The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-03-29

derous insurrections which have several l times occurred here.
 In this connection may be mentioned the fact that an unfortunate story ie l abroad in the Danish islands, industri- ously circulated by enemies of the sale, l that soon as the United States gets l hold of the islands the government will | satisfy it's negro politicians at home by sending down prominent blacks to fill ] the island offices No worse policy 1 could possibly be imagined, unless the
 aim is to make a second Liberia or
 Haytian republic; running the splendid
 opportunity now offered for adding to
 the value of the islands as coaling
 and naval station, by making them a | popular winter resort and sanitarium,
 and filling them with industrious and desirable people. Although two colored
 men already figure in the colonial coun- cil, they are natives of the island, men
 of means and stability who consider
 themselves Danes, alien negroes would be quite another matter.
 There are other and more personal
 reasons for opposition to the transfer. 1 The Danes who are now holding coloni- | al offices know that their salaries are at | issue; and there are certain monopolies granted by the present government which would be null and void when King Christian has no more to say about it. It is true that these stands cost Denmark about sixty thousand dollars every year more than they yield
 her-the bill being mainly for soldiers and office-holders, and that therefore Denmark will be glad to get rid of the expensive encumbrance. It is equally true that Denmark is a clog upon is- land prosperity, a veritable Old Man of
 the Sea, who must be shaken off before
 anything like prosperity can return.
 Clearly, the something rotten in Den
 mark is poverty and way -hehindthe
 times conservatism. There are men still living in Charlotte Amalia who re- member seeing Spanish dollars wheeled
 through the streets by the barrow-load,
 in days when the harbor was crowded
 with the shipping of all countries, and
 the warehouses were crowded with the products of every cline. It seems in credible that the present state of pow erty could have come about, where the sun shines all the time and everything in the fruit and vegetable line grows to perfection, if planted. One can live cheaply enough here, even under pres ent conditions, though the rich are growing poorer every day and the poor are, many of them on the verge of starvation, Gardens are few on St. Thomas only a few onions and other vebetables being raised,-not nearly enough to supply the inhabitants who get nearly all they eat from the United States; but canned goods of every sort are cheap and plentiful. Clothing. es- pecially mems wear. made to order from the finest woolens. cost less than half the United States prices and wines and liquors are altogether too cheap for the good of the people. For six cents one can buy bottle of native wine, half of which will make you see more stars than were ever discovered in the heavens.
 Nowhere more forcibly than here, where seven -eighths of the people are black, is the fact more strongly inn pressed upon you that the West Indies are the negroes paradise, exactly suit ed to their taste and lazy habits, be- cause the climate and the prodigality of nature enables them to live without work. After emancipation, once-four ishing plantations had to be abandoned for lack of laborers; and their owners have mostly returned to Europe, leav- ing swarms of idle blacks to practical ly possess the place. They pick the fruit from trees the white men planted raise a few easy-growing vegetables, and just enough Guinea grass to pas ture their goats.
 Many of the negro women are deci- | dedly good looking, and are generally | superior to the men in all respects, do- 1 ing what little work is done in the is | lands. The habit of carrying burdens | upon their head as soon as able to walk | gives to this class of females their mo- ticeably erect and graceful carriage, | When dressed to kill their calico | gowns are in the most brilliant eolors pear at their best when dancing-prob | ably because of the intense delight it gives them Their lives are very mono tonous, passed indoors, in languor and | silence, with no domestic cares, nothing to read, nothing to do, no public amuse- ments-nothing to vary the eternal but an occasional ball. No wonder then that the soft dark eyes of the West Indian creole girl look upon her partner in the dance as her tempo rary knight and deliverer, and she re- cards him with frank devotion which makes her at once his sweetheart pro em. Though the lonely belle and the sailor bold were strangers a few min ltes before a delightful attachment grows up between them with tropical speed, to be relinquished at parting with lively regret.
 FANNIE E. WARD.