HAITI, THE HOME OF TWIN REPUBLICS 



493 



Courtesy U. S. Marine Corps 



THE OPEN-AIR MARKET AT PORT AU PRINCE 



The scene every morning, between 6 and 8 o'clock, is extremely picturesque. Fish, 

 turkeys, geese, ducks, sheep, goats, parrots, and pigeons are here offered for sale, as well as 

 beans, peppers, avocadoes, pumpkins, and quantities of firewood and charcoal. 



(interspersed with handsome trees) 

 strewn over the foothills of the southern 

 mountain range (see page 486). 



The city, with a population of 120,000, 

 is at the head of a great gulf between 

 the northern and southern arms of Haiti, 

 which Nature had intended to be the im- 

 perial naval station of the whole world — 

 a region of sheltered seas, healthy cli- 

 mate, and shores supplied with all that 

 man could desire in the way of wood and 

 water and fertile soil. The access to 

 Port au Prince is protected strategically 

 and meteorologically by the great island 

 of Gonave. 



Port au Prince has an admirable water 

 supply from the mountains, based on the 

 old French colonial system of pipes and 

 aqueducts. 



The roads of the city are now fairly 

 passable, but prior to the advent of the 

 Marines the tourist not infrequently en- 

 countered extraordinary muck heaps in 

 the side streets (with occasional dead 

 donkeys). These were the cause of many 

 diatribes from visitors of an earlier day 



and were, no doubt, the hot-beds of dis- 

 ease. 



Before the days of American occupa- 

 tion there was very little continuity in 

 the sidewalks, so that pedestrians had 

 almost invariably to walk along the road, 

 and thus get in the way of the many 

 vehicles and the still more numerous 

 equestrians. But for the most part the 

 houses of the city are comely in appear- 

 ance, and Port au Prince may quite hold 

 its own in general appearance and in the 

 amenities of life with other large towns 

 in the West Indies. 



THE TRAVELER ElNDS MUCH COMPORT IN 

 HAITI 



There are three or four newspapers 

 published daily, which contain an excel- 

 lent service of foreign cablegrams. There 

 are only two hotels, but both of them are 

 quite tolerable. Indeed, the traveler who 

 may arrive from Cuba will be agreeably 

 disappointed if he thinks to find barba- 

 rism and discomfort in Port au Prince 

 (or indeed in any other towns of Haiti). 



