New-York tribune., 1918-03-17
of LastTi
$ Replaced by the Stars andS
Under Governor Oliver Work.
ing on Health Sanitation and Labor
Questions

with other European ports, and steam
ers Of many other lines visited it regu-
larly, If less frequently. Since the war
the German steamers have been in
termed, other traffic has been curtailed
and save for the Quebec Steamship
Company, which runs twice a month
between New York and St. Thomas and
connecting with the smaller islands of
the West Indies, the island has been
cut off from the rest of the world
Consequently the fortunes of the town
have dwindled and the people are anx-
iously waiting the end of the war in
expectation of American development.
Prices are very high, and many of the
natives are in sore straits.
Poverty-stricken as they are and de-
spite their disappointment that i'm
provements have been SO slow, the peo
government in the war.
The natives have raised volunteer
company Of soldiers which is being
drilled by sergeant Of the American
youngsters are drilling in the hope that
they may some day have chance to
fight the Germans. Fifty of them have
formed company Of Boy Scouts under
the direction of sergeant of the ma
rines, and make weekly hikes into the
hills.
Teaching Native
Girls Nursing
The administration under Governor
Oliver has done a great deal in the
way of making Investigations and
studying conditions, and as much has
been accomplished as is possible with
out funds. American surgeons con-
nected with the navy or the naval re-
serves conduct the municipal hospitals
in St. Thomas and St. Croix. A school
for nurses has been established and
thirteen native girls are taking the
prescribed nursing course in St.
Thomas. DR.. w. King, who came over
from Porto Rico, has taken charge of
the Health Department and Quarantine
Service and has made several recon-
mendations to improve the primitive
sanitary conditions.
The water supply is inadequate and
the inhabitants depend mainly on rain
water. Filtration plants are unknown.
There are springs in the hills and
o+or i11y ho To fl,ot tCu
Government reservoirs are especially
rceded for the long, dry season.
The food Of the people is poor and
surprisingly unvarisd, and this applies
tc all the islands. There is little or no
food grown in any of the islands.
Nearly everything has to be imported.
A campaign has been begun under
American auspices to teach the people
to grow their own fruit and vegetables,
but the difficulties in the way arc enor-
nous. St. Thomas is hilly and the soil
is infertile Years ago the island was
heavily wooded, but the trees were de-
] stroyed by the planters to make more
room for cane growing. With no roots
to hold it, the rains washed the soil
down the hills on either side into the
Atlantic and the Caribbean.
In St. Croix the difficulties are of
quite another kind. I shall refer to
them in detail later.
The Remnants Of
Exiled Fiuguenots
One of the most interesting settle
ments in ST. Thomas is Cha Cha town,
as it is called This settlement is
peopled by descendants of half
dozen families of Huguenots, who fed
from France to escape the massacre of
st. Bartholomew's Eve. They have
never associated with the natives, but
have. lived their own life apart from
the other peoples of the island. I'm
fortunately, in their efforts to pre-
serve their race they have intermar-
ried among themselves within very
narrow limits Of consanguinty and
reaped the usual fruits of mental and
physical degeneration.
The Cha Chas live in little novels
and earn a prccarious livelihood by
fishing, net making and hat weaving.
They speak the purest French, but
very few can either read or write. The
name Cha-Cha was given to them by
the blacks, and is a corruption of the
French word "chercher," which the
refugees used frequently in telling the
natives that they had come to seek II
home in the island.