Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1901 — ISLANDS WE ARE AFTER. [ARTICLE]

ISLANDS WE ARE AFTER.

Danish West Indies Located to Be of Great Advantage. / United States Minister Swenson, at Copenhagen, has opened negotiations with the Danish government for the purchase by the United States of the Danish West Indies. The principal question is as .to the price to be paid. Denmark, it is understood, wants $7,000,000 and the United States is willing to give half of that .amount. Before the Spanish war it was the testimony of all naval officers that the strategic choice of the Danish West Indies was incalculable. Possibly, since the acquisition of Porto Rico by the United States government, this opinion would be modified. Nevertheless, the Danish islands are situated in a portion to be of great advantage as coaling stations and naval outposts in a time of war. They are located just east of Porto Rico, and form the upper end of the crescent of the Leeward Islands. In the event of the isthmian canal and a subsequent war between the United States and a Euro-

pean power, they would constitute just one more vantage point in the Caribbean against the approach of foreign warships. Germany would like to get the islands, but Denmark knows the United States would not permit of their disposal to a European power, and that Uncle Sam is the only customer that can buy them. A story comes from Lincolnshire, England, of an old woman in her 91st year who acts as parish clerk, attending all weddings, christenings and funerals, keeps the church in order, substitutes for church warden in taking the collection when that official is absent, and has even acted as organ blower and bell ringer on occasions. Florida people are going more and more into the small fruit and orange business. There are no statutory holidays in Mississippi, Kansas or Nevada.