CHAPTER IX. 
Amusements. Small and Isolated Communities thrown upon their Own Re- 
sources. Visit of a Circus Company to Nassau. Its Effect upon the Negroes. 
Whist and Boating Clubs. Base-ball and Polo. Mi tlitary and Marbles. 
Religion Utilizing the Idle Hours. Streets Placarded with 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 Discusses 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 berders, can hardly be said to be broken by the two or 
three little k>mlets where a few negroes have their humble homes. 
Hence the aliiost entire absence of the thousand and one enter- 
tainments that compete for a portion of the time and money of 
the people in al! the cities of the Union. These, with us, are 
largely due to our facilities for inter-communication. They mul- 
tiply as ovr 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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