CONDITION OF HAITI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · May 13, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 19.

CONDITION OF HAITI.

THIS is a part of what Mrs. Anna de Koven has to say in the New York World of the moral and social condition of Haiti:—

"There is a singular and farcical attempt at civilization in the place,—street-cars drawn by kicking donkeys, electric lights, and an attempt at schools. Over the gateway to the cemetery there is the motto, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, but next door, in full blast, and the only prosperous institution in the place except the lottery, rise the chimneys of a brewery, and all over the streets roam a degraded lot of negroes, ragged, half dressed, and many of the children naked.

"And, altho there is a semblance of Christian government and Christian churches, it is well known that every few months the negroes all disappear into the woods, where they practise voodooism, and all their ancient heathen rights, not omitting cannibalism.

"At Port-au-Prince, in the province of Haiti, the conditions are still worse. Not only are the streets in a much worse condition of filth and neglect than in San Domingo, if that is possible, but cannibalism is practised with far greater openness and atrocity.

"The story of a white man who left his home for a few hours and returned to find his wife and child departed, and who received the next day the bones picked and done up in a basket, is well known and authenticated.

"Travelers will also tell one how, in what is called pickled pork, they have discovered the arms and bones of children. These things are unspeakable, and certainly demand the attention of America and the adjoining English colonies.

"The cruelty and tyranny of the president is scarcely less atrocious. When any one of his subjects becomes too rich, or has annoyed him in any way, he gives a banquet, to which the notable men of San Domingo are invited. They all know what it means, but do not dare refuse. They all dine pleasantly together, and when the coffee arrives, the president points to one man or another, saying, 'That gentleman desires no coffee.' The unfortunate is taken forthwith down into the cellar and shot.

"And these things exist in the greatest openness, unrebuked by any one, and this in the nineteenth century, and within a few miles of Trinidad and Barbadoes."