summer climate. Besides. the people Of Santo
Domingo can walk or ride as many hours
il the day as any other people in any other
country. There is, therefore, no physical ne
cessity for Incidence other than we experience
in summer. the time when most Of the work OF
our country is performed. The climate there,
to be sure, invites to Incidence, and the same
Is true here 10 summer. The people of Santo
Domingo love ease, and 80 do We but the love
Of ease is not opposed TO industry. Intelligent
love of ease 10 at the bottom of industry. Men
work to make themselves comfortable and indie
pendent the more they work, all other thin 9
being equal, the more comfortable and the more
independent of labor they become.
To my mind there are several explanations Of
the general want Of skill and industry in Santo
Domingo That country has been cursed for
centuries with four Of the greatest destroyers of
wealth, and four of the most effective paraly gers
of industry known TO human history. Ii is, in.
deed, less strange that so little of civilization
is found there than that so much is found