The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1898-11-17


and made them strong
Constipation causes and aggravates MANY
serious diseases. 1t is speedily cured BY
DR.. Pierce's Pleasant Pellets.
ton; while Port Royal street, farther up
the hill, is the wholesale merchants
! quarter Not one of kingston's public
buildings is worth visit, unless it be the
small public library and miniature museum
on East street. The museum contains a
fair collection of the animal and plant
life of the island and few relics and
curiosities. Among the latter is the
cracked bronze bell from the Port Royal
church tower, where its last dirge was
rung by the swaying of the great earth
| quake which killed nearly all the inhabi-
tants of that then flourishng city.
Another gruesome curio is an iron cage
with cruel spikes in it, such as plantation
overseers sometimes used in slavery times
Refractory human chattels had their hands
and feet securely tied and were then
suspended inside the cage by spike
thrust under the ribs; the door was locked
| to prevent rescue and the wretch left to
die by Slow torment, as terrible warning
to his fellows. The placard says that
when this cage was found, there We're three
human skeletons in it.
Probably it is unnecessary to state that
these and other historic horrors, which
rivalled those of the same period iii Dem
erara and SaDto Domingo, occurred during
the Spanish occupancy of Jamaica and
that their English successors soon abolish
ed slavery.
For city of more than 10, 600 inhabi-
tants, Kingston has remarkably few at
fractions. Though one of the largest cen
tres Of population in the British posses
sions in tropical America it is the most
down-at the heel and forlorn- looking of
/ southern cities. Even shabby old Santia-
I go de Cuba before the war was not so bad
/ ly paved and lighted and it's sanitary con-
tlitiOns more utterly neglected. The long
Ell you remain in this island, which ma
ture made so lovely, the more you are i'm
pressed with the fact that, so far as vet
exemplitied, Anglo Saxon civilization is a
failure in the tropics, compared with that
of the Latin races.
| Everything in Kingston is extremely
English, OF rather colonial, reminding you
of Quebec-from the Vice Admiralty and
Chancery Registrars office to the big law
t library, dedicated to H. K. H. the Prince
/ of Wales, and the Victoria Hospital, with
! its 800 beds. The best building, archi-
tecturally, is the court house, and that is
ugly as nightmare. In one of the colo
NAL offices you may see curious piece of
tapestry, representing the royal and is
land arms, which used to be carried as a
banner before the governors on state oc-
casions. Following King street through
! the parade ground, you come to quaint
the island, erected in 1892. In the quiet
Cod S acre behind it is the grave of Ad-
miral Benbow, who died nearly two cen
turtles ago. Another odd looking tomb,
like Dutch bake oven, bears the name
of William Hall and the date 1899
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 India Regiment,
in brilliant zouave uniforms, all with
| faces CHI nj Al
freshly polished with ''Bixby's BEST
They are noticeably understood men. as
compared to the American army-not I'M
like the French Chasseurs d. Afriuue in
appearance, small but hardy and reputed
to be most savage fighters. Their bar
racks, on the hills just outside the city,
are spacious buildings with extensive
grounds. The white troops, a regiment
of Her Majesty's Royal Scots, are in can
Torment at New Castle, picturesque
nook far up in the mountains, inaccessi-
Bile to wheeled vehicles and said to be so
delightfully."- cool that blankets are needed
up there every night in the year.
Certainly blankets are not required in
the sweltering city, where the thinest
clothing seems supert1uity and people
are longing to ''sit in their bones.'' The
thermometer seldom registers less than so
degrees in the shade at any time of year,
and to-day it stands at 80. Kingston S
uphill streets are as full of inequalities
as were those of Chicago before the great
beneficial fire; therefore if you persist in
sight-sing, it is best to take cab, or a
''keb," as the common vehicle of trans
port is locally called. They are shaky-
looking concerns, with rheumatic springs
and melancholy horses; but they possess
the merit of cheapness, the legal tariff be-
ing only an English shilling to any part of
the city, and dollar an hour for country
| excursions.