The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-04-04
NEGROES JAMAICA.
They Olny Work when They Want Some
thing at the Store.


Correspondence BOSTON Watchman.}
The negroes are a study Their little
one-room cabins, il which families a
dozen herd together line all the byways
and the hillsides Nothing has i'm
pressed me more than the dense popu-
lation of this part of the country. Port
Antonio is small town of two hundred
or three hundred houses, and you would
naturally expect to find that the sur
rounding country was somewhat
sparsely settled 1t is not so. In the
| course of drive of a dozen miles the
other afternoon we passed through a
succession of negro villages; the roads
were filled with men, women and chill
dren going one way or another In
driving q pair of horses found that
my difficulty was not in controlling the
horses, though they We're we'll up to
their work, but in avoiding running
over the countless negro babes that
swarm the highways in every direction.
Since that ! have taken driver. / am
not up to the shouts and queer calls
with which they warn the inhabitants
of the coming of carriage.
The negro women, who appear to do
all the work, carry their burdens on
their heads. Even the children imi-
tate their elders, and the other Noon
ing I found three or four little pick l
ninnies on their way to school carrying
their states on their heads. / believe
they would carry letter to the post
Office on the head. / have heard that
they will carry a postage stamp on
their head. putting stone upon 1t to
keep it in place. We drove by por-
ton Of road for which Il new culvert
was building The negro women, clad
In white dresses, were carrying away
the earth in baskets on their heads the
men were basking in the sun. smoking.
This custom of carrying burdens upon
their heads gives the negro women an
elegant carriage; their backs are
straight, their heads finely poised and
they walk. not with the whole body as
too many American women do, but
from the hip downward, The shutting
gait of the men is in marked contrast
with the Juno-like step Of the women.
1t is impossible to get the negro to
engage in regular and systematic work
When the negroes were emancipated'
in 1894 freedom meant to them release
from labor, and that idea still remains,
A few days work will support a family
for twelve-month. Vans and cocoa
nut oil, with a little salt fish, are all
that are needed The result is that the
negroes work when they are in need Of
store goods-clothes, shoes or rum-at
other times they will not work, The
| pecuniary argument does not move
them. No matter what you pay, you
cannotget them. They do not want
| money, except for their immediate ne
cessities. This circumstance enor-
mously complexities the industrial de-
velopment of the island, With half a
million blacks, there's no labor that
can be depended upon. Hence, those
| who have large enterprises in hand are
| importing East Indian coolies, inden-
| tured for a term of years. OF course,
| these coolies are practically slaves with
| a time limit The bearing of this en-
| terprise upon the liberty which the Brit
| isb flag insures is too vague for def
mite forecast In the hands of unprin-
! cipled men it might work toward the
practical enslavement of another race,