F L Casserly refers to a 'merry-go-round' at the Emancipation Day celebrations on the Kingston Race Course in 1838, in The Capitals of Jamaica, edited by W Adolphe Roberts. What the source is, or if the word 'merry-go-round' was used, are not clear.
Merry-Go-Rounds in Jamaica before 1890
When about forty years ago the first merry go round came to Jamaica, the peasants
went mad about it and spent every threepence they could procure on merry go round
rides. There was au outcry against this at the time, but these so called extravagant
and foolish people were not stinting themselves of food, they were merely enjoying
themselves more than they did before, and in order to have some luxury along with
the simple necessities that had sufficed them they gave less time to indolence and
more to productive exertion.
Daily Gleaner May 26, 1928 page 12 in editorial on the amusement tax.
Although Louis Bopp brought a surge of interest in merry-go-rounds, they had clearly been popular in Jamaica for many years. So far the earliest clear
references to merry-go-rounds are found in 1887, but they must have been in
use long before that, since no special comment is made on their presence then. There are references in September and November 1877 which may point to the earliest appearance of a merry-go-round in Kingston. A Monsieur Gobron set up, with the permission of the Custos, what was essentially an amusement park on the south-west corner of the intersection of King and Tower Streets. Major attractions for adults were the shooting galleries and the Panoramas of operas, but aimed especially at children was the ‘Parisian Picnic [which] consists of a magnificent Circus of Flying Horses and coaches, on and in which the most Desirable Ride can be obtained’, and this attraction is described in the advertisements as an ‘entirely new amusement’. The ride, ‘whether on Horseback or in Coach’, cost 6d for 5 minutes. Although the ride was considered suitable for both sexes and all ages, it was opened especially for children from 12 to 4 p.m. It is of interest to note that the coaches, or carriages, were part of the carousel because in those days it was not considered proper for ladies to sit astride a horse, live or wooden. One reason for assuming that these are references to a carousel or merry-go-round is that the term ‘Flying Horses’ has been a synonym for carousel up to the present day, especially in New Orleans. Also, at Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, is the ‘Flying Horses Carousel’, a National Historic Landmark, the oldest continuously operating carousel in the U.S.A., which was originally handcrafted in 1876; this tallies well with the appearance of ‘Flying Horses’ in Jamaica in 1877. The use of the term ‘circus’ in this context is confusing, but apparently the earliest American carousel in 1799 was advertised as a ‘wooden horse circus ride’. Even if these are early references to a merry-go-round there is still, however, an inexplicable gap until the next reference in 1887.
Certainly the ambivalence of Jamaican society towards the merry-go-round, which became even more pronounced in the following decade, was already obvious. In October 1887 a Garden Party was held in Port Royal to raise funds to pay off the debt on the St Peter’s Rectory, and a merry-go-round was one of the attractions. In late November H A Rose was advertising his merry-go-round at ‘Stines Penn’ on East Street, especially for children, but open to adults as well.
Earlier, at the end of May, however, an item had appeared which showed that merry-go-rounds were already viewed with disfavour by some:
The attention of the St. Andrew constabulary is directed to the disgraceful
scenes which occur nightly at a Merry-go-Round near the Cross Roads.
A number of disreputable characters assemble in front of the premises,
and indulge in filthy language and howling up to sometimes one o'clock in
the morning, to the great disgust and annoyance of respectable neighbours.
In this complaint the terminology which was commonplace later is already established – ‘disgraceful scenes’, ‘disreputable characters’, ‘filthy language’ and ‘disgust and annoyance of respectable neighbours’. It is obvious that a general opinion among the respectable and middle-class was that merry-go-rounds were frequented by the dregs of the society; on the other hand the merry-go-round was apparently already well-established as a popular form of entertainment for the working class.
In the years leading up to the Exhibition in 1891, the patrons of the merry-go-rounds continued to receive unfavourable publicity. In early 1888 there was a complaint from householders on upper East Street about their bad language at night; in May 1888 Moxey Loza was hauled into court ‘for unlawfully blowing a horn or cornet at the performance of a Merry go round’; George Francis, who was asleep on a piazza corner of Luke Lane and could give no account of himself ‘beyond that he had been to the Merry-go-Round’ was charged with vagrancy and sentenced to 14 days’ hard labour in the St. Catherine District Prison; in September 1890 ‘Joseph Mitchell [was] charged . . . with receiving and fraudulently embezzling the sum of 1/6, at a merry-go-round in the vicinity of the Race Course, the property of Alexander Reid, an Auctioneer and Commission Agent’ - he was found guilty of theft and sentenced to 14 days; George Solomon, a prominent merchant and politician, disparaged the amusements of the people as ‘merry go rounds and picnics, where there is nothing good or beneficial to be learned’; in the September before the Exhibition a non-conformist pastor reportedly warned against ‘the demoralizing influence of the baleful Switch Back Railway, and the pernicious soul destroying evils of the satanic Merry-go-Rounds’.
A Gleaner editorial dealing with that last point expressed the opinion that if, as the pastor feared, ‘the majority of our members who visit the Exhibition will be drawn into the current of worldliness and sin . . . with so little temptation as is offered by Switch-Back Railways and Merry-go-rounds’, the religious values instilled into the hearts and minds of the church members could hardly be of a very robust character.
It is also of note that late in 1887 the first pioneers of the Salvation Army arrived in Jamaica; the Army was soon associated with the merry-go-round issue, as they took up the crusade against the ‘satanic’ merry-go-rounds, while at the same time attracting crowds of the same working class folk who patronized them. The crowds at the Army meetings attracted the same opprobrium for their behaviour as did the merry-go-rounders; in May 1888 the following complaint was made –
We have been requested to call the attention of the Constabulary to the disgraceful
behaviour of a large number of people who congregate nightly outside of the Salvation
Army Temple in Church Street and indulge in the most filthy expressions, to the
annoyance of several respectable persons who unfortunately reside in the locality and
which tends to corrupt the minds of their children We have also been informed that a
few nights ago the Revd Mr Murray who resides just opposite had to leave his house
and go into the street to try and persuade these disorderly people to disperse.
In spite of criticisms respectable Jamaica continued to list merry-go-rounds among the attractions at Fairs and Garden Parties, and they were also offered for sale in the columns of the newspapers. In April 1890 a ‘Merry-Go-Round in thorough order, consisting of 8 Horses; 24 Carriages; 1 Elephant; 1 Donkey; 1 Rein Deer; 1 Lion.’ was advertised by Reid and Company, of 141 Harbour Street.
Later in the summer of 1890 a merry-go-round used at a recent Fair and Garden Party was erected at the corner of the Parade and Love Lane, opposite the Theatre, presumably good news for children, and others, who enjoyed that form of entertainment.
A fascinating item appearing in the Daily Gleaner in January 1891, the month in which the Exhibition opened, showed how addictive the merry-go-round craze had become. Writing about the popularity of riding the merry-go-rounds in Manchester, the Local Correspondent noted the good business that the operators were doing and then commented:
The people adopt some curious plans to realize funds for this purpose, it is said to be
so fascinating, that after one ride is indulged in it is hard work to stop or keep away
from the site - I am informed as a positive fact that when the merry-go-round was at
Crosskeys a man on his way from market having exhausted all the proceeds of his sale
of provisions sold his donkey for half its value and spent all the money in riding.
Addiction indeed! One can only speculate as to the reception that man received from his family when he reached home!
added 23/03/07
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