The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-01-10
HORRIBLE EAYT1AN PRACTICES.
Lard Made From Human Fat.

From Haytfaa Letter IL re Nsr York SVl-
Next after TIE generals and the soldiers
the negro women, in their quaint, loose
dresses, claim the strangers attention The
native HEytians are Of course descendants
Of the slaves VINO once peopled tie islands,
iato whose veins hes come & great deal #
The blood Of the old French masters. Some
Of the women who walk the streets Of Port
au Prince have a carriage IS erect and
stately as hat Of q queen. Offers are
bent, and vile aud repuisIve looking, even
though young IN years The skirts Il their
great lOsse dresses. made Of some soft black
or white stud trail after them. Around
tcer waists they Wea- BLACK or white
saawls. They dress their heads becoming y
ia a shawl tied ia d k1Ot. Their faces are
strong ard fierce, and they do not l2ok
like women VINO would stand much
trlaing. Most Of the women, of course,
20 barefooted, and it IS queer sight
10 an American 20 see them occasionally
standing in tie cutters along the street and
lifting uD their dresses till their legs are ex-
pose1 10 the knee or beyond, splash the
water upon their legs by way OF an In
promptu bath. Then there are the women
riding in from the country on little mules
which are not larger tuan big dogs, and
which airy. in addition 70 the Haytisn
women. panniers on eacl side damned with
produce. What the paaniers mostly are
filed with IS guinea grass, the long, sweet,
succulent grass which horses like abOve all
things else as food. There are horses by the
thousand in Port au Prince belonging TO
the generals and Others. The women sell
the panniers Of guinea grass for 10 cents
and 20 bsck into the country happy.
One does not have 20 stay long il Hayti
to discover tba. public life there is honey
combsd wiki corruption, and that the pri-
vate life of its people is a mass Of awful
immortality. The lower order Of the blacks
have little ideas OF the relations OF father,
mother, sister or brother. The slaughter of
young children oy their mothers, that their
bodies may be sold as pork, or fried down
into lard, Is a common practice among the
natives. Every now and then the foreign
residents Of Port al Prime find served up
IN them on their own tables portions of the
bodies of children which have been pur-
chased in the public butcher shops. 1t is
very dangerous 70 buy cooking lard in Hayti
for the reasons above stated even when the
lard Is ostensibly OF foreign manufacture
for the Haytlans get hold OF the old cans
and fl them with lard Of their own make.
Only two weeks ago d woman was arrested
in the market place Of Port al Prince for
selling as pork the arms and legs Of child.
OF course this killing Of children is recog-
nized as murder by the Haytian Law and
punish - as such, but it is certain that the
cases which are discovered are but a small
proportion of thoss that happen Among
the blacks generally prevails the voodoo
superstition, ald all orders of society, even
IN the most enlightened and cultured, are
tinged by these hereditary beliefs Nearly
every Saturday night voodoo orgies are
celebrated among the blacks, and once q
year there is a grand assembly Of
the vood5o worshippers. At these feasts
goats are killed, the blood drank eagerly,
and the flesh torn from the quivering ami
nal by the teeth OF the frenzisd negroes.
At these orgies, too, the sacrificing and eat
ing Of children is still not unknown, and
law does not reach into tae secluded valleys
between the Mills Of the interior of Hayti.
The one thing that has decreased the vOodoo
beliefs and practices has been the influence
Of the Catholic priests These devoted men
have gone among the blacks in all parts of
hayti, and their influence for the civIliza-
ton Of the people has been great. With all
these remnants of savagery and with all
their herceless in battle, the black of Hayti
are at heart kind-hearted, affectionate, and
not a criminal people. Grimes against
than those as stated are rare.
snd 8 white stranger travelling among the
Nils IS almost certain of a hOspitaDle wei
come and security everywhere. Lazy, Il
norant aud superstitIous as they are, the
$4,000 people in Hayti cult ate hardly at
all what is some of the most fertile country
il the world. When the old Frenchmen
ruled the island they made the slaves work
The soil well, and exports of coffee of
brown and white sugar, Of cotton and cocoa
and log wood and mahogany and tortoise
shell amounted to as hign as $50, 600, 900
year. To-day the expectation Is less than
$4,000 600. The expectation of sugar and
cotton has almost entirely ceased, because
tie blacks think it is degrading and
too much like the old slave labor
to work bard to produce them. The
great staple Of production in Hayti now is
coffee. 1t has been said that there vii be
revolution in Hayti just as often as there
is a good coffee crop. Money collects then
in the public treasury, and the people who
are cut Of power are unhappy till they can
get their fnges on tne cash. This year
there was 2 great coffee crop in Eayti, AID
sum amounting TO, it vas said, 81 ,0JOO
collected in the treasury. TIE regolu. j.
started before which Solomon, who had
ruled haytl so long and 50 well, had 70 fee
When the revolui Jnists got into the tre2s-
~ they found it already empty. 1t YVES
charged that the shrewi old Solomon had
run off with the money, and this is gener-
ally believed to have been the case.