The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1884-12-20

NFf ~N@N ~ ~" C~0ANNAJ
single decent looking house. All
the mountain districts are aban.
doned to small cultivators. whose
wretehed cabins are destitute of
every comfort and disgustingly
foul. AS to the state of the
bridges, which in colonial times
were kept in admirable repair, it
will suffice to quote the saying
current among the Haytians. that
''you should 90 around a bridge
but never cross it.n The roads
are wrecks and in the rainy season
are quite impossible, though how
easy it would have been for the
blacks to preserve the invaluable
means of communication be.
queathed to them by the white
colonists, may be seen on the road
from Gonalves to the northern
province, where 'there is a very
remarkable paved way, the work
so we'll done that 1t has resisted
the rain during a hundred years of
neglect Another illustration of
the negro's capacity to hold fast
benefits that come to him ready
made is furnished by the famous
plain north of Port AuPrince,
known as the Cul de Sac. The
extraordinary productiyeness of
this district depends on the regu-
lar supply of water, to secure
which the French engineers con
structed elaborate irrigation
works. For more than q quarter
of a century those precious appli-
ances were neglected by the
blacks, and although repairs were
at last ordered under President
Geffrard, so large part ofthe sum
voted was embezzled that the dis
tributing canals could not be re.
stored.
The ravages of headlong, hope.
less disintegration are as patent on
the social and moral as on the ma.
terial side of Haytian civilization.
Pilfering and lying are universal
and inveterate among the masses
of the people, and among office
holders embezzlement is not only
the invariable practice, but is ac'
tually sanctioned by public opin
ion. Sir Spencer tells us that al
ordinary Haytian visitor. never
leaves a room without a thought
full backward glance to see if ht
has not perchance overlooked
something worth filching, ant
apropos of the ubiquitous officia
corruption, he quotes g Haytial
proverb, ''Prendre Pargeant d.
petat, CO n'estpas vols" AS t
connubial fidelity, it is not honore,
or expected In any social stratum
on the part of the males, thougl
in the higher circles of colored so
ciety the educated mulatto'ladies,
though offensive in many of thei
personal habits, are accredited b.
the author with exemplary chas
tity.
The retrogression ofthe Haytial
blacks to barbarism Is, however
most decisively and distressingl,
attested by the rapid growth o
voudooism and cannibalism, whicl
the government is quite unable, o
unwilling to prevent, and whicl
even the sincere and strenuous ei
forts of the Catholic church-re
stored since the concordant of 1856
: to some degree Of influence il
Hayti-have proved impotent t,
stem. Sir Spencer st. John dc
votes a chapter to this frightfu
subject, and the evidence collect
ed and verified by him amply cor
firms the charges made some thre
J years ago in London journal, an
, repudiated with much bitterness
by the official newspapers publish
! ed at Porf AuPrince. The resent
, ment provoked by such disclosur
, is ineligible enough, for Gambia
ism is the one thing of which Hay
| tians have still a sufficient tinctur
, of civilization to be thorough
, ashamed. But they will not fin
f it easy to refuts the deliberate an
! reluctant conclusions of the Eli
/. glish minister, who lived twelv
! years among them and who ha
! and used every opportunity of eli'
}, iting the truth. To the horrors II
= counted in this volume we sha
8 not refer in detail, but will conter
4 ourselves with quoting the al
Q thor's answer to an obvious obje'
!, ton to the trustworthiness of hi
3 information "The remark | mad
t when first began inquiry into thi
b subject may naturally he repeate
}, by others. If the majority of th
s Haytians is tainted by the vaudou
= who is it that denounces thes
r dreadful orimesi The answer