150 



TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



gathered in one place where contrasts could be more 

 easily seen and gauged ; I must confess that the 

 reality was an agreeable surprise, far surpassing my 

 expectations. 



I do not think there was a single person in that 

 vast assembly, however narrow-minded, hypercriti- 

 cal, sarcastic or ill-natured he may have been, unless 

 he was an old curmudgeon grudging the costly attire 

 of the ladies before him, counting its cost and the rate 

 of interest at which he might have been able to lend 

 the money with which it was purchased—and there 

 are, I believe, a few of that breed, though happily 

 not many — who could help admiring the tine and 

 graceful figures, mangificent deportment, beauty, 

 complexion and unconscious dignity of the ladies, 

 and the tall, athletic, healthy appearance of the men, 

 who lent a charm to the ball that night. 



In Great Britain, on the continents of Europe 

 and America, in the larger and more important 

 colonies, among the offsprings of Great Britain's sons 

 and daughters this deportment is cultivated, but in 

 Trinidad and all the West Indies it is natural. 



I have often heard people go into raptures over 

 the stately carriage of an humble maid, and the 

 highest descriptive art at their command has been, 

 " she carries herself like a duchess, etc," — why a 

 duchess in particular, I could never make out — but I 

 have never seen any duchess who could compare in 

 either form or feature with many of the ladies I saw 

 that night, they were magnificent and compared 

 favourably with any I had ever seen before. Some 



