TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



141 



you with disgust and always speak and think of you 

 with contempt, and of your town with ridicule. 



If, however, you on the contrary make your 

 beauty-spots attractive to the eye and agreeable to 

 taste of natural curiosity, you will do much to please 

 them. Let me furnish an illustration. There is no- 

 thing " the stranger at our gates " observes with 

 greater curiosity than a cocoa tree, with its numerous 

 furrowed pods, — hidden under a rough exterior the 

 luscious beans from which their refreshing cup of 

 cocoa or their sweet chocolates are made — actually 

 growing from the trunk of the tree down even to the 

 ground, instead of, as their apples and other fruits 

 do, from the branches. 



Personally I know that they look upon a cocoa 

 tree as a great curiosity, and many who cannot 

 afford the time to go to the cocoa plantations, would 

 deem it a treat to see it growing in our open-spaces. 

 When these visitors, tourists, " strangers at our 

 gates," " globe-trotters " — call them what you will 

 — once come to understand that your desire is to 

 please them by catering to their natural tastes, they 

 will classify you, as you deserve to be classified, 

 among the go-ahead civilized nations of the earth. 



