Cruising among the Caribbees, summer days in winter months . of the island. Men with huge poles and hookskeep the gutters from becoming clogged and clearthe cesspools at the foot of the streets, which other-wise would become stuffed with cocoanut shells andpalm leaves and plantain skins, and all sorts of rub-bish which are constantly thrown into these streetchannels. On the quay are thousands of hogsheadsof molasses, and casks of rum and bags of sugar,waiting shipment; powerful blacks swarm amongthem, rolling and carrying them from place to was not much work performed after our fir
Cruising among the Caribbees, summer days in winter months . of the island. Men with huge poles and hookskeep the gutters from becoming clogged and clearthe cesspools at the foot of the streets, which other-wise would become stuffed with cocoanut shells andpalm leaves and plantain skins, and all sorts of rub-bish which are constantly thrown into these streetchannels. On the quay are thousands of hogsheadsof molasses, and casks of rum and bags of sugar,waiting shipment; powerful blacks swarm amongthem, rolling and carrying them from place to was not much work performed after our firstday in Martinique, for it was the festival of MardiGras and the people gave themselves up to a strangemingling of devotion and dissipation. The costumesof the women are fantastic and bewildering at anytime, but as the festival advanced, they became asgrotesque and brilliant as any scene that was everset upon the stage. The various faces of black, andred, and brown, and yellow, and of delicate creamand rouge, were a study for a painter or an ethnol- >. ISLE DE MARTINIQUE 129 ogist, and the straight bodies and easy swinging gaitof the unshod feet of most of the inhabitants pro-duced a novel impression upon the beholder. OnSunday morning high mass was celebrated in theCathedral and afterwards the whole town seemedto be given up to revelry and dissipation. Bandsof masked men and women paraded the streetsdressed in the most vulgar style. As night cameon the tumult increased, the great theatre wascrowded to suffocation, and yelling, laughing, danc-ing, and deviltry of all sorts made night were glad of the refuge which the steamerafforded from such a pandemonium, but even atour anchorage we could hear the blare of the trum-pets and the shouts of the excited crowds uponthe shore. I had seen the festival in New Orleansand elsewhere, where great license was allowed,but here it became, before it was ended, a wildand disgusting orgy. The island contrasts favorably with thos
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1895
