The new age. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1902-190?, 1902-06-06
THE vooDoo OF ST. VINCENT.
Negro Inhabitants of the Inflated
Island Believe the Use of Her
Money Caused All the
Trouble.

Il allus toll 'em, they be sure nuf
goner if they tech that Voodoo money"
The old Negro sat slowly spelling out
of the evening paper the latest meager
news of the disaster on st. Vincent
island, his old home. Scarce a Negro
in the West Indies but is saying the
same thing today.
Waxing ever fatter, uglier and rich
er. for many years there lived just
outside of Kingston, on st. Vincent,
the high priestess of the Voodoo wor-
shippers. Thither by stealth came the
Negroes from all over the West In
dies-came also, they tell you, white
planters seeking charms and lucky
spells. There were still others, who
landed quietly by night and bore away
little walls of slow-working poison, or,
perhaps, merely innocent looking
splinters. whose slightest scratch
meant death; then, presently, the pa
pers would record the sudden end of
some harsh overseer from fever" The
hand of the law never fell upon her
it is not pleasant to execute justice
when you know that tomorrow morn
ing's coffee will be filled with pow
dered glass-and in good time she
died, her spirit carried up Souffriere
by Zombi, so they say. and there
dumped in.
Much wealth she left. for her
magic" was always of the most ex-
pensive kind. Many a poor devil
ruined himself to meet her extortions.
But, strange to say, no heirs appeared
to claim it. 1t was Voodoo, and not an
African on earth would touch it.
So, finally, the government of st.
Vincent stepped in where others
feared to tread and confiscated it.
Now, Voodoo or no Voodoo, it certain
ly is true that from that day the al
ready tottering fortunes of st. Vim
cent fastened swiftly to their fall.
The Negroes emigrated to Barbados,
to the states, to anywhere away from
the island. Sugar fell in price slowly
but surely, and sugar was st. VIM
cents mainstay. Arrowroot, the next
crop of Importance, fell also. Desper-
ate measures were taken to remedy
matters; whole estates were con-
demned and cut up into little parcels,
to be divided among the Negroes. The
only result was to anger those whose
estates had been condemned.
Then came the awful hurricane of.
1898; 400 lives were lost in the island,
and every crop was totally ruined.
Those who fingered after that did so
merely because they had to. Such was
the state of things when the writer
landed at Kingston a few weeks ago
Most pleasant were his recollections
of st. Vincent, a dim remembrance of
visit many years past. Only fifteen
miles long by eleven broad, the little
green islet was saved from insignifi-
canoe by the rugged grandeur of Souf-
friere, the evil-named, evil-reputa-
toned old volcano at the northern
end. Although but 5000 feet hight
lost 1000 feet or so in altitude in it's
outbreak of 171S-yet its ragged cone
tjwered with certain mighty ma
jesty, beauty eel diablo," against the
clear tropic sky.
From Souffriere to Mt. st. Andrews.
near the southern end, a jagged chain
of lesser peaks divides the western
from the eastern side. So riven by
chasms, so steep are their sides, that
a long road round the shore was the
only practical connection between the
pretty little village of Georgetown,
Just across. At the southwestern end
lay-so the writer remembered 1.-THE
fourishing town of Kingston, bearing
no little resemblance to ST. Pierre in
its surroundings of green-robed hills
of cane; its houses gayly frescoed in
bright blues and reds, with here and
there dash of yellow, reminding you
of Norway villages. The heavy laden
sugar casks gruntling over the cobbled
streets, the quick clicking of tiny
donkeys' hoofs. drawing enormous
loads of green cane. the hum and clat-
ter of the market place; all these he
remembered well. The hills were but
naked skeletons of those he remem-
bered; gaunt, gray ribs of rock pro-
truding through bare red soil; lying
naked and ashamed in the glare of the
sunshine, stripped utterly of their EN-.
erald robes, not so much as a palm
growing since the day of the "big
wind