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Show n8Ae iroin r tvu, ,,lz0r t:: - Vl Street Scene In St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. (Prepared by the National Geographic Society. Washington. D. C.) THE Virgin islands, easternmost possession of the United States in the Western hemisphere, have come to the attention of more Americans In recent weeks than at any other time, probably, since their purchase from Denmark in 1917. Unusual Un-usual Interest was aroused in them because be-cause of the first visit to their shores by an American President. The Virgin Islands are not remote from other United States soil. They are hardly more than a stone's throw from Porto Rico. St. Thomas, the westernmost of the three larger Virgins, Vir-gins, Is only 40 miles from that island, and the presence of Culebra island, belonging to Porto Eico, midway between be-tween the two, ties the new possessions posses-sions still more closely to this elder American brother by adoption. The truly beautiful view that may be had from the 1,500-foot peak of hilly St. Thomas includes to the west the dim outline of the Porto Rican coast. St. John, the smallest of the three principal Islands acquired by the United States, lies only two miles to the east of St. Thomas. A climb to the rugged hills of St. John will demonstrate dem-onstrate that the American Virgins are also not remote from foreign territory. ter-ritory. A mile to the north lies Thatch Island, a small bit of land belonging to Great Britain, and less than three miles In the same direction is Tortola island of the British Virgins, almost as large as St. John. St. Croix, the largest of the Islands, lies 40 mile3 to the south. It is not a part geographically of the Virgin group, but was Included with St. Thomas and St. John for administrative administra-tive purposes by the Danes and is classed by the United States as one of its Virgin islands. St. Croix is a little over three times the size of Manhattan Man-hattan Island, containing approximately approximate-ly 84 square miles. St. Thomas, with an area of 28 square miles, Is about 14 miles long and has an average width not much over two miles. Tt Is therefore almost exactly the size of Manhattan Island. St. John has an extreme length of eight miles and a width somewhat over two miles. Its area Is approximately 20 square miles. The entire group, including the numerous numer-ous tiny islands of small value, has little more than twice the area of the District of Columbia, the smallest of the main divisions of the United States proper. Uncle Sam Paid High. Though the American Virgin Islands comprise 50 islands, only the three mentioned are big enough to have a name on any but hydrographlc charts and local maps. For these islands the United States paid a higher price per acre than for any other of its famous purchases. Only three cents an acre was paid for Alaska, 14 for Florida, and 27 for the Philippines. The Canal zone cost $35.83 per acre. The price per acre paid for the Virgin Islands was approximately ap-proximately $205. The feature that gives the chief value to the Islands from the point of view of the United States government Is St. Thomas harbor on which Is situated situ-ated the principal town of the group, formerly Charlotte Amalie, now St. Thomas. Another Important feature Is Coral bay on the Island of St. John. St. Thomas harbor is probably the best developed harbor in the West Indies, and is naturally protected except ex-cept from exceptionally strong hurricanes. hurri-canes. Coral bay, though entirely undeveloped, un-developed, constitutes an even more commodious and better protected harbor har-bor of refuge. These harbors were valuable to the United States In themselves, them-selves, but it was even more important that the United States prevent their falling into the hands of possible enemies. The Greater Antilles, made up of the larger of the West Indies, and the Lesser Antilles, composed of the smaller islands, together form a gigantic gi-gantic crooked arm enclosing the Caribbean sea. The Virgin Islands are at the "elbow," the closest point to Europe. Past this point streams the traffic between Europe and the Panama canal, between New Tork and both the east and west coasts of South and Central America, and between the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The Virgin islands fell upon evil days economically after the transfer from Denmark to the United States, and many blamed the new owner for their troubles. For the most part, however, the difficulties arose from a prolonged drought and post-war hard times that were not confined to the Virgin isles. Conditions Improve. During the last few years economic conditions have beco'me better, more shipping is putting In at St. Thomas, and the newly-made citizens are more contented.. Sanitation has been greatly great-ly improved by the American officials and has shown results in a reduction of the death rate from 35.4 to 19.1 per thousand. In November, 1917, soon after they were taken over by the United States, the American Virgin islands had a population of slightly more than 26,-000. 26,-000. This was not a great deal over half the population In 1835. Nearly 93 per cent of the Inhabitants in 1917 were negroes or mulattoes. A large proportion of the few whiten were Danes. The present population Is about 22,000. The inhabitants of the Virgin Islands spent their first nine years under the Stars and Stripes as neither citizens nor aliens. In fact, they were rather curious to know just what their status was. In 1927 they were made full-fledged full-fledged citizens by act of congress. Early this year the Virgin Islands were transferred from naval to civil rule. One of the first proposals of ' the new governor was to construct winter resorts for American and European Euro-pean visitors on St. Thomas and St. Croix, two of the principal islands. The islands' climate is pleasant the year round, and the beauty of the Islands Is unsurpassed in the whole sweep of the Windward group. Of St. Croix one writer says, "Its wooded hills, cultivated valleys and magnificent magnifi-cent roads, lined on either side for miles by beautiful coconut and mountain moun-tain cabbage palms, all help to Justify Its claim to the title "The Garden of the West Indies!" Strategic Advantage. From the days of the buccaneers St. Thomas' strategic advantage has been realized, for when the Spanish Main was the happy hunting ground of the gentlemen of the Black Flag, this harbor was their headquarters. Behind Its outer hills the pirate craft found shelter from the open sea, and were well screened from the sight of passing ships until the moment came to pounce down upon them. In more recent times It played the role of safe harbor for the thousands of vessels bound from Europe to Panama and surrounding territory, or vice versa. With a free port, where repairs, ships' stores, and coal might be had, upon which there had been no levy or tariff duties, the shipping world found the harbor of Charlotte Amalie an attractive attrac-tive waystanlion on most of its Caribbean Carib-bean routes. The result was that agrlcultnre In St. Thomas fell Info decay, nnd nearly all of the activities of the Island's population were devoted . to the Interests In-terests of Its harbor, and one of tha finest coaling stations In the tropical world was established there. In addition to the coaling station there was a floating dry dock and n marine slip where splended repair facilities were provided. As long as these facilities were In demand St. Thomas was a fairly prosperous pros-perous Island. Men and women alike found It easy to get employment, at least for a part of the time, at what was to them a living wage, which was one cent per basket of coal, weighing weigh-ing from 85 to 100 pounds. Pome carried as many as two or three hundred hun-dred baskets during the four or five hours required to coal a ship. When not doing this work, they found considerable con-siderable employment discharging coal from freighters which brought It te St. Thomas. But then came the war In Europe and all was chanced. The steamships of Germany, which made continual use of the harbor of St. Thomas, were driven from the seas, and where formerly for-merly all was business and enterprise, only now and then a ship found Its way Into port, and the people of St, Thomas, their agriculture neglected for years, found themselves unable to gain a living, either from the land j or from the sea. |