Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-10-03
WARFEVERRAG|NG
IN THE WEST INDIES
Tales Told by Sailors lust Ar
rived Aboard the Steam
er k0rona.
EVERY MAN TOTES GUN
AND RIDES A BICYCLE

NEW YORK, October 3.-The steamer
Korona today brought cargo Of war
tales from the West Indies. Every ma
tive there sleeps with his gun under
his pillow, said the korona's sailors.
Little specks Of islands that no one
ever heard of north of the Tropic OF
Cancer are throwing up towering earth
works; barefooted natives, yesterdays
nobodies, are today's generals; roust-
abouts are soldiers: every town has a
guard; every island distrusts every
other island. Ten thousand rusty
f1intlock muskets rule the land. and
from the sea come tales Of strange men
OF war threading in and out among the
islands, always seeking and never hnd-
ing one another.
This was the war gossip current
among sailors from other ports. whom
they met on the docks at St. Lucia. =,
"One Of the interesting things. said
sistant purser, was the native guard.
Every native on the island Is happy
these days. for he totes a gun. rides
on bicycle and marches behind
brass band. and the government pays
for 1t all.
Some of the strangest looking bicy-
cIes 1 ever saw have been commander
ed by the authorities. Some of them
are the old high wheel affairs that
our daddies rode; some of them have
no tires; most of them are red with
rust and all of them speak. I heard
the troops coming two blocks away.
And the arms they carried are in the
same class.
All Join the Army.
"At Barbados, every negro and China
man on the island has Joined the
army. They have what they call a
life guard to protect the place. What
they are afraid of don't know; but ]
heard that they had been told that
the kaiser was planning to send his
fleet over and capture the possessions.
That was enough for those natives.
They threw up line Of breastworks
that the whole of Europe couldn't take.
'They fire a cannon every time a
ship is sighted. They have burnt up a
lot of powder that way, I understand.
Whenever that old cannon cuts loose
shore. They line I'D behind the breast
works with their muzzle-loaders and
their derringers and you've got to
show them that you don't mean any
monkey business.
AT Dominues, near st. Thomas, the
natives have built little fort just to
fight the German navy when it does
come over. There aren't enough white
men in Dominues to hold a meeting,
and not many more colored. In the
center of their fort they have planted
a tall flagpole. Every morning at day
light a man pulls himself up to the
top of that fiagpole with pulley, I'M
folds campstool and sticks there,
the German navy. Two hours later
he comes down and another man takes
his place. This has been kept up every
day for weeks, from dawn till dark
ness.
No Wonder They're Fidgety.
English. French and German war
ships chase each other around the
islands and it's no wonder the natives
are fdgety At st. Lucia there were
nineteen ships tied up, all afraid to
stir outside the harbor. At st. Lucia
we saw the Hamburg-American liner
Spreewald which was captured by the
British cruiser Berwick. The Spree
wa1d, loaded to the gunwales with
prime South American beef, was nosing
around the islands when the Berwick
ing, ..,.,.
SO she lay to. When the British were
launching their boats to send over a
busy with the refrigerator and the ma
chinery. He opened up the matches and
shut down the plant. and he fixed It 30
that lot of beef spoiled. Then he
threw a wrench into the wireless plant
and put that out of commission.
Race for Day and Night.
There was another Hamburg-Ameri-
can liner that the British came near nip
ping. too. This was the President. We
heard she sailed out Of Havana with all
lights darkened one night with 10000
cases of condensed milk on board. bound
for no particular destination. OF course
it may have been condensed milk. but
the British thought otherwise. They
trailed her. and it was a pretty race for
a day and a night. Just before dawn
the German sailed into St. Thomas, with
the Berwick not two miles away. One
night the Berwick got careless and the
German slipped out Of port. We heard
she made San Juan all right.
THE Berwick has left West Indian
waters, however. and 30 has the Essex.
A F'renchman has taken their places. She
captured a Norwegian boat, the Heina,
and sent her into Martinique with a prize
crew aboard a day or so before we left. "