The times., 1898-12-04

called nearly everything after their b.
loved saints-towns, rivers. Churches
streets and rum shops: and Cromwelrs
Puritan soldiers religiously abolished
them all in favor OF the names of sinners
like King George Today the English
men revei In such unsentimentai nomen-
clature as Hogs Back. Bog Walk, Snake
Dam, etc. Porus is a thousand feet above
the sea in a hollow, where three valleys
meet The railway has brought some
business to the hamlet. and you see cabs
mule carts and wagons waiting at Its
depot and catch glimpses of stree and
shops and comfortable looking houses
surrounded by wide outer fringe #
cane shanties; but so far as facrs are
concerned all In sight are of AIR. can
blaekness-not a white or light-colot, d
one among them.
All About MnndeS lille.
Vaudeville is only ten miles farther on.
and the road descends all the way. The
town was named after some duke of Man
chester. who governed Jamaica hun
dred years ago; and, barring the pre-
vaiing complexion of its inhabitants. is
as intensely English as any village in the
heart of the mother country. Boys are
playing cricket on the green; there is
school which might sit for picture of
Dotheboy's Hall, and an ivy-covered
church, with n gray-haired curate wan
dering among the groves at the back of
It, The modest inn has a ruddy carica-
ture of King George on its swinging sign
board; and before the blacksmith's forge
horses stand waiting to be shod.
A few English families are scattered
about the neighborhood, and the ladies
thereof ride horseback over the hills a.&
across the fields. taking streams and
hedges that come in the way In true Eng
lish fashion. All the houses have open
green-latticed verandas. and each prim,
close-trimmed lawn rejoices in its tennis
court A large common is utilized as
race course and cricket ground. with ten
mis- court in the corners. for wherever
Englishmen live there those institutions
are sure to be- a lawn tennis club meets
in the village once a week. The ladies
who do not come cross-lots In the sad
die ride thereto In their pony chaises
and they take tea under the trees, all as
English" as possible. Nearly everybody
hereabouts raises his own coffee, meat,
poultry, fruit. vegetabes-in short, near
Iy everything he eats and uses; and the
woman are notable housewives. whose
tea cakes, salads and preserves are
things long TO be remembered.
In Charming NefghbOrhOOd.
Mandeville is the center of a large dis
trict. the best and most healthfuI rortion
of Jamaica, famed for the excellence of
its fruits and the sleek cattle on its graz
ing grounds. The red soil is mixed with
crumbled Jumps OF white coral, a ready
made and ineNhaustib,e compost The
temperature at this elevation Is always
at least 10 degrees below that at Kings
ton, never cold and never oppressively
hot.
Yellow Jack is as much a stranger here
as Jack Frost. and the droughts VIII ch
so often parch the iowlands are un-
known among the hilltops, where rain
falls the year around. Riding about the
neighborhood. you are more ana more
charmed with II. Gum trees, almonds,
mangoes and cedars spread their shad
ows over all the roads. and great silk
cotton trees tower skyward in lonely
ma nagnificence-the haunts OF the dreaded
"duppies," or ghosts. who, SO negroes be-
lieve-would wreak awful vengeance
upon any mortal who would dare strike
an ak into the sacred stems.
All around are wooded slopes, with
white-walled villas among orange ana
coffee groves, groups of palms, wind
mills and sugar factories: and far be-
yond, the highest mountain range looks
blue as the sky against which it seems
TO lean.
Consulting the marginal notes made on
this journey to Observation-Disclosures to my
two well-posted travelling companions-I
am able to give you the following relia-
BILE information: The property tax on
farm lands in Jamaica, cultivated for
sugar, coffee, grain. etc, is six cents the
acre; for inferior land, two cents. Mer-
chants pay tax of $50 a year;
shopkeepers, $3.50, and newspaper pro-
prietors only $50 per annum. Five daily
newspapers are published in Kingston,
besides three weeklies, two semi -weeklies.
seven monthlies, three fortnightlies and
quarterly review. Verify. this British
province is not lacking in light litera-
ture."
Some Heavy stamp Duties.
Hotels pay license fee of 500 year
in Kingston, and $50 elsewhere in the
island. Some of the stamp duties are
very heavy. Banking corporations issu-
ing notes pay 1926 per annun. A bar. is
ter pays $40 on his admission; and So
licitor $500 for his certificate. Pcs age
on letters going from place TO place ia the
island is 1 cents each haif-ounce. if PIE
paid; newspapers l cent double rate If
not prepaid. Telegraphy is cheap in Ja-
maica compared to other PLACES in the
West Indies. A cablesran from King
ston to New York costs s1.50 eaca word,
address included.
The constabulary consists of 100 men,
100 OF whom are stationed in Kingston.
The legal qualifications of a constable
are that he must be able to read and
write and must measure not less than
thirty-two inches around the chest and
five feet six inches in height. Then he
receives the munificent salary of eighty
five cents day. There is a reserve ru-
raj police. to be used when called upon.
OF these, the head men-one in every
seven-are paid sixty dollars year. and
thirty-one cents day additional when
actually on duty.
Low Wages in Jamaica.
Labor of all kinds is cheap in jamaica
The ordinary wages of carpenters and
bricklayers is 20 cents day, and their
helpers get S5 cents each. A teamster,
with his cart and two mules, O. three
oxen (Which he feeds himself recei. es
about sl.50 for twelve hours toll. Food
costs about the same as in New Yo.k,
except that here the best beef is only
IL cents pound. Strange to say, salte1
beef is twice as high, and salt pork from
10 to 90 cents pound. Clothing is cheap.
such as it is. Ready-made. hand-sewed
shoes cost 81 pair. and mans felt hat
60 cents. Good English twesds and other
cloths bring much less here than the
usual price for the same in London.
The annual product of rum, though
greatly diminished in recent years, still
reaches the respectable figures-if any
thing pertaining to rum can be called
respectable-of 2.5O0000 gallons year. To
offset that, there are fifteen lodges of
Good Templars on the island-and work
enough they find to do. Free Masonry
fiourishes in Jamaica. There are three
grand lndges-the PROVINCIAL Grand Mark