Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1890-03-18
JAMAIcA's GALLONS po,s-


"Reminiscences Of Pirates and D..
secuted Negroes. xss-
Kingston Is an old town acco.s,
our New World manner Of co,sR TO
age. In the year 1902 an earthnaS
entirely destroyed the greater luahe
Port Royal, and the panic-strickapra .' 81
fleeing thence to the main islara .olk,
the plague that followed, gatberaa 'on
gether upon the shores of rs.'. ou 70
where little settlement 81 tuea,
huts marked the spot on which a y,
ston was afterward to arise in ha- nng-
1t has no such wild history as tho 10y
or town; its romance is mostly th a.u'n.
the luxurious pr osperity OF mera. s y
prince and sugar king; Yet. thann asns
the pirate and SLAYER, 1t is not al.aao
er devoid OF another sort Of story ss0'n'
Nowadays we read in the crnr,,,
docks and hoary warehouses voio .ng
history of the busy, prosperous tim.u 'ss
which Tom Cringle" tells, when ~ ~
L. and his brother merchants tr.s.,
sugar and rum and lockwood Ana !.
mento for the gold and silver !, ~
Spanish Main and the flour and oa. 'ue
America. We read in the ricketn a.. VI
ble-down houses that helplesslv cs .a'
Bile to decay in the heart of tho to~r
the same silent history of the DAYS VIII .A
those merchants entertained Nh.
guests with princely hospita,its 'f
every thing in good style, wine snn..,
turtle, etc, magnificent, and Tho as
pany exceedingly companionable y
There we read of the time when .;"s
Jews lived in Oriental LUXURY ~
romance tells a story Of A nsr..,
of wild roisterers ramblino
their cups through the st,oo..
at night and trying to peep into tho H.
brew's house at the private doinys win
in' and OF how one was caught bv
bevy of beautiful Jewesses, bound h.,a
and foot with embroidered silken scarfs
and beaten, by way of punishment WITH
pearl-handled fans scented with mnsl,
and rose-water.
All this was very fine and pretty and
romantic, but there was reverse to tho
picture, dark, stern, terrible The rich
people lived merrily and luxuriouslv
but underneath the surface two hun.
dred and fifty thousand wretcbos
groaned and writhed in one of the most
merciless servitudes that the world ave,
saw. There are othe~ things to he sean
in Kingston that speak different his.
tory than that told by once noble houses
now crumbling to ruin-things that
speak of sullen cruelty and mortal
agony.
In the museum of the town there
hangs in one corner an iron frame now
rustinc into decay. The frame is 81.
actly the shape of human figure. and
the iron bars open upon hinges and
close with paddock. In the band that
arches over the head is ring, and in
either heel long, sharp-pointed spike.
1t is the terrible cage" of which now
and then we catch mention in the
records of the slave courts, where we
hear tell of hapless condemned wretches
Enclosed in its iron grasp, and hung by
its iron ring from some gallows in the
sight of all. Not only in tradition, but
in actual records, we hear tell of such
ulloti HdIRluE Ill me
cage" dying for days in the shrivel-
ing glare of the sun, starved and tortured
and buffetted by the wings of the filthy
vultures that hardly waited for the eyes
to glaze before they were at work.
was told that the frame had been dug
up out of the sand, and that when twas
discovered female skeleton was still
within its grasp.
Midway in the harbor between Kings
| ton and Port Royal tongue of land
| juts out from the peninsula toward the
reefs that bound the crooked ship chan
mel to the northward Once this tongue
of land was bounded by strip of white
coral beach, and covered with growth
of wiry grass; now it is nearly smoth
cred under thick growth of mangroye
thickets, pierced by narrow canals that
run here and there through the tangle
and dotted by little lagoons in the
lonely waters of which herons and peli-
cans and frigate birds live an almost I'M
disturbed life.
The name by which that point of land
is known indicates its history witha
terrible hrevity: it is ''Gallows Point"
There in the old days of seventy-hye or
hundred years ago gaunt, hideous
framework stood in the sight OF all, ana
almost always between the upright
| posts one or more dead pirates hung IN
chains, swaying slowly to and fro in the
breeze, with hollow, sightless eyes
turned now toward the white-winged
ships, and now toward the long neck 81
Cagawaya, while buzzards, the "John
Crows of Jamaica, sailed solemnly
round and round in the air above, their
silent following shadow now and then
fitting across the gray stony brow De-
meath.
Every one quotes Tom Cringles log
in Jamaica, and it is, perhaps, with al
its exaggeration, the best guldeooOh
that that can be found OF the lslanu'
The Author lived in those days, ana Sd"
most that he describes with his own eyes
In one part of his story he descfiOe.
twenty-five Cuban pirates STRING up ~
Gallows Point in one morning -ho"S''
Pyle, in Harper's Magazine.
Electricity AN Aid to Gamblers
It has recently been suggested ''r