The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1888-03-30
Ladies' Department.
A Visit to Jamaica.

than the summer.climate of Virginia
-tae warmth being tempered by the
sea and land breezes, which alternate
here. The houses, being lightly built,
and with large portion OF the walls
entirely # tjalousies, get all the air
and are comparatively cool, and it is
only when one is directly exposed 10
the verticle rays Of the sun that one
feels the heat a great deal. This is
avoided in part by going out early
before the sun gets high In the hea-
vcns. 1t is therefore the custom in
Jamaica to stay within doors after
ii a. M, unless one has an urgent
reason for travelling. When one rs,
however. forced to travel in the heat
of the day, you realize, as did,
what tropica! Sunshine really is; for
on my first expedition. my face was
SO blistered that the skin peeled off.
The glare, too on the white roads is
trying 10 the eyes, and the sun seems
10 beat ritilessly down on your head,
giving you in short time, if unacll-
mated, a severe headache
But if the tropical sun "beats
down" on ones devoted head, what
does the tropical rain do? No one
who has never been unfortunate
enough to be caught in Jamaica
shower, can at all uuder stand what
it is. The rain does not seem here
to come down in drops. but in buck.
etsfuls. One mement yoaare under
cloudless sky; in a lew minutes
more, cloud sas large asa mans
hand" arises, and before you can
seek shelter, or even let down the
curtains OF your vehicle, down it
comes in sheetsof water, drenching
you to the skin.
The year here, instead of divisions
of spring, summer, autumn and win
ter, is divided into four seasons, the
rainy and the dry, two of each. The
rainy seasons come in the autumn
and the spring. and then it is that the
floods come down from the noun
tain, causing many a land sli'ie, and
roaring along The gullies in rapid
torrent. carving everything before
it. At these times Jamaica is sub
ject to violent storms and tornadues
before which the stately cocoanut
trees, and the slight huts built by
the negroes of "wattle and dauD."
are blown to the earth, and the face
Of the country 10 one scene of devas-
tation and ruin. just before / reach
ed Kingston, the water was up in the
streets so that people had to go
about in boats, and the 6ated iron
roofs of the warehouses were blown
off and rolled up like sticks of Gin
namon, and hurled into the harbOr,
where many merchant vessels were
wrecked. After the rainy season
comes the long dry one, and now it
is that the planters set about their
crops. just in proportion as they
they have too much rain, when they
do have it, is the drouth apt to be
long and continued, for Jamaica is
in all things a. land of extremes.
This. in region dependent for
drinking water on cisterns and tanks,
is no sill ht matter, and sometimes l
have known people forced to pns
locks on their tanks and sell the
water at so much head to the long
line Of waiting cattle driven for miles
to be watefed. Without this pre-
caution, the water is stolen by bar
relfuls in the night. The stock often
die by dozens for lack of water and
grass, and stencil of their. decaying
bodies brings on in many cases "the
fever of the country" creven that
far more dreadful scourge, yellow
jack" This, however. is the dark
side Of the picture, and is by no
means an inyariable state OF affairs
The customs OF the people are in a
degree dependent on the climate, and
here the day is divided quite differ
emily from the way that we in our
mere temperate zone are accust, med
to divideit: a
First, at a. m. the tropical day
begins with our first meal. ssearly
morning coffee y as it is called A
tap is heard at your bedroom door.
and, to your sleepy response. com. 8
in sable domestic her head bound
ND in the TOWERING head kerchief