The Springfield herald., 1900-02-09

a man may live comfortably all his
life without doing any work, says
Lemuel Cooper. who was born on the
island of Ruatan, one of the Bay
group, a little chain or key lying some
80 miles off the coast of Spanish Hon
duras. To starve there would be sim
ply impossible II would be like try
ing to drown a fish. We have no beg
gars and no pauper class to maintain.
There has never been a murder, theft
Is unknown and locks are unnecessary.
Last year our mortality was one-fourth
of one per cent.
Ruatan, continued Mr.. Cooper, is 40
miles long and three miles wide. 1t
has population of about 5000 people,
mostly Carib Indians, and | doubt
whether there is in all the world
more beautiful and prolific spot. The
people are lazy simply because they
don't have to work Cocoanuts form
their malnstay and there is nothing
easier to grow. To stert grove one
merely burns off a piece of land and
plants the nuts in rows 20 feet apart.
In from four to five years time the
trees are dozen feet high and begin
ming to bear and after that the planter
is fixed for llle. 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 n tree will bear nobody can say,
but there are some on the island that
are known to be over nalf century
in harvest
of nuts.
Wnen the native needs something at
the store all he has to do is to gather
together some nuts and trade them
for what he wishes. He hulls them
by striking them on stake driven
into the ground ana a man can easily
hull 5000 day in that manner. My
two brothers and myself shipped l,l0O,-
900 nuts last year, and the total snip
ment from the islands would average
about 5000, 900. Elsewhere the hull is
a valuable by-product and is manu-
factured into mats and brushes and all
sorts of fiber ware. but no attempt
has ever been made to utilize it 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 fiber works
would be profitable industry. but
what is the use?" the people say.
Haven't we everything we want al
ready?" 1t is the Incidence that gets
in the blood. The longer you live at
Ruatan the less you approve of toll.
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 a ready market. We have
plenty of bananas, oranges, mangoes,
plums and pineapples, and they are all
delicious. They grow wild. without
the slightest cultivation, and all one
has to do is to pick them. Vegetables
are equally prolific. and our native
yams easily average 40 to so pounds
in weight. A piece of cane stuck in
the ground takes root and renews itself
perennially for years. stranger VINO
comes to the islands is invariably
amazed at the prodiSality of nature
and the apathy of the natives-that Is
before the lazy feeling gets into his
blood. Why don't you grow this
and why don't you cultivate that?'
he asks. The natives simply smile.
"Why not take things easy and be
happy"
The next island to Ruatan is Utilla.
which has population of about SOo
and is touched by several steamship
lines. There is a good deal of trading
from the island along the Honduranian
coast and the owners of the larger
sloops and schooners make consider
able money that way, but the main
business is in cocoanuts. The first ISL
and of the chain is called Bonacco and
has about the same population as
Utilla. Then there are two very small
and Morat.
The strangers who occasionally drift
to the Bay islands, through one chance
and another. rarely leave. They are
like the lotus eaters in Tennyson's
poem. The American consul at pres
ent is Mr.. Johnson. who comes from
Wisconsin He 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 equablc The thermometer
has never been known to fall below
&C or to rise above SS. Being part of
Spanish Honduras, we are, of course
under the government OF that republic,
but we are too far away to ever be
disturbed by the storms OF revolution,
and at present things are peculiarly
serene.
The Bay islands have the distinction
of having the largest sharks in the
world in their waters. They are found