The Republican journal., 1902-03-20

few other things, and yields consider
able revenue, even under the haphaz-
ard methods now employed. Aided by
the trade-winds it takes only few
hours to cross from St Thomas to st.
CrolX, and government steamer plies
regularly between, besides innumerabe
schooners. We steamed away from
Charlotte Amalia just as the sun was
going to bed behind Porto Rico, and the
western skies were blaze of glory
But night comes so quickly in these
ATTITUDES that hardly had we passed be-
tween the tall cliffs that stand as gate
posts to the harbor before darkness
fell and the words of the ancient mari
ner came to us:
" he suns rim dips, the stars rush OUT,
AT one stride comes the dark.
Some time during the night we az
rived outside the now dangerous. choked
up haroor, and were obliged to wait for
daybreak before venturing between the
two guarding reefs that look like pair
OF wide open jaws. Nothing can be
more delightful than this trip by day
light, over tranquil seas thousand
fathoms deep, blueY than the bluest skies
and clearer than the clearest crystal.
The islanders think no more of it than
New Workers do of a morning haunt
from HObol1en to Broadway. or from
Brook YIN to Jersey City; but to unac-
customed travellers from the colorless
North it is the event of a lifetime.
How can one describe this region of
terrestrial delight of golden suns and
silver moons. clouliess skies and balmy
breezes? Though st. Croix bears every
where evidence of volcanic origin. it is
not so rugged and abrupt as most of
the neighboring islands. 4 range of
hills runs parallel with the coast, but
It's highest peak is hardly a thousand
feet above the sea. Cane fields sweep
backward from the beach and up the
hillsides i'll a waving mass of yellowish
green, broken here and there by plant
ers houses and the matched cottages
of their laborers. Windmills swing
their mighty arms, as if challenging
new Don QuiXoteS to mortal combat,
and long avenues of cocoa-palms, with
trunks rising from fifty to eighty feet,
like shafts of smooth gray marble, sup
port miracle of waving plumage The
omnipresent sugar-cane. the only crop
worth mentioning on the island, gives
it so rich and light tint of green that
it looks, the whole year through as if
spring had just put on her fresh mantle.
Though the soil is everywhere prodigi-
ously productive, except few acres of
salt marsh, at least two-thirds of the
island is yet uncultivated, covered with
scanty woodlands, the haunt of deer and
snakes. There used to be many more
as ruined and deserted
buildings in the midst of worthless
scrub attest: but there has been great
falling off of the industry during the
last thirty years, owing to repeated
failure of the sugar-crop, on account of
drought. To diminished rainfall is
the destruction of the
forests. Originally st. Croix was cover
ed from end to end with stately trees,
and then rains were abundant; but the
French during their brief occupation,
wantonly burned the forests, with the
result that destructive dry seasons"
have since followed each other in quick
succession. The emancipation of slaves
was another ruiEous blow to the
planters; and the present low price of
sugar, combined with vigorous competi-
ton in Cuba and Porto Rico, to say
nothing of beet sugar, has almost com
pleted their undoing The American
who comes here today with money in
his pocket can buy the best plantation
in st. Croix for half its value-and
make a good thing out of it, with the
exercise of little common sense and
good deal of patient industry. The
greatest difficulty is with laborers. The
emancipated negroes are unwilling to
work on the plantations at any price,
and are not to be depended upon in
mergencies-b being just as likely to
troop off on carouse, to the last man,
woman and child, when the crop is half
harvested as at any other time.
Like St. Thomas, this island shows no