Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/405

Rh persecuted, has many chances it otherwise would not have of making proselytes. The school-master and the minister of religion are, in such cases, more powerful and more efficacious than the police. The Haitian statesmen know this; for this reason they rely upon religion and upon education to fight superstition; this is the reason why, in spite of her comparatively limited revenue, Haiti devotes a large part of it to public instruction and subsidizes all Christian cults, although the great majority of her inhabitants are Roman Catholics. The impartial foreigner traveling about the country without any preconceived idea of slandering the people cannot fail to notice the good results attained.

Every country, even the most advanced and civilized, has certain peculiarities. Haiti is no exception to this rule; like other nations she has her peculiarities, but the one who describes these peculiarities alone in order to excite the ridicule of his readers is like a person who, after visiting a mansion, describes only the kitchen or the stables; kitchen and stables certainly have their particular uses, but they do not give any idea of the beauty of the mansion. For more than a century it has been the usual thing to ridicule Haiti; none of the means which might bring discredit on her has been neglected. Nevertheless, she still exists and has proudly maintained her independence. This fact may seem to be unimportant to many; but it is the best evidence that a country placed in so disadvantageous a position as was Haiti, and has nevertheless shown such a vitality, cannot be a mere collection of ignorant, corrupt, and abjectly superstitious men. Such a nation must unquestionably possess a certain amount of sterling qualities. But the foreign writers do not care to know these qualities, and if perchance the knowledge of it is forced upon them they do not care to make them known to the public. The ridiculous point of view has more attraction to them; they have almost all made the caricature rather than the description of the Haitian people.

Men who are ignorant even of the correct