SOCIAL GAYETLES. 993 
journing among them. Formerly, from their isolated position, 
intercourse with the outside world was infrequent, but now, with 
a steamboat load of fresh arrivals in a small town once a week 
during the winter season, what can the poor islanders do? Hos- 
pitality withdraws appalled, if not disgusted, while Avarice and 
Cupidity stalk boldly to the front, and with an enterprise and 
industry remarkable in such a warm and enervating climate, 
scramble for the greenbacks and gold of the new-comers. Like 
a few choice plants in a green-house, a little of the old time hos- 
pitality is preserved. 
In the “‘ Letters from the Bahama Islands,” written by a lady 
more than fifty years ago, much space is occupied with descrip- 
tions of the social gayeties of Nassau. Then, as now, picnic 
parties upon some of the islands, or ‘‘at some rural spot” in the 
suburbs of Nassau, were of frequent occurrence. ‘‘ Most families” 
were accustomed to devote each Saturday “‘to festivity,” and 
marooning partics upon that day were common. All but the 
invited guests contributed to theentertainment. The particular 
things which each furnished were previously determined by a 
ticket drawn by lot from those which the managers prepared. 
The authoress adds: 
“‘ The evening is generally passed at the town house of one of 
the party, at cards and conversation, and ends with a petit souper, 
- and I am afraid the opening of the Holy Day finds many of these 
Saturday revelers too dull and drowsy for morning prayers.” 
The same writer speaks of frequent and most charming dinner 
parties which she attended, and of other festive occasions, when 
the ladies ‘‘ were pledged in full bumpers;” of supper upon the 
deck of a brig after a marooning excursion upon Rose Island, when 
“‘champagne and the choicest wines flowed like the waters below 
them in sparkling abundance, and the hours flew swiftly and 
gaily on;” of the storm that kept them out ‘‘in a pelting rain. 
