The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-07
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QUEER THINGS IN LADRONEs.
The People, the Vegetation and the
Minerals out of Ordinary.


Minerals out of Ordinary.
The Ladrones are dark colored. rather
small and very shapely with straight hair
and, often, blue eyes. The Carolineans
are very tall copper colored, curly haired
aud black eyed. The blending of these
two races has made a generation of
young people of almost a saffron tint
with wavy hair and eyes of brown, hazel
and blue; rather pretty young people you
would say!
The queer things in the Ladrones in
ciude a tree, the fruit of which is so OBJ
noxious to the nostris that man can
not keep his stomach" and smell It. But
once past the nose 1t is so delicious that
he will eat until too full to walk This
fruit ripens once a month and is plentiful.
A nut. which can be eaten shell and all,
is another queer product The she'll is
brittle like q cracker sweet and good. The
inside has a kernel which can only be
bitten when the fruit is fresh.
Another fruit is so rare that it is used
as a coin.
A very queer mineral product is a stone
Cold days it is black; hot days il is bright
red when rain threatens it is pinkish
and in cloudy weather il is blue. This
stone lies on the highways, and the pc
destrian can forecast his own weather.
great yellow flower. which opens and
closes to the sun at noon, is another nov
city. This flower takes only five minutes
to open and Shut for one minute il is
wide open, showing a white center with
| golden heart 1t opens directly up TO the
sun, and closes tight with dropping head
Ii varies not one minute In the whole life
time of the plant. On cloudy days it opens
| but its petal point downward, for the
stem does not rise as on sunny days. This
/ flower acts as a clock to the natives. The
I domestic animal of the Ladrones is a
small bird called a Laughing jackass" 1t
laughs like a parrot but has projections
at the side Of its head which give rise to
/ the name. Another houshold pet is the
! japanese poodle, which hers is very small
| ana very curly haired. This dog catches
! its own fish in the lagoOns and eats fruit
from the guaVa tree.
! The man who owns a farm in the La
! droues is a rich man, for he can supply
]
! wild and with the cocoanuts, are the shade
! trees of the Islands. A grove of bread
! fruit trees to a Ladrone Islander is what
herd Of Western cattle is to a ranch
man. Fruit grows all the year round
| and every quality Of queer. edible tropl-
J cal fruit IS found there. Rice, corn, in
/ digo, castor oil, guavas and bread fruit
! are exceedingly plentiful, while sugar cane
| cotton, tobacco and castor beans grow
| without planting. They are natural TO the
| soil, and spring up IN such quantities as
! to be regarded as weeds.
| A very valuable possession which I'm
| Gle Sam Will use is the palm grove which
! extends in a belt across all the islands
! This palm grove consists of palm trees
! which rise side by side so close together
! that you can hardy, except for the slen-
| derness Of the trunks of the trees, pene-
| tate into the depths of the palm forest
! They grow vegetable ivory which in COM
] merce rs as good as the elephant usk.
( This ivory can be used in ali cases that
| do not call for great durability. and for
| ornaments, 1t cannot be surpassed.
Indigo is another valuable product of
/ the Ladrones ana this can be brought TO
the United states easily. In fact. moth
ing raised i'm the islands will be impos-
sible for there Is swift ocean route