Photograph by William H. Rau 

 NATIVE WOMEN COALING A STEAMER: ST. THOMAS, DANISH WEST INDIES 



where splendid repair facilities are pro- 

 vided. 



As long as these facilities were in de- 

 mand St. Thomas was a fairly prosperous 

 island. Men and women alike found it 

 easy to get employment, at least for a 

 part of the time, at what was to them a 

 living wage, which was one cent per bas- 

 ket of coal, weighing from 85 to 100 

 pounds. Some carried as many as two 

 or three hundred baskets during the four 

 or live hours required to coal a ship. 

 When not doing this work, they found 

 considerable employment discharging coal 

 from freighters which brought it to St. 

 Thomas. 



HARD HIT BY THE WAR 



But then came the war in Europe and 

 all was changed. The steamships of Ger- 

 many, which made continual use of the 

 harbor of St. Thomas, were driven from 

 the seas, and today, where formerly all 

 was business and enterprise, there is only 

 now and then a ship that finds its way 

 into port, and the people of St. Thomas, 



their agriculture neglected for years, find 

 themselves unable to gain a living, either 

 from the land or from the sea. 



The harbor is completely sheltered (see 

 page 90). Outside is a roadstead partly 

 protected by an outlying island, which 

 provides anchorage for a great number 

 of ships. At its mouth the harbor is 900 

 feet wide, and one passes through this 

 narrow neck into a beautiful basin, three- 

 quarters of a mile in diameter, whose 

 waters are seldom disturbed, however 

 much the sea beyond may rage. A trade 

 wind blows during the whole year, with 

 the exception of the hurricane months — 

 August, September, and October — when 

 it becomes irregular and sometimes ceases 

 to blow altogether. The greatest heat is 

 experienced in August, September, and 

 October; but even then it rarely rises 

 above 91 degrees Fahrenheit, while at 

 times it falls as low as 64 degrees. 



On three sides of the harbor the moun- 

 tains and their outlying foothills rise 

 sharply from the water, leaving but a 

 very narrow beach ; so that the major por- 



92 



