Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1908-05-14

grOes and dOnkeys. Its area is ABOUT
the same as Lebanon, Tenn The
houses have little intervening space
between each other and are occupied
by from 10 to 10 people in room The
city has no modern nor up-to-date i'm
provements. There is no sewage sys-
TEN; no electric lights no gas lights;
no electric railways; no pavements.
The city, being on the side of a noun
tain, no sewers have been wanted.
The president spends all the revenues
to maintain a retinue of soldiers to
guard his life, so he can't build roads
or introduce improvements The mode
of travel, rapid transit, (other than
donkeys) is a ood-burnnig engine,
apparently of 1854 vintage, drawing
one box car, also two coaches, shaped
like gondolas. For an American dol
lar you may ride all day on two streets
of the city as 100 cents of U. S. mon
ey equals ST. 80 Haitien money.
There seems to be three distinc
classes-viz., the first class being edu-
Gated and polished in manners, having
gotten their education in America and
France; the second class, who are
Haitian negroes, but have fruit plan
tations and are trying to emulate the
examples of industry and frugality
shown them by the German and
| French residents: a third class, who
are illiterate, lazy, indolent and harm
less lin the daytime) The last men
toned class dress in nondescript
fashion, a majority of them walking
about the city and rowing around on
the water front with no clothes at all.
1t is no unusual sight to have a score
of bumboats focking around the ships
in the harbor, while their owners are
selling fruits and souvenirs At the
same time others will be loading
down their boats with old tin cans,
crates, barrels and other fiotsam and
jetsam thrown over the ships side.
Some of these negroes are phenomlnal
divers, the women as well as men.
They will congregate around the ship
and when penny is thrown into the
water they will instantly dive for the
money, sometimes going down from 3C
to 40 feet. They rarely fail to secure
the coin ere it reaches the bottom.
To digress little. Who ever heard
of negro in Africa being an archi'
tect, an artist, railway and bridge
builder, navigator or explorer scien'
tist or financier' These 'niggers' are
like all the balance-they don t possess
the proper proclivities to govern them
selves without internal uprisings
A few days prior to our arrival here
twenty seven Of the most prominent
citizens were dragged from their beds
and shot at day break by order of the
president.
The Haitian has unlimited conf
dence in his army. | must say they
are the "only thing" I've ever seer
that We'd in splendour with a pea
cock. Please don leave the u" out
of splendor as that can only adequately
convey any meaning Plumed chap
eaux, purple and gold blouses, rec
trousers, patent leather boots and OF
the latter gold spurs that jingle like
BELLS bejewelled sword dingling ant
dragging at his heels, complete the &C
coutrement of this Memphian- hue(
history maker
From 10 a. III. to p III. the tenn
perature here gets distressingly high
The nights are pleasantly cool. Dur
ing the morning hours every day tn
wind blows from inland towards tn
sea. In the afternoon the winds. shift
to the reverse. A heavy rain fall
every night. Fruits grow in abund
ance here: quite variety being OF
sale all the time. Some of them ar
bananas, oranges, cocoanuts, man
groves and melons of all kinds Every
thing is very cheap.
The natives have been reaping a ha1
vest of money since the ships have bee
, here.
, Wishing the News continued success
during its fifeenth year, | will clos
for the present.
w. B. HOLLOWAY,
Z. s. Navy