The daily Alaskan., 1909-12-16
Life of the Happy-go-IuCky West
 Indian Negroes,
LAZY JOY FOR LITTLE WORK.


 at MacorIs loading sugar into the steamers. with their warning cry, "Rec-Iowr to the men in the hold, to the grluning boys hauling their fishing boats up on the beach at Dominica, they live from day to day and take no thought Of the morrow. A West Indian negro with SEQ will live for a year and never do stroke of work.
 And why not? Ills living costs him only 9 cents a day. He has bis little cabin for the occupancy. A mango tree grows In bis yard, and be can pick planlains by the road at will. If be is too lazy to bake 8 cents will buy bread for the family for the day and a few cents more win buy dozen small Gsh and one large one. A single garment does for the women, and 50 will clothe the man for year, while the pickaninnles run as God made them.
 The West Indies are the paradise of the happy loafcr. Every year the is- lands are combcd from end 10 end for hands 10 work the great sugar planta- tious in Santo Domingo, and at that the negroes must often be practically Kidnapped to get them on the boats.
 In November of each year the sugar boats. little slooDs and schooners that spend the remainder Of the year trad ing among the islands get into the SaDfo Domingo negro trade Their captains and supcrCOrgocs when they have them. and the owners go up and down the Islands telling the negroes that on a certain day the vessel will sail for Santo Domingo and take all who want to go Co work on the sugar plantations.
 Take the little island of st. Martins for Illustration. For a week the island Is combcd and on the appointed day a dozen sloops and schooners are crowd ed into Marigot bay The night before the negroes have begun to stream Into the little town that sleeps through the year. waiting for this one day to bring 1t to fife. Boards are laid across boxes, and rum and whisky are set out to arouse the negroes to the pitch that will carry them out 10 the vessels bound for the plantations,
 All day the men stream into the town, travelling barefOoted along the sandy roads. swept in by the sailors, singing their song Of riches to be had for the asking, Ahead of the men walk their women, toting heavy boxes on their heads. while the men are dressed in their best. with a cociy straw hat perched on one ear. swinging a dandy cane and carrying their shoes in their hands. At the outskirts Of the town they put on their shoes and swing gayly up to the open air bars on the beach
 The women lug the big boxes down to the beach and wall at being left alone until they. too become filled with the excitement of the scene and urge their men folks on. The men hang back and laugh and drink and deny that they are going.
 "Is you goln'. Big Tawm"
 Nav, Ah ain goln'. An jus come tub see"
 "Yas, yo' is goln', Big Tawm. Git in dat boat"
 Come on heah, boy. "a, ha"
 And all the time the rowboats, load ed to the gunwales. are plying back and forth between the shore and the sloops. By sundown the beach is swept clean and six little sloops and a schoon- CT make sail and drift out of the har- bor on a dying breeze. loaded down with a thousand black men and wo- men, who- will wake iu the morning with a raging thirst. Then woe be to the captain who has not filled his wa ter casks. for there is sure to be at least one body to be given to the sharks after the fght around the butts!
 When the vessels drop anchor of Macoris the plantation foremen come oG and look over the Cargoes and pay the shlpmasters $2.JO each for passage money for the negroes. Then the blacks are herdcd ashore and are cred tied with 30 cents a day for a month for working from sunrise to sunset in the cane fields. By that time the $2.5O passage money is paid back. Then they receive their 30 cents a day ln cash for the next six months until the cutting and grinding season Is over. when the sloops show up again and take them to their homes for $2.5O each. paid in advance.
 The foreman collect from the planta- tIon owners G3 cents a day each for pay for the black hands. but with their share of the money the negroes can live for a year aud a half before they have to think of doing another days work. And they do it. Year after year the trade is piled, and the islands gre combed for men for the planta- tions. and year after year the negroes return home to eighteen months of lazy ioy.-New York Tribune.
 GrouUdhoo,