CHAPTER IX. 



Amusements. Small and Isolated Communities thrawn upon their Own Re- 

 sources. Visit of a Circus Companr to Nassau. Its Effect upon the Negroes. 

 Whist and Boating Clubs. Base-ball and Polo. Military and Marbles. 

 Religion Utilizing the Idle Hours. Streets Placarded tcith Notices of Solemn 

 Fasts. Absence of a Color Line in Churches. Amateur Fishing. The Boat- 

 men Canvassing for Customers. Capt. Sampson a Fisher of Men. He Describes 

 and Discloses the Sharks. 



The people of Nassau, owing to their isolated condition, are 

 compelled to rely upon their own resources for amusement. A 

 Bahama nimrod has no horn or hoof or hide among his trophies. 

 His game is in the sea. In the variety and abundance of its 

 fauna, the ocean to some extent, makes up for the absence of 

 ' animal life in the impenetrable jungles. The birds have mostly 

 been compelled to build their nests and rear their young upon 

 secluded and uninhabited islands. Nassau's " back country" is 

 small in extent, and the continuity of the shade and the profound 

 depth of the solitude which ever rests upon the island beyond 

 the city's borders, can hardly be said to be broken by the two or 

 three little hamlets where a few negroes have their humble homes. 

 Hence the almost entire absence of the thousand and one enter- 

 tainments that compete for a portion of the time and money of 

 the people in all the cities of the Union. These, with us, are 

 largely due to our facilities for inter-communication. They mul- 

 tiply as oiT steam commercial marine increases, and with every 

 enlargement of our railroad system. Theatrical exhibitions, 

 menageries, concerts by companies of eminent musicians, lectures 



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