The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-09
LIFE on THE SUMNER ISLES.
where There Are Ma Taxes-OnIy Roses
ana Lilies and Onions.

where There are NO INNes-Duy NOsep
and Lilies and Onions.
Because the Bermuda Islands lie within
$50 miles OF New York, they have been
kept bristling with English soldiers and
sailors, guns and ships, says the Worlds
Work.
All these soldiers and sailors have had to
be fed, paid and lodged, and 80 the gentle
Bermudans nave sat comfortably at homo
and proepered by the vast amounts OF
money cent by the mother country.
At about the beginning Of this CEN
fury it apparently occurred to the British
powers that there was little likelihood Of
any war with the United States, "a ships
and men we're sent home to attend to other
matters-to the great loss OF mud
revenue.
There are practically no taxes in these
wonderful islands, not even on the land
or for roads-which, by the way, are superb.
The only tax / could discover was what
is called q parish tax, which means that II
you go to the Established Church you pay
a few shillings a year to support It.
The tourist agent speaks OF Bermuda as
the Land Of the Lily and the Rose which
il correct enough, since lilies are grown
by the acre for the bulbs, which American
florists force into Eastern blooms, and OF
roses there is a plenty the year round
Really the onion and the potato extract the
AuOrD WtAtin LIOIH LLG dlln
The farmer grows from one to four crops
I a year of many of her products. Culuva-
ton is confined chiefly to the bio where
the soil has accumulated in pockets. over
the coral beds which form the islands.
This soil in most places is not more than
ten to eighteen inches deep, a mellow loan
which looks like finely powdered cocoa.
Truck farming is scarcely conside red.
! Potatoes and onions and lily bulbs are too
easily raised and several hundred and
j nNuan a Nhpanaa nd dnllnRa NJ mora NnrOGN VnnV
be made from a single acre. But with
: prices falling and the Texans growing vast
] quantities OF onions Bermuda will even
I tuRlly have to turn to other crops.
The working farmer here il the Portu-
guese. He was imported as a farm laborer
but by thrift and good management has be
come a tenan instead Of a. hired man, and
now raises certainly half il not more than
bali the crops of Bermuda
The negro is not the problem he is in our
own Southern States. OF the 1900 souls
on the islands about 90 or 20 per cent. are
negroes. They are law abiding and re-
markably industrious citizens, on the aver
age very well educated by the colony, and
they surprise a stranger by speaking with
the accent of an Englishman, with little or
no negro dialect.
When the Bermudan wishes to build a
house he removes from the site the top
soil which will probably be not above ten
inches thick. perhaps less. Under this Is i
coral limestone. a little harder to cut than
cheese. Instead of digging this out with
pick and shovel he sawe II into blocks. -et-
It in the sun to dry n by the time he has
excavated his cellar the blocks are hard
stone fit to be made into the walls Of his
house.
He mixes a little cement and limo with his
shavings and all his materials are a. hand
These cool stone houses. limewashed a
dag cling white, shine out through the deel
green juniper trees n stand on the rocky
shores above the wonderful ultramarine
blue water with its thousand iridescent hues,
a picturesque feature in the panorama Of
beauty.
Hedges Of Qleander which T to be vori-
table trees divide the farms as stone walls
or rail fences do those in New England
and in April the islands, from the sea, APP
pear to be buried under pink bloom.
b affairs Of Bermuda are practically in
the hands of a house OF assembly, elected
by the people and serving without a for
a term Of seven years, though they do re-
ceive . fee OF eight shillings for carriage
hire-there being neither railway. trolley
nor automobile in this peaceful land.