The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-03-06
A YOUNG MANS
 CHANCE IN LIFE TODAY

the secretaryship of Real Estate Co. in New York City which from the first had every indication of making a great success-but unfortunately the Treasurer turned out a rascal and not
 not only skipped with all available funds and leaving many unpaid bills behind, but incurred the displeasure of the wealthy property owners who were the backbone Of the Company's business which caused the Company
 after the loss of its funds and pros- poets to give up business.
 This disappointment was quite a blow to the young man, of course, but was not sufficient to swerve him from his ideas and so, rather than accept would only terminate in similar end ing to that which he had sought to escape, when he left the Bank, he accepted a small commission in the West Indies, which would pay his ex- penses and also give him an oppor- tunity to view these beautiful islands of such historical interest and to also look out for any possible openings where his experience or perhaps small amount of capital might fit in to advantage.
 The steamer upon which he took passage from New York made a first
 stop when out five days, at a small Island in the Bahama group called Inagua. Here the southboupd steam CTS take on a crew of 30 odd native blacks who acted as stevedores on the ship in the many ports of call south the steamer returns north in two weeks time.
 Being in no particular hurry he ac- cepted an invitation to short stay on the island and enjoy some good
 shooting and fishing which at that time was very good. so after mile row to shore and an exciting land ing through the surf, for the island has neither wharf nor harbor, he set foot on theTsland which so soon was to be the stage for his future opera tfons.
 The island of 1nagua contains about 200 square miles Of mostly bare, s' or,y ten feet above sea level with no hills CT any amount Of vegetation except
 serut bush. it is situated about in the
 middle of the true Windward Passage
 will Cuba ana Baiti each about 60
 miles distance west and south, both | CWine; to the hleh mountains in those ! islands. The inhabitants are the typ 1 ical English speaking Bahaman ne- groes to the number of 1,500 the great CT proportion living in the one town on the island called Mathewson, the white population consists of about 10 adult whites and few boys and girls.
 The only excitement on the island is ] the arrival of the north steamers with
 mail and papers from New York srd the steamers from the south with the
 returning of the stevedores to the bo- | som of tEeir family.
 These laborers are the only working
 men on the island, for, the island on
 account of its purely coral and lime
 stone formation does not allow of any ! consistent results in even the most meag attempts at raising corn, vege- tables or fruit Their wages on the steamers average about SIP gold per
 months and they are compelled to spend this at the commissary C the
 g s. Co.'s Agent who charges them ex- orbitant prices and allows them to be- come several months wages in debt so
 as to have them absolutely dependent. One great hardship is apparent and that is the action of the British Co.,
 lonial Government to impose duty of from 25 to 50 per cent. on all the ne- cessities of life such as flour, meal,
 sugar, rice, clothing shoes and even the West Indian fruits and vegetables and does nothing in return to allay their condition or to support or maintain | on the island or any of the nearby isl- ands any industry which would allow them to improve their poverty stricken condition and all this because the so- cial life and the high salaries of the Government officials at Nassau must be supported in all it's whirl of socia l activity and show. These same officials claim that leprosy is not contagious and take no mea sures to restrict the horrible and revolting victims of this insidious disease from mixing daily in the1 market places and remaining in the same houses with the healthy members of their families and even | y-3- L of England drinking from the same GU D as the other members.
 To think that such great and pow erful nation as England even in it's l Colonial Departments should allow such conditions to exist. is .unbeliev- able, less than ten years ago the Bal timore Geographical Society sent an
 Expedition for Scientific Research to the Bahamas in the chartered yacht "Wild Duck" and which printed in
 book form exhaustive articles and nu-
 merous photographs showing up these
 conditions in their worst form.
 After a few excursions around the island the young man became impa ess- ed with the seemingly inexhaust'b 'ble supply of the shell of the "conch '
 the meat of which is used as daily
 article of diet by the natives, the shells | being thrown on the beach and left in ! the hot sun where the beautiful lustre I further investigation he found that
 these shells while still fresh were mar
 ketable in other places and were con- sidered> a commercial commodity at New York and in Italy and in great demand for many surprising purposes So the field being virgin he obtained the promise of the local British Com
 missioner to cooperate with him in
 any possible future development of a shell business and also the promise that the efforts of any other party would be discharged who might at tempt anything in the same line, at least until the matter was decided
 one way or the other. He then ship ped samples to different houses in New York and then continued his trip south and visited Haiti, Jamaica, Panama and Costa Feica, completed his com
 mission and returned to New York not having seen any other opening promising such quick returns for so little money involved as the project at , Inagua.
 A few months later having thor oughly investigated the shell business covered that every part of the shell had a value outside of the large
 number of the whole perfect shells which are in great demand at the sea- side resorts during the summer sea- son. The twisted interior cone part of the shell is used by the Pearl work CTS for shell ornaments; the flat back part is used by Button Manufactur- CTS for the large Indian Buttons sold on the western reservations to the 1n- dians for personal adornment; and the | lip of the shell where it is thickest 1 and most highly colored was in great | l hxyf hn