The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1905-06-28
4 SAD PICTURE.
Negroes OF the West India Islands
Said to be Drifting
BACK TO BARBARISM

Blacks Have Control Race Problem
is Being Settled Against the
White Man. Sad Sight at
Ruins Of St. Pierre.
have recently returned from a trip
to the West Indies and the Spanish
Main, in the course Of which I visited
most of the Windward as well as the
Leeward Islands Of the group, writes
Lambert Tree, in tie Chicago Trib.
une. We went within 10 nioutes Of
the Equator, and found it bot down
there, with 90 to s5 degrees In the
shade.
HAD summer seas and blue skies in
the tropics all the time, and the trip
was IL many respects interesting. or
course 7 saw our new colonial acquisl
tion. Porto Rico, and have 30 tears TO
shed on account of its being ours, al
belt wish the population was OF a
higher grade, we cannot have every
thing IN this world, thuu2h, just as we
would like 1t, and besides il there were
not room for improvement in The peo
pie of the island, neither would there
be any room for progress.
They are in high feather down there
Just now with the brilliant prospect OF
q large crop Of sugar, on which they
expect to realize a net profit OF so per
cent. On the whole, thirgs are decid
edly looking up in the affairs OF the
island under American auspices.
One Of the saddest sights I have ever
seen in my life is the ruins OF the city
Of St. Pierre, Martinique, whose pop
ulation OF 10000 was wiped out, it IS
said, in 20 seconds BY poisonous gases,
which suddenly burst from the sides
Of Mont Pelee at the time OF the erup-
tion three years ago. Oaly the walls
Of the great ware houses along the
quay and Of the cathedral, halls,
theatres, churches, business houses
and homes remain as silent witnesses
to testify that there was once an &C.
tive, gay and bus5ling French city
standing there.
The streets are heaped 10 feet deep
with ashes, belched forth from the
crater. The trees, which cnce shaded
the streets and adorned its famous bo-
Gsnical gardens are leaf'Ss and ugly
monuments Of it's destruction. When 1
landed from the ship In small boat
not soul survived to meet me and
tell the story OF that fearful moment
All was the silence Of death, and
there was not even the rustic OF the
fer de lance among the pitiful ruins
that dread snake whose bite is certain
and speedy death, and which used to
infest the sides Of Pelee and steal down
times, it is said, into the gardens OF
St. Pierre. It, too, has been eliminat-
ed from the scene by the impartial
volcano, which spared neither sex, age,
color nor any living thing.
In our cruise We followed In part
the same wauery paths pursued by &C.
lumbus more than four centuries ago,
and ssw personiied in some OF the Is
lands, il not paradises Inhabited by
devils, at least gardens Of Eden, con
trolled by populations, which were ap'
parently drifting back into that bAr
barism, whence they were taken when
they were brought over by E2gilsh,
French and Spanish slavers and ols-
tributed among them.
The racial problem is being worked
out In the tropical West Indies, and
worked out, if not in favor OF the &c
gro, at least against the white nau.
No rejecting person can visit these IS
lands without feeling, after what &c
sees there, that the Almighty has hx-
ed certain zones for the habitation OF
the white and black races respective
y.
Everywhere in those islands the evil
dence exists that the white man Gas
lost IL the struggle which he has been
maintaining for centuries there te
preserve his racial superiority even as
an iahabitant Of countries within the
tropical zone.
Gradually but surely he has deseIlo,
ated physically, morally and mentally
OF all the emigrants, forced or volua'
tary, who have peopled those island:
since the ruthless slaughter OF the IA
tive Caribees by the soldiers aud gov
ernors from the highly civilized na
tions Of enlightened Europe, only tnt
negro from the Congo CT the gold coas1
OF Africa, whose forebearS Wer'
brought there as Slaves, has flourish
ed.
Instead Of deteriorating he has, cen
sidering him as an animal, PHYSICAL!
improved in stature and muscular pow
er. The climate being equivalent t.
his OVID, all the rest is doubtless ths
result OF more favoraole physica
surrounding as to nature aud lodg
nent than he had been accustomed t.
in Africa in spite Of his condition Q
slavery. He has also multiplied rapid
u until be has become ip all Of the is
lands vastly dominant in numbers.
Naturally, therefore, the whit
man who has grown al the time fee
bier, mentally and physically, and wh
each year dwindleS in numbers, ia
already lost bis hold on some Of the is
lands, and is IN fair way to ioe
on the result OF them. Cuba excepte
and perhaps Porto Rico, whsre climas
ic conditions are mucn more faTorabl
for him. AS the white man loses III
grip the black man tightens his, an
hence is perceived everywhere, sut
stantially, negro control.
The English islands OF Barbado;
Trinidad and Jamaica are no excepSio
to this rule. For while governors wit
g. Sal2ries are still Spoointe6 bY th