The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-11
QUEER THINGS IN JAMAICA.

land-Eccentricities in Headgear-
 English as She is Spoke-Peculari-
 ties of Negro Jews.
 Special Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier,)
 Kingston, Jamaica Oct. 9.-What- ever may be lacking in Jamaica, it is certainly not hotels, for this small is- land has more big oaravansaries than any other place of equal size and popu- lation in the world. The travelling pub lie is indebted to Sir Henry Blake for them, as well as for many other com forts. The energetic governor general determined to attract capital and im- migration to this long-neglected corner of Her Majesty's domain.
 With that end in view he got up a Colonial exhibition, about six years ago. for the purpose of advertising to the world the resources of the British West Indies and Jamaica in particular He believed that the principal reason why for many years the tides of wintr travel had set strongly toward some of
 
 one almost unnoticed, was due to the want of proper accommodations. So, just before the great fair, he caused an extraordinary number of large and costly hotels to be erected, equipped with every modern convenience. Fi- nancially the exposition was not sue cess, as it involved considerable de- felt in running expenses, which sub- ,Inr1 fo va quired to make good, but it was attend- ed by upwards of two hundred thou sand foreign visitors, and 'boon' in Jamaica products resulted, which has not yet died out. The big hotels served their purpose during the fair, but most of them have since become mere empty barracks. Among the dozen or so in Kingston which still manage to sustain a precarious existence, the one nearest the landing place is most generally patronized by visiting Americans. An other, farther up town, m akes a special claim to being northern in style and cuisine. As for myself, I have not come so far to get a weak imitation of what may be had every day at home, always preferring when in Rome to do as the Romans. There is quaint and unpre- tentious inn near the outskirts of the town, wherein it is a pleasure to put up and incidentally to put up with its su- perabundant grease and garlicy odors. Set in the midst of tropical garden, surrounded by high walls, like a con- vent,-which I believe it was in some 1ong-past day-its cooking is Creole and it's ways typically Jamaican.
 Perhaps the most astonishing thing you will meet in rambling around the streets of Kingston is the endless vari- ety of curious headgear. A certain amount of license in regard to clothing, or rather the scarcity of it, is always allowed in tropical countries, but no clothing at all for the younger mem- bers of society, seems like carrying lib- erty trif1e too far. Each Jamaican is a law unto himself in the matter of style, and although he perambulates the earth in fewer garments than de- cency actually requires, his most or'gi- nal efforts are expended in fantastic head-covering. Hardly any two per sons wear exactly the same fashion of hat, cap or turban, and anything how ever atrocious is quite correct here. The most picturesquely ugly in design and general appearance are the pith hats and helmets sported by English colonial officials and their naughty or humble imitators among the blacks and creoles. For men whose business keeps them much in the sun, these pith hats are the best possible protection, being an inch thick but literally light as cork They are in all shapes and sizes, some like the ordinary police mans helmet, but with an abnormal development of brim; others measure from twenty to twenty-five inches fore and aft; others are circular discs, the depth of a dishpan, with a small fat crown; others huge pieces of pith like an exaggerated clam-shel and no crown at all and others resemble noth- ing under heaven but big snow shovel. They are usually covered with linen white brown or green twisted around the crown, festooned or tied in true lovers knots, according to the taste of the wearer, with long ends dangling down the back or Tapping in the breeze. These nightmares of the hatter's im- agination are never made to fit snugly, but are supplied with an inner frame work to allow a wide space all around the head for circulation of air. Thus man who wears a number Derby re- quires a number Il pits-hat, in which his cranium looks as if caught in trap, and gives him the appearance of an overgrown mushroom when seen from the rear. The swellest Jamaicans affect the big white sombrero, with highly-colored silk scarf tied around, with floating ends. The West India Coolie men, lounging at the street cor ners have their heads swathed in i'm mense white turbans, while the coolie women wear several yards of white cloth. picturesquely drawn over their shining blue-black hair and hanging down behind. The negresses envelop their bushy wool in bandana handker- chiefs of gaudiest hues, and on top of the turban perch any sort of old hat, male or female, straw, felt or pith, they can lay hands on. The stevedore Wo- men content themselves with a twist of straw. worn like crown when at work: and when off duty they supple ment it with half a gourd-shell, the size and shape of an inverted wash basin. On Sundays and other fete days the colored ladies of quality often appear in truly marvellous creations of millinery, but always as secondary adornment to the bandana. Occasion