Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-25

With q word or two on the lure OF
strangs lands, the romance OF
palms and coral isles. the thrill OF
exotic adventure.
only, when the trip began, there was little
glamour about it. I q always thought OF
Tho West Indies as much too close to home TO
hold much fascination. They were probably
nice enough in their way-excellent resorts IN
which to escape the Northern Winter-but
certainly they held little appeal to any one
who had travelled the rest Of the globe, ex-
plored the Amazon, dined with South Sea
island cannibals. or worshiped in s.amese
temples.
NET, sailing as q passenger past st. Thomas,
st. Croix and Saba, my curiosity grew.
Tlere were not overadvertised tourist resorts.
these queer, little, little known islands. Close
as they might be to Times Square and Broad
way, they were as unchanged by modernlty.
as the Amazon or the South Sea Islands or
Siam. decided to stop of and rest a while
in one of them. And when We anchored on
Guadeloupe the impulse took definite form.
I'm going to land" I told the purser, TO
wait here for your next boat"
"Oh, no, SIR" he said, you can't do that.
This island is French, you know. They're
sometimes very fussy indeed, and you're
booked for Trinidad. You can go ashore Tor
an hour or two, If you wish to see the sights,
out If they saw you bringing luggage along
they'd ask for q visaed passport. And as TO
waiting for our next ship"
I paused to hear no more.
This was the most enhancing isle encoun-
tered ON our voyage. And its queer little town
it was called Basse Terre-looked every bit
as ancient as the blue-green hills chino it.
The rudely and roughly cobbled streets all
sloped to central cutters, through each Of
which there flowed . stream from the heights
above the city. The houses, cratic and askew,
were trimmed in gaudy colors. And everywhere
were garden walls, great massive seventeenth
century walls, embroidered with fern and
lichen, above which lowered stately palms,
coconutS and royals.
THE people, too. were more picturesque than
those of previous islands. There were
darkies here who might have stepped from
the pages of "Uncle Toms Cabin" Venerable
mammies who smoked clay pipes with an al
most queenly grace. French officers in white
sun-helmets; black soldiers in bright red pants.
And many tall, stately creole girls, dressed
after the fashion Of the Empress Josephine n
neighboring Martinique. Their flowing robes
outshone the gayest rainbow; they wore huge
pendants in their ears; on their heads, piratical
turbans.
And behind 1t rose the hills-those blue
green, wonderful hills-splotched with the scar
let Of poisoning flamboyants, fading to pur-
pie IN the distance IS the peaks merged to
rear themselves aloft In one great massive
mountain, the cone Of volcanic Soufriere. One
felt the lure Of . strange new land, the thrill
Of exotic adventure! And I walked on inland
toward those hills, to let my steamer sail.
On several occasions in Q somewhat vagrant
past / had been stranded In foreign ports, and
was quite accustomed to It.
I endeavored, Of course, to make q pretense
Of dismay for the benefit Of any immigration
officials who might be interested, rushing to
the wharf and waving frantcially at the de-
parting ship. But inwardly I rejoiced, and
having given . brief imitation Of . distracted
Robinson Crusoe, I set out blithely to fnd Q
lodging house.
This introduced o unexpected problem.
I'm the first place, as I soon discovered, I'd
forgotten a lot Of French. So, also, had the
natives. Their speech, although based original
y upon this language, had deteriorated into a
strangely garbled patois that might have bafied
syen a student from the Sorbonne.
any efforts at conversation, following that
histrionic performance at the pier, served
mainly to draw a fascinated throng of folk.
who surrounded me to cape in pop-eyed enjoy
ment. They were not deliberately impolite.
They simply were less accustomed than most
Islanders to the visits of American tourists.
They listened with childlike curiosity, as though
IL mad never before occurred to them that any
speech existed save their own creole dialect.
They C--aracnted upon me among themselves,