February 1, 1911. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



149 



India-Rubber in Dutch Guiana. 



By the Editor of "The India Rubber World." 



SECOND LETTER. 



Mistaken Ideas Concerning Dutch Guiana. — Paramaribo the Restful. — A 

 Cit.v Without Sltyscrapers. Electric Cars or Autos. — Our Tiny Tidy Hotel. — 

 So-Called Daily Papers. — The Black Dutch and Cli.aracteristic Incidents. — The 

 City's Healtbfulness. — A Bush Experience. — Wild Rubber. — Discovery of the 

 "Hevea Guyanensis." — Experiments in Tapping and Coagulation. 



FOR some reascn Diitcli Guiana is little known in the United 

 States and Europe, and in a misty way is believed to be e^t- 

 cecdingly hot and unhealthy. It actually is neither. The 

 temperature is very even and varies from 70° to 93' Fahren- 

 heit. It is warm and humid hut not unbearably so. In fact 

 this colony, with its area of 129,000 square miles, sandwiched in 

 between French and British Guiana and touching Brazil on the 

 south, is a very desirable bit of the tropics and its 87,000 in- 

 habitants are among the most interesting people in the Americas. 

 One of tlie most restful spot.s in the world is Paramaribo. 

 Its quiet is never disturbed by trolley gong or automobile horn, 

 for of street cars and autos there arc none. The shrill barking 

 of importunate cabmen at railroad station or pier is unknown. 

 The half a dozen carriages that are for hire in the city come 

 only on order and the driver sits and sleeps in the sun until 

 his fare is ready. His idea of driving, particularly if he be a 

 young Dutch negro, is a constant jerking of the reins and crack- 

 ing of the whip. The result is that the horses pursue an un- 

 even fidgety flight, weaving from side to side, often perilously 

 close to the edges of the narrow dyke roads. The cabmen are 

 very honest withal and never attempt to overcharge. They 

 speak English after a fashion, as do most of those with whom 

 one comes in contact there, and if their fare does not have change 

 with which to pay, they suggest "to-morrow I come" and cheer- 

 fully depart. 



There are no electric lights, but there is a gas plant, the streets 

 being lighted until 10 o'clock when the moon does not shine. 

 The whole city goes to sleep at half-past 9 and begins business 

 at daylight. From 12 to 3 the shops are shut, including the bank 

 and postoffice, and breakfast and midday siesta are decor- 

 ously observed. The drinking water comes from Heaven and is 

 caught in huge cisterns that adorn every backyard. It is filtered 

 for table use and if the visitor desires, boiled and kept in cool 



crocks in unfailing supply. There are also several public wells 

 sunk in a sandy reef that runs through the city, into which the 

 river water filters. Tliey arc always full. There are no elevators 

 in ihe office buildings, no skyscrapers, subways, or elevated roads, 

 and the police are courteous black gentlemen, clad in heavy blue 

 woolen uniforms which they wear with much pride and perspira- 

 tion. 



The streets are macadam, covered with beach sand and are 

 uniformly good. Many of them are very beautiful with their 

 rows of Royal Palms or, like Herrenstraat, shaded by a double 

 row of branching mahogany trees. The shops are good and the 

 only lack in the city is a Carnegie library. In spite of its 

 primitiveness the place is curiously cosmopolitan. Good and 

 bad samples of all nations on the earth are gathered here but 

 not in sufficient number to act as an unwholesome leaven for 

 the sturdy, thrifty Dutch possessors of the land. People call 

 the Dutch slow, but most people simply repeat what some one 

 else has told them. My experience with the Suriname Dutch- 

 man leads me to ^tate emphatically that anything he promises 

 is done with a quiet promptness that is beyond praise. 



The little hotel at which we stopped fronted on one of the 

 main streets, facing an avenue of royal palms that terminated in 

 Herrenstraat. It was centrally located, very tiny, exceedingly 

 clean and well managed. It was established by an English 

 widow, who died and bequeathed it to a daughter and niece, 

 neither of them over eighteen years old. With the aid of ex- 

 cellcijt servants they ran the house well and their rate of $2 a 

 day was certainly most reasonable in view of the wholesome 

 food and service. 



The Dutch negroes who live in the settlements speak Dutch 

 with the same curious softening of the harsher syllables that is 

 apparent in the English speech of North .'\merican negroes. They 

 call themselves Dutchmen and are dignified, sluggishly indus- 

 trious, and imitative. 



The Suriname Dutch are not only a very courteous people 

 but have a fine sense of humor. They still smile over the 

 .American yacht that entered their waters and when the cannon 

 on the little fort bade it stop, replied with a courteous salute 



GO\'KRNMENT SQU.MU:, P.\R.\MARIi;o. 

 [Palace of the Governor on the Right.] 



