TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



148 



ing shivering men and sometimes women, standing 

 at street corners, loitering round grog-shops or 

 hurrying along as if for dear life trying to keep 

 warm ; their better-to-do fellow citizens so muffled 

 up to protect themselves from cold, as to render it 

 difficult to distinguish their features, but here in this 

 land of eternal summer, although there were loiter- 

 ers, there was no shivering gaunt appearance about 

 them. Sometimes, it is true, scant of clothing, but 

 enough for decency sake and a spirit of good hu- 

 mour, which, although I was partly prepared to ex- 

 pect, from what I had been told and read, was yet 

 somewhat of a surprise. 



On this point Kingsley, who a few years prior to 

 my arrival, left England to escape the rigour of an 

 English winter, and, passing a few months in Trini- 

 dad wrote : — 



1 ' Next the stranger will remark, here as at 

 Grenada, that every one he passes looks strong, 

 healthy and well-fed. One meets few or none of 

 those figures and faces, small, scrofulous, squinny, 

 and haggard, which disgrace the so-called civiliza- 

 tion of a British city. No where in Port-of-Spain 

 will you see such human beings as in certain streets 

 of London, Liverpool, or Glasgow. Everyone, plainly 

 can live and thrive if they choose ; and very ple'asant 

 it is to know that. ' ' 



I can bear out this eminent writer's statement in 

 every respect as it also appeared to me, five years 

 after what I have quoted above was written, and for 

 many years afterwards ; but of late years this has 



