Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-08
1907, by John Elfreth Watkins.

" HRICE happy the luck Of the
lad with the wanderlust now
booked for this tour of the
world and it's wonders. which
our white armada Of peace Is
to make in the wake of Magellan!
From a hot, sunny Christmas, amid
palms and roses growing out of doors, he
will pass to a midsummer Of SHOWS and
thence to balmy. hot st. Valentines
day, all within the compass of this winter
of ours, here at home.
He will marvel at what Charles Kings
. holiday over which the author Of West
ward, Ho" exulted in a whole volume. II
sou love bonnie lad of the white armada
get this book: "At Last-A Christmas in
the Tropics" Read it in the warmth of
the yule log and share his holiday with
him.
Each with a Christmas tree lashed to
the mainmast top, the ships Of the great
fleet will cast anchor on the night Of De-
cennber "a in the harbor of this land Of
never-ending summer, where the rose
blooms three times the year. Santa Claus
will not clatter over it's roofs in a sleigh,
the night Of our tars' arrival, for no roof
there has yet felt the soft touch Of
of Spain. the capital, which claims pop
ulation of $4,000. 1t is city of handsome
public buildings, modern department stores
and new bazaars. built since the great
hre which our sailors put out in 1895. The
populace, well remembering the heroism
OF that occasion, have given Yankee Jack
the freedom of the city whenever he has
reappeared. and 1t Is said that special
christmas games In the palm girted
Queens Park are being arranged for his
GDeClAl entertainment hot No. %
come In vaster numbers than ever be-
fore. The citizens of Trinidad are a SPORT
loving people, who never miss a Saturday
at golf, polo. foot ball or cricket on this
great pleasure ground, or at racing their
horses and yachts.
The greatest mixture OF races to be
round In any town Of its size on earth
Is claimed by this Port of Spain-East
INDIANS. Chinese. Negroes. Creo1es. Cor
sicans. Spaniards. Portuguese, French
ana the governing English are but the
principal elements.
CHRISTMAS dipsin the warm break
ers OF the Gulf Of Paria will refresh
messed the festivities or tramped about
81. Anne's. the British governors $3.50
Voo palace, or, mayhap, the botanical
gardens. On the four following days
plore the inland valleys with their cas-
cades and palm groves: the sugar and
cocoa plantations; also the factory
wnere Angostura bitters is made for
all the world.
Seeing the Pitch Lake.
Or he can view the famous Pitch
lake. one Of the great wonders of the
new world. Trinidad Is famed as the
source Of most of our asphalt, and
the Pitch lake is the worlds greatest
fountain-basin Of this black product
OF nature. Jack will reach it by a
little steamer, which, after skirting
some miles OF mangrove swamps alive
with alligators and iguanas, will an
chor In harbor Of pitch and land him
at q pitch wharf, whence he will see
pitch everywhere as far as his eve
can reach. Then. after journeyine for
mile inland. he will find the famous
lake, a vast expanse of pitch, spread out
Ike the Internal Mari itself, hard enough
to bear his weight, save here and there
where II oozes up fresh from it's subterra-
mean sources, as 1t does more actively in
the Pitch volcanoes, near by.
Sir walter Raleigh, discoverer of to-
pacco, after viewing Pitch lake, wrote:
All the ships of the world may there
with be laden from thence" And If
he had stayed in Trinidad and devel-
oped the asphalt business he would not
only have saved his neck, but would per-
haps have died a millionaire.
Thus may Jack spend his five days at
Trinidad. Then, sailing SOUTH he will
skim past Venezuela, the delta OF the
Oranoco, the three Guianas and Devils
Island-the torture place of Capt. Drey-
rus. Soon Brazil is reached. and it is