Evening star., 1904-01-23

other islands, in which torrential showers
that turn a dry gully into q mighty river
within five minutes are of frequent occur
renee An American consul who went there
was told of this characteristic, but On the
day he arrived at Willemstad the rain came
down in torrents. The tile roof Of the dilap-
idated one-story hotel in which he put up
did not seem to be much in the way of the
downpour,' as he quantity expressed 1t; and
in short time every room of the house was
flooded.
why don't you repair the roofT' he
asked the landlord Indignantly
1T rains too hard" replied the phlegmatic
Dutchman.
"Of course I don't expect you to do It
now! But l suppose you'll go to work on 1t
when the rain stops"
ing about" said the landlord, putting phil
osophically at his damp pipe. 81 have been
here for twelve years. and II has never
rained before. Likely enough it won't rain
again in my lifetime
Rain would be greatly valued in Cura-
Gao, If only 1t would come, for there is no
place on earth where fresh water Is scarcer
There is not a single running stream any,
where in the island, nor even a stagnant
brook. There are wells. II is true, and
plenty of water may be found by digging.
put IT is all so salt that it is no more fit
to drink than the sea water that surrounds
the island
How. then, do you manage to liver"
an English merchant resident in Willem.
Std0 WdS asked.
Water is Scarce
WELL he replied, I'VE are somewhat
in the position of those French peasants
who complained to Marie Antoinette that
they were starving because they could get
no bread to eat. You remember, the queen
told them to go and eat cake. We can't
get water to drink, but we can get any
amount of whisky and seltzer by importa-
ton, and the Dutchmen receive all the gin
they want from Holland"
1t Is not really bad as that how
ever. Most houses have a cistern or water
tank, which is filled periodically with water
imported. at considerable expense, from the
Venezuelan coast. 1t goes without SAVING
that the precious fluid is used most eco
nomically. The Curacaons like the inhabt-
tants of their mother country are models
OF cleanliness in their persons and their
houses, but exceedingly few of them own
bathrooms They do not bathe; they wash.
daily tub bath would be the widest kind
OF extravaganza in this queer little COM
munity.
ury in the tropics. is even rarer than water
1t has to be brought all the way from
Boston or New York, and the retail price
is terrible. Often there is no ice to be had
for love or money. The starting of An
ice-making plant has been often mooted
but the scarcity of water has rendered it
impossible.
1t might be supposed that this extra
ordinary lack of water would seriously
aHect the health of the people, but IT does
not. On the contrary, they assert that it
makes them much healthier.
A Healthy Place
"The atmosphere is SO dry and the cli-
mate is so arid said a Dutch official to the
writer, that we never suffer from neu-
ralgia rheumatism, ague, consumption and
other diseases common in the damp coun-
tries of the north. AS a matter of fact
Curacao is one vast sanitarium-the health
lest place earth. Doctors say that our
climate is the best on earth for cases of
nervous dyspepsia. People have come down
here from America perfect physical wrecks.
and become as well as ever they were in
the course OF few weeks
The curacao of commerce is really
made in Curacao. The principal element
in its manufacture is a tiny sour orange
indigenous to the island, and said TO grow
nowhere else. There are two or three
manufactures of this cordial in the island
but the bulk of the curacao" sold in the
worlds markets is made in Amsterdam
from oranges imported from Curacao. Ex-
perts say that the locally manufactured
article is far superior, which is likely
enough, as the oranges would naturally be
fresher
T1dIuiy lhIS grows on tIie
except this orange and fruit called the
"nispera." The soil is mainly of coral, dry
and arid.
Some of the Dutch women struggle
herOically to make gardens and grow tulips,
as they used to do in Holland, but they
never seem to have any luck. Even flower
pot cultivation is usually failure. What
be expected when the soil, as well as
the water, has to be imported from Vene-
Zuela? And it seems a crime to use water
merely TO crafty the lust of the eye.