The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-11-23
By T. JENKINS HAMS.
Copyright, 1902, by T. Jenkins Hams.

of fathoms to the ooze below. Along
the northern coast a battleshfp may
run close enough to the shore for the
men abroad to hold intercourse with
the natives. The rocky slopes fall
quickly from a plateau or shelving
beach to many hundred fathoms. So
steep is the coast line that ships which
have been run ashore upon the rocks
have slid off within few days and dis
appeared completely, leaving not a
trace of their whereabouts in the blue
depths. And all along between the ISL
and and Cuba is a clear sea swept by
the northeast trade for a part of the
year.
AS for the business interests ashore,
they may be said to almost as much
American as English. The fruit COM
panies control about. all the banana
land, and an American concern alone
has more than eighty thousand acres
under cultivation. IThe enormous
number of punches of this favorite
fruit shipped is astonishing. Vessels
may fly the English flag and the ubi-
quitous Scandinavian may be seen at
any of the banana ports, but the fruit
goes mostly to, the United States to
be absorbed throughout the country.
Nearly all the northern ports CT
Jamaica are useless for harbors. They
open narrowly and suddenly, with
plenty of coral reefs to make them
difficult of navigation, and those of
the less protected variety are simply
ugly anchorages. at which large yes
sci cannot lie without being moored
both bow and stern. Their existence
is due to the banana trade.
The entire population engaged in the
fruit trade is black. Not an ordinary
black, but real deep Congo tinge such
as is found on the West Coast of At
RIGA, and it is only among the clerks,
shippers and officemen one find the
color tightening a little. Shoes are all
most unknown, and a tourist who late
ly entered a house of the better kind
found pair of corsets carefully roll
ed up and tied with ribbon, and set
upon table in the parlor. They were
exhibited as strange freak of Amer
lean and English fashions.
jamaican Morals Lax.
As might be supposed the morals of
these primitive people in regard to sex
are not conventional. Marriage Is con-
sidered an evil. The woman has to
work. as hard as the man, and she finds
herself handicapped under the English
law when tied to lazy buck, who sits
around and allows her to support him.
~ WOIhS OtLltI WHGD she can give MIN
shift when he gets tired, and take
up with some more energetic fellow,
who can support herself and children.
This puts a premium upon thrift The
worthless man cannot even have a
home to shelter him. In spite of these
peculiarities of temperament, there is
seldom much quarrelling over domestic
rights.
Missionaries have looked upon this
condition as almost hopeless, but the
people thrive and are happy, and while
tn East Indian coolie looks down with
scorn upon the great black man, the
latter holds the coolie in disdain as a
mere pigmy of the human race, and
one whose opinion Is not worth con-
sidering. They seldom IL ever mix,
coolies living on the plantations or In
villages of their own.
To these black people the demonstra-
ton of the naval force in their waters
will be a revelation. Brought up to
believe that England alone has sea,
power. the battleships and cruisers will
give them TO understand that pro-
lection may be had under the striDed
ensign. Accustomed as they are to
English ships Of war, they cannot fail
to be impressed by the magnificent
vessels of the heavier class flying the
American flag. They will be more
willing to trust themselves with the
Yankee on the Isthmus.
When it Is understood that of all
the 10000 Chinese who were shipped to
work the canal under the French sys-
tenn, very few remain, and that there
IS Well-known saying that every tie
in the Panama roadbed could have
been built of human bones from lives
sacrificed upon the work, the important
part these islanders will play In the
canals future may be understood.
To the naval officer who has never
been ashore on the island of Jamaica
the place will be revelation of beau.
ty. This, of course, lies in the scenery
and not in the productions of man
The towns are like most of those seen
In the American tropics, and are sim
ply picturesque, and differ from those
along the Caribbean coast principally
in regard to cleanliness. The fruit
which should be the principal diet, is
OF many varieties. and n person NAV
indulge in a dozen different kinds at
one meal and be no worse for Il, The
dyspeptic may eat of the papiae, the
peculiar melon containing vegetable
pepsin which, somehow. digests itself.
and he may eat until he can swallow no
more. He will be all the more pleased
with himself afterwards, and this at a
100 '.,AiA Nooe' TIC AIulL SeinnB from
two TO three for a shilling. II Is inn
possible TO send the fruit north, and
he must content himself with a mere
glimpse Of paradise, going out under
the trees where the peculiar melon
grows. hanging like a great pear &c
tempt him 20 renounce his birthright
and become a native.
Jamaica itself is not more than
usually unhealthy. Ia fact. IL Is lust
the opposite. but some OF the outlying
islands are not exactly health resorts.
II Is probably due 10 this circumstance
that the islanders became popular Tor