The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-02-24

virgin Islanders are firm in their Dellet
that Mckinley Will be the savior of
Cuba. They are sure that when he
takes the presidential chair he will give
, tillibusterers free swing and acknowl-
edge the belligerants without a mo-
ment's delay. With this accomplished,
they contend Gomez will have walk
into Havana, and Weyler, stripped of
his false laurels, will be transported
with what troops he can save to Spain,
a disgraced and dishonored general
! Cleveland they do not consider, but
that Mckinley will demur is never for a
moment weighed in the balance of
thought, and when Cuba has become
free or annexed to the United States the
good people of st. Thomas and st, Croix
believe it will be their turn next.
The planters and merchants at St.
CroiX wear just as many Mckinley but
tons and have pinned their faith on the
overthrow of Cuba shortly after March
4th, just the same as have the other
and more outspoken islanders. They
wall for the lack of gold (mark you, I
said gold; American silver is not looked
! upon with favor here) and hope fondly
that an indefinite future, led by Presi-
dent Mckinley, will prove their saliva
ton. For the West Indian sugar trade
is in serious crisis, Many great es-
tates are abandoned and valuable ma
chinery is crumbling to dust. Others
are in the hands of an official assignee
in chancery. The present deplorable
condition is considered only a begin
ming. Money is scarce and wages
small. Laborers get twenty cents a
day; women get only twelve cents. In
! the British colonies commission is
now investigating, under special orders
of the crown, with view to ending the
system of bounties from France and
Germany to the growers of beet root
sugar. But the Danish Islands are
hoping against hope for some outside
salvation.
AT st. Croix I was delightfully."- enter
tanned by Captain Perkins. He, the
hero of two hundred and sixty-sx voy-
ages between New Haven and st. Croix
as master of the New Haven brig T.
ToWner, For many years he and his
kind hearted wife were well-known res
1dents of New Haven, but now he has
a famous old estate at Frederickstead
magniticently located. Anticipating the
squeeze in sugar-cane, he converted 1t
into a stock plantation. The jolly old
| skipper says he is good for twenty
years yet, sits In his great doorways,
wears his Mckinley button, takes COM
fort and looks off across the turquoise
sea to Porto Rico, fifty-seven miles
away. He or Mrs. Perkins are always
| the first on the island to sight the
Irn c-tp AL; rrl,@
they masthead "old glory above the
house top; the steamer salutes in re-
turn as it traces its line of foam SO far
below that you can almost see into its
tunnels, and then turns into the road
stead, few miles distant.
It's a delightful old mansion. Captain
Perkins could not have chosen fairer
spot. It's rambling walls and buildings
are just like those we read of in novels
in old Castilian times. Great outside
tstair-cases ascending to stone galleries;
dense tropical foliage and blooming
roses peeping from the twists and turns
of the stone and Mosaic Rambling
halls, echoing to the buzz of humming
birds, and airy apartments each half
the size of an ordinary house in the
States. A great garden i'm the rear
which had been graded level from a
huge rocky ledge and filed with earth
to grow the orchids and rare flowers
which abound in giant profusion Then
there are oranges, bananas, dozen va
rieties, lines, mangoes, pines, sour
isops, sweet sops, avocado pears, apa-
dfllos and other juicy, tempting CO.
mestables which are the pets of the
skipper.and product of the tropics At
the foot of the high hill are majestic
mahogany, thibet and cottonwood trees,
interspersed' with breadfruit and the
branches of the deadly manchineel.
Grazing around them was a herd of a
hundred or more billy and other goats,
all red, and the pride of the old sea
dogs heart. The captain also well
knows the mysteries of a West Indian
swizzle, and can swizzle a swizzle with
his swizzle stick with any one. He
teaches his visitors also to say Sc
hulz." This is a, short and vivid word.
1t travels In the best ST. Croix society
and is an abbreviated equivalent for
Here's your very best health" But I
didn't experiment with it much. Swiz-
zles are delusive.
| NlSHlS ulluSl IuG SDulllGIA ClpSS dl {
mild and refreshing. For many hours
we have coasted along the great noun
tains. the sky deep violet, and Venus,
| Jupiter and the other planets shining
with refulgence and a brillancy never
known in New Haven northern lati-
tudes. The transition from darkness to
daylight is almost strange and also in
Simultaneous. There Is no dawn. The
|. light clouds are touched for a moment
with gold, then the high mountain tops
are tinted by crimson reflections; then
white. Day has come. It was on such
an invigorating morning we rounded
great Dominico's ranges and anchored
under its wild mysterious mountains, a
wilderness in the Caribbean sea. Never
mind the mules, the mountain ponies or
how quickly we were ashore We were
soon away through valleys of lines, and
then plunged into the midst of great
wild masses of giant foliage covering
the most precipitous and rugged noun
tains. Onward and upward through a
marrow steep trail where trees were
idense and strange vines and wondrous
shrubbery continually interlaced For
ests of cocoa, clumps of green and
graceful bamboo rising gracefully and
waving their poisoning tops in the
cool mountain air. Rare orchids and
lotba,- f1Ora that if man could hut +1,a &c.