Union gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1899-1900, 1900-03-30
LAZY MANS HEAVEN.
HE GAN LIVE COMFORTABLY
AND DO NOTHING.
Impossible to starve-No Beggars, No
Paupers, No Crime on the Beautiful
Island of Ruatan-Great Sharks of
Those Waters.

Those Waters.
"On our island" said Lemuel Cooper
Of Ruatan to a New Orleans Times
man, "a man may live very comforta-
bly, all his life and without doing a
single lick of work. To starve there
would be simply impossible; it would
be like trying to drown a fish. We
have no beggars and no pauper class
to maintain. There has never been a
murder, theft is unknown and locks
are unnecessary. Some go so far as to
claim that people don't die there. but
that is an cxaggeration. They occa-
sionally expire of extreme old age.
Last year our actual mortality was
one-fourth of l per cent"
The lazy mans paradise thus sketch
liz described is a corner of the world
about which curiously little is known.
Ruatan is the largest of the five "Bay
islands," little chain or key lying
some thirty miles of the coast of Span
ish Honduras, southeast of Port Cor
tez, and only four days travel from
New Orleans. Their one industry is
the raising of cocoanuts. and altogether
they form a domain that is absolutely
unique in the western hemisphere. Mr..
Cooper is the most important citizen
of Ruatan. He was born there, and
with his brothers he now conducts
very considerable business. In CONVEX
sation with reporter he told an inter-
esting story of his island home.
"Ruatan, where l live" said Cooper,
sis some forty miles long and three
miles wide. 1t has a population of
about 5000 people, mostly Carib Indi-
ans. and l doubt whether there is in
all the world a more beautiful and pro-
life spot. The people are lazy simply
because they don't have to work. Co
coanuts form their mainstay, and there
is nothing easier to grow. To start
grove one merely burns off piece of
land and plants the nuts in rows twen-
ty feet apart In from four to five
years time the trees are a dozen feet
high and are beginning to bear, and
after that the planter is fixed for life.
He may bid adieu to care. The nuts
are never picked. but as they mature
they drop off, and this shower of fruit
goes on steadily month after month all
the year around. How long tree will
bear nobody can say, but there are
some on the island that are known to
be over half century old and are still
dropping their harvest of nuts.
"When the native needs something a
the store" continued Mr.. Cooper, "all
he has to do is to gather together some
nuts and trade them for what he wish
es. He hulls them by striking them on
stake driven in the ground, and
man can easily hull 5000 a day in that
manner. Roses and flowers Of almost
every imaginable variety run wild from
one end of Ruatan to the other. l
should add, too, that other fruits grow
just as easily as the cocoanut. and the
only reason why that especially is
grown is because it furnishes an easy
crop, for which there is always ready
market. We have plenty Of bananas
oranges. mangoes, plums and pine
apples, and they are all delicious. They
grow wild, without the slightest culti-
vation, and all one has to do is to pick
them. Vegetables are equally prolific,
and our native yams easily average
forty or fifty pounds in weight. A
piece of cane stuck in the ground takes
root and renews itself perennially for
years. A stranger who comes to the
islands is invariably amazed at the
prodigality of nature and the apathy
of the natives-that is, before the lazy
feeling gets into his blood. Why don't
you grow thisY and why don't you
cultivate that? he asks. The native
simply smiles. why not take things
easy and be happy? they say.
"Any description of Bay Islands
would be incomplete" said Mr.. Cooper.
in conclusion, without reference to
our enormous tiger sharks. They. are
found three or four miles out from the
coast and frequently grow to be fifty
feet long. l know that sounds like a
pretty fishy story, but it is the plain.
unvarnished truth. They are referred
to in the coast survey reports of the
United States government, and are said
to be the largest sharks in the world.
AS far as know, they are not found in
any other waters"