The times., 1898-11-27
BUSINESS IN JAMAICA
American Capital Has Been
Profitably Invested.
FORTUNES MADEINO ORANGES

FORTU NES MADElNUR NGES
Their Luck-Foreigncrs Progrcss-
ins-Americans Suce essfuI-ian
Originality PrevniIs-Better Meth
ods of Education.
Gordon Town, Jamaica, Nov. 2o.-Al-
though this fertile island has belonged
to Great Britain about two hundred and
fifty years. and has been tolerably well
governed during all that time, its Eng
lish citizens are becoming more and more
discouraged concerning the business out
look They talk glibly enough of the
splendid natural resources OF their island
but In the same breath will tell you that
there are no longer any inducements TO
emigration, or openings for younger sons;
and declare that ruin stares them in the
face, unless immediate reciprocity places
Jamaica on an equal footing with neigh
boring islands which share in the Ameri-
can policy of expansion.
To a disinterested outsider, 1t lookae rs
IL the reason for this lamentable state 2.
affairs lies in the well-known bull-heads'
ness of the average Briton. Most of the
Queens subjects in Jamaica still persist in,
raising sugar, to the exclusion of every
thing else, although nowadays there Is
little profit In 1t. The sugar plantations
are baronial in extent, and time was
when their cultivation was so easy and
profitable that the owners thereof couiu
remain abroad leaving oveTseers III
charge.
But year after year during the last
decade, the overseers have reported
smaller and smaller profits, always hop
ing for better returns next time; and each
succeeding year has regularly proved Il
little worse than the last Absent pro-
prietors and hired supervision, bountes.
hostile tariffs, and above all the proHuc-
ton of beet sugar, have Goa spired to bilhs
about this natural result; and now that
Cuba and Porto Rico, with their unri-
vailed possibilities. have passed into ener-
getIc American hands, Jamaicas mis-
managed estates may move ulong to the
bow-woNs more rapidly than ever.
Already the planters are appealing to
the government for help and taking "i
grants-in-aid and cOunterYailing duties :
but the truth is that the government feels
the pinch as much as any private individ-
uaI. the iessening of the sugar product
of course diminishing the production "I
that famous old-time standby. Jama!ca
rum. the considerable taxes nn which used
to be the chief revenue Of the island.
Progress of the Americans.
While the EngFshmen are moodiiy fore
casting ruin and blaming the home gov
ernment. America, and Colonial Secretary
Chamberlain for what is clearly their own
fault, and the happy-go-luely blacks. like
other natives of the tropics, are idly con-
tented with what nature provides few
Americans are quietly laying the founda-
tlons for solid fortunes here. Some of
them have invested a gooG deal of capl-
tai in island enterprises. They have
bought a number of abandoned or run
down plantations for u tithe of the oriSi-
nal value, besides inauguIating new in
dustries and starting afresh several lag
giug old ones with their accustomed vim.
A few years ago an American syndicata
purchased the government railway. six
ty-six miles long. which runs from
| Port Royal to nowhere IN paricu ar ;
| and the new owners Immediately In
vested IS, ,o0a.c10 in extensions which
| when completed, will open up TIE richest
lands in Jamaica as well as some of the
| most enhancing tropical scenery in the
| whole wide world.
One American of my acquaintance de
| voted himself TO the raising of oranges
| about five years ago. and. last season
| shipped aS $50 boxes of them from Jamai
| ca to New York-and cleared q dollar a
box on the lot. Though oranges grow
wild on this island and have never before
been cultivated for commerce, there are
| few localities which produce finer ones
| and none where the climate is better
| adapted to their raising.
Another of my countrymcn is making Il
| fortune in plantains: another in sweet
| potatoes and another in bamboo. TIE
| latter spontaneous growth fourishes
wonderfully in Jamaica, and there is al
| most no limit to the uses tG which it may
be put. from the building of houses 10
the making of carts and furniture. After
! many experiments and almost as many
failures, our Yankee friend discovered
that bamboo fiber has certain elastic and
incompressible properties. which make
| 1t without rival for some purposes
| So he built a big factory away up on
| Black River, in the interior OF the island,
| and settled down to the converting of
| bamboo fiber into what is known as
| packing for the wheels of railway
carriages. 1t is said to b. the very best
| article now used for that purpose, hold
| ing oil like a sponge. never hardening
and never wearing out q d the demand
for it is great, both in Europe ard
| America.
Yankee Originality.
| The Yankees show more originality than
the sons of Britain in their ways of mon
ey-getting. and are always on the lookout
for new avenues of enterprise. The few
who went into sugar-raising and its side
issues, rum and molaSses, do not retire
! from the field in disgust, or sit down and
growl, as the Englishmen DO when the
market is giutted and sugar depressed.
but make shift with other crops till times
| improve.
They get along a good deal, better. too,
| with the negroes, who are the only labor
| ers to be had there. While the English
| men are forever in trouble with the
| blacks. believing them to be incorrigibly
| lazy, the American railroad builders. man.
| ufacturers and planters, who employ hun.
dreds of negro laborers, declare that they
work well enough, If fair wages are
| promptly paid.
Under English management q man re-
ceiyes shilling day and a female house
servant three shillings n week, and botl