TOPICS IN THE TROPICS

Cortland House, corner Groton Ave. and N. Main Street

The Cortland News, Friday, February 9, 1883.

Topics in the Tropics.

   D. Eugene Smith, who sailed from New York on the 16th of January, landed at Kingston, Jamaica, January 23. He had no opportunity to write THE NEWS last week, owing to sea-sickness. We have been permitted to extract the following from a letter to his father:

   "We have had a pleasant passage for three or four days past. My sea-sickness has gone, and I am getting used to the miserable diet and routine of shipboard. I am very well and sit here in my summer clothes in the cool of the morning while the steamer is rounding the end of the island of Jamaica. We expect to be in Kingston in two or three hours, where I shall mail this in order to get it on the afternoon mail boat for New York. I understand there is no other mail for two or three weeks, and as I cannot write at length until to-morrow, you probably will not hear from me in a fortnight. We passed Cuba yesterday and I had a view of it for several hours. It is all very strange to me. Palms, cocoanut-trees, and the like, and mountains which have none of that smoothness of outline which we usually see, but a ruggedness from the very base. These things are all new. It is very warm even here at sea. Yesterday afternoon it was so hot we suffered considerably. No telling how hot it is ashore. I will write again in Kingston, where I expect to stay about four days, and then off for Sooth America.''

   Later.—Since putting the foregoing in type we have received a letter from Mr. Smith, which will be found elsewhere in this issue. It is exceedingly interesting.

Letter from D. Eugene Smith.

Kingston, Jamaica, Jan. 25, 1883.

   On the sixteenth instant, at 3:45 P. M. we left the Atlas Company's pier on North River [Hudson] and, with the thermometer at zero, and the snow blowing about the deck, we sailed through great masses of floating ice out of the harbor.    Exactly one week later, we, the passengers of the "Ailsa," were eating fresh oranges under the huge palms of a tropical garden in Jamaica, while the mercury was at an even hundred. It is as warm as the “heated term” of July and August at home, and only in the early morning or late afternoon can we venture out with any comfort. And while, in reading this, it may be impossible to imagine such weather in January, it is equally difficult for us to believe that there is really snow in New York State. And when one of our passengers, a New York merchant, showed us a cable dispatch this morning, at the end of the business part of which were the words "freezing here," it was almost a surprise to us.

   One would naturally expect to find an English city as the capital of one of Her Majesty's provinces, but such is not the case, for Kingston is fully as much Spanish as it is British. The two languages are spoken every where, although ours has the decided preference; while the lower classes speak a kind of mongrel patois which is quite unintelligible to a stranger. The majority of the people are negroes, while a large proportion of the remainder have that swarthy complexion which betokens the Spanish blood. It is a strange old city, with narrow, unpaved streets, no sidewalks, sewers above ground, and old Spanish cannon half buried which stand on the street corners like the white-washed stones in Cortland.

   The mass of the people are ignorant, and are the pictures of indolence. You ask one a question and he hesitates and says, "Wall, mass'r, I—I don't jess know." The reply has become a by-word with us.

   I was walking yesterday with a gentleman who had remarked the general know-nothingness of the lower class, and he suggested that we ask a policeman about the recent fire, saying that we might expect the usual reply. We knew the statistics already from the American Consul, but my friend said,

   "Can you tell me, sir, how many houses were burned?"

   "Wall, no sah, 1 don't jess know."

   “Well about how many?"

   "Wall—now, 1—I, wall, I don't jess know how many was burned."

   "Do you think there were a hundred burned?”

   The policeman looks wise and thoughtful.

   "Wall, yes, I tink dere was—'bout a hundred."

   "Now weren't there two hundred burned?" continued my companion.

   "Wall—yes, I guess dere was as much as dat."

   "But I have heard," continued my friend, "that there were between seven and eight hundred houses burned."

    "Wall—now I think, I guess—yes. I b'lieve dar was 'bout seven er eight hunderd burnt."

   It illustrates the general know-nothingness of the lower class. As a result it is impossible to gain any information in passing through the streets. Even the guides and cab-drivers are wonderfully ignorant.

   It is very interesting to watch the people work. We go driving after breakfast, and as we pass out into the country we meet the people bringing their goods to market. The women, barefooted, with only a dress and a turban, apparently, in the way of clothing, carry huge baskets of bananas, yams, oranges or other products, on their heads, balancing them with wonderful nicety. Those who can afford it have a donkey which they lead, and on the back of which they hang two huge baskets filled with fruits for the market. They are mostly negroes, though occasionally a Spaniard is seen, with his broad hat and his pipe, looking like the original of some of Reinhart's pictures in Harper's.

   The market-place itself is interesting. It is a fine brick and iron building, so artistic and clean as to seem very out of place in this city of filth. Here a friend and I go every morning before breakfast, and eat fresh fruits, many of which are never seen in America, and of which only the oranges and bananas are known as far north as New York. The oranges, of a flavor wholly unknown to me before, large and sweet, cost from three-quarters of a cent to a cent each, while the best bananas can be bought at two for a cent. Small, dried up, sour apples cost two cents each down here, while potatoes cost about twice what sweet potatoes cost in Cortland. In their stead they use yams, which resemble them, but are from eight to eighteen inches long. I have seen no lemons, but limes are used instead, and answer the same purpose; they resemble a small green lemon.

   The women do the market work, and also carry brick, mortar and boards. These they always carry on the head. When not engaged in these occupations they are taking care of babies in some shady corner, an employment for which there seems to be a surprising call in Jamaica.

   I have been endeavoring to frame in my mind a description of a Kingston house, but as they are all so different, it seems quite impossible. The city residences are small, one or two stories in height, and usually shut in behind high brick walls, a feature decidedly English. The suburban homes are much more attractive. They have large yards, and are reached by avenues leading from the road through imposing gateways—more English style. These suburban residences, to which are attached plantations often-times, are called "pens." They are fenced from the road by walls, fences or hedges. In some cases I have seen the American barbed wire used, which seems very out of place here. Often the hedges are of cacti, which, it kept trimmed, make a neat and most secure barrier. Woe to the man who attempts to scale that fence!

   If I attempt to give the typical features of a Kingston house, I will describe it thus: the lower story is of brick, often with arched underpinning so as to allow the air to circulate freely under the floor. The windows of this story are shaded by heavy green blinds, over which is sometimes a green portico; the windows, usually concealed by blinds, when visible are seen to be filled with glass painted white. The second story is often of wood, though in half the cases, perhaps, of brick. This has a broad balcony around it, which is concealed by green blinds, and so forms a very cool room, or suite of rooms. Often this balcony is on the first floor as well. Indeed, to describe it to Cortland people, I may say that if the architectural style of the "Cortland House" were maintained, and it were reduced to the ordinary size of a two-story residence, and heavy green blinds were placed all about the outside of the balconies, and the cupola were removed, it would very much resemble a Kingston residence.

   These houses, in the city, are surrounded by cool gardens, shaded by palms, mango, banana, fig and lime trees. Through the kind introduction of a Cortland lady, formerly a resident of Kingston, and the courtesy of some Spanish gentlemen whom I have met, I have been enabled to visit several of these homes, and have found them very pleasant, and much more comfortable than one would believe possible in this broiling temperature.

   The scenery about Kingston is very grand. The mountains rise to the height of between seven and eight thousand feet from the sea, and are covered with plantations of coffee and other tropical products. As seen from the approaching steamer, they present the finest mountain view I know.

   The Kingston fire of last month has made a loss of about $6,000,000, but it has not hurt the appearance of the town. One scarcely notices it. The marks of smoke are wholly wanting, owing to the dry state of the timber I suppose, and it more resembles dilapidation from time than from fire. The walls are standing, and they have only to put the wood work in to restore them to their natural state. Aside from the money lost, it would have been a grand thing for Kingston if the fire had consumed the whole city, walls and all, so it could be rebuilt.

   Just now the town is suffering from a peculiar plague in the shape of myriads of flies. They attribute it to the attraction of the burnt fish and meats in the fire. It is certainly very annoying, and at the same time interesting for a transient traveler.

   I leave Jamaica to-night for Savannah-la-Mar, Savinilla, Santa Marta and Carthagena. Thence I go to the isthmus, and I do not know yet where else.

D. E. S

Kingston fire 1882: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1882_Kingston_Fire.png

Kingston, Jamaica: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Kingston,_Jamaica