Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-06-14
Il CITY IN 4 VOLCANO.

| y
lands of Santa Cruz and st. Christie
pher, two small islets, which, unless
your map is an unusually large and
complete one, will have no names
| given. These two islands belong to
the Dutch, and the most northerly
and westerly of them is called Saba.
The Dutch are noted for their odd
and quaint customs and for their per-
severance, Holland being sometimes
called the Gland of Pluck''; but I
doubt ii anywhere in all their pos
sessions have these curious people
shown their queer and eccentric
habits to greater advantage than in
the little out-of- the-wa island of
Saba.
The island is small, it's greatest di
ameter being not over two and one
half miles, and it is nothing more
than an isolated mountain top rising
out of the sea. The sides are very
steep and high, rising in places for a
sheer 1000 feet. There is no harbor,
no beach, no safe anchorage, and no
| large trees on the island. Although
Saba has populationIof over $500,
yet you might sail all around it with
out seeing any signs of houses or set
Elements. If you wished to land, or
ego aboard" as the Sabans say, you
would have to do SO on a shelving
rock on the southern side of the is
land and here you would find a steep,
winding flight of stone steps leading
up the rocky mountain side.
Following these steps, which num-
Der eight hundred, and are called
''The Ladder" you at last reach the
top of the mountain, and looking in
land, see a small, grassy plain cover
ed with beautiful tree ferns, BAN
boos, and wild plantains.
This little town, the only one on
the island, is known as "The Bot
tom''-a curious name, surely; but it
is well named, nevertheless, for the
plain on which it is built is nothing
more than the bottom of the crater
of an extinct volcano.
Descending the slope into this
queerest of queer towns, you find the
streets simply narrow paths walled
with stone, higher in places than your
head, while every inch of earth is
cultivated with true Dutch thrift and
industry. Here and there small
patches of sugar-cane, yams, and
arrowroot are side by side with
beans, corn and potatoes, with palm
and banana trees rising over all. The
population consists of whites and
negroes in nearly equal numbers,
while the blue-eyed and tow headed
children play with black skinned and
curly haired piccaninnies; but all are
Dutch in speech, manners and looks.
The houses, shops, gardens-every-
thing is Dutch. The people are
friendly, quiet, industrious and re-
ligious, and above all, think their lit
tie town and island the fairest spot
on earth; and although many of the
men are sailors, and see every quar-
ter of the globe, yet they always re-
turn to Saba to spend their old age.
You wonder what these people do for
living; surely they cannot make
livelihood from their miniature garden
plots; but you would never guess
what the real and practically the only
occupation of these out Of the world
people is, so will tell you at once.
1t is boat building.
Think of it!-boats built in a crater
a thousand feet above the sea, in a
place to be reached only by hard
climb up the narrowest of steep stone
stairways, or by still sleeper and
almost impossible ravine-where
every timber and plank used in their
construction has to be brought from
the shore on mems heads.
Our Dutch West Indian friends,
however, do not bother themselves
about getting their little craft down
the stairs or ravine. When the boat
is finished they haul it to the brink of
the precipice, and when all is ready,
and the sea smooth and favorable,
they calmly lower it over the edge,
exactly as if their island were ship
and they were launching a life boat.
Strangely enough, these crater built
boats are noted throughout the West
Indies for their speed, strength and
staunchness, and always bring a high
price from the people of the other
islands.-St Nicholas.
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Simply apply Swayne's Ointment. No In
ternal medicine required. Cures letter.
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nose, etc, leaving the skin clear, white and
healLhN. LIS great healing md curative an1u