Branksome Hall - Slogan Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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18 THE BRANKSOME SLOGAN. The Bermudas consist of 365 islands, but there are not more than fifteen land areas large enough to hear the name island ' and to be inhabited or under cultivation. The two cities are Hamilton and St. George ' s, with low land called the Flats connecting them. The natives are clean, hard-working negroes and ver} religious. There has been no record of any crime for the last twenty-five years, which speaks well for their peaceful- ness. There, children go regularly to school, and on Sunday you will see them all dressed up in their best, the women in stiff white dressefe and the children with their frizzy hair done up in numerous pig- tails. Most of the negroes are farmers and sow celery and easter- lilies, also vegetables, and of course you see banana plantations on all sides. There realh are but two yearly seasons in Bermuda, spring and summer. Flowers are most beautiful and plentiful in the so-called winter months. The planter is busy sowing and reaping just when his more northern brother is shovelling out snow and shovelling in coal. Frost has never been seen here. From November to April the mercury ranges from 50 to 70 degrees, with but very few days Avhen artificial heat is needed. In summer it is never so high as in the States, never rising above 86 degrees, and 75 to 80 degrees at night. Grass is green, flowers bloom, trees and shrubs flourish all the year round. There are two banks, and American money circulates freely. The spiritual interests of the colony are ministered to by able pastors representing seven denominations, with the Church of England at the head. There are no steam cars, no cars of any kind, no factories, no snakes or wild animals, but plenty of birds and flshes. We may be thankful that there is a place devoted to pure air, bright sun- shine and delightful repose and exempt from frogs. The roads are cut out of the solid rock, consequently they are very hard, without dust and as white as snow. The houses are built only one-storey high out of the same native stone with lime roofs. The roofs and the houses are kept exceedingly clean, as they depend on the rain for their water supply. The navy docks are built on the west side of the islands, and there are about five or six thousiand soldiers stationed there the year round. The Governor of the Bermudas is General Kitchener, and his term extends five years. The liotels and stores are all similar to our own stores, the Hamilton and the Princess being the two best hotels. The Princess closes in the summer, but the Hamilton and the Frascati, another good hotel, remain open the year round. The drives are beautiful and the scenery a constant pleasure to the tourist.

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THE BRATOSOME SLOGA s . 17 BERMUDA BY MARJORIE H. HENRY. I know not what heaven ' s joy may be, ' Not what its royal sports; But here I rest in what to me Is one of heaven ' s fair courts. Perhaps the greatest charm of life in Bermuda is the almost entire absence of anything which annoys or makes afraid. All the hurry and worry of a strenuous life, all the wear and tear of forum and mart are comparatively unknown, especially to tourists and occasional residents who seek a genial clime amid restful surroundings. The Bermudas are beautiful for situation, lying in the N orth Atlantic about 800 miles due isouth from Halifax, I .S., and 701 miles south-east from New York, and the voyage is usually made, weather permitting, in forty-eight hours. Leaving ISTew York at ten, Wednesday morning, you are due to arrive in Bermuda at noon on Friday. Sometimes, during the winter months, the weather is so rough that you do not land for nearly two days after, but that very seldom occurs. On the Friday morning you will be awakened by a great stir and bustle aboard, and turning on the light 3 ou will find it is only four o ' clock. At last your curiosity gets the better of you, and you scramble into your clothes and go up on deck. There you will find all the passengers who are not too lazy lying in their deck chairs, waiting for the sun to rise. I myself thought them very foolish to get up so early just to see the sun rise, so I prepared myself for another little nap in my deck chair. Hardly had I settled myself when I heard, Oh, isn ' t it beautiful ! and my look up resulted in my rushing to the railing to witness one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen or ever hope to see again. The ocean was as calm as a large pond, and over in the east the sun was just appearing like a red ball. It shed its blazing rays on the waters and turned them into fire. As it rose higher, coming as it were out of the deep blue sea, you saw the Bermuda Islands in the distance, just a little speck of land away out in the ocean. Presently, as the sun shone out in all its glory, you could distinguish little white dots all over the islands, which we were told were houses. At ten o ' clock the pilot came aboard, and at noon we ran up into Hamilton Harbor and found ourselves among islands that all the writing in the world could not describe.

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THE BRANKSOME SLOGAN. 19 Among the points of interest on the island, shown to the tourist, are the DevlFs Hole, where two thousand different kinds of fish are kept for the pleasure and education of the spectator; the Crystal Cave, a lovely and interesting place; the Aquarium, and the Coral Reefs. There are two lighthouses on these islands, St. David ' s and Gibbs, the latter being 370 feet above the sea. The scenic artist, the amateur photographer, the bicyclist, and all health and rest seekers will find Bermuda one of the fairest spots on old Mother Earth. Land of gorgeous days, whose air and sunshine are like wine and l alm, of nights, whose moonlight and whose .starlight seem of heiavenly origin, land of ever-changing glorious tints of sea and sky, land of perpetual spring, who would not, when the rigors of northern winters imprison our less favored clime in bonds of ice and snow, hie himself to thy flower-bedecked verdant shores, there to bask in the sunshine of thy days and luxuriate in the soft radiance of thy nights? THE NEW YEAR IN CHINA BY DORA ADAMS. In the Celestial Empire, the time of the New Year festival is the greatest holiday of the twelve moions. To the Chinese it means fifteen days of feasting, family reunion and new clothes. They have plenty of time for religious rites and social ceremonies. It is a fortnight of national leisure, and, strange to relate, one in which all debts are expected to be paid. You might wonder how such industrious people as the Chinese find time for such lengthy festivities; but just as we take Sunday as a rest day, so their whole nation oboo ' ses that this full half -moon, from New Year ' s Day to the Feast of the Lanterns, shall be spent in social enjoyment. Dumplings are connected with their Xew Year, just as the turkey and plum pudding with an English Christmas. To eat cakes of ordinary grain on New Year ' s Day, land no dumplings, is almost worse than to have no New Year. The keen joy with which every member of the family anticipates the New Year feast, the still keener joy of devouring it, and the scarcely . smialler pleasure of reminiscence after the return to plain fare brightens life for all. Inspired probably by the same spirit which prompts Western New Year ' s resolutions, the Chinese choose this particular time to house- clean. They clean their mud floors, build new walks, if needed, buy new wall-hangings, put new colored paper on the windows, which