, 1891-11-18

towering background of varied beauty and not
too gigantic proportions for the little settle
ment. No other town in the West Indies can
compare with it in beauty, to begin with,
which is after all a very great recommendation,
or in large, elegant and commodious houses,
wide, we'll paved, clean streets, adequate sew
erage and various other important features OF
modern municipal life.
It's streets are wide, as West Indian and
North American streets 60, for like all the
towns that were built in these parts in the
first century or so after the Spanish conquest,
it has what in these days of carriages, carts and
wagons must be considered narrow streets.
In st, Thomas the main streets admits of TWO
ordinary sized carriages passing each other.
In Panama, on the other hand, in its day the
most opulent city on the whole American con-
tinent, this is not the case. In St. Thomas
the streets are built somewhat after the maca-
dam style, and have a hard, smooth surface
from which the water runs off easily into side gut
ters that lead into the sea. They are kept all
the..time in the pink ofcondition, the government
using prisoners to do the cleaning. The
'chain gang sweeps and contractors cart away
the stuff with a frequency and regularity that
are very beneficial. The sidewalks of the
main street are paved. In the other streets,
however, pedestrians have to take the middle
of the road and dodge carriages, carts and
donkeyS with loads as best they can.
The houses of ST. Thomas are worthya para
graph. Up to 1906 they were almost altogeth-
er built of wood only. In that year, however,
a great fire swept the town, leaving but a
small portion untouched. By it the Phoenix
Fire Insurance Company, of England lost over
1850, 900, and thereupon they .efused to take
risk on wooden buildings The people re-
huilr in hrinE and cf0On Now WO0dan huIIGs
ings are better for earthquakes, while stone
ones Withstand hurricanes. The reverse in
either case is not true, and as both earthquakes
and hurricanes are not altogether unknown
on the island tie people were in somewhat of
q dilemma. But they rebuilt in brick and
stone, trusting to the massiveness of the struc-
lures for emergencies of seismic disturbance
or cyclonic fury. Dwelling houses Of two
stories, which is the height of the great ma
iority, were constructed with walls from eigh-
teen inches to two feet in thickness. Many
of the dwelling houses are only one storey
high, while there are only three or four of
three stories and only one of four. The latter
stands unoccupied from year to year, though
exoellently located and containing all the con-
veniences of a home, while the rent is very
low. The people fatty refuse to tramp up and
down stairs necessarily. The stores ale all
OF only enc SGOr6y III u6lSHG, dI.O Iu6y dlSO nave
massive walls two feet or SO in thickness.
Thus it happens that when a hurricane does
strike st. Thomas it does little or no damage,
while earthquakes are so infrequent-not from
our standpoint but from theirs-or are SO slight
that they are by no means the terror that our
imagination paints them. St. Thomas would
have weathered the hurricane that did such
damage to life and property in Martinique only
o few months ago with such security that the
outside world would have known nothing at all
about it, while the islanders themselves would
have forgotten it day or two after. AS a fact
St. Thomas is not in the track of hurricanes,
as meteorological investigations have proved.
Those terrific wind storms of the tropics pass
with their greatest fury about one hundred
miles north of the island.
History j%ustifes this conclusion of the mete-
biologists, for Santo Domingo, Hayti, and other
places have suffered a good deal more than st.
Thomas.
Since 1867, when the original negotiations
for the purchase of hat island by this country
were in progress, and which were said to have
been spoiled by the hurricane that then visited
the place, prejudicing the United States Senate
against it, there have only been two hurricanes
worthy the name, but not worthy comparison
with the recent Martinique visitation. They
were in 1871 and 1876. Since then there
have been blows accompanied with a deluge of
rain in the arbitrary hurricane season lasting