The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-09-16
CANE FIELDS IN THE SKY.
4 Visit to the Highest Sugar Planta-
ton in the World.

A Planters Doubts About the
Brooklyn Bridge.
From the New York Sun.
"Perhaps you never saw a mountain
catching clouds2" said the young botan-
list who, few days ago, described his
visit to Montserrat and Redonda. Il
have often noticed it in my mountain
rambles, but never did see it done TO
such perfection as it is done by the great
mountain peak of St. kits Few noun
tains have as good a chance, because they
generally have so much land around them,
but the mountain of St. Kits rises right
I'd out of the sea till its peak is 5000 feet
in the air, and it spends its entire time
catching clouds. Sometimes it catches so
many that it becomes dangerous. 1t got
its name, Mount Misery, by catching such
quantity one day years ago that the
water came pouring down the slope and
drowned half the inhabitants of the town
al its base.
1t is very curious thing to watch the
clouds gather and see them huddle close
shout the peak until they reach the pre-
cipitation point, and then drop their water
ali over the island. l had to wait several
DAYS before l saw the tiptop of the noun
tain at all, there are always so many
clouds around il. But at length caught
it. and then had a chance to see the whole
process from the beginning. You must
understand that the whole island of St.
Kits is Just one mountain, with slOping
sides little dark cloud came sailing
along. and when it reached the noun
taIn's peak it stuck there and could not
90 any further. Then came another and
another and the thicker they became the
blacker they grew. But the people paid
no attention to it for while They are
so used to it that they can tell to nicely
when the clouds are thick enough to dis
gorge and give them a shower. Presently
@ very large white cloud headed straight
for the peak. The sun was shining
bright in the east, but saw the people
hurrying along as Though they expected a
storm. The man was with said to me:
Here, we will go in this store till the
shower is over
Shower said l, why the sun is shin
ing
Nevertheless, we went into the shop,
aud in less than minute the cloud was
caught by the noun tain. The front part
of il stopped at once. and l could see the
rest of it banking itself up in hills against
the mountain 1t turned black as the
mass thickened, and our daylight was
nearly shut out, though on the sea the sun
was still shining as bright as ever. There
was no thunder, no wind no warning at
all except the darkness, Then the rain
came. To say that it was the hardest
shower ever saw is to draw it very
mildly. There seemed to be just one
continuous stream of water coming
down. 1t lasted less then ten minutes
but in that time the dry cutters
were turned into rushing streams, aud
every little rivulet became torrent.
Then the sun shone again, and the black
e II, H. 4
the mountain peak. Enough clouds We're
still left about the peak to hide it from
view, but they were white clouds. And
in five minutes more the peak was catch
ing more clouds, preparing for another
shower.
You may think that this was nothing
wonderful but you must remember that
this same thing is going on every day,
sometimes twenty times day. and that
these showers are in addition to the regu-
lar rain storms that come to St. Kits as
well as to other places. This is the Sc
cret of the wonderful greenness and fer
fertility of the island. These showers
make 1t possible for the inhabitants to
cultivate the land as high up the noun
tain side as they can climb, and to keep
it looking, from the sea, like vast green
lawn. The green you see is not grass,
but sugar cane. St. kits grows nothing
else.
The people are always more interest
ing than the scenery: let me tell you
something about the people of ST kits
II is an English colony, of course you
know, with the usual West Indian pre-
pOnderance of negroes But it has
more working white men than most of
the islands, because a great many Portu-
guese have emigrated to it. | was begin
ming TO think that white men could not
90 hard labor in that climate, but the
Portuguese in ST. Kits taught me better
They work at anything that offers, save
their money, and often grow rich on
Plantations that have driven the more
aristocratic English settlers to poverty
The first white lady l met in
st. Kits was the daughter of
one of these Portuguese i'm
migrants and the wife of a prominent ma
tive merchant. Her father went to ST.
Kits generation ago with nothing but
the clothes he wore, and found work on
one OF the large plantations-work in the
helds with the negroes. He noticed that
great many colored people passed the
place every day on their way to town after
provisions, and at the end of the first
month he invested his wages in a barrel
OF flour. He set up little shanty shop
oy the road side. and sold his flour at a
proht. Soon he had two barrels, and then
other things, and his shop grew and he
made money. In few years he had such
little shops all over the island, and big
wholesale store in Basse Terre, the CAPT
tai Heis now by long odds the richest
man IN St Kits; so rich that when few
years ago his first employer was in need
OF money and went to chin he said to the
planter; 1 will give you $4,000 in gold
Tor your plantations : and when the offer
was accepted and the deeds drawn he
obened his safe and counted out the money.
Al the Portuguese in St. Kits have not
done as well as this. but they are the
money makers Of the island.
Base Terre, the capital Of the island,
Is enough to give one the blues. What do
you think of a town of 5000 inhabitants
without hotel in it, There is no hotel
because there is no business for one. and
stranger has to inquire for the one
boarding house. The only thing of inter
eSt IN the town is the pubic garden,
around which are grouped some respecta-
uIe buildings but most of the houses are
mere shanties, still bearing evidences of
sne hurricane that racked them several
Years ago
BY the way, there is one more inter
estlng thing IN Basse Teore that ! must
not overlook. This is the newsboys. There
IRE scores of them, all small, barefoot
PACK boys, and they carry the sheets
H1ng over one arm as they run aoout the
streets with a cry that sounds like