St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1888-12-01

- 1naons oonnaRoan9 ~ 01Oeugo 0Deo
- tAO West InA1oo.
Then I'll tAS leae sacoession Of Inn
pressious rsceived-fantastic. sensuous.
ezstia .uafamiliaR-beg1h 70 group. TO
blend, to form hon0gsneoas results.
ideas, beliefs. :. Strosgese enong these
= The oonyiotioa that the white race Is
disappearing ,foN these islands. ac-
.quired and held 70 long. q % vast a
cost Of blood and treaaaP~ Reasons
almost beyond enumeratiqns have been
advanced economical, climatic. eth
nical. political-al os which contain
truth. yet no single one Of. which can
wholly explain the Tact. Already tho
white West Indian populations are di-
nlinishing at rate that almost stag
gers credibilfty. In the island para
.6isso OF Martinique n ls4s there were
5000 whites; now. against 16O.OOO
hlacks and sban-bpeelA there arc less
than 5000, creOless left 70 maintain
the ethnie struggle. and the num-
Der of the latter II annual
y growing less. Many Of the British
islands have been almost deserted by
their former cu'tivators: St. Vincent
Il becoming desolate; Tobago is . ruin;
st, Martin lies half abandoned; St
Christopher is crumbling; Grenada has
lost more than half her whites; st.
Thomas. Onoe the most prosperous. the
most prolific. tho most cosmopolitan
Of West Indian ports. is in full deca-
dence, Perhaps in Trinidad. where inn
mense English capital has basn invest
cd. and where the coolio. population is
intelligent and powerful enough to sup
plant and master the African. the
struggle WIN be greatly prolonged. and
the result less dismal; but elsewhere
the slave races of the past seem
destined to. become. sopser or later.
the masters Of the future; and the ex-
terminated Indian people Of the An
titles will eventually be replaced by
populations similarly fitted to cope
with elimatic condition4S In perfect
physiological harmony. with this trop-
ical nafure-violent. terrible. splendid
which mocks Ahs will and consumes
the energies Of the races 81. the North.
which swallows up the grandest re-
sulis OF their labors. which devours
all that haa been accomplished by
their heroisms or their crimes. obliter-
ating their cities. rejecting their civ
tizAtl0n~
But With. the. disappearance Of the
white populations the eehsical problem
would be still unsolvcd. Between the
black and mixed peoples rage hatreds
far more enduring and more intense
than any race prejudices between mas
tiers and freedmen in tie past; q new
struggle for supremacy could not fail
70 begin, with the perpetual augmenta-
tion Of numbers. the ever-increasing
competition for existence And the
true black element, more numerically
powerful more fertile. more cunning.
better adapted 10 tho conditions Of
pyrogenic climate and tropical
environment, would surely win the
contest All these mixed races. all
these heamtiful 4ruit-oolOred popula-
ti0ns. seem doomed to extinction; tho
future tendency must be to universal
blackness. il existing conditions con-
tinus-spcfhaps TO universal savagery.
Everywhcrc the sins OF the past have
bOrnc the same fruit. have furnished
the colonies with social enigmas that
mock the wisdom OF all humane lagis-
laters. dragon-crop Of problems that
NO modern political science has yet
proved competent to deal with Can
1t even be hoped that future sociolo-
gists win be able to answer them.
after Naaure-whO never forgives-
shall have enacted the utmost pos
sible retributi0n for all the errors and
follies Of three hunded years?-La}ea-
do Hearn. in Harper's MagaziHe-