Some characteristics of rare merit and interest occasionally arise among these people. They do not sing as well as their northern cousins, but they produce orators of no mean ability. Earnest, consistent, faithful, affectionate, and original in expression, the best of these people afford promise of what may be expected when better conditions bring large opportunity. [Illustration: CHINESE ALWAYS START A SCHOOL] [Illustration: "SCHOOLDAYS"] Like other races not long exposed to civilization, the children of these people show surprising precocity. They give excellent account of themselves in primary schools, and in performances at public entertainments they are letter-perfect. Fifty numbers on a program and never a slip or a failure throughout, and not a complaint or criticism except that it was a little short. One large church established a record by producing a Christmas program containing one hundred and eight numbers. Through the primary years these youngsters sometimes surpass their white friends, but the economic pressure of living conditions crowds them nearly all out of school at the end of the fourth or fifth grade. Once they get a groundwork in the three "Rs" they are considered well educated for life. As may be expected, the birth rate is high, but large families are rare because of the distressing and unnecessary high rate of infant mortality. How could it be otherwise when a whole family lives in one room on twenty-five dollars a month with food at New York prices? That the Jamaicans are a gregarious folk is to be expected. The social instinct is always strong in any people of African descent. Canal Zone bosses complain that their employees prefer to leave the clean and sanitary quarters of the Zone and live in the Guachapali and San Miguel districts of Panama and in Colon, where they are crowded together in a way that would prove fatal to a white man. The constant company and crowded conditions do not trouble the West Indians, whereas the rigid restrictions of the silver quarters of the Zone he often finds objectionable.