The Nome nugget., 1921-03-19
TOM POWERS WRITES FROM
 VIRGIN ISLES
On Board s. s. Eastern Mariner St Thomas. Charlotte Amafe Id
 vJro;r Tclopde IT c

on board S. 5. Eastern Mariner St Thomas. Charlotte Amahe Id Virgin Islands. U. S. A. I am writing this epistle in the beautiful harbor of St Thomas under conditions the exact opposite of those
 prevailing in Nome and clear on the other side of the U. s. A. from the old home In the Eorthland.
 We arrived here this A. M, five days ou: from Colon. Our pa ssase
 Was pleasant but uneventful under glorious blue tropical skies and in the
 sultry weather of the tropic zone.
 St Thomas is the chief port of Charlotte Amalie Island. one of the
 number known as the Virgin Islands
 and lately purchased by the United States from Denmark on account of
 their strategetic value to .his country
 in protecting the Panama Canal. Pre- v'ous to the outbreak of the Great
 War. the islands came near .o occupy A''t' t"N Niitl Spol III tIltt "oFl1S l1tna- light for a time. There were two
 lines of European steamships running
 to St Thomas. one German, the other
 French. The islands owed money to
 both countries and they were going
 to collect it by force. But our Uncle Sam slipped in and said No. Our
 Monroe doctrine does not permit the landing of foreign troops. We will
 take the matter up and settle it." The
 French were willing but Germany was,
 not and declared her intention to col lect the money herself. Uncle Sam,
 however. said. Not on your life!", and something big commenced to loom up on :he horizon of international af-
 fairs But a gun in the hands of a
 Serbian boy set Europe in flames and
 so the matter ended with the purchase of the islands by the United States
 later on.
 The town of St Thomas. or rather the series Of villages comprising the town. looks beautiful from where We are. The brown hued. low and reed roofed houses loom glittering white in
 the rays of the tropical sun. agains,
 the background of abrupt hills. yer dant with the vivid shades of tropical
 plant life. Below the laughing ocean int y,cp1x,
 beach. There are several vessels ly ing here. both sail and steam. One Is q bark with the main topmast and yards gone, probably from an enroun,-
 CT with some fierce tropical storm There are also some schooners--dere- licts of the sea.
 Last night We passed close to the
 island of Haiti-close enough to see the lights on shore-and my memory
 went back to :he days when the
 blacks. driven to desperation by the crue1ties of their French masters arose and massacreed ali who did not
 make their escape and ere long devel- oped a leader in the person of I.ouis- sant iOuverture. an accomplished negro of remarkable military genius
 who later on, fighting for the. freedom of his race. defeated the armies sent
 by Bonaparte to subdue the islands bu. who was finally induced to submit to the French under the most solemn
 Guarantees. only 60 be seized and sen,
 to France. where he died in prison in ls03--betrayed by those he had trusted
 to fulfill the plighted word of a great
 nation.
 We leave here tomorrow morning
 for Antwerp and will soon be battling
 the stormy Atlantic-a couple of years ago the scene of a large part of an
 other and mightier struggle in which
 men fought that they might be free
 After the Atlantic and the Bay of Bis-
 cay we will come to the far famed emerald Isle." temptestous at presen.
 against a foe that traditionally "neveI
 lets 3D." Then on to the English
 Channel. .he white cliffs of "Merrie
 England" the Straits of Dover and
 Antwerp. from which point will write | again.
 Thomas A. Powers.