The Republican journal., 1896-07-30


the wrapper. Sold everywhere. POTTER DRUG
AND CHEM. CORP, Sole Props, Boston.
color, while the jurors box presented an
almost unbroken line of ebony faces, for
in the political, as well as the social life
OF this colony, caste does not depend
altogether upon the color of the skin, and
the varying shades of black and white do
not count for much, even in marriage
contracts There are five judicial courts
in Belize, known respectively as Grand
Court, supreme Court, Court of Ordinary,
Summary Court and Police Court. As to
the fine distinctions between them, I am
unable to tell you; only that the first
named has jurisdiction over all above Is
pounds sterling, and from it's decisions
there is no appeal, except to the Queen
in Council. 1t is asserted that there has
has never been a real, live lawyer in
Belize, aside from the gentlemen in the
mortar board cap who holds the office of
District Attorney; and there being no bar
to prepare men for the bench, merchants.
doctors, lumbermen, or persons of any
other avocation whose character and gen
eral qualifications are up to the standard
of the country, are eligible to judge
ships. What has caused this unprece-
denied drought of lega climbs, - do not
know. Perhaps it is a relic of the old
time prejudice against the frantelnity,
Yet lingering in the minds of the people
the same which, as early as the year 1896,
cropped ont in the Spanish grant whereby
the King gave all this region of country
to Francisco de Montejo, with the express
stipulation that no lawyers OF attorneys
should be allowed TO so into these lands;
litigation and controversies would be sure
to follow them Despite the absence of
lawyers, there is no lack OF litigation in
Belize. Being place Of large CONNER
cial transactions, contracts are daily
made, broken OF misunderstood, requir-
ing the law 5 intervention to compel their
fulhllment OF to adjust the differences.
and the calendar is always crowded. 1t is
not the negroes who make most OF the
trouble, though in the majority OF a hum
dred to one, for these freemen seem more
quiet and peacably inclined than their
brethren in some parts of our own country
where lynchings and burnings at the stake
are most frequent. The English colony
laws are as strict in regard to the sale of
liquors as in observance of a Sabbath
Licenses are granted. but saloons cannot
be opened on Sunday, and it is said that
no back doors provide for the sneaking
in of the sophisticated. 1t is rare indeed
to lind a place south of the Tropic of
Cancer where the Lord day is observed
ct all, except by increased festivity, balls,
bull-tights and gambling. The condition
of the negroes in Belize was never bad,
even IN their days of bondage. In the
summer of 1899, year before the time
appointed by the act for the abolition of
slavery, their nominal yoke was volun-
e'NAA-J iSAiiO'SN ~ LIZ PAtilSlo,
merchants and other proprietors, in con-
vention. Considering the climate, the
blacks are the best dressed people in the
country, according to the standard of
Ward MacAllister, Beau Brummel, and
other authorities, that good dressing is
gagged by its appropriateness to the
occasion, for they perambulate in fewer
clothes than white people dare appear in.
The male descendants of Ham go about
in shirts and drawers of thin white cot
ton, wide straw hats, and slippers on
their hoseless feet. The women wear
loose white gowns, short in the skirt. low
in the neck and sleeveless, heavily en-
/ broidered around the edges with scarlet
| cotton and generally starched stiff as
shingles. One cannot help remarkihg
that this modified mother hubbard--cur-
tailed at both ends-is their only article
of apparel, for it is the fashion to let it
slip gracefully off one shoulder and to
carry it very high on the other side, re-
SdiNiSoo VI NOW HUGH VI Wlldl looks IKE
two wel-polished Russia iron stovepipes
may be disclosed. The reboza is as much
a feature as in Mexico, only these of
Belize, instead of being blue or black, as
in the neighboring Republic, are pictur-
esque scarfs of crimson or yellow, vastly
becoming to their dusky wearers. Like
n har of f1,ni,,
entertain passion for jewelry. The
mems brawny hands are laden with pinch
beck circlets, their cuffs and shirt fronts
with buttons the size of butter plates
while the females support the most enor-
nous hoop-shaped earrings and neck
laces of golden beads or silver coins,
piled string above string around their fat
necks, until the beholder thinks their
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