The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-03-15
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
Nassau, N. p, March 4th, 1901

would bring one here second time.
To be sure the climate is all that the
most exacting could ask for. 1t never
gets colder than so degrees above and
seldom goes below CO. But there are
other things besides climate that one
enjoys in a foreign country if he is OF
an inquisitive turn of mind. 1t is told
us that fish in the ocean die by the
hundreds when the thermometer gets
down to ffty-fve and people suffer
with thescold to greater degree here
at that temperature than they do at
zero weather in Minnesota. While
these so-called "cold snaps" come &C.
casionally they only last few hours
Frost, of course, has never been known
here.
The population of the island of New
Providence is about 10, 900 and we
should think that nearly half that
number live in Nassau and its immedi-
ate vicinity. The island is only
twenty-five miles long and seven miles
wide at its widest point-hardly as
large as the average Minnesota county,
with less than half the number of
people. The inhabitants are about
four hfths negroes, poorly clad, half
fed. The black children nearly all go
7 barefooted the year around and great
number of the adults do likewise. The
blacks, despite their poverty, are civil
and very polite, but as rule very
| shiftless They are not unlike our
Amer lean negroes in the South, albeit
! they are much more given to begging
pennies. As whole they are harm
less lot, but the police court has plenty
of business each day in disposing of
prisoners arrested on all kinds of
petty charges The punishment is very
severe for theft. We visited a session
of the court Saturday and saw man
sentenced to six months in the peni-
Tertiary at hard labor for attempting
to steal two chairs from the Royal
Victoria hotel verandah. He did not
get the chairs outside of the fence at
that, and he was sentenced on the evil
dence of one man-and the evidence
lacked good deal of being conclusive
of guilt at that.
A drive of seven miles and return
showed us that the Island is nothing
but solid base of rock. We have
! never, in all our travels, seen terri
tory so absolutely worthless. To be
sure there are fruits of various kinds
grown here, such as oranges, bananas,
pineapples, guavas, cocoanuts, sapa
dillas tamarinds, ETC., but they grow
in limited quantities. and nearly
everything of the kinds mentioned are
consumed at home. Few or no vege-
tables are raised on the island but
many of the other islands belonging
to the Bahamas raise large quantities
of vegetables. The climate here is
finely adapted to the growth of all
kinds of vegetables, but these will not
propagate on rock. They must have a
little soil at least to feed on. The
fruits seem to thrive on air, and wher-
ever hole between rocks can be found
of sufficient size to permit branch to
spring up there you will find tree
bearing some sort of luscious fruit.
There are not straw berries grown here
for the same reason that vegetables in
any quantities worth mentioning do
not.
Sponge fishing is the one prominent
industry carried on here, and it is a
great industry. A sailing vessel carry
ing twenty men go out from thirty to
sixty miles in mid ocean and cruise
around for about six weeks. If it has
good luck it will return with six or
eight thousand sponges. These sponges
are of course thoroughly cleaned and
made practically ready for the market
before being brought to shore. There
is what is known as the sponge mar
ket, and each morning the product is
sold to the highest bidder. The prices
now range from eighty to one hundred
dollars per thousand sponges, although
they are often sold for much less. 1t
will be seen by little mathematical
calculation that the men who hunt
sponges get very little for their labor
by the time they pay commission for
selling and other expenses incidental to
the business.
Living is high and labor cheap. The
average day labor is 30 cents. Flour
costs from to cents per pound.
Butter and poor at that, 30 cents; eggs
80 cents per dozen. An emaciated
chicken that never saw square meal
goes at rs cents, if the owner is lucky
enough to find customer We saw
fair sized ''gobbler" sold for So. 90 the
other day. We did not get any of him,
however. Hay sells for 81 rs per
hundred, and from the looks of most
of the horses here they are fed very
sparingly. Oats brings 81. 90 per bushel
and corn usually $1.25 Sugar; white
granulated, sells at cents a pound
Everything, aside from fruits. has to
be imported, and transportation ex-
penses and duty rates makes living for
man and beast very high.
The American tourist is here in
greater numbers than ever before, and
the Islander is sharp after his good
American dollar. One cannot turn
around without at least one hand in
his pocket and most of the time two ,