The record-union., 1894-09-20

that it was impossible for me to make
any further visits.
''All of the one hundred and ninety-two
white people of the island, it seemed To
me, were at the ball; but l saw presently
that they were not. for none of the white
folks of the town were there. Town peo-
pie DO not count for much among the
planters. l suppose l need hardly tell
you what was the result OF the ball; /
was invited to come and stay as long as
could at every blessed plantation on that
island. DO you know it max es me feel
bad to think how differently Montserrai
planter would be treated if he came to
New YORK without knowing any body.
But not II heard Of his arrival. No, in
deed. The man who writes of Mont
serrat on his card owns everything /
have when he comes to New York, after
the way l was treated there.
Yes, L know what you are going to
ask. You want to know whether there
were any colored people at the ball. No,
SIR, there were not: ana you can spell
those two words with big capitals, if you
IKE. L was very sorry there were not,
Tor met some very pleasant and hospit-
able colored gentlemen in the town, and
some of the cOlored people own good
plantations. But the white planters DO
not mingle with them socially. When a
Government officer gives a bali he invites
the leading colored people, because he
wants their friendship and influence, but
the wealthy planter is very independent
person and he invites nobody whom he
doesn't want.
Il noticed all over the British West
Indies that the Government is kind to
the negro, giving him education, re-
llglous instruction and legal protection;
but The individual Briton in the tropics
is much more particular about tinge OF
black blood than is the American"
'One OF the first things that struck me
In Montserrat was that nearly all the
plantation houses were surrounded by a
sandy beach. When l asked about it |
found the reason sufficiently startling.
There are serpents in Montserrat, and
great spiders as big as child's head, and
centipedes and scorpions and myriads OF
small green and brown lizards. 1t is to
keep these creatures away that the sand
is brought up from the beach and spread
around the house. Snakes and spiders
and other crawling thing do not like to
make themselves too prominent, and
they hesite 20 cross wide strip OF white
sand. When they try it they can easily
seen and killed.
1.-The water supply of the plantation
houses Interested me very much. You
can Imagine what a luxury good, cold
water is IN such climate. And there is
no ice in Montserrat. When a steamship
Captain wishes to bestow his choicest
favor upon one of the inhabitants he
sends him cake Of ice. The drinking
water all comes direct from the sky, and
is caught and stored in big stone tanks.
When | took my first drink of water in
my hosts house in MoEtserrat | thought
il was iced, it was SO cold. They have a
big wooden frame nearly as high as a
mans head and about two feet square,
divided into two stories. In the upper
part is set a dripstone cut like BIG
square stone jar. In the lower part of
the frame is kept huge earthen jar
holding ten or fifteen gallons. The whole
affair is Kept in o cool corner of the
piazza, where the sun never strikes it.
but where the cool trade wind is always
strong and fresh. The upper jar is kept
constantly full of water from the tank
and drop by drop il percolates through
the soft stone and dripS into the jar be-
meath. Each drop as it falls gets a Whit
of the cooling wind. All Gay long you
hear in that corner the drop, drop, drop
ping OF the water, and all the time the
wind is keeping the jar cool. The water
in the lower jar is always cool enough to
be drunk with pleasure, but it is still
further cooled for use on the table. For
this purpose they use water jars made OF
porous clay, each jar holding about a
quart. In another always shady and al
ways windy corner of the piazza is a
shelf large enough to hold a dozen or
twenty jars, each jar wrapped around
with a wet cloth. The wind striking the
wet cloths cause such rapid evaporation
that the water is soon chilled almost to
the temperature of ice water.
81 wonder that the West Indians who
come to this country ever acquire the
habit of taking care Of themselves, for
down there no white man seems to do any