Evening star., 1903-09-19
TROPICAL LAZINESS

"A man from these ATTITUDES might as
! well attempt to brush back q tidal wave
with the palms of his hands as to fight the
lassitude OF the tropics said Washing
| tonian, who is back home for visit after
five years spent a coffee plantation in
Guatemala.
This young man used to be noted among
his Washington friends as hustler. He
| walked with springy step. and he was al
| ways on the jump His alertness was 90
pronounced that he almost seemed nervous.
He always appeared to be going somewhere.
| and he was perpetualiy getting move on
His friends instantly noted the difference in
him when he got back from his long stay In
Guatemala. His health was all right. He
1 had taken care OF himself down there, 30
| other name for the chagres fever. hadn't
got him. But he had become slow gated.
| and his old running mates here noticed
what a penchant he had developed for sit
| ting down. dreamy expression had taken
| the place of the sharp look in his eyes. He
| speaks twice as slowly as he did before he
| went down to Central America. and a
pained look crosses his features when he
| sees anybody hurrying. In brief, to en-
ploy the phrase of his friends, his life down
| In the tropics has made him 'dopey."
Il don't mind you fellows calling me a
dope. either he went on. explaining the
! peculiar change that had been wrought in
| his personality. II am a dope. and don't
| suppose that I'd ever be anything else now
even If l stayed back here. which / don't
| intend to-the dopey life Is pretty good, af-
ter all. and I'm going back as soon as
| look all of the folks over
I'D heard a lot of the enervation of the
| tropics before l went down to Guatemala
and bought an Interest in my cousin s coffee
| plantat ton, but didn't take much stock in
these stories. Tropics or no tropics, I'm
not going to become any dope said l to
myself. on my way down there. "A little
matter of climate isn't going to change
fellows habits much as all these yarns
zones who go to the tropics call it 'lassi-
tude" to cover UP their inborn laziness.
When get down there I'm going to get
swift move on and beat out this pipe-dream
about the alton of the tropics-watch
met
so. you see, l went down there prepared
| to fight the thing. Looking back now can
| see what nuisance l made of myself in the
view of my cousin and partner during the
| first few months. He went there from Chi
cagO. and he used to be good deal of a
| hustler himself. He was whole lot indis
posed to exert himself any more than abso-
luteiy necessary when l found him. how
ever, and, of course, 1 slammed in and re-
proved him for it, Told him that he'd be-
| come first-rate imitation of the extinct
| species known as the sloth, and all that
| He only grinned and blew smoke rings at
me-
That's all right. Buddy. he'd reply.
| 4ou JuSt wall, THAT all ou IL BCi yOuIS.
Then he'd turn over on his sitting room
couch and blow smoke at the wall if
| talking were too much like work.
''Oh, / was Busy lazy all right--for all of
| month, perhaps two months. L declared
against the midday siesta from my first
| day. although everybody down there. in
Guiding the plantation hands. knock off and
do a full-length sprawl for three hours at
| the height of the day. 1 told my cousin
| that this siesta business was silly, not to
| say disgusting: He didn't hear me, though
| for he was half asleep before I'd got
| through telling hint was at the begin
ming of the siesta. ] clattered around the
house and the sheds and made enough noise
during the s.esta period to keep anything
but bunch of chlOroformed men awake
| but they never woke up. They just let me
clatter and be dinged. At first. l put in
my best working licks during the siesta
| hours. My cousin would lie on his couch
and grin at me when he was emerging from
his siesta slumber. but he wouldn't say
much. except to tell me that L might well
| be gay as long as felt that way.
II inaugurated the rule for myself that
| I'd dress for dinner every day, no matter
how tired l felt-'There's no use in fel-
lows letting himself go TO seed and degen-
change of base to the tropics. was my way
OF putting it to my cousin In establishing
the dressing for-dnner rule for myself, and
then he chuckled and told me to go far
as Nked-pa jamaS were good enough wear
| for him to eat in. as long as there were no
guests.
"For the first month or 50 l rode regu-
| larly, every week. the thirty miles to the
coast town to see the Pacific Mail liner drop
| into the harbor and to take a look at the
passengers. This. too. amused my COUSIN
and partner a great deal.
~ used to do that when l first came
down. he told me. Liked to catch The
| CLINT of the sapphire sea, and all that.
Bully. the sapphire sea. l.! wish they d
bring it up here SOS could look at 1t once
| in while
"If you like it so much I said to him.
impatiently, why don't you get astride of
| that sure-footed cayuse of yours and ride
| down with me tomorrow-the Colimas in
| from San Francisco tomorrow?
" I'm too tired, ne replied, and then he
went to sleep my hands before 1 could
get an argument out of him.
| Then. gradually, after the first month or
so, l began to wabble- 1 cut out the ride
| to the coast to meet the steamer. trying to
| convince myself that l was too busy. Then
| I gradually famed myself out of the notion
| of dressing every day for dinner. To get
away with this without appearing to craw-
| fish In the eyes of my COUSIN | pretended to
| sulk over the fact that he wouldn't dress
| for dinner along with me.
"If you're going to continue looking like
| a slouch at the meal of the day. told him.
| what's the use of my keeping on trying to
| throw the aroma of civilization over this
plant?
That was a cheap way of getting out of
| it, but, for fact, the dressing for dinner
I business began to get mighty tIresome.
I But when, at the approach oI tie SleStd
| hour, the desire to stretch my self out-the
| example of all of the others had a tramen-
| dously soporific eifec ct-began to steal over
me, fought it tooth and nall-for all of a
week after the feeling hit me. l reckon.
I'm be dOg-goned If Ill siest, l said to
myself, trying to get my teeth down on the
proposition. That would be too ignoble-
| too fiabby. III just load up on strong cof-
fee and fight this internal desire to lounge
| around like the rest of these doperinos
But it wouldn't do. The tropics were get
| ting into my system. My health and ap-
petite remained fne-but the enervation was
getting me, all the same One day, at the
beginning of the SieSta hour, when all of the
men knocked off and spread themselves
out for nap wherever they happened to
| be- succumbed, and tossed myself on some
| carriage robes out in the wagon house-and
! slept for three straight hours. Most gor-
geous sleep ! ever had in my life. Then L
| sneaked couch out to the big, airy, COM
| Portable loft of the implement house SOS
could have my siesta there every day
wanted to keep it under cover, though. l
was determined that If ] was. weak enough
| to siest, my cousin and partner would never
learn Of it. But the cuss had his suspicious,
and one day he remained awake a-purpose
| to stink out to the tool house. where he
found me spraddled out on my couch, snor-
| ing.