The Red Cloud chief., 1900-02-09

y man may live comfortably all his
life without doing any work, says
LCmucl Cooper. who was born ON the
island of Ruatan, one of the Bay
group. a little chain or key lying some
30 miles off the coast Of spanish Hon
duras. To starvc there would he sim
ply impossible; II would be like try
ing to drown u fish. We have no beg
CARS and no paupcr class to maintain.
There has never been a murder, theft
Is unknown and locks are unnecessary.
Last year our mortality was onc-fourth
of one per cent.
Ruatan. continued Mr.. Cooper. Is 40
miles long and three miles wide IL
has u population of about 1900 people.
mostly Garth Indians, ana | doubt
whether there is In all the world "A
more beautiful and prolific spot. The
people are lazy simply because they
don't have to- work. Cocoanuts form
their malnsiay and there is nothing
easier to grow. To star, u grove one
merely burns of a piece Of land ana
plants the nuts in rows 20 feet apart.
In from -four to five years lime the
trees are a dozen feet high and begin
ming To bear and after that the planter
Is fixed for nIc. He may bid adieu to
care. The nuts are never picked, but
rs they mature they drop on, and this
shower OF fruit goes on steadily month
after month all the year around. How
long a tree will bear nobody can say,
but there are some on the island that
are known to be over nalf a century
old and are still dropping their harvest
Ut nuts.
Mncn the native needs something at
the store al he has to do is To gather
together some nuts and trade them
for what he wishes. lie hulls them
by striking them m n stake driven
into the ground ana n man can easily
hull 5000 u day in that manner My
two brothers and myself shipped 100
900 nuts last year. and the total snip
mcnt from the islands would average
about 5000. 0C0. Elsewhere the hull Is
a valuable by product and Is manu-
featured into mats and brushes and all
sorts OF fiber ware, hut no attempt
has ever been made to utilize II on the
Bay islands. Thousands upon thou
sands Of dollars worth of material has
thus been allowed to rot on the ground.
, Everybody admits that a fiber works
would be a profitable industry, but
: what Is the use?' the people say.
I Haven't we everything we want al
rcady?" II is tire Incidence that gets
I'm the blood. The longer YOU live at
Ruatan the less you approve OF toll.
Other fruits grow just as easily as
Y the c%ocoanut and the only reason why
i that especially is grown is because 1t
furnishes an easy crop. for which there
1 is always a ready market. We have
10 plenty of bananas, oranges, mangoes
plums and p%ineapples, and they are all
r delicious. They grow wild, without
the slightest cultivation, and all one
!. has 10 do Is to pick them. Vegetables
ar, equally prolific, and our native
vans easily average 40 To 90 pounds
In weight. A piece OF cane stuck In
"a the ground takes root and renews itseii
IS perennially for years. A stranger who
d comes to the islands Is invariably
Il amazed at the prodigality of nature
is and the apathy of the natiyes-that Is
k before the lazy feeling gets into his
4, blood. why don't you grow this y
+. and why don't you cultivate that
d he asks. The natives simply smile.
- why not take things easy and be
=" happy"
= The next island 10 Ruatan Is utilla.
II which has a population Of about 500
y. and II touched by several steamship
., ,l,.- uHh,,, A., a, ,npl Joal ~ traIinQ
from the island along the Honduranian
coast and the owners of the larger
a. sloops and schooners make consider
= able money that way. but the main
J. business Is in cocoanuts. The first ISL
and of the chain is called Bonaceo and
Q. has about the same population as
s. Utilla. hen there are two very small
re islands-Barbarat and Morat.
N The strangers who occasionally drift
10 to the Bay islands. through one nance
and another, rarely cave. They are
like the lotus eaters in Tennyson's
poem. The American consul at pres
ent is MIR. Johnson, who comes from
~ Wisconsin. lie was delighted with the
spot and sent at once for his wife and
daughter. They are all there together
= now and insist that they will never
- leave. The climate, by the way, Is
= singularly cquablc The thermometer
10, has never been known TO fall below
p, GO or TO rise above IS. Being part OF
N Spanish Honduras, we are, OF course
" under the government Of that republic
y, but we are too far away to ever be
10 disturbed by the storms OF revolution
and ut present things are peculiarly
serene.
40 The Bay islands have the distinction
of having the largest sharks In the
NJ world in their waters. They are found
three or four miles from the coast and
frequently grow To a length of 50 feet,
p.rnuIaI,a nf tN,o S.un.a