"No, boss, ah's not 'xactly married. Ah's livin' with a person."
A colored family:
Sarah Green, very black, has a child named Edward White, and is now living with Henry Brown, a light yellow negro.
West Indian wit:
A shop-sign in Empire: "Don't ask for credit. He is gone on vacation since January 1, 1912."
Laughter and carefree countenances are legion in the West Indian ranks, children seem never to be punished, and to all appearances man and wife live commonly in peace and harmony. Dr. O—— tells the following story, however:
In his rounds he came upon a negro beating his wife and had him placed under arrest. The negro: "Why, boss, can't a man chastize his wife when she desarves and needs it?"
Dr. O——: "Not on the Canal Zone. It's against the law."
Negro (in great astonishment): "Is dat so, boss. Den ah'll never do it again, boss—on de Canal Zone."
One morning in the heart of Empire a noise not unlike that of a rocky waterfall began to grow upon my ear. Louder and louder it swelled as I worked slowly forward. At last I discovered its source. In a lower room of a tenement an old white-haired Jamaican had fitted up a private school, to which the elite among the darker brethren sent their children, rather than patronize the common public schools Uncle Sam provides free to all Zone residents. The old man sat before some twenty wide-eyed children, one of whom stood slouch-shouldered, book in hand, in the center of the room, and at regular intervals of not more than twenty seconds he shouted high above all other noises of the neighborhood: