The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-08
VOTE THE STRAIGHT REPuBLI- CAN TICKET TO-DAY.

plantation overssers sometimes used in
 slavery times. Refractory human chat tels had their hands and feet securely tied and were thus suspended inside the
 cage by a spike thrust under the
 ribs; the door was locked to prevent
 rescue and the wretch left to de by
 slow torment, as a terrible warning to
 his fellows. The placard says that
 when this cage was found there were
 three human skeletons in It.
 Probably it is unnecessary to state
 that these and other historic horrors, which rivalled those of the same psri u in Demerara and Santo Domingo, oc- cured during the Spanish occupancy of
 Jamaica and that their English success
 sors soon abolished slavery.
 l For a city of more than forty thou
 sand inhabitants Kingston has remark ably few attractions Though one of tie largest eenters of population in the British possessions in tropical AmeM- ca, it is the most down-at-the-h heel and ! forlorn-looking of southern cities, Even shabby old Santiago de Cuba be- ' fore the war was not so badly paved
 ard lighted and it's sanitary condtuns more utterly neglected. The longer you remain in this island which nature made so lovely, the more you are inn | pressed with the fact that, 90 far as yet exemplifled, Anglo-saxon civiliza- 1 tion ie failure in the tropics, conn., pared with that of the Latin races. Everything in Kingston is extremely English, or rather colonial, reminding l you of Quebec, from the vice admira ty | and ohancery registrars office to the big law-library. dedicated to H, R. H. the Prince of Wales, and the Victoria hospital, with it's three hundred beds. The best building, architacturally isthe courthouse and that is ugly as a | nightmare. In one of the colonial of fees you may see curious piece of ta- pestry, representing the royal and is- | land arms which used to be carried as a banner before the governors on state l occasions. Following King street through the parade-ground. you come to a quaint English Episcopal church, the oldest on the island, erected in 1892 In the quiet Gods ds-acre behind it is tre grave of Admiral Benbow, who died nearly two centuries ago. Another odd-looking tomb, like a Dutch bake oven, bears the name, of William Hall and the date 1699
 The streets of Kingston, especially those in the vicinity of the broad open space formed by the intersection of King and Queen streets, are swarming with negro soldiers, the First West h. dia regiment, in brilliant zouave uni- form, all with faces as black and shin ing as though freshly polished with 'Bixbey's best.'' They are noticeably undersiged men as compared to the American army-not unlike the French Chasseurs d Afriaue in appearance, small but hardy and reputed to be most savage fighters, Their barrafk ks, on the hills just outside the city, are spacious buildings with extensive grounds. The white troops, a regiment of Her Males tvs Royal Scots, are in cantonmert at New Castle, a picturesque nook far up in the mountains, inaccessible to
 wheeled vehicles and said to be so de- ! 1ightfully cool that blankets are need ed up ttere every night in the year.
 1 Certainly blankets are not required in 1 the sWeltering city, where the thinnest l clothing seems superfluity and people ] are longing to "sit in their bonas." The l thermometer registers less than eighty | degrees in the shade at any time of l the year, and to-day 1t stands at nine 1 ty. Kingston's uphill streets are as 1 full of inequalities as were those of l Chicago before the great, beneficial I fire; therefore if you persist in sight
 seeing 1t is best to take a cab, or i ''keb," as the cemmqn vehicle of tran S. I port Is locally called. They are rather
 shaky-looking concerns, with rheuma-
 tic springs and melancholy horses but
 they possess the merit of cheapn' ss, the
 legal tariff being only an English sAil- i ling to any part of the city and a dol
 lar an hour for country excursions.
 If time is not pressing it might be
 well to go out to Kings House" as
 the residence of Queen victoria's govcr-
 nor general of Jamaica is undemocrat-
 cally called, and which corresponds to
 Queens House. in Barbadoes It is
 situated about four miles from Kines-
 ton, in fertile plain among the hills.
 which somehow reminds you of rural l England, notwithstandlng the vast diff ference in climate and vegetation. 1 Driving is not an unnaitigated pleasure
 at any time of year in Jamaica, the
 roads being deep in white dust which
 flies in whirling, choking clouds In this island rains are not constant, as in
 the Lesser Antilles to the southward. There is 8 short wet season and long dry ore. During the latter season ike
 fields and hillsides become parched and brown, and nothing saves the crops
 from destruction but the innumerable streams which gave the country it's
 name-Xayn1aca Land of Springs"
 Having rattled through the dirty ill.,
 paved streets, you find the suburbs rather more interesting. There are
 some handsome houses on the long
 slope that gradually ascends from the
 sea to the crest of the ridge; and there
 are picturesque cottages hedged with
 tall, slender spires of organ" cactus, such as abounds in rural Mexico. Fur
 ther on white villas nestle among cane
 fields and coffee groves, and little
 farms where "Browns'' and negroes
 cultivate corn, yarns and tobacco. The
 country roads are excellent, barring the
 dust; the perfumed air smells exotic, and the greenhouses feeling in the
 hot, moist atmosphere is enhanced by
 finding the Ioveliest and most fragrant
 yiolets blooming all along the dusty
 way-side, and every weed in the field a
 dainty plant which we cultivate under
 glass at home. Presently the lodge of