Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-04-03

BY Frederic j. HaSkin.

- HARLOTTE AMALIE st. Thomas, Danish Jest
[ Indies, March 12.-Painted pale blue and green
- and pink, bright and fiat in the tropical sunlight
Charlotte Amse hangs gracefully three hills like
gay but faded and dropping tapestry. Behind 1t is
mountain. stripped almost bare by hurricanes. At its
feet lies round harbor of deep caribbean blue tapping
gently at the of storm-bsttered palm groves.
Everywhere relics towns long and stored
past The hilltops crowned by ruined forts and
towers three centuries old, forgotten of
history but rich in legend The waterfront is Uttered
with the old brass and iron that have been used
to fortify the island in times long or salvaged
from the warships of another There is nothing
really about the place. and indeed its appearance Is
said scarcely changed n a hundred years,
that ships longer throng the harbor and men the
streets they did in the oden times For Charlotte
Amae, like fair Magdalene had rich lovers and
known splendid days, but they are all gone and
her children are hungry.
This has probably the richest town and the
gayest of its size in the world Dutch planters have
made their fortunes of the toll of slaves here
pirates have to bury their SPOIL and court their
Creole sweethearts; here merchants in the old wind
TANNER days have made millions in few years and
carried them away, everyone has carried wealth
away from Charlotte Amalie
The plantations have long been overrun Ly Jungle;
the wind-jammers spectacle; and even the
few hundred steamships year that used to keep the
town alive come more since the great war began
The last blow was struck in October by hurricane
that DESTROYED ships and houses and cocoarut trees
The people of Charlotte Amale. who have helped to
make so many fortunes, are poor and even hungry
story of island begins with the story OF the
world, Columbus touched here his second
voyage Although Dutch. English and Spanish all held
times. Danish almost continuously,
the early seventeenth century. At first like St
Crotx 1t a sugar island. and always 1T was the
of pirates and smugglers. 1t is said that the
pirates little island but there
be good and married, and that the planters
supplied them with beef and sugar and fruit.
The agricultural of st. Thomas came 10 n
and complete with the abolition Of slavery
1S4S; for Charlotte Amale had been made a free
port and had become port OF call for the whole
Caribbean world. The harbor offered work at high
wages comers the planters could get no labor;
everyone became a merchant, smuggler, or In some
way got a share of the money that came to st.
Thomas from all the world
Those were the great days of Charlotte Anahe
often the little round harbor filled with ships
that a could walk It upon their decks The
literally with gold for 1t customary ~
wheel 1T about barrows and being in the coinage
nations in the world 1t loaned and paid
by the caabash full to the labor of counting
Charlotte Amalie only offered a safe anchorage
and all necessary supplies dutyfree prices but she
offered royal entertainment. At the hotels and the
government house ball afr another, and
they were undoubtedly among the most cosmopolitan
social affairs held. Feasts given,
too that are said rivaled Roman banquets IN
their splendor variety for the choice wines and
foods all the world to Charlotte Amalie