Theodore Winthrop

“ Not a soul ventures out except the ill-omened presence of a rusty, black-robed priest, rejoiced to be rid of his thankless soliloquy in the church, itself also a fitting type of the place it has collected around it. A few sad donkeys are eating up the cocoa-nut-rinds at the foot of the cocoanut-tree in the centre of the square, the only verdant thing that the ardent sun has spared. Travellers arrive, not hurriedly arriving, or to depart, but as if an hour or a day more or less in a lifetime was not worth the effort of a thought. ”

“ On a high, breezy hill the church and school-house dominate the town, whose nucleus and type they are. Below, on a level, is a tall obelisk of brick, consecrate to industry; around its base, less incongruously than about the Washington Monument, are clustered the fanes and shrines where a devoted band of priests and priestesses are perpetually offering their willing oblations to this goddess, protector and preserver of the land. ”

“ A perpetual hum is heard, not less voiceful to the appreciative than the chants and clanging cymbals of the Parthenon. Occasionally, a rush and a roar and a rattle and a scream and a hurrying locomotive tell that a scene at once so busy and so beautiful is not isolated from metropolitan influence. ”