The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1907-04-18

Mr.. Ashley Bryan Makes Interesting
Observations on Trip to the Far
SOuths:..The Places Visited and the
People Seen There.

Mr.. Ashley Bryan some weeks age
was sent by the Atlantic De Forest
Wireless Company from New York
to Puerto Rico and South America
to test the system.
In a letter to bis father, Mr.. G
w. Bryan, of Scotland Neck, he
gives interesting description of some
of the places he has visited.
Through the courtesy Ct MIR. Bryan
we have read the letter and make
extracts from it. The letter is dated
Curacao, March 29th.
SAN JUAN,
Of San Juan he says:
San Juan contains about twent-
five or thirty thousand people and
is hustling place. From what
can judge the United States has been
successful with the colony. The
buildings are all nearly the same
height and are not built like houses
in America, but they all look "cool, ;"
which is the main thing there. The
streets are narrow but all paved and
clean. The most interesting places
are the plazas, which correspond to
our small parks in America. In the
day time it is unpleasantly hot, but
the nights are fine. Every one
dresses up as soon as the sun goes
down and all flock to the plazas
where politics and all other ques-
tons are discussed. The city is pa
trolled by native police, but there
are many Americans always around.
Most of the natives speak English,
which is taught in all the schools.
San Juan also has electric lights,
water works and street cars. While
l was there took trip out to the
great wireless station, which is one
of the best. They told me that
they heard me working the night we
left New York and kept up with me
the whole way. The distance from
Sandy Hook to San Juan is 1880
miles.
AT CURACAO.
We left San Juan on the 22nd
and arrived here (Curacao) on the
oath.
Curacao is a Dutch possession and
is very characteristic of the Dutch.
The town is not quite as large as
San Juan, nor is it as lively. The
buildings are all made of plaster,
two stories high with an additional
story in the roof. They are nearly
all painted light yellow or sky blue
with red tiled roof English, Span
ish and Dutch are spoken here. In
many cases when address a person
in Spanish he will answer me in
English.
PEOPLE DIFFER IN COLOR.
The people at every port where
we have stopped are of different
shades Of color. Here most Of them
are very black, but in San Juan and
Venezuela some are very light and
some very dark.
From Curacao we went to La
Guayra, Venezuela.
La Guayra is a small place at the
foot of the mountains which rise to
a height of nine thousand feet right
up from the water. This place was
by far the most monotonous stop of
all. The scenery was beautiful but
the town was dirty and unattrac-
tive.
From La Guayra we went to
Puerto Cabello, the most important
sea coast town in Venezuela. This
place was interesting and | enjoyed
one day there loading coffee and
hides. From Puerto Cabello we
come to Curacao.
RETURN SCHEDULE.
Our present schedule is as follows:
Leave here (Curacao) Sunday night,
the 31st, arrive La Guayra morning
VI Vic 1oG. VIC uIullC1lI dG 1Id NuC1y
"a and leave for San Juan. There
we will remain day. We will leave
then for New York which we should
reach the 9th.
A NEGRO AT DINNER.
| had an experience yesterday that
will probably surprise you as it did
me when [ found out what [ had
done. There are no passengers on
the ship now and yesterday the
Captain had several friends to take
dinner on the ship. Among them
was the American Consul, who is no
other than a New York negro. He
seemed we'll educated and neat, and
was so much like the natives it would
have been hard to tell the differ
ence.