The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-01-01
LIFE IN JAMAICA.
THE ISLAND BELONGS TO THE
COLoRED PEOPLE.
The Proportion Is Thirty of Them to
One White Person and the Latter
Are Being Crowded Out-TropicaI
Fruits and Vegetables.

found myself in a great, shadowy.
rooiny motel. with hardwood floors and
turlonSs of veranda. fronting a garden
which had run somewhat to seed. bur
contained several palm trees. and an
sortment of lizards. green and brown.
in agreeable confirmation of the pro-
pinguity of the equator. Round about
\ this hotel and its environment we v,.,I-
dered till lunch was ready: there were
oranges, bananas and several other
fruits which do not specify only because
l am still unable to recOllect their names
AS 10 their flavor, L can only say that 7
co not care much for it as yet: there was
one that tasted like butter, and another
thSit nad the consistency OF cream cheese
ana the taste of strawberry lam
On the whole, the flavor of these south
efn products strikes the nothern visitor
understand why Englishmen always
hanker after curries and the like sharp
condiments in the tropics; but no doubt
we are sophisticated and wrong and
ousht 10 Ike what seems TO us inSlpidity
Meanwhile, the oranges, bananas and
plheappIes are all much better here than
they ever are after enduring export.
AS Tor the breadfruit and vans of
which we also had specimens they are a
mixture OF the potato and the sweet
potato, and are less captivating than
either. They have almost no taste at all
ana l should suppose that one finally
would come to regard them in much the
same light as bread something usefully
ilhn2, but without character enough to
inspire. either loathing or devotion. With
the aid of sauces and gravieS, however
they go down very well.
lie bill of fare included likewise fish
which was good. and meat which was
not very good; it has TO be eaten too soon
alter killing to have lost its toughneSs.
But one does not expect TO eat much
meat down here; vegetarianS are in their
element IN the tropics, especially that
superior order of them who favor that
part OF the vegetable kingdom which
grows above ground. The country
women, who walk 10 10 % miles day in
the sun with burdens on their heads
wen must sometimes weigh not less
than 90 pounds, and who are never in the
least tired-these ladies. it appears, live
on Irult and vans only, and find them
all-sufficient diet
After dinner L went into a barber shop.
and submitted myself 10 the ministra-
TORS of an artist there. The shop was
at the rear of the little structure which
bore the sign; the front part of it, if
L remember right, was devoted i'll part
10 the sale of tobacco. On three sides of
the room were windows protected by
wooden gratingS painted red and blue;
through them L saw bits of intense blue
SKI and green fronds of palm. On a
wall just outside the sash a lizard ran
and hoped, and the eternal buzzard
aHghted on corner of a roof within my
range of vision. Close beside me a young
darkN with COUutenduce of filimUabIa
amiabillty labored assiduOusly ON an in
Strument in the nature of a hand organ;
but the works were in full view, and in
the opinion of several bystanders seemed
TO vie in interest with the tunes. This
music took the place of the traditional
BARRIERS conversation. though that also
was abundantly available on demand
and was, indeed, carried on with much
ViVacity between tie various employees
and some visitors who appeared TO have
come IN for that purpose. 1t sounded
ike mixture of Italian and French, and
French, and may have been Jamaican
popular English, for aught 1 know L
could not understand it.
accented all these details as being
typically tropical; but, on the other hand,
the chair in which L sat was made in
Rochester. \. y; on the wall were Il
large Autograph of Brooklyn bridge and
4 portrait of President Cleveland. EIec-
tTlcity, too, has got to Kingston. and the
wires run through the branches of the
mancos and palms. The house in which
! have taken uD my abode is fitted
throughout with electric bells. but L an
happy TO add that none of them work.
In one OF the larger shops. I think there
is an elevator, the only one on the island.
l said just now that the white people
look out of place. That fact. so far as /
can judge. : the moral story here. The
Island belongs to the colored folk and
the others are gradually being crowded
out The proportion is already about 80
TO one against the latter; and while the
colored race goes on multiplying, the
whites are packing their trunks and NOV
ing out. Is this movement to be arrested
or not? L doubt whether il VIII be ar
rested by the English. Workmen i'm
ported from the states do not succeed
here; that IS, they all die in two years
from rum. The coolies do admirably, but
they cannot be the final solution of the
problem. Perhaps the best thing we can
do is to become cOlored people ourselves.
( Summer at Christmastide" by Julian
IN the January Century.