The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1886-05-19

for Lazy People.
For the traveller, the scientist the inva-
liz, the dreamer, the outcast or the outlaw,
tbe Bahama Islands are the Ultima Thule.
Life is sustained with scarcely an effort. It
is region of prodigal provision, of thyme
and balm, of life in endless lullaby All
this is the vision of toilers. Its realization
to any people begets squalor. The popula-
ton of the entire islands, whose capital and
dence, is nondescript, with English, Span
ish and negro commingling, and comprise
such people as might be likened to laz-
zaroni unconscionsly possessing heaven !;
and, in coming to know and think of ii all,
It is one of those intellectual evidences that
almost compels the rejection of any sort of
future state in which activity and progress
sion are not possible. There is actually q
sense of rest in these attitudes so intense as
to be oppressive. Something in the very
air compels sleep that can be likened only
% rest which brings no renewal of thai
slation and vigor we in the colder climates.
know, and doubt not that this carries on
from physical to mental effects, and dims
intellectual and spiritual alertness sadly.
But to know it and to experience it-and
leave it-are delicious though it all leaves
with it an undertone of sadness, because
one SO much longs to change the unchange
able law of compensation and give this
sweet CLINE to the driven, jaded men and
women of our harder, more yirile peoples,
and compel these half awake existences te
live and labor where the awful friction OF
things would straighten the form, put light
behind the eyes and polish the perception
until recognizable.
But all about you is weird, charming,
sensuous, narcotic, dreamful. 1t is to you
like old wine that lulls and soothes, but
has changed from its hard, cold, steely blue,
and is now opaline, almost milky white,
but translucent. The horizon that, abreast
of the dreary, dangerous headlines of the
north, seemed shut down upon you near and
quick and hard by as dreary sky, is now
far and fur away, aud the waters and sky
meet lovingly. The sky, too, that was SC
close and forbidding five hundred leagues
behind now seems infinitely far above you
and has fierceness and softness which
open to the imagination undreamed of flights
toward heaven. The stars, which In the
winter zone prodded at you like flashes
from flint, here in the old an ! Lived con.
stellations pulse and glow with passionate
fervo.. And even the winds that come from
whatever quarter bring half caught recog-
nitioI of invisible presences- something
akin u hint, suggestion, dalliance-and
touch you in loving pulsatons that lull the
senses tenderly. Here light the olden
Sirens have dwelt and sung and charmed
and destroyed, and wiser than Ulysses he
who resisted the spoil. Indeed, the legend
goes that here was the original paradise
In these islands Natures hand is forever
wide open. Here the pineapple, citron,
melon, guaye, custard apple, yam, bread
fruit, sweet potato, maunnee, star apple,
lapota, mango, pomegranate, banana,
orange, lemon, cocoanut, and hundred
other vegetables and fruits, spring unasked
from surprising and prodigal productive
ness. The forests team with the cocoanut
trees, hundred feet to its strange pinnate
leaves, the celba, or silk-cotton tree, the
black mangrove, almond, mahogany, ebony,
hgnum yitm, lance, and the royal palm,
while the swinging cactus. Islanders as tall
as our trees and towering every month in
the year, the glowing coral vine, the tube
rose, the Cherokee rose, and roses of every
hue and size, the alligator pear, the night
blooming cereus, and n myriad shrubs, ferns
and flowers delight the eye and gladden.
with perennial color and odor, and that for
eve- without the bidding of wish or touch
If labor. The luxuriance of land is also
'qualled by the prodigality of sea life aud
form, as varied, beautiful and wonderful.