Omaha daily bee., 1902-05-18

ind the ship from American or English
ports boarded by a man as black as sin,
with the intelligence Of a serpent and as
harmless withal as a child. The new ar
rival can not quite get over the fact that
the custom house ofncer Is a niger in
every sense. Then, when the quarantine
doctor comes alongside with his boat
of gayly uniformed blacks, the American
looks at the top Of his white helmet with
the certain expectation of soon beholding
a white face upturned to those above. It
comes as a shock to find white eyeballs
and ivory teeth showing In sharp contrast
to the inky skin of the Doctors face. 1t
is useless to look for white men. Outside
of Kingston they are scarce as polar bears
In New York.
Port Antonio. the principal fruit port
On the coast. is naturally one of the first
places OF interest to the lover OF the tropi-
cal garden. 1t Is here that the fruit grow
ing industry has advanced to a great COM
mercial enterprise. Here all steamers stop
and enter or clear II they are to carry away
the gifts of the sun gods.
To describe this one town would take
more space than that allotted to an ordi-
nary newspaper. but 1t is typical Of all the
other settlements along the shore as far as
st. Lucia, at the western end Of the island.
Tall cocoanut trees line the shores and
hillsides. their tops, high above the burn
ing sand. %rustling softly in the trade wind.
The colorings Of the hilly slopes beyond
defy description and the bright sunshine
makes a paradise of the little hole of blue
water and its surroundings. Far away In
the southern distance rise the huge noun
tains, peak above peak, into the dense
masses OF vapor which drifts along their
49, ..-kNI - r--A A--NV. II -
white and blue.
The banana pens are on the lowlands and
the fruit Is brought to the ship in cars, men
transferring II to the vessels hold until the
tally warns the stevedores that the ship
IS ready for further orders and may pro-
coed to sea and down the shore into the
shimmering distance.
Telephone An the Fruit Trade.
The next port where the cargo is to be
made up will probably be Annotto bay or
st. AIMS. All along the shore Of the island
the fruit shippers have run their telephone
wires and they can keep track with aecu-
Taey Of all the punches OF bananas ready
for shipment. The itinerary usually covers
six or seven places and the number of
punches Is marked for each town. The ship
which can carry from twenty-five to thirty
thousand punches will find Its cargo all
laiO out for II. unless some accident hap
pens. Then the surplus fruit which must
80 north Il crowded into cars and pushed
for the port OF clearance, where it will find
ats way into ia hold in time for It to get
20 sea on schedule.
Bananas are measured In punches and
the bunehes measured In hands" For In
stance, . bunch Of nine or ten hands OF
bananas will have min or ten projections
OF fruit averaging a dozen or more, alter
mating doSn the opposite side Of the main
stem. making a total OF more than 100
bananas on,the stem. The smaller punches
have sometimes as few as six hands. OF
sixty banana. on the bunch, and will con-
sequently sen for less than the bunch OF
ten hands. A cargo will average about 81
a bunch.
All tropical towns are somewhat similal
IN aspect, but these fruit ports are espe.
oially interesting. The huts. or houses
with their matched roofs and dusky in,
habttAnta. are very picturesque, but no
clean. The women are seen about the yards
washing clothes or doing other chores
sometimes even breaking stone for the
roads. sitting complGcently with pipe II
mouth and stone and hammer before them
while the pile Of rock between their knee
slowly dwindles In size under their cas-!
strokes. The men do very little indeed
and It Is against the religion and practic,
OF the Jamaica women to marry for thl
reason. When married the English Law
makes their property available to thei
husbands. who consequently will not d
any work while Il lasts. Unmarried the.
are their own masters, and-tf the love
who Is the father Of many children does no
attend 10 business he will md his plac
usurped BY some more willing buck an
will have to look elsewhere for a home
This strHpge state OF Affairs has been tn
bane OF the missionaries. but there seem
20 be no remedy for II. for q woman ono
free win not enter slavery again. With tn
coolie-the imported Indian who works III
sugar plantation-the moral ties are en-
tlrely different. The East Indian punishe
marital unfAithfulness with death an
looks dewn with Scorn upon the negro an