The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-04-07
WHERE ALL WORK
IS SUPERFLUOUS
MANURE HAS DEALT KINDLY
WITH THE WEST INDIES.
For There's Food to Be Had for the
y Picking, and Countless Varieties Of
"A Fruits and Vegetables Grow Wild in
Great Abundance - Mark Twain
Found It Too Beautiful for Words
Strange Medleys Of Peoples.
Washington Star .

Strange Medleys Of Peoples.
6 ' = Washington Star. :
Earth has nothing more lovely than
Its pastures and pimento groves, moth
ing more enchanting than it's hills and
wales, delicious in verdure and redolent
with the fragrance of Spices
u, These words were written hundreds
sof years ago by one of the companions
of Christopher Columbus to Queen lisa
bella. He was describing the district
of st. Ann, as it is now called; In
the island Of Jamaica: It had been
settled by the Spanirds for several
years at that time.
1t is even more lovely today, but
this paradise is only one Of hundred
of. it's kind in jamaica, and one Of
thousand in the West Indies.
8 Nature has dealt with these islands
with most lavish hand. In no other
part Of the tropics is there q greater
luxuriance of vegetation or a more won
derful variety of the fruits Of the
earth. The cocoanut palms cover the
lowlands and fringe the seaboard down
to the coral reefs on which the mighty
breakers Of the Caribbean roll in noun
tains of surf. Orange and lemon trees
do not have to be cultivated. They
grow up Wherever q onduce 6eeu may
happen to fall. When you cut your
way with machete thru the tangled
undergrowth of a mountain jungle in
Jamaica you can quench your thirst
every few hundred yards with a lime
plucked from tree growing wild, or
you can even cut a pineapple from the
midst Of it's spiky leaves on the ground.
81 once sat in the shadow of a negro
peasant hut, overshadowed by cocoa
nut and tenderly guarded from the sun
by the broad leaves of the banana and
the deep green denseness Of o cotton
Jamaica to the writer. Fl counted If
teen different trees within a radius Of
fifty yards which bore either fruit or
vegetables, and there were more if I
had known enough to recognize Them
r. Wealth of Vegetation.
The slender cocoanut tree, which is
at once meat and drink for those who
like it; the soft, mealy, luscious banana;
the green-yellow orange, which, when
splucked and eaten fresh from the tree
makes the orange Of American conf
= merce seem to be a very poor relation
indeed; the coffee plant, with it's daz
cling blossom; the cacao, from which
L cocoa and chocolate are derived; the
pimento, a perfect casket of spicy
II unpleasant to taste to the visitor, but
the real staff of life to the native; the
acknowledgement alligator pear, more
properly called the avocado, eaten al
every meal and often in between; the
mango, which grows so luxuriantly that
= billions rot upon the ground every sea
son; and the succulent askee, scarlet
4 fruit which forms an excellent sub
L stitute for the mushroom-all these ant
many more were within the range OIL
X his vision.
u Choking around, I felt whole
ves b sym sa WtR tn wa S1Y bo
q anybody work in such land, wher'
food Of every kind and description fall
u from the trees and only needs to b,
sopicked up? The primal curse has beer
+ removed. If Carlyle had lived in ia
maica, he would not have Numbered 81
eloquently about the dignity of labor
. For one thing, his liver would not hav,
troubled him, and that would hav'
I: made a whole lot of difference to hi
point Of view.'
When I met the late "Tom'' Reed
4 sometime speaker of the house of rep
\ resentatives, down in Jamaica, I aske.
country
Goods country!'- he exclaimed
"Why, it is right here!'
Mark Twain. who was with Mr.. Rec
= Mt the time, went into ecstasies owe
the beauty of the country, He wa
other, to one fern-covered glen tina
opened into another still more beaut
full, and he exhausted the resources O
the language in admiring adiectives.
At last he reached mountain peal
from which he could look. clear owe
twenty miles Of hill and valley and fol
est to the turquoise sea.
"Well, what do you think of it, MI
Clemens?' he was asked.
He did not reply. He sat down on
moss covered rock under a shady ban
boo, filled his pipe and gazed at the lant
out talking. His Jamaican hosts aske
him to come and have lunch. but h
waved them aside impatiently. A
A last, when the mules were brought u
for the return journey down the mou1
tain, he arose to his feet, sighed deep]
HI'd like to come here when I die, i,
stead of going to heaven.'
,& Unfortunately the American travel!
does not often see the best that is
II the West Indies when he goes dow
there. He stays in the hot, stuffy, dust
towns most of the time. and when
makes flying trips into the country di
tricts he stays at wretched little lod
inghouses and so-called hotels that a
utterly devoid OF the comforts and d
cencies Of life. But If he is lucky enoue
to have even one, solitary introductit
to an English planter he need not spe1
a cent for hotel bills while he is in II
island. ~ a. II
/. Generous Hospitality.
West Indian hospitality is as, gene
Gus today as it was in the times Of Mic
ael Scott, when Tom Cringle, Aart
Bangs and Paul Geld drank one anoth
under the table with sangaree and I'll
punch The planters are not as rich
they were, owing to the decline of tt
cane sugar industry. They dine off S
Yer plate and lament the good old da
when their ancestors ate off golden dis
es and entertained British dukes wi
magnifcence to which the dukes we
"a unaecustomed. But the same spirit
N hospitality is there, altho it cannot be
regally displayed. ~ 81.
The planters still own the ogre
houses' Of their ancestors, with sto
walls five feet thick, and they are serv
by a perfect army Of barefooted, gri
ming, devoted negro retainers. There
sss always a horse at the disposal Of
guest, always a servant assigned {
s his special use, and when at last he fe,