The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-21

! N-AN Illusion Then there is the toy-like fort,
 with bastion, battlements and barbican
 strongly suggestive of cake ornaemnta-
 tiOn all bristling with little guns ana
 alive with toy soldiers. A toy pubic
 garden lies close to the landing, and
 over the tops of the trees you can see
 Moorish looking structure, apparently
 suspended in mid-air which might be Q
 Noah's ark full of toy animals, but
 turns out to be the crack hotel of the
 island
 Meanwhile, long before you have conl-
 pleted these observations, the hubbup
 of ''totn' coal' has begun. Scores of
 negresses in line each blacker than the
 black diamonds she carries in a basket
 poised on her woody head, sing or
 swear, according to the mood of the mo- ment, Fortunately for 'ears polite, '
 their ribald chatter is mostly unintelli-
 sible, though among the half dozen dtf-
 ferent languages spoken in this polyglot community, that which passes for Eng
 fish predominates. Among all the ne- Sroes of the West Indies there is still a
 survival of that strange dialect which | Moravian missionaries compiled into a. sort of literature, nearly two centuries
 aSo--a queer tumble of Dutch, French English and Creole words, mixed with i borrowings from every civilized country | and unknown tongues from tribes of i darkest Africa. The baskets carried by | these half-naked females weigh, when | filed from eighty to one hundred 1 pounds each; yet they swing the bur | den jauntily to their heads and trot gaily off with it, erect as statues-to
 and fro over the gang plank all day | long in the blazing sun or all night if
 need be- for the pitiful hire of ten cents
 an hour. The lessees of the St. Thomas
 wharves keep exhaustless supplies of
 coal always on hand, and for many years our naval and merchant vessels as well as those of other nations having , business in these waters, have made
 this an important port of call
 There is not the slightest doubt that Uncle Samuel would have been doing we'll for himself had he purchased the island at double the price agreed upon. i The famous port which lies on the south side of the island, midway in the constituents directly in the path of all
 the vessels that ply between Europe
 and the Greater Antilles; besides over
 looking the track of those bound to and
 from the ports of the United States.
 Not only do1nany steamship lines touch
 here regularly for water, but a great many other vessels put in for repairs. or
 for shelter in stormy weather. The
 great circular harbor is so well protec-
 ted that ships are perfectly safe in it a a hat ticiI
 There is a commodious floating dock, and steam slip capable of handling the largest vessels.
 Of course the trade of St. Thomas amounts to little, or Denmark would not have been so willing to get rid of her; but the Yankee nation will change all that in the near future. For more than q hundred years this has been a free port, with not customs officer anywhere about. Therefore articles of foreign make, for use or wear, may be obtained very cheaply in Charlotte Amalia, sans duty. The finest Cuban cigars, for example, which sell in New York for seventeen to twenty dollars per hundred, can be bought here for eight and ten dollars, and come off without duty. The finest bay rum, too the very best ever made-sells to-day in St. Thomas for twenty cents a pint; while at home the same-after being bountifully "doctore costs five times as much.
 The town of Charlotte Amalia is one of the most attractive in all the West Indies, with delightful scenery, condi- tions of infinite rest and an atmosphere of eternal summer tempered by balmy trade winds. As before mentioned, it is built mainly on the seaward slopes of three hills, with handsome villas dom mating the upper heights and pretty 1 cottages scattered through the valleys The whole island-only about fifteen miles long by four wide-is rugged and l with q mountain ridge of | origin running across it, and | its edges are surrounded by reefs and | breakers. Landing in front of a little plaza overhung with palms and mango | trees you are at once in the midst of strange but good-nat ured people, black white, brown and yellow men, women and children, with hardly an Saxon face among them. The clothing of the crowd is peculiar to northern eyes, as lavish in coloring as scanty in amount, the men, as rule, nothing but cotton trousers and straw hat; the women a single garment of gaudy calico. or bedraggled white muslin, always hitched up on one side to the bare knee, and topped by a twist of bandanna handkerchief, beside which, for blending of hues, Jacobs fa- nous coat would hardly be worth men, -ioning. And then the astonishing number of children that tumble about everywhere under foot-white teeth sleaming in perpetual grins and black eyes shining like jet beads in a saucer If dark molasses--all dressed in suits of fast black" Cor should we say un- dressed kid?) just as nature made hem! Women saunter along carrying broad flat trays on their heads heaped with vegetables, fruits, bread, quaking tied leg to leg. chunks of raw neat bloody flyers and kidneys tripe lnd fish. Others importune the stran- ger to buy strings of sea-shells, sea 'eans, "Job's tears' pieces of coral, | ea-fans and other ocean products: l while others squat all day on their heels lnder the friendly shade of the mango l rees, beside their little piles of yams, 'eppers, lines and joints of sugar-cane. l The business part of the town is com 'rised in one long street that follows he curvings of the shore, and at either nd mGrgeS into q road which ancirnlac