The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-02-23
FIVE HOURS IN NASSAU
4 REPORTERS VISIT ASHORE AT NEW
PROVIDENCE.
Tropic Vegetation on 81 Little Rock at Sea
Pleasures of Existence on One
of Earth's Most Peace
full NOoIes.

The letters n. p, always attached TO
Nassau, do not stand for Niger Paradise,
although the population is largely colored,
but for New Providence, the name OF the
island on which Nassau is a city. New
Providence contains eighty-fve square
miles of land, three towns and score or
more Of curious features not to be missed
by visitor To see all these in five hours
was tremendous feat, and the accom-.
plishment of ii shocked the community
to the same degree that the earth
quake startled this city last summer. The
horse that did the work wore an express
ion of establishment and panied surprise
at finding himself whipped into the first
hurry ever known in the West midas
The mahogany Colored soldiers came
languidly out of her majesty's barracks,
the half nude negro babies rolled to one
side of the roadway, the English mer-
chants and clerks came to the doors and
windows, and there were signs, as the
team passed through the African hamlet
of Grantstown. that the population was
so stirred that it would surely turn out of
the houses within an hour or two to see
what was the matter And yet the nag
did not make more than six miles an hour
when Ii was walloped the hardest
What buggy ride that was to man
who had embarked at the foot of Wall
street, shivering in a heavy beaver over
coat, and at the end of the journey no
further than from New York to Chicago
had turned out of bed to find himself in a
land of perpetual summer and strangely
beautiful tropical scenery The white town
on the sloping hillside shone in a setting
of tropic verdure like pearl in bed of
green plush. Here was no end of novelty;
Cargoes of pineapples, boat loads of
sponges, holds full of singular Holsters,
crabs, and grOtesque-loOking fishes, decks
heaped with singular fruits of unlnvitlng
appearances, but with names that called
up visions of oriental feasting, and other
heaps of roots that looked like potatoes.
and some that looked like peppers, and
yet were not exactly like them either.
Over all the decks and on the wharf and
down the main street and up all the side
streets and far away into the country were
swarms of negroes, not hatnosed, thick
Tipped Congo men and women, but dark
les with regular features, straight noses,
and mouths within reason. Their bare
feet, colored cotton shirts, the dissOlute
straw hats of one sex and gorgeous ban
danna turbanS of the other, the Thin flap
ping trousers of the men, and the tumble
of colors in the women's dresses demon
strated that the poor were as cool as the
white merchants and clerks who wear
summer silks or suits of thin drill goods,
and cooler than the black policemen uni
formed in heavy and stiff white duck.
is said to be the cleanest city in the world.
This is partly because nearly everything
in il except the people and vegetation is
made of a white rock, part coral and
limestone. The streets are simply smooth
beds of it, the houses are big boxes of it,
the wharves are solid cubes of it, and the
fences are slices of it set on end The
city looks white, and as it is built on g
hillside sloping down to the sea, it keeps
Itself clean.
A ride through the little capital take:
you past square after square of low, light
color square houses, many of them
shielded on one or more sides by additions
enclosed In walls made of shutters that
will admit the air and exclude the SUM-
The gardens and farms. if you can cal
them so, are also made of solid rock. TIC
plant anything it is only necessary tC
punch a soft spot in the stone
with a crowbar and plant or SOW the
seed in the powder. What little sol
there is rest in the cracks and pockets o.
the rock, but vegetation thrives as wei
IN hole made for the purpose as in al
old one A thousand and one tress
bushes plants, and shrubs brandish theil
leaves in every hand. Palms, cocoanuts
bananas, and pineapples ornament every
and gorgeous with blossoms, roses tina
never cease to bloom, jasmines, shell
flowers, cacti without number, geran
iums, and an interminable list of flower
illumine the scenery and weight the ali
with perfume
In wild profusion and in trained gooC
order are the fruits of this land of inces
SAINT June-cocanuts, lemons. oranges, ba
nanas, pineapples sapodillas, guavas
breadfruit, citron, mulberry, plantains
grapes. tamarinds, and double score o
fruits wholly unknown to this country
All this on q sOilleSs rock in the sea. Owe
the tree tops the red famingo floats, tn,
wild pigeon COOS in the branches. par
tridges quail, ducks, snipe, and pigeon
are credited to the woods and beaches
Tnvaids and those who dislike or nav
reason to dread northern winter fin
there climate which between Novembe
and May does not vary more than ten dc
grees-from about 20 degrees to about 8
degrees.
The negroes have Grantstown for thei
capital 1t begins a little beyond wher
Nassau ends, and consists of a most inter
esting collection of wooden shanties with
out fireplaces or chimneys with thatche
palmetto leaf roofs. and no glass or shade
In the windows. These houses peep on
beside the white roadsides from beautiful
confusion of fruits, flowers, and tropi
trees and black women and childre
abound in such numbers that three sucl
cities as Nassau could not provide wOrl
for all of them.
They are densely ignorant. and have tn
sunniest dispositions Laughter and son
well from them constantly. But they st
so little money that white strangers finC
ing they viii do anything to get it. CO.
rupt them fearfully. Getting fifty c
them to fight like wolves in heap q
the ground for the possession of a sma
silver coin is one of the most innocel
sports they get these simple souls
provide.
Wooden Shoes To BE Made by Steam.
A factory has just been opened at Dal
bury, Conn, for the manufacture {