The "Great Eastern" and the "Oceanic"—A Comparison

1899 Scientific American  
primitive these dwellings really are. The walls con sist of rather slight posts set in the ground, closed in with the bark of the native trees, while the roof con sist of light pole rafters with a thick covering of palm leaves. The inhabitants of these huts are employed chiefly on the farms and in the tobacco factories, where they do the common laboring, receiving for their ser vices a wage which varies from 38 to 60 cents a day. These poorer classes live on dried codfish, sweet pota toes,
more » ... beans, bananas and coffee. It can easily be understood that the ravages of the hurricane were not so severely felt by these people as by the owners of the better class of houses; for the matter of repairing one of these huts is merely a question of a day or two.
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican09231899-201 fatcat:chus3sqn4fbirn4moplcwwnzk4