Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-08-15
(Continued from hrst page.l

ground. and there YOU have them, the
beautiful. poetical tropics But Just re-
move the palm-tree, and what remains
hideous ssndy plain and couple OF
huts. Try this simple experiment at the
Academy, and you will be surprised to
find how utterly the Scene in Egypt dis
appears. how ridiculously the Sunset at
Rio" collapses, how absurdly the Street
IN Delhi' fsttens down into dusty allev.
II 1 had my will | would exterminate
those deceptive endogens at one tel blow.
For the worst OF them all is this, that in
real life they always get in the back
ground of your view, where as every ar
tlst knows their sole pictorial value is
10 overhang and browbeat the tropical
cottage at twenty yards distance.
Not long, however, did those theatrical
palm-trees impose upon our young credu-
MY. An hours steaming up sultry,
breathless bay, where even at that early
hour the heat proved scarcely supportable.
landed us alongside the coal 0egrimed
wooden quay of Kingston. Gracious
heavens, " hat disenchantment At one
glance the eye takes in the gloomy piano.
rama, and the beautiful tropics have van
ished forever. Not Martinique, not Bra
zil. not Cey Ion itself can ever reinstate
that shattered idol. Dead, as hopelessly
as the gods OF Nepal, after the K ala had
blown their images from the lannon's
mouth; dead, AS eternally as the great
and good Pecksniff after Tom Pinch had
woken up in the organ loft TO a sense OF his
utter meanness and hypocrisy. In three
minutes am ready to cry aloud, There
are no tropics. and to hold that negative
faith with unshaken confidence until my
dying day.
Before my gaze stretches shabby
wooden town, its long streets running
straight inland frem the waters edge. un-
paved, unwatered, INTENDED, unkept
thick in lazy dust, which the sea breeze
two hours later will drive with eddying
whirlwinds against mouth, and nose, and
eyes, in irresistible phalanx of penetrating
atoms. On either side the street, low,
one-storied wooden houses line the road
once painted white, with bright green
.jaionsies, but now dingy grey in general
nue., broken by windows of dull olive
blinds. The roofs scarcely stick ON their
Wondering beams. the dirty cedar shin
giles are overgrown with rank weeds, and
give shelter TO spurious vulture-lookng
birds-the John-crow, or turkey buzzard
of the colonists-and the whole town has
ten times more evident through the blink
ing, staring sunlight that falls in iull force
on every squalid detail. Behind these
abodes vi men. brown, treeless plain
runs back for many miles in unshsded
hideousness while in the far background
masses of hot, basking mountains close
the view, their clear-cut peaks Swallowed
by no cooler heecy cloud. but standing out
in naked contour against the blazing sky
overhead. Squalor, dust, sunlight in
abundance, but no trees. no birds. no
flowers, no scenery-in short, no tropics.
/ put up my white umbrella, and landed |
on The quay. Ragged, half-clad negroes
in tatters and dust stood along the path |
way to the Custom House; | passed my
luggage, waiting meanwhile under the |
fierce sun; and when the peppery officer
had satisfied himself that did not wish to
cheat the revenue, and had sworn suffi-
GENTLY al his underlngs the climate and
the use of capscums seem to exert Il sort
Of direct reactive influence on the human
temper in these Western isle turned in
to tue street TO seek my chosen hotel.
Drivers with omnibusses" We're near in
numbers. l engaged one for myself and
my portmanteau, aud, leaving my heavy
goods TO follow on in a rickety dray, be-
took myself TO Colonial Hall, the leading
hostchy OF the metropolis 10 which l
stood.
A Jamaican omnibus is unique vehicle
after its kind. The main portion consists
OF square box, surmounted by a Chinese
canopy in American leather,a land struck
upon four wheels by the Intervention OF
some autediluyan springs Between the
shafts sorry mule walks solemnly along,
until blow from the butt-end OF the whip
(thongs appear TO be mere survivals OF
once useful structure) rouses him for a
moment into furious canter, subsiding
Immediately into the original dead march
Over unmetalled roads intersected by
open waterways, and diversified by occa-
sional hollows known under the graphic
title OF "butter-bowls," the negro driver
jolts his luckless victim with undiminished
composure, observing with grin alter
each unusually heavy jump. "Massa
from Englan' doan't 'customed yet 10 Ja-
maica road dat muffin after Massa larn
to know him ia Pleasing prediction
which Massa shortly recognizes as no
more than the truth.
SO on We jolt, from one tumble-down
street to another, past groups OF chatterng
negroes, past long rows OF shabby houses
with no trottotr in front, until at last we
draw up at the broken door md shaky
wooden steps OF Colonial Hall am not
writing on account OF Jamaica, but merely
exl oslng the great tropical iallacy; anu
50 l will not Try to describe the transcen-
dent horrors oil that unrivalled house of
entertainment. / have travelled in Spain,
and thought understood dirt but, be-
heve me, only knew as yet the first ru-
diments OF that extensive subject. The
floors OF Colonial Hall might have been
converted into a thriving hower-garden.
The servants might have sold their rags
to an enterprisng manager as "proper-
ties" for Joe or Ohver Twist. The loaves
OF bread might have been transported en-
tire TO The chronological cabinets OF the
British Museum. The whole house might
have been indicted Tor nuisance by The
righteous indignation OF the New Cut. /
will not dwell upon it, lest | should seem
TO exaggerate, but will pass on 10 NY alter
experiences OF The country at large. so Tar
as they cast CLEAN OF light upon the
true nature OF the iaIlacy in hand
tContinued tomorrow