i86 



A GLIMPSE OF RUBBER PLANTING 



it that was in no way suggestive of typical Spanish America. It had 

 no very pretentious buildings, with the exception, perhaps, of the office 

 building of the United Fruit Co., but it boasted two hotels and the "Gem 

 Saloon/' where all the men congregated, and besides that, almost every- 

 body spoke English. 



At ten o'clock in the morning, the thermometer stood at 90 F., the 

 air reeking with moisture, and the sky covered with evil looking clouds. 

 Nevertheless, the streets were thronged with a most vivacious mixture 

 of porters, fruit sellers, soldiers, Jamaica negroes, Chinese, and native 

 Costa Ricans. At 10.30 we boarded the train that was to take us to the 

 interior, and rode for twenty miles through a flat, sw r ampy country where 



UNITED FRUIT CO. S COMMISSARY, PORT LIMON. 



even the native Costa Rican cannot live, but where the Jamaica negro 

 flourishes and waxes fat. At intervals along the railway were little 

 huddles of huts built on stilts to keep them out of the black mud, roofed 

 with corrugated iron or palm leaves, and full to overflowing with the 

 ebony subjects of his Majesty King Edward VII. 



The heads of the families that called these shanties, homes, were 

 very largely laborers on the banana plantations of the United Fruit Co., 

 and when it is remembered that out of Port Limon come some seven 

 million bunches a* year, it is easy to appreciate how large a force of men 

 is needed to cultivate, cut, and ship this great crop. It is claimed that 

 there are eleven thousand Jamaica negroes on the plantations near Port 



