Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1917-03-26
Uncle Sam in The Caribbean.
p" Life IN the Islands,
By Frederic J. HQskin.

Charlotte Amalie ST. Thomas, D. w. l., March
l4-Whatever the commercial and strategic I'M
portance of our new islands may be, there i. no
denying their charm. They may or may not win
wars for US, but they will certainly provide trav-
cling Americans with new and interesting place
to go. Some Of the islanders believe that their
home has really great future as resort, and
arrangements are already under way for the
construction Of large and sumptuous hotels to
provide that perfect comfort, without which the
rich American will abide nowhere.
1t must be admitted that great deal OF the
charm OF the islands now is due to the fact that
they are as yet by the tourist undiscovered St.
Thomas especially is an exotic among islands and
one that has not been advertised and exploited.
One American visitor recently suggested that it
ought to be converted into a national park and
the suggestion does not seem altogether imprac-
ticable; for St. Thomas is almost uncultvated
and can never produce much because OF its noun
famous character. It could, however be pre-
served as striking bit OF tropical scenery and a
refuge for wild birds while the numerous hstor-
ical buildings of the town could be saved from
destruction.
Everything about St Thomas is strange and
amusing and naive. You are brought ashore in
little brightly painted boat which bears either
an American or an English, but never Danish
name. Thus it will probably be the Tennessee
or the Duke of Cumberland. You will be met at
the stone dock by neat black man who will
carry your trunk to the hotel on his head, unless
it is very large trunk At the hotel you may
have some difficulty in locating the proprietor,
who never seems TO expect anyone, but when
you finally meet he will welcome you with real
hospitality, and give you large room which has
no glass in the window but heavy hurricane shut
ters You will then dine on long balcony above
the street, decorated with palms and flowers and
tame monkey. You will fare very well, too
St. Thomas has great variety of the most delici-
Gus fish which seems to be cooked as soon as
they are caught You will also have very fine
fried bananas and plantains and sort of ONE
lette made out of asaragus, which causes our
crude way of boiling that vegetable to seem posi-
lively barbaric There will be native beef, which
is fairly good and butter imported from Denmark
at about 60 cents pound In spite of the very
high cost Of some things, your entire entertain
ment will cost you but 81 day, including tea
in the afternoon with unstinted Danish butter
and English n1armaade
The first thing that will strike you about ST.
Thomas is the stiffness of the place. About once
a century hurricane strikes it. but between times
there are none but the gentlest breezes. The
people do not shout and most of them pad along
in bare feet; everything seems to move easily and
silently, so that you can hear church bell miles
away.
You will not get much service at your hotel,
as Americans know it, but il you want anything
done you can hail passing negro and get him
to do it for dime. Your bath will be large
cement basin under spigot of very cold rain
water and your ablutions will be stolidy wit
messed by large assortment of tropical SPIDERS
some of them four inches in diameter, which do
not seem to resent your presence in the least.
Your first tour OF exploration will be down the
main street, which runs for about a mile along
the shore of the bay and is lined with little one
story buildings all the way. You never before
saw a town OF the size with so many stores; they
are survivals OF more prosperous day and most
of them have very limited stocks at present
Nevertheless Charlotte Amalie is fascinating
place to go shopping, for everything is imported
at uniform duty of but per cent The mer-
chants at the end of every month, make up
list of what they have imported and send it to
the governor together with the duty. The whole
thing is left to the conscience OF the importer 1t
is whispered that under this loose and lenient
SYSTEM the ancient profession of smuggling goes
merrily on. At any rate, you can buy very good
Panama hat for S., and good habana cigars for
4 cents apiece and fine English three-B pipes for
20 cents each. 1t is bargain-hunters paradise;
upon the dusty shelves of St. Thomas shops you
can find almost anything imaginable at very
low price. You come back from your first stroll
loaded with all sorts of things that you had not
even known you wanted.
If you are of more adventurous turn you will
get small but agile horse and 60 for ride out
the Kings highway, which is narrow rock trail
narrow tropical canyons tangled with short jun
GLE showing PARKWAY vistas of blue ocean set
with little green keys. Or perhaps you will char
ter a row boat and go out beyond the mouth of
the harbor to crescent beach of white sand
where you can go in bathing with no more need
for bathing suit than Robinson Crusoe had
Before the rise of Bermuda, St. Croix was an
American tourist resort, and is now expected to
become one again. 1t is larger island than St
Thomas, with excellent roads and number of
automobiles. Being only nineteen miles long, it
is soon explored in an automobile but no prettier
bit of dark green tropical mountains and emerald
cane fields and snow white beaches can be found.
Neither OF its towns has the charm of Charlotte
Amalie, and accommodations for strangers are at
present limited to a couple of boarding houses.
In addition to these principal islands, unde-
veloped ST. John must not be forgotten, and all
of the forty-seven little islands, many of which
would make ideal estates. One can envison these
hills in the ocean crowned by comfortable winter
homes and connected by fast motor boats and
yachts Vacationing America has new field in
the virgin islands.