The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1922-08-19
Curacao: spodess Town OF The
g. Caribbean.

A strike in Curacao, in the
West Indies, won first page men
ton for that quaint Dutch colony
/ OF the Caribbean a few days ago
even in the midst Of our own in
ldustrial troubles. 1t was news
! because the cool. stable govern
ment of this little island, set
! dowr in the midst Of somewhat
temperamental Latin republics, has
! made it a synonym for peaceful eff
! fciency.
The island and Wil1emstad, its.
capital, the l.Spotless Town Of the
Caribbean, are described in re-
cent bulletin from the Washington,
! d. c., headquarters Of tile National
/ Geographic Society. -
: Fragment of Holland 'h America
.aThe traditions and customs and
language Of Spain are written large
] over the entire mainland border
of the Caribbean, the, famous and
! infamous Spanish Main" says the
bulletin. .Bnt a bare 40 miles Off
|. the coast of typically Spanish
/, Venezuela hes as true a fragment
| of old Holland as was Manhattan,s
] New Amsterdam in the days of It's
Dutch burgomas1ers. When your
ship noses into the narrow channel
that leads into Willemstad's s har-
! Dor you must pinch yourself and
keep your attention centered on the
desert background rather than on
1.-THE, architecture, lest you think You
| are .skirting the coast of the
| Zuyder Zee. For more, than three
centuries the Hollanders have
maintained this spot surrounded
on ali sides by strong alien in
! fuences. and to all outward ap-
/ pearance il is still as Dutch as when
/; its first families We're planted. by
/ the old Dutch West India Company.
Curacao is some 30 miles long
and 8 TOT miles wide, and prac-
I tica1}y desert. If its value were
determined by its products it
| would never be of much worth:
| aloes. and ,caeti are about its only
growing things; phosphate rock
and ostrich. feathers from a few
desert ranches, its only original ex-
ports. But location, the possession
Of what has repeatedly been call
ed the best harber in the .Carib-
bean. and ownership by a nation
! of traders have made Curacao
(and to foreigners that name nsu-
ally goes for both 1V11lemstad and
the islanD the Hong Kong OF the
i West. Just as the far eastern
British island port, free from Chi
nese restrictions. has butt up a
great trade between China and the
rest of the world, so Curacao, in e
more modest way has built up
trade between the northern tier of
South American countries on the
one hand and North America and
], Europe on the other,
Haven Of Ex-Dfctators
Zone opera bouffe phase Of life
in Curacao, which is less marked
tnow that government. is becoming
more stable in the Latin Ameri-
lean republics, has to do with politi-
! cal fugitives. The town is the par
ticular haven and heaven of ex-
/ dictators 1t used to be poor day
/. in Curacao when one could not find
his half dozen or so generals and
doctors who had just been on the
wrong side of a revolution and were
Heading Micawber Hike eXistences
under the Dutch flag, waiting for
something to turn up
1.-The newly ensconced dietators
/ back on the mainland always sent
!: a batch of spies to Curacao to
watch their predecessors, and in
cases there We're other agents to
spy on the spies. So in this serene,
calm. pon-political island, alien
politics always .simmered under the
surface. The most famous politi-
cal refugee to seek safety IN
/ Curacao was Simon Bolivar. who
after 4 poor start at freeing Nene-
izaela from the Spanish yoke, mark
!
until conditions We're ripe, and then
won the liberty of all northwestern
! South America.
\ Linguistic PotDoarTi
'H.illemstad, with its 10000 in
habitants is situated on the shores
of Curacao's most valuable posses
sion-its land locked. clover leaf
shaped harbor. so deep that ocean
| liners can anchor close to shore.
Some of the streets are wide but
many are narrow. tortuous lanes:
and from all rise welter Of gable
ends and dormers that proclaim
this unmistakably n Dutch town.
Tie houses are pink. yellow, green
and red with red tile roofs, and
from distance look like toy
houses set down in the careless
disarray of the nursery.
"oae thing she traveller n