Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-04-30
has done for the laborins man in San

| III ANTONIO you Will nave LUZ
luncheon an English mutton chop and
baked potato, perhaps. at one of the
hotels. You will get native fruits, for
the asking, anywhere in Jamaica, but
at Kingston. Port Antonio and other
| cities and towns most of the cooking
is English. But in Santiago, unless
you insist upon going to the modern
american hotel. you will lunch at a
Spanish restaurant. where you will
have sopa de frijolles rojas. a red bean
soup. something like kidney bean soup
with enough traces of meat and pep
pers to give it flavor. Then you will
have tamales cochillas. These are
mashed corn, kneaded into a pulp
made into cake. mixed with an ex-
tract OF chilli. pepper without bite
with small piece of chicken in the
middle and some pieces of hot peppers
the whole rolled like a jelly roll
| wrapped in a banana leaf and boiled
leaf and all. for two hours. Then you
Will have queso de crema-cream
| cheese with a little more fermentation,
little more cheesy taste than is the
custom of the United States.
Customs Of West Indies.
| But both cities are West Indian in
the formalities that hedge about the
arrival and departure of travellers and
in this, as well as in the use for the
| some of the chara cteristics which both
Santiago and Port Antonio share. The
| Spanish-speaking Cuban medical Off
Ger. customs officer, port captain and
| fifteen more or less other officials who
| come aboard ship at Santiago are lei
surely persons, and 1t seems long hours
before the traveller is permitted to pass
cient city. ;, On the other hand, when
his majesty's medical officer and his
majesty's customs officer come aboard
ship at Port Antonio passports are ex-
amined and faces compared with pho
| tographs with one quick. keen glance.
everything is very businesslike, very
English
The traveller who has but short
period for a quick visit is told:
"Oh. 1 see. You haven't much time.
In that case you should go ashore
ahead of the others. Suppose you go
ashore with the mail Would you mind
banding this pass to the gangway or
Derby? Good morning.
1t is all very precise, but the quick,
keen glances of the English officers
make the traveller very sure no Ger
mans are getting into Jamaica to visit
the concentration camps of prisoners
Kingston.
Quiet at Night in Port Antonio.
tonio. as people of the United States
know that term, but in Santiago there
is. Too much of it, perhaps, for it all
centers about limited area of four
blocks in the heart of the city and the
residents of Santiago have taken to
the automobile, but have not yet
learned the use of traffic laws.
In every Spanish American city there
is a plaza, where the band plays in the
evening. and where the people of the
city congregate. to f1irt, to gossip, to
transact the belated business neglected
during the heat of the day to see and
to be seen-above all, to see and be
seen.
In Santiago the plaza is situated in
the four blocks bounded by the aduana
(customhouse). the cathedral. a big
new modern hotel and Spanish res
taurant and group of stores. Seated in
the terracelike restaurant, one watches
the crowd. fighting off the hordes of
peddlers who sell tickets in the Cuban
twenty-cent ticket. the waiter getting
a fve-cent "rake-off," so that other
peddlers may be ocularly convinced
that there is no chance of a sale. 1t is
bad form to buy lottery ticket in the
streets, but the traveller knows no one,
the four blocks of the plaza goes
screening every automobile in Santiago,
1t seems, narrowly missing the pedes-
TRANS on the two-footwide sidewalks.
The elite of the city are in these ma
chimes. and Notwithstanding the fact
that there are splendid macadamized
roads into the country roundabouts,
they drive round and round the plaza
at top speed, to see and be seen.
eventually to go into the restaurants
for dinner or supper. or sweet strip
drink. Chauffeurs personally conduct
ing big limousines are in white uni
bills if they are called upon to do
mechanicians' work.
Two Cities Contrasted.
Santiago is all excitement. Port An
tonic is all stolidity. The resident of
Santiago talks with leaps and bounds
and quavers, quirks and shrills besides
his hands. Your Jamaican speaks with
out expression, in a deadlevel voice.
There is a trace of Spanish in your col
ored Jamaican's language. but only a
trace. When the English captured ia
maica from the Spanish the native ia
maicans learned English with a Span
ish accent. but through years of living
by themselves and to themselves. as
they have. they have developed an
English which is different from the
white mans, except that 1t is as ex-
pressionless az the Englishman's Eng
lish.
There is caste-an attempt at so
cial position among the native ia
maicans. The educated Jamaican thinks
himself far above the black roustabout,
but the latter does not always look
up" to the educated Jamaican, espe-
cially II the latter be a half breed"
The black Jamaican is deeply religious.
A group of them were singing yester-
IL md L cd rfta
lively choruses. The reply was: we
sing only salvation songs on Sunday"
This came as a blunt statement of
fact. The seven words were final, that
was evident So. with rare melody
they sang Nearer. My God, to Thee"
Jesus. Lover of My Soul" and other
hymns. But they have streak of Eng
lish patriotism which has made them