The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1897-04-17
TRoPic LIGHT AND HEA...
They Were the First Things that
pressed a Visitor to Jamaica.

The light and the heat are the two
things that most impress one on first
coming to this land. The light is the
more impressive of the two; from sun
rise to sunset it is Omnipresent anu con-
slant; the very shadows are luminous,
dark though they appear by contrast.
/ should say that latitude seventeen
was about fOrty-five million miles
nearer the sun than latitude forty.
Yet it is tender, soft, suffused light,
not fierce and hard one. The atmos-
phere is not so rarefied as that of our
own west; one can read here by moon-
light, but one cannot read fine print
easily. The remote distances OF tne
landscape are melted in an aerial haze
instead of being defined with the re-
lentless clearness of a steel engraving.
Nevertheless, the light of the tropics is
superlative; it seems to belong TO
planet more recently evolved from the
parental luminary than ours. so IN
tense and pervasive is it, one would
almost say irradiates the mind as well
as the body; it appears to possess
spiritual quality. / had read OF blaz-
ing tropic suns, Of scorching, blister
ing tropic. heats, but l find nothing OF
the sort. However great the ultimate
effect may be, the manner is always
gentle, sweet, subtle, soothing; Har-
bour street in Kingston never shows so
savage temperature as Broadway In
New York. But for all that, it will
not do to take undue liberties with this
soft-spoken climate.
After walking few miles along the
white, undulating roads, or painting up
steep hillside, nothing could be more
delicious than the touch of the north
ern breeze tanning you as you sit un-
der the shadow of a broad-spreading
silk cotton, nor could anything be
more dangerous. You are being famed
by the wings of death. Evaporation is
wonderfully rapid; you come in from
exercise drenched with perspiration,
and before you can make ready for a
rub down" your skin is already dry.
In the north a slight chill may be fol-
lowed by a slight cold, and that be
the end of it: here your chill may turn
out the end of everything for you.
Moreover, the soil when dampened by
rains probably exhales miasma pro-
ductive of what we call malarial fever;
In Jamaica it occasionally develops in
to an appalling, ugly and brief disease
known as black vomit.
On the other hand, if you are ration
ally cautious, and let liquor of every
kind alone, you may walk or climb, or
play tennis, or ride horseback all
| through the hottest.parts of the cloud
less day, and feel only the better for
| it at night; in fact, you must take
plenty of exercise in order to be al
| your best The way to get Ill Is to
| avoid exertion and perspiration, ami
sit at ease in the shade absorbing cool
| ing drinks. Such people sometimes
last two years. Those who pursue the
alternative regimen are not surprised
| to find themselves alive and alert al
ninety and upward. OF course it is
more difficult to get i'll on the higher
levels than ON the lower ones; but tax
ing the island by long and large, it i;
one of the healthiest places on the
globe.-Julian Hawthorne, in the Cen
fury.