TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



165 



the bad smells that otherwise would have arisen from 

 the saturated filth, dregs of fish water, soap suds and 

 house slops — often mixed with other things — indis- 

 criminately thrown out after nightfall. 



All this has been changed ; the streets have had 

 foundations laid, they have been properly macadam- 

 ized and otherwise improved ; the footpaths and side 

 drains have been concreted ; the flow of either clear 

 or offensive water has been stopped ; the innocent 

 sweetly ( ?) singing frogs either destroyed or 

 banished — banished to some other quarter is I think, 

 the more accurate, because I sometimes when coming 

 down St. Clair Avenue in the ' * gloaming ' ' still hear 

 them ; so I think does the Town Engineer, who had 

 done so much to improve the town and remove this 

 pest from other places, The old cesspits are almost 

 things of the past, having been replaced by an up-to- 

 date sewerage system. Making foundations to the 

 streets and properly relaying them was a thing much 

 wanted, and now that it is in full swing must by 

 degrees reduce the expenditure for their upkeep. 



There is, however, another matter which I must 

 not fail to record that did not reflect much credit on 

 those who were responsible for the repairs of the 

 streets. Year by year, just before the Carnival — 

 particularly the Carnival of 1881 to which I will refer 

 later — broken stones were spread out on what were, 

 and I believe still are, called the " French streets," 

 that is, all the streets lying east of Henry Street. 

 The police in those days were wicked enough to 

 say this was done for the purpose of affording the 



