Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-01
Mr.. +. II. Smith Gives Some Results of
His observations.

The students of Howard University were
entertained and interested by an address
delivered Wednesday evening by Mr.. Fran
els II. Smith, giving some results of his
observations during a recent visit to ia
maica Mr. Smith was introduced by Rev
Dr. Rankin, the president of the university
Alter giving some account of the history
o. the island he said that in Jamaica there
is absolutely no color line
lie said: THE colored people, the bla ck
ana the white and the brown, mix in their
public schools, in their churches, in the Of
hces wherever they meet as equals So
c'aly, In every way. 1t is true that, as a
matter of taste, the white people generally
marry white people; but there are a great
many exceptions, and when the exceptions
occur, the parties do not lose caste
wherefore, l say that in rnese respects
the colored citizens of Jamaica have had
very excellent opportunity, since the aboli-
tion of slavery in 1894, of developing what
tLey Will do if you let them alone But
40 not Know that l can give you any rose
colored picture of the results When siay-
cry was abolished, it was done almost bv
force by the British government and the
Whlte people, who We're the owners of the
slaves, We're alarmed and they did not get
| on as good relations with their colored
iaborers as they might have done They
We're on bad terms with them, and the re-
suit was that the laborers would not work:
N'4t
ne main Industry of the island from that
day to this, up to five or six years ago. The
island has steadily grown poor
Apou, thlrd OF the five to six hundred
,Housand coiored people are mainly scat
tered about the island. not more than one
llhth OF which is under cultivation. They
nave settled down, very largely, on the
.'nahooled plantations. The tropical fruits
gro" Wlid IN such great luxuriance and
! quantity that they do not have to work for
nVing and the majority of them do very
niue work. They each take an acre or
TWO about them and raise a few garden
vegetables, that the women carry n rnar-
ket on their heads, once a week pcssiblv
ana ana get a dollar, to support their entire
fanny ana with that amount of cash in
come a family is said to live luyuriousIv
in the Island of Jamaica
~, AS d RUE, they are very quiet people
lhey are good-looking race iar;iru1a rIv
me women, who do all the work They are
sood natured, they satisfied and that is
the great misfortune of the denselv iguor-
ant OF all races, that they are not only ig-
horant, but they do not want to know any
more more IMAM they do They are satisfied, and
trey are difficult class of people % eIe-
Vate rapidly. StiI their condition is i'm
proving They have their schools there
ihey have fine high school with about
rue average grade OF college institution.
IL Is attended mainly by the class Of peo-
PIE mat have been designated as brown
and as | said, this class of people include
GOOD many, so TO speak solid colors
90 Va thein p'ack, Dut the large ma jority
OF them are brown. They speak very cor
rectly the English language not United
states English, but they have the identical
accent of the, English scholar They form
mos, OF the force for clerks in stores. for
conductors on the railways and steam cars
Tor clerks in all the Offices. and generally
90 the commercial business of the island
ana they do 1t very surely and very skill
1ully. This Is the present condition so far
as | could ascertain in the two or three
weeks was there of the people of Jamai-
ca Island
Il must say that in my belief the condi-