The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1890-03-14
-S15-
DOWN.
JAMAicA's eAlLows POINT.
A RcmIniscence of Pirntes and Poor, Per-
secuted Negroes.

A Remlnlscence of Pirates and Poor, Per-
secuted Negroes.
Kingston is an old town according to
our New World Aanner of computing
age. In the year 1902 an earthquake
entirely destroyed the greater part of
Port Royal, and the panic-stricken folk,
fleeing thence to the main island from
the plague that followed, gathered to-
gether upon the shores OF Liguanea,
where little settlement OF thatched
huts marked the spot on which King
ston was afterward to arise in her glory.
1t has no such wild history as the moth
or town; its romance is mostly that of
the luxurious pr osperity of merchant
prince and sugar king; Yet, thanks to
the pirate and SLAYER, it is not altogeth-
er.devoid of another sort Of story.
Nowadays we read in the crumbling
docks and hoary warehouses a voiceless
history of the busy, prosperous times OF
which tom Cringle" tells, when Mr..
L-- and his brother merchants traded
sugar and rum and log-wood and pi-
mento for the gold and silver OF the
Spanish Main and the -four and corn OF
America We read in the rickety tum-
ble-down houses that helplessly crum-
BILE to decay in the heart of the town
the same silent history of the days when
those merchants entertained their
guests with prinoely hospitality
every thing in good style, wine superb,
turtle, etc, magnificent, and the COM
pany exceedingly companionable."
There we read Of the time when rich
Jews lived in Oriental luxury, and
romance tells story of party
of wild roisterers rambling in
their cups through the streets
at night and trying to peep into the He
brew's house at the private doings with
In, and of how one was caught by
bevy of beautiful Jewesses, bound hand
and foot with embroidered silken scarfs,
and beaten, by way of punishment, with
pearl-handled fans scented with musk
and rose-water.
All this was very fine and pretty and
romantic, but there was reverse to the
picture, dark, stern, terrible The rich
people lived merrily and luxuriously,
but underneath the surface two hum
dred and fifty thousand wretches
groaned and writhed in one of the most
servitudes that the world ever
saw There are othe- things to be seen
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
rustinr into decay. The frame is ex-
actly the shape of human figure, and
the iron bars open upon hinges and
,lose with a 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 q mention in the
records of the slave courts, where we
hear tell of hapless condemned wretches
lnclosed 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 a
miserable creature hanging in the
cage" dying for days in the shrivel-
Ing glare of the sun, starved and tortured
md buifetted by the wings Of the filthy
vultures that hardly waited for the eyes
to glaze before chey We're at work !
was told that u frame had been dug
up out of the S. d, and that when twas
discovered q | Aale skeleton was still
within its grasp.
Midway in tn arbor between Kings