The American tropics; . om the sea. On the opposite side The American Tropics of the bay one can make out wooded low-lands, backed by the serrated outline ofmountains. The band struck up America,^while the ship stirred up the mud; in fact,there was an impression that we were stuckin the mud, but this Avas an error, for afterchanging her position, as if to rest morecomfortably, the engines ceased throbbingand the anchor dropped. The town is built mainly of masonry inthe old Spanish style, the buildings abuttingthe sidewalk, the streets narrow. Morepeople live in the business section than iscomm
The American tropics; . om the sea. On the opposite side The American Tropics of the bay one can make out wooded low-lands, backed by the serrated outline ofmountains. The band struck up America,^while the ship stirred up the mud; in fact,there was an impression that we were stuckin the mud, but this Avas an error, for afterchanging her position, as if to rest morecomfortably, the engines ceased throbbingand the anchor dropped. The town is built mainly of masonry inthe old Spanish style, the buildings abuttingthe sidewalk, the streets narrow. Morepeople live in the business section than iscommon in American cities. Few glazed win-dows are seen except in the more modernhouses in the suburbs. Wooden shutters areused instead, and during the evening theseare thrown open showing the family ,reading or entertaining apparently as uncon-scious of being observed as if they were inthe seclusion of a castle with portcullis andmoat. In fact the contrast between a SanJuan dwelling with its front thrown open [38]. A Midwinter Cruise directly on the street and the walled privacyof an English house is most striking. Life is less strenuous here than in anAmerican city, but people seem to get alongquite as well and get as much enjoymentfrom life as we do. Naturally, the changefrom Spanish to American regime made acertain amount of uncertainty inevitable, andsociety may now be considered still older people who had regal privilegesand emoluments must feel the difference withdisappointment. A comparatively smallnumber, I imagine, are thus affected, whilethe younger generation and some of the moreintelligent of the people less favored by for-tune, are glad of the change. The ma-jority of the islanders are probablynow dominated less by priests than bypoliticians, who, like weeds in new-tilledground, if not discouraged at the root, growfaster for the upheaval. Neither is the pro-moter conspicuous by his absence, and onehears of schemes promising large returns and [39
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidamericantrop, bookyear1908
