The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-04

as as elsewhere in the islands, pubic sentiment is divided over the matter of the sale of the islands to the United States, the working classes being most desirous for the change, for they think it will mean improved conditions. The sale would probably benefit St. Croix more than either of the other islands, because it is an agricultural commun- ity, and the planters think that with American ownership more money and imprived methods would come in and the sugar. and rum production mate rially increase. Since the greater part of St. John is uninhabited it is thought that the sale will quickly open up the island to agriculture.
 Everywhere throughout the islands negroes form the bulk of the popula- tion, but there are many Spaniards and a fair sprinkling of Danes, Dutch, English and Americans.
 Flora and Fauna.
 The vegetation of all the islands is the typical mass of greenery seen ev- erywhere in the tropics There are forests of immense trees featured by the graceful and feathery palms, and bound together by matted wall Of vines and creepers. Brilliant flowers and rare, delicious tropical fruits are everywhere. Mammal life on the isl- ands is rather scanty, although snakes, insects and crawlers of all sorts swarm but the region is a paradise or bril- liantly plumaged birds of all varieties from parrots to humming birds. The waters are alive with fish,. and are a haven of delight for the most exact ing angler. Even more than we in the states do, the islands have shark situations" for the surrounding wa ters are full of the big fish, and were not the natives used to them and their .voracity it is probable that shark crises' would not be confirmed to a more northern cline.
 The islands are reached from the ports of the United States on boats that are aristocrats of the southern seas Where once the numbering merchantmen or foul and dingy tramp steamer were the only craft that swan up and down across the Tropic of Cancer, floating hotels now ply, on which orch estras play hits from the Winter Garden and the passengers dress for dinner \ Within twenty -four hours after leaving New York the tou- rist experiences the first day of a four or five days sail through the baffny waters of the Gulf stream, a sail that only ends when the ship reaches St. Thomas, set as it is like a gem in a green opalescent sea. The tropical verdure contrasts brilliantly with the bare gray rocks; at midday the sun burns down with a heat such that sea and land alike seem to steam, but at night the moon and stars shine with
 .,, tudes, the soft air blows against the face like velvet, and over town and mountains, marshes and ocean alike hangs the indefinable hush and mys- ticism of the tropics, vague, languor- ous and exotic.
 Pretty Little City.
 Although Charlotte AmaIie is the only important town in the islands. it must not be inferred that it has not felt the beat of the twentieth century pulse in it's veins. The harbor is pretty, and the little city spread ds about it in an arc that is almost a semi-circle, rising as it leaves the shore upon series of hills. Its houses are in all the colors of the rainbow. some of the streets are narrow; quaint costumes and faces and customs are met with everywhere and show that Charlotte Amalie has been tanned many times on the race track of nro. gress; yet blending with the old con- ditions over the antique civilization still drowsing on under the blazing tropic sun, the skirmishers of the new are everywhere pushing-engineers planters, promoters, school-ma'am sightseers, drummers from New York and Boston, and managers of Euro pean-plan hotels. Under the willing