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the congress, by a solemn act passed on the 2d of December, 1822, resolved
to annex their little province to the United States, and provided for the
appointment of commissioners to proceed to Washington and ask its
incorporation in the body politic of “La Grande Republica.” Before the
commissioners could leave the country the revolution in the other Central
American States had become too formidable to suppress, as the example of
San Salvador had spread like an epidemic among the people, and its
demand for liberty had found an echo from every valley and from every
hill, from the Rio Grande to the Chagres. The five States joined in a
confederacy one year after the act of annexation to the United States was
passed, and the resolution was never officially submitted to our
government. This was before the days of the Monroe Doctrine, and if the
rise of Liberalism in Central America had not been so rapid, the political
divisions of the North American continent might have been different now,
and the destiny of several nations changed.

THE PEAK OF SAN SALVADOR.

Some time before the organization of the confederacy the people of San
Salvador had adopted a constitution and formed a State government, being
always foremost, and their example was followed seven months later by
Costa Rica, then by Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua in succession.
Salvador was the first of the republics also to throw off the shackles of the
Church. Indignant at the interference of the archbishop of Guatemala, who
had charge of the Church in Central America, they defied his authority and
elected a liberal bishop of their own. The archbishop denounced the act and
appealed to the Pope, who threatened to excommunicate the entire
population. But the threat was received with indifference, and the example
of the Salvadorians was shortly after imitated by the people of Costa Pica,
in like disregard of the will of the successor of St. Peter.
The President is elected for four years, the members of the Senate for
three, and of the House of Deputies for one, all of them directly by the
people. There is a senator for every thirty thousand of the population, and a
deputy for every fifteen thousand. The exercise of suffrage is guarded by
some wholesome restrictions. All married men can vote, except those who
are engaged in domestic service, those who are without stated occupation,
those who refuse to pay their legal debts, those who owe money past due to
the Government, those who have accepted pay for any service from foreign
powers, and those who have been convicted of felony. Unmarried men, to
exercise the right of citizens, must be property owners, and be able to read
and write. All voters have to show receipts for the payment of taxes the year
previous if they are property owners, and bankrupts are entirely
disfranchised, the idea being that none but a producer—one who adds to the
wealth of the State or pays taxes—shall have a voice in its government.
None but property owners are eligible to office.
The President has a cabinet of four ministers. They have in charge the
Departments of Finance, War, and Public Works, Internal Affairs and Public
Instruction, and Foreign Affairs. The Judiciary are appointed by the
Deputies and confirmed by the Senate. Education is free and compulsory.
There is a school for every two thousand inhabitants, supported by the
general government, and a University at the capital with three hundred and
fifty students, studying law, medicine, and the applied sciences, and one
hundred and forty pursuing a classical course.
The standing army consists of twelve hundred men, but all able-bodied
citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty are organized as a militia,
and are subject to be called upon for service at the will of the President.
The capital, San Salvador (“The City of our Saviour”), is
 THE PLAZA.

eighteen miles from the sea-coast, and has an elevation of 2800 feet. It is
surrounded by a group of volcanoes, two of which are active, one, Yzalco,
discharging immense volumes of smoke, ashes, and lava at regular intervals
of seven minutes from one year’s end to the other. San Salvador is reached
by coaches over a picturesque mountain-road, but the journey is not
pleasant in the dry season on account of the dust, nor in the rainy season on
account of the mud. The city was founded in 1528 by George Alvarado, a
brother of the renowned lieutenant of Cortez, who was the discoverer,
conqueror, and the first viceroy of Central America. The situation it
occupies is one of the most beautiful that can be imagined, being in the
midst of an elevated mesa, or tableland, which overlooks the sea to the
southward, and is surrounded by mountains upon its three other sides. As
the prevailing winds are from the ocean, the climate is always cool and
healthful, and the mountain streams are so abundant that the foliage is fresh
during the entire year. Through each street runs an asequia, or irrigating
ditch, which is always filled with water. Pipes lead from it into the gardens
of the people, and supply hydrants for their use.
 SPANISH-AMERICAN COURTSHIP.

There is very little architectural taste shown in the construction of the

dwellings or of the public buildings. This is because of the frequency of
earthquakes. The walls are of thick adobe, with scarcely any ornamentation,
and the streets are dull and unattractive; but within the houses are gardens
of wonderful beauty, in which the people spend the greater portion of the
time, more often sleeping in a hammock among the trees in the dry season
than under the roofs of their houses.
The public buildings are of insignificant appearance, and even the
cathedral and the other churches are painfully plain and commonplace
compared with those of other cities of its size. All this is owing to the fact,
as has been stated, that the danger of their destruction at any moment
forbids a lavish expenditure in construction or unnecessary display.
The women of San Salvador are neater in appearance, more careful in
their dress, and are therefore more attractive than their sisters in Nicaragua,
where, if there is any difference between the sexes, they are less tidy than
the men. The girls in the rural districts always bathe in the asequias every
morning at daylight, and the traveller who starts out early generally
surprises groups of Naiads disporting in the streams. They plunge into the
bushes or keep their bodies under the water until the intruder passes by, but
do not hesitate to exchange a few words of banter with him, and good-
naturedly bid him godspeed.
There is more freedom between the sexes in San Salvador than in the
sister republics; and it is not at the cost of morals, for, as a rule, in countries
where social restrictions are the most severe there is the greatest amount of
licentiousness. The education of the masses has proved to be the greatest
safeguard, and the number of illegitimate births is reduced as the standard
of intelligence is elevated. The constitutional provision in San Salvador
which confers superior advantages upon married men, together with a law
limiting the marriage fees of the priests, have proven to be wise and
effective policy. The girls marry at fifteen and over, and very few peons
reach their majority without taking a lawful wife.
There is a public theatre, subsidized by the Government, at which
frequent entertainments are given, and nearly every season an opera
company comes from Italy or France. The performances are liberally
patronized, at high prices of

A HACIENDA.

admission. But the most popular funcions, as they are called, are by local
amateurs, the programmes being made up of vocal and instrumental music,
recitations, and original poems and orations. The latter are always the
popular features of the occasion, and the funcions are usually arranged to
give some young orator an opportunity to show his talents before the foot-
lights. There is a great deal of rivalry, too, among the local poets, each
aspirant for honors having his clique of admirers, or faccions, who feel it
their duty to applaud no one else, however meritorious, and to hiss all
others down. When two of these popular idols appear upon the platform on
the same evening, as they often do, there are scenes of sensational
excitement and sometimes mob violence. The subjects of all the orations
and poems are usually patriotic—the praise of San Salvador—for the love
of country is a theme of which the people never tire. The programmes of all
public entertainments are mostly composed of local compositions, national
airs, and patriotic songs. The musicians prefer the scores of their own
composers, and everything foreign is to a degree offensive, to be tolerated
only as a matter of variety.

INTERIOR OF A SAN SALVADOR

HOUSE.

The Salvadorians have a dozen or more “Fourths of July”—memorial

days—sometimes two patriotic celebrations occurring in a month, on the
anniversary of historical events. All classes of people join in the
demonstrations, closing their places of business, decorating the streets,
attending high-mass in the morning, engaging in processions and hearing
patriotic orations during the day, and in the evening closing the festivities
with fireworks, banquets, and balls. But the two great days of the year are
Christmas and the Feast of San Miguel (St. Michael), the patron saint of the
republic. The latter is celebrated very much like our Independence Day was
in ancient times, except that the hours from sunrise to noon are devoted to
solemn religious services in all the churches, the bishop himself officiating
at the cathedral, and the rest of the time to the next morning to holiday
festivities. There is much powder wasted in fire-crackers, or bombas, as
they are called, fireworks, and salutes by the artillery.
The annual fair of St. Miguel, which is held in February, is always a
notable event, being not only a national anniversary, but the greatest market
season of the year, and the occasion of general and prolonged festivities. It
lasts about two weeks, and is attended by buyers and sellers from all parts
of Central America. The importing houses always have their representatives
present on such occasions. The days are occupied with trading, and the
nights with balls, concerts, theatrical performances, and gambling.
Everybody plays cards, and no one, man or woman, ever sits down to a
game without stakes. Women play at their residences with or without their
gentlemen friends, and large sums of money often pass across the table. At
the fairs, and in fact on all occasions which bring people together, the peons
are entertained with cock-fights and bull-fights, although the latter cruel
sport is nominally forbidden by law. The bull-rings and cock-pits are
invariably crowded every Sunday afternoon, and always on saints’ days,
and often the best people are found among the spectators, particularly the
young men, who ruin themselves with reckless betting. It is the fashion for
the swells to keep gamebirds, and employ professional cock-fighters to train
and handle them.
The Christmas festivities commence about midnight, and the explosions
of cannon and fireworks always begin as soon as the clock in the cathedral
tower strikes twelve. Everybody is up and dressed before daylight to attend
early mass, and when the sun rises the streets are full of people saluting
each other by exchanging the compliments of the day, and throwing egg-
shells filled with perfumed water. From morning till night the air is full of
the noise of fireworks, cannonades, the shouts of people, and the music of
military bands, while processions are continually passing through the
principal streets. In nearly every house preparations have been going on for
weeks, not for the exhibition of Christmas-trees or the exchange of gifts,
but for the representation of the naciamiento, or birth of Christ. The best
room in the house is often fitted up to resemble a manger, asses being
brought in from the stable to make the scene more realistic. Several
incidents in the life of the Saviour are portrayed in a like manner. In other
residences are different representations. Sometimes the parlor is arranged
like a bower, filled with tropical plants and flowers, moss-covered stones
and sea-shells, and draped with vines. Within the bower are figures of the
Virgin and Child, surrounded by the kneeling Magi and the members of the
Holy Family.

A TYPICAL TOWN.

It is the ambition of the mistress of the house to surpass all her friends
and neighbors in the realism of her representation and in the elegance with
which the puppets are dressed. During the day there is a general interchange
of calls to see the displays, to criticise them, and make comparisons. The
grandest display is always made in the cathedral, the cost often amounting
to many thousands of dollars, while the subordinate churches enter into an
active and expensive rivalry, raising funds for the purpose by soliciting
subscriptions in the parish. The ceremonies usually begin before daylight,
and last for a couple of hours, high-mass being sung by the leading
vocalists of the country, assisted by orchestras and military bands.
 WHAT ALARMS THE CITIZENS.

The favorite incident for portrayal is the Adoration of the Magi, and
human figures are usually trained by the priests to play the various
characters. The most beautiful woman in the city is selected to act the part
of the Virgin, and some young infant is volunteered to represent the baby
Christ. The church is always crowded, and illuminated by thousands of
candles. At the proper moment the curtain is drawn, and the choir breaks
out in a glorious anthem; the bells of the churches ring, and the vast
audience, rising to their feet, join in the exultant song, “Jubilate! jubilate!
Christ is born!” Processions of priests enter, and at the close of the anthem
the bishop sings high-mass to a living representation of the Virgin and
Child.
 The people are not so priestridden as those of some of the Spanish-
American countries, being naturally more self-reliant and independent.
They know what liberty is, and insist upon being allowed to enjoy it, both
civil and religious. They choose their own priests, and the latter elect their
own bishop, without regard to the Pope or the College of Cardinals. The
clerical party in politics, or the Serviles, as they were called, because of
their slavery to the Church, has long been extinct in San Salvador, and the
political struggles are more personal than over abstract issues. There is a
considerable degree of superstition among the people, and they believe in
all sorts of signs and omens, but the priests do not attempt to humbug them
with bogus miracles or wonder-working images.
Much of this superstition relates to the earthquakes and volcanic
disturbances to which the country is so subject. Within view of the capital
are eleven great volcanoes, two of which are unceasingly active, while the
others are subject to occasional eruptions. The nearest is the mountain of
San Salvador, about eight thousand feet high, and showing to great
advantage because it rises so abruptly from the plain. It is only three miles
from the city, to the westward, very steep, and its sides are broken by
monstrous gorges, immense rocky declivities, and projecting cliffs. The
summit is crowned by a cone of ashes and scoriæ that have been thrown out
in centuries past, but since 1856, subsequent to the greatest earthquake the
country has known, the crater has been extinct, and is now filled with a
bottomless lake. Very few people have ever ascended to the summit,
because of the extreme difficulty and peril of making the climb, while even
a smaller number have entered the chasm in which the crater lies. Some
years ago a couple of venturesome French scientists went down, but
became exhausted in their attempts to return. Their companions who
remained at the top lowered them food and blankets by lines, and they were
finally rescued, after several days of confinement in their rocky prison, by a
detachment of soldiers, who hauled them up the precipice by ropes.
The two active volcanoes, or vivos, as the people call them, are San
Miguel and Yzalco, and there are none more violent on the face of the
globe. They present a magnificent display to the passengers of steamers
sailing by the coast, or anchored in the harbor of La Libertad and Acajutla,
constantly discharging masses of lava which flow down their sides in
blazing torrents, and illuminating the sky with the flames that issue from the
craters at regular intervals. Yzalco is as regular as a clock, the eruption
occurring like the beating of a mighty pulse every seven minutes.
It is impossible to conceive of a grander spectacle than this monster. It
rises seven thousand feet, almost directly from the sea, and an immense
volume of smoke, like a plume, is continually pouring out of its summit,
broken with such regularity by masses of flame that rise a thousand feet that
it has been named El Faro del Salvador—“The Light-house of Salvador.”
Around the base of the mountain are fertile plantations, while above them,
covering about two-thirds of its surface, is an almost impenetrable forest,
whose foliage is perpetual and of the darkest green. Then beyond the forest
is a ring of reddish scoriæ, while above it the live ashes and lava that are
cast from the crater so regularly are constantly changing from livid yellow,
when they are heated, to a silver gray as they cool.
Yzalco is in many respects the most remarkable volcano on earth; first,
because its discharges have continued so long and

YZALCO FROM A DISTANCE.

with such great regularity; again, because the tumult in the earth’s bowels is
always to be heard, as the rumblings and explosions are constant, being
audible for a hundred miles, and sounding like the noises which Rip van
Winkle heard when he awakened from his sleep in the Catskills; and,
finally, it is the only volcano that has originated on this continent since the
discovery by Columbus.
It arose suddenly from the plain in the spring of 1770, in the midst of
what had been for nearly a hundred years the profitable estate of Señor Don
Balthazar Erazo, who was absent from the country at the time, and was
greatly amazed upon his return to discover that his magnificent coffee and
indigo plantation had, without his knowledge or consent, been exchanged
for a first-class volcano. In December, 1769, the peons on the hacienda
were alarmed by terrific rumblings under the ground, constant tremblings of
the earth, and frequent earthquakes, which did not extend over the country
as usual, but seemed to be confined to that particular locality. They left the
place in terror when the tremblings and noises continued, and returning a
week or two after, found that all the buildings had been shaken down, trees
uprooted, and large craters opened in the fields which had been level earth
before. From these craters smoke and steam issued, and occasionally flames
were seen to come out of the ground. Some brave vaqueros, or herdsmen,
remained near by to watch developments, and on the 23d of February, 1770,
they were entertained by a spectacle that no other men have been permitted
to witness, for about ten o’clock on the morning of that day the grand
upheaval took place, and it seemed to them, as they fled in terror, that the
whole universe was being turned upside down.
First there were a series of terrific explosions, which lifted the crust of
the earth several hundred feet, and out of the cracks issued flames and lava,
and immense volumes of smoke. An hour or two afterwards there was
another and a grander convulsion, which shook and startled the country for
a hundred miles around. Rocks weighing thousands of tons were hurled into
the air, and fell several leagues distant. The surface of the earth was
elevated about three thousand feet, and the internal recesses were purged of
masses of lava and blistered stone, which fell in a heap around the hole
from which they issued. These discharges continued for several days
 YZALCO.

at irregular intervals, accompanied by loud explosions and earthquakes,

which did much damage throughout the entire republic; the disturbance was
perceptible in Nicaragua and Honduras. In this manner was a volcano born,
and it has proved to be a healthy and vigorous child. In less than two
months from a level field arose a mountain more than four thousand feet
high, and the constant discharges from the crater which opened then have
accumulated around its edges until its elevation has increased two thousand
feet more. Unfortunately, the growth of the monster has not been
scientifically observed or accurately measured, but the cone of lava and
ashes, which is now twenty-five hundred feet from the foundation of earth
upon which it rests, is constantly growing in bulk and height by the
incessant discharges of lava, ashes, and other volcanic matter upon it.
The capital of San Salvador has been thrice almost entirely, and eleven
times in its history partially, destroyed by earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions coming together. These catastrophies occurred in 1575, 1593,
1625, 1656, 1770, 1773, 1798, 1839, 1854, 1873, and 1882. The most
serious convulsions took place in 1773 and 1854, when not only the City of
Our Saviour, but several other towns were entirely ruined, and nearly every
place suffered to a greater or less degree; but the restoration was rapid and
complete.
The chief products of the country are coffee, cocoa, sugar, indigo, and
other agricultural staples, which are raised by the same process that prevails
in other States, with the addition of a balsam that is very valuable, and is
grown exclusively on a little strip of land lying along the coast between the
two principal seaports, La Libertad and Acajutla. Lying to the seaward of
the volcanic range is a forest about six hundred square miles in extent that
is composed almost exclusively of balsam-trees, and is known as the “Costa
del Balsimo.” It is populated by a remnant of the aboriginal Indian race,
who are supported by the product of their forest, and are permitted to
remain there undisturbed, and very little altered from their original
condition.
The forest is traversed only by foot-paths, so intricate as to baffle the
stranger who attempts to enter it; and it is not safe to make such an attempt,
as the Indians, peaceful enough when they come out to mingle with the
other inhabitants of the country, violently resent any intrusion into their

IN THE INTERIOR.

strong-hold. They live as a community, all their earnings being intrusted to

the care of ahuales—old men who exercise both civil and religious offices,
and keep the common funds in a treasure-box, to be distributed among the
families as their necessities require. There is a prevailing impression that
the tribe has an enormous sum of money in its possession, as their earnings
are large and their wants are few. The surplus existing at the end of each
year is supposed to be buried in a sacred spot with religious ceremonies.
Both men and women go entirely naked, except for a breech-clout, but
when they come to town they assume the ordinary cotton garments worn by
the peons. They are darker in color, larger in stature, more taciturn and
morose, than the other Indians of the country, but are temperate,
industrious, and adhere to their ancient rites with great tenacity. They are
known to history as the Nahuatls, but are commonly spoken of as
“Balsimos.”
 HAULING SUGAR-CANE.

Agriculture is carried on by them only to an extent sufficient to supply

their own wants, and usually by the women, while the men are engaged in
gathering the balsam, of which they sell about twenty thousand dollars’
worth each year. They number about two thousand people, and including
what they spend at their festivals, which are more like bacchanalian riots
than religious ceremonies, and are accompanied by scenes of revolting
bestiality, their annual expenses cannot be more than one half of their
incomes.
The balsam is obtained by making an incision in the tree, from which the
sap exudes, and is absorbed by bunches of raw cotton. These, when
thoroughly saturated, are thrown into vats of boiling water and replaced by
others. The balsam leaves the cotton, rises to the surface of the water, and at
intervals is skimmed off and placed in wooden bowls or gourds, where it
hardens, and then is wrapped in the leaves of the tree and sent to market. In
commerce it is known as Peruvian balsam, because in early times Callao
was the great market for its sale, but the product comes exclusively from
San Salvador.
There is one railroad in San Salvador, extending from Acajutla to the city
of Sonsonate, the centre of the sugar district, and it is being extended to
Santa Ana, the chief town of the Northern Province. It is owned by a native
capitalist, and operated under the management of an American engineer.
The plan is to extend the track parallel with the sea through the entire
republic, in the valley back of the mountain range, with branches through
the passes to the principal cities. It now passes two-thirds of the distance
around the base of the volcano Yzalco, and from the cars is furnished a
most remarkable view of that sublime spectacle. The entire system when
completed will not consist of more than two hundred and fifty miles of
track, and the work of construction is neither difficult nor expensive.
 SAN JOSÉ.

THE CAPITAL OF COSTA RICA.

NEARLY four hundred years ago an old sailor coasted along the eastern
shore of Costa Rica in a bark not much bigger than a canal-boat, searching
for a passage to the western sea. He had a bunk built in the bows of his little
vessel where he could rest his weary bones and look out upon the world he
had discovered. There was little left of him but his will. He had explored the
whole coast from Yucatan to Trinidad, and found it an unbroken line of
continent, a contradiction of all his reasoning, a defiance of all his theories,
and an impassable obstacle to the hopes he had cherished for thirty years.
The geography of the New World was clear enough in his mind. The earth
was a globe, there was no doubt of it, and there must be a navigable belt of
water around. So he groped along, seeking the passage he felt should be
there, cruising into each river, and following the shorelines of each gulf and
bay. Instinctively he hovered around the narrowest portion of the continent,
where was but a slender strip of land, upheaved by some mighty
convulsion, to shatter his theories and defy his dreams. It was the most
pathetic picture in all history. Finally, overcome by age and infirmity, he
had to abandon the attempt, and fearing to return to Spain without
something to satisfy the avarice of his sovereign, surrendered the command
of his little fleet to his brother Bartholomew, and wept while the carnival of
murder and plunder, that was to last three centuries, was begun.
Among other points visited for barter with the Indians was a little harbor
in which were islands covered with limes, and Columbus marked the place
upon his chart “Puerto de
 CRATER OF A VOLCANO.

Limon.” To-day it is a collection of cheap wooden houses and bamboo

huts, with wharves, warehouses, and railway shops, surrounded by the most
luxurious tropical vegetation, alive with birds of gorgeous plumage,
venomous reptiles, and beautiful tiger-cats. Here and there about the place
are patches of sugar-cane and groups of cocoa-nut trees, with the wide-
spreading bread-fruit that God gave to the tropical savage as He gave rice
and maize to his Northern brother, and the slender, graceful rubber-tree,
whose frosty-colored mottled trunk looks like the neck of a giraffe. It
scarcely casts a shadow; but the banana, with its long pale green plumes,
furnishes plenty of shelter for the palm-thatched cabins, the naked babies
that play around them, and the half-dressed women who seem always to be
dozing in the sun.
Surrounding the city for a radius of threescore miles is a jungle full of
patriarchal trees, stately and venerable, draped with long moss and slender
vines that look like the rigging of a ship. Their limbs are covered with
wonderful orchids as bright and radiant as the plumage of the birds, the
Espiritu Santo and other rare plants being as plentiful as the daisies in a
New England meadow. There is another flower, elsewhere unknown, called
the “turn-sol,” which in the morning is white and wax-like, resembling the
camellia, but at noon has turned to the most vivid scarlet, and at sunset
drops off its stem. This picture is seen from shipboard through a veil of mist
—miasmatic vapor—in which the lungs of men find poison, but the air
plants food. It reaches from the breasts of the mountains to the foam-fringed
shore, broken only by the fleecy clouds that hang low and motionless in the
atmosphere, as if they, with all the rest of nature, had sniffed the fragrance
of the poppy and sunk to sleep.
But in the mornings and the evenings, when the air is cool, Limon is a
busy place. Dwarfish engines with long trains of cars wind down from the
interior, laden with coffee and bananas. Half-naked roustabouts file back
and forth across the gangplanks, loading steamers for Liverpool, New York,
and New Orleans. The coffee is allowed to accumulate in the warehouses
until the vessels come, but the bananas must not be picked till the last
moment, at telegraphic notice, the morning the steamer sails. Trains of cars
are sent to the side-tracks of every plantation, and are loaded with the half-
ripe fruit still glistening with the dew. There are often as many as fifty
thousand bunches on a single steamer, representing six million bananas, but
they are so perishable that more than half the cargo goes overboard before
its destination is reached. The shipments of bananas from Costa Rica are
something new in trade. Only a few years since all our supply came from
Honduras and the West Indies, but the development of the plantations
around Limon has given that port almost a monopoly. This is due to the
construction of a railway seventy miles into the interior, intended to connect
the capital of the country and its populous valley with the Atlantic Ocean.
The road was begun by the Government, but before its completion passed
into the hands of Minor C. Keith, of Brooklyn, who has a perpetual lease,
and is attempting to extend it to San José, from and to which freight is
transported in ox-carts, a distance of thirty miles.
 RUBBER-TREES.

Along the track many plantations have been opened in the jungle, and
produce prolifically. Numbers of the settlers are from the United States,
from the South particularly, and it being the fashion to christen the
plantations, the traveller finds over the entrances sign-boards that bear
familiar names. Over the gate-way to one of the finest haciendas, as they
are called, is the inscription “Johnny Reb’s Last Ditch,” a forlorn and
almost hopeless ex-Confederate having drifted there, after much buffeting
by fortune, and taken up Government land, on which he now is in a fair way
to make a fortune.
From the terminus of the railway the ride to the capital is over
picturesque mountain passes and through deep gorges and cañons whose
mighty walls never admit the sun. There are no coaches, but the ride must
be made on mule-back, starting before sunrise so as to reach the city by
dark. San José is found in a pretty valley between the two ranges of the
Cordilleras, and surrounded by an entertaining group of volcanoes, not less
than eight being in sight from any of the housetops. Ordinarily they behave
very well, and sleep as quietly as the prophets, but now and then their
slumbers are disturbed by indigestion, when they get restless, yawn a little,
breathe forth fire and smoke, and vomit sulphur, lava, and ashes. One would
think that people living continually in the midst of danger from earthquakes
and eruptions would soon become accustomed to them; but it is not so. The
interval since the last calamity, when the city of Cartago was destroyed, has
been forty years—so long that the next entertainment is expected to be one
of unusual interest; and as no announcements are made in the newspapers,
the people are always in a solemn state of uncertainty whether they will
awake in a pile of brimstone and ashes or under their ponchos as usual. This
gives life a zest the superstitious do not enjoy.
It is the theory of the local scientists that there is a subterranean
connection between the group of volcanoes, and that prodigious fires are
constantly burning beneath. Therefore it is necessary for at least one of
them to be always doing business, to permit the smoke and gases to escape
through its crater, for if all should suspend operations the gases would
gather in the vaults below, and when they reached the fires
 THE ROAD FROM PORT LIMON TO SAN
JOSÉ.

would shake the earth by their explosion. It is said to be a fact that the total
cessation of all the volcanoes is followed by an earthquake, and if Tierra
Alba, which is active now, should cease to show its cloud of smoke by day
and its pillar of fire by night, the people would leave their houses and take
to the fields in anticipation of the impending calamity. All the buildings in
the country are built for earthquake service, being seldom more than one
story in elevation, and never more than two, of thick adobe walls, which are
light and elastic.

A PEON.

The city has about thirty thousand inhabitants—nearly one-seventh of

the entire population of the republic—and seems quaint and queer to the
North American traveller because of its unlikeness to anything he has seen
at home. The climate is a perpetual spring. The flowers are perennial; the
foliage fades and falls in autumn, dying from exhaustion, but never from
frost. The days are always warm and delightful, and the nights cool and
favorable to sweet rest. Winter is not so agreeable as summer, for when it is
not raining the winds blow dust in your eyes, and you miss the foliage and
fruits. There is not such a thing as an overcoat in the place—the
storekeepers do not sell them—and the natives never heard of stoves. One
can look over the roofs of the town from the tower of the cathedral and not
see a chimney anywhere. The mercury seldom goes above eighty, and never
below sixty, Fahrenheit. The thick walls of the houses make an even
temperature within, scarcely varying five degrees from one year to another,
and it never rains long enough for the dampness to penetrate them. There is
no architectural taste displayed, and a never-ending sameness marks the
streets. It is only in the country that picturesque dwellings are found, and
usually Nature, not man, has made them so. The shops differ from the
residences only in having wider doors and larger rooms, while the
warehouses are usually abandoned monasteries or discarded dwellings.
The merchants are mostly foreigners—Frenchmen or Germans; the
professional men and laborers are natives. The people are more peaceful
and industrious than in the other Central American States, and have the
reputation for greater honesty, but less ingenuity, than their neighbors. They
take no interest in politics, seldom vote, and do not seem to care who
governs them. There has not been a revolution in Costa Rica since 1872,
and that grew out of the rivalry of two English banking houses in securing a
government loan. The prisons are empty; the doors of the houses are seldom
locked; the people are temperate and amiable, and live at peace with one
another. The national vice is indolence—mañana (pronounced manyannah),
a word that is spoken oftener than any other in the language, and means
“some other time.” It is a proverb that the Costa-Rican is “always lying
under the mañana-tree,” and that is why the people are poor and the nation
bankrupt. The resources of the country, agricultural, mineral, pastoral, and
timber, are immense, but have not even been explored. Ninety per cent. of
the natives have never been outside the little valley in which they were
born; while the Government has done little to invite immigration and
encourage development. There are two railroads, both unfinished, and the
money that was borrowed to build them was wasted in the most ludicrous
way.
In 1872 it was decided that the future prosperity of the country
demanded the construction of railways connecting the one inhabited valley
with the two oceans, and the Congress ordered a survey. It was made by
English engineers, who submitted profiles of the most practicable routes
and estimates of the cost of construction. There being no wealth in the
country, a loan was necessary, and the two banking houses, both operated
by Englishmen upon English capital, sought the privilege of negotiating it.
The President made his selection. The disappointed banker decided to
overthrow the Government and set up a new one that would cancel the
contract and recognize his claims. Down on the plains of Guanacasta was a
cow-boy, Tomas Guardia by name, who had won reputation as the
commander of a squad of cavalry in a war with Nicaragua, and was known
over all Central America for his native ability, soldierly qualities, and
desperate valor.
The banker who had failed to get his spoon into the pudding called into
the conspiracy a number of disappointed politicians and discontented
adherents of the existing Government, and it was decided to send for
Guardia to come to the capital and lead the revolution. By offering him
pecuniary inducements and a promise of being made commander-in-chief
of the Federal army if the revolution was a success, the services of the cow-
boy were secured. He called together about one hundred men of his own
class, made a rendezvous at a plantation just outside of the city limits, and
one moonlight

A BANANA PLANTATION.
night rode into town, surprised the guard at the military garrison, captured
the commander of the army and all his troops, took possession of the
Government offices, and proclaimed martial law. As the Costa-Rican army
consisted of but two hundred and fifty men, accustomed only to police duty
and parades, this was not a difficult or a daring undertaking. Those of the
officials who were captured were locked up, and those who escaped fled to
the woods and then left the country. Among the latter class was the
“Constitutional President,” as the regularly elected rulers in Spanish
America are always called, to distinguish them from the frequent
“Pronunciamento Presidents” and “Jefes de Militar,” or military dictators.
Having thus dethroned the legitimate ruler, Guardia proclaimed himself
Military Dictator, and called a Junta, composed of the men who had
employed him to overthrow the Government. They met, with great
formality, and solemnly issued a proclamation, reciting that the
Constitutional President having absented himself from the country without
designating any one to act in his place, it became necessary to choose a new
Chief Magistrate. In the mean time the Junta declared Guardia Provisional
President until an election could be held. The latter took possession of the
Executive Mansion, called all the people into the plaza, swore them to
support him, reorganized the bureaus of the Government and the army,
placing the cow-boys who had come up from Guanacasta with him in
charge. The father-in-law of the English banker who suggested the
revolution was announced as the candidate for the Presidency, and it was
expected that he would be chosen without opposition. But General Guardia,
having had a taste of power, thought more of the same would be agreeable,
and passed the word quietly around among his officers that he was a
candidate himself. As they constituted the judges of election and the
returning board, this hint was sufficient, and when the returns began to
come in after ejection day, the banker and his co-conspirators found, to their
surprise and chagrin, that their tool had become their master, and General
Guardia was declared Constitutional President by a unanimous vote, only
two thousand ballots having been cast by a population of two hundred
thousand.
This cow-boy, when he took his seat, could neither read nor write. He
was, however, a man of extraordinary natural ability, gifted with brains and
a laudable ambition. He sprang from a mixture of the Spanish and native
races, had energy, shrewdness, a cool head, and a fair idea of government:
in all respects the most remarkable, and in many respects the greatest man
the little republic ever produced. He learned rapidly, and selected the wisest
and ablest men in the country for his advisers. Under his administration the
nation showed greater development than it has enjoyed before or since, and,
so far as lay in his power, he introduced and encouraged a spirit of moral,
intellectual, and commercial advancement, established free schools and a
university, overthrew the domination of the priests, sent young men abroad
to study the science of government, and preserved the peace as he aided the
progress of the people. If he had been as wise as he was progressive, Costa
Rica would have made rapid strides towards the standard of modern
civilization, but in his mistaken zeal for the development of the country he
left it bankrupt.
The two railroads were commenced by him. Under the estimates of the
engineers the cost of construction and equipment for two narrow-gauge
lines, from San José to Port Limon, on the Atlantic coast, and Punta Arenas,
on the Pacific, a total distance of one hundred and sixty miles, was placed at
$6,000,000—$37,500 per mile. The line from Port Limon was constructed
under the direction of a brother of Henry Meiggs, the famous fugitive from
California (who fled to Peru, and lived there like a second Monte Cristo),
but the shorter line, from San José to Punta Arenas, was attempted under the
personal supervision of the President himself, who went at it in a very queer
way.
All the necessary material and supplies to build and equip the road were
purchased in England, sent by sailing-vessels around the Horn, and landed
at Punta Arenas. But instead of commencing work there, the President, who
had never seen a locomotive in his life, repudiated all advice, rejected all
suggestions, and ordered the whole outfit to be carried seventy-five miles
over the mountains on carts and mule-back, so as to begin at the other end.
This undertaking was more difficult and expensive than the construction of
the road. But
 PICKING COFFEE.

Guardia’s extraordinary departure from the conventional was not without

reason. It was based upon a mixture of motives, not only ignorance and
inexperience, but pride and precaution. The conservative element of the
population, the Bourbon hidalgos, and the ignorant and the superstitious
peons, were opposed to all departures from the past, and saw in every
improvement and innovation a dangerous disturbance of existing
conditions. The methods their fathers used were good enough for them.
There was also a large amount of capital and labor engaged in transporting
freight by ox-carts, which had always been the “common carriers” of the
republic, and those interested recognized that the construction of the
railway would make their cattle useless, and leave the peon carters
unemployed. To resist the construction of the railroad they organized a
revolution, threatening to tear up the tracks and destroy the machinery. To
mollify this sentiment, and furnish employment for the cartmen to keep
them out of mischief, was the controlling idea in Guardia’s mind, so with
great labor and difficulty, and at an enormous expense, the locomotives and
cars were taken to pieces and hauled over the mountains to San José. The
first rails were laid at the capital by the President himself, with a great
demonstration, and the work continued until the money was exhausted; and
the Government, having destroyed its credit by this remarkable proceeding,
was unable to borrow more. The loan, which under ordinary circumstances
would have been sufficient to complete the enterprise, was all expended
before forty miles of track were laid, ten miles of which extend between
Punta Arenas, the Pacific seaport, and Esparza, the next town, and thirty
miles between San José and Alajuela, at the western end of the valley. This
road is now operated by the Government, under the direction of a native
engineer, who was never outside the boundaries of the republic, and never
saw any railway but this. He is, however, a man of genius and practical
ability, and if he were allowed to have his way the road might be a paying
enterprise. But the Government uses it as a political machine, employs a
great many superfluous and incompetent men—mostly the relatives and
dependents of influential politicians—carries freight and passengers on
credit, and does many other foolish things that make profits impossible, and
cause a large deficiency to be made up by taxation each year. On every train
of three cars—one for baggage and two for passengers—are thirteen men.
First a manager or conductor who has general supervision, a locomotive
engineer and stoker, two ticket takers, two brakemen for each car, and two
men to handle baggage and express packages—all of them being arrayed in
the most resplendent uniforms, the conductor having the appearance of a
major-general on dress parade. Freight trains are run upon the same system
and at a similar expense. Shippers are allowed thirty and sixty days after the
goods are delivered to pay their freight charges, and passengers who are
known to the station agents can get tickets on credit and have the bill sent
them upon their return—a concession to a public sentiment that justifies the
postponement of everything until to-morrow—the mañana policy that keeps
the nation poor.
Thousands of ox-carts are still employed between the towns of Esparza
and Alajuela, the termini of the railway, carrying freight over the
mountains; and it usually takes a week for them to make the journey of
thirty-five miles, often longer, for on religious festivals, which occur with
surprising frequency, all the transportation business is suspended. A
traveller who intends to take a steamer at Punta Arenas must send his
baggage on a week in advance. He leaves the train at Alajuela, mounts a
mule, rides over the mountain to the town of Atenas, where he spends the
night. The next morning at daybreak he resumes his journey, and rides
fifteen miles to San Mateo, breakfasts at eleven, takes his siesta in a
hammock until four or five in the afternoon, then mounting his mule again,
covers the ten miles to Esparza by sunset, where he dines and spends the
night, usually remaining there, to avoid the heat of Punta Arenas, until a
few hours before the steamer leaves; and then, if the ox-carts have come
with his baggage, makes the rest of his trip by rail.
The journey is not an unpleasant one. The scenery is wild and
picturesque. The roads are usually good, except in the dry season, when
they become very dusty, and after heavy rains, when the mud is deep. But
under the tropic sun and in the dry air moisture evaporates rapidly, and in
six hours after a rainfall the roads are hard and good. The uncertainty as to
whether his trunks will arrive in time makes the inexperienced traveller
nervous.
The Costa-Rican cartmen are the most irresponsible and indifferent
beings on earth. They travel in long caravans or processions, often with two
or three hundred teams in a line. When one chooses to stop, or meets with
an accident, all the rest wait for him if it wastes a week. None will start
until each of his companions is ready, and sometimes the road is blocked
for miles, awaiting the repair of some damage. The oxen are large white
patient beasts, and are yoked by the horns, and not by the neck, as in
modern style, lashings of raw cowhide being used to make them fast. They
wear the yokes continually. The union is as permanent as matrimony in a
land where divorce laws are unknown. The cartmen are as courteous as they
are indifferent. They always lift their hats to a caballero as he passes them,
and say, “May the Virgin guard you on your journey!” Thousands of dollars
in gold are often intrusted to them, and never was a penny lost. A banker of
San José told me that he usually received thirty thousand dollars in coin
each week during coffee season by these ox-carts, and considered it safer
than if he carried it himself, although the caravan stands in the open air by
the roadside every night. Highway robbery is unknown, and the cartmen,
with their wages of thirty cents a day, would not know what use to make of
the money if they should steal it. Nevertheless they always feel at liberty to
rob the traveller of the straps on his trunks, and no piece of baggage ever
arrives at its destination so protected unless the strap is securely nailed, and
then it is usually cut to pieces by the cartmen as revenge for being deprived
of what they consider their perquisite.
At sunset the oxen are released from their burdens at the nearest tambo,
or resting-place, upon the way, and are kept overnight in sheds provided for
them. At these places are drinking and gambling booths, with usually a
number of dissolute women to tempt and entertain the cartmen. The
evenings are spent in carousal, in dancing, and singing the peculiar native
songs to the accompaniment of the “marimba,” the national instrument,
which is, I believe, found in no other land.
The marimba is constructed of twenty-one pieces of split bamboo of
graded lengths, strung upon two bars of the same wood according to
harmonic sequence, thus furnishing three octaves. Underneath each strip of
bamboo is a gourd, strung upon a wire, which takes the place of a sounding-
board, and adds strength and sweetness to the tones. The performer takes
the instrument upon his knees and strikes the bamboo strips with little
hammers of padded leather, usually taking two between the fingers of each
hand, so as to strike a chord of four notes, which he does with great
dexterity. I have seen men play with three hammers in each hand, and use
them as rapidly and skilfully as a pianist touches his keys. The tones of the
marimba resemble those of the xylophone, which has recently become so
popular, except that they are louder and more resonant. The instrument is
peculiarly adapted to the native airs, which are plaintive but melodious. At
all of the tambos where the cartmen stop marimbas are kept, and in every
caravan are those who can handle them skilfully. Tourists generally travel in
the cool hours of the morning and evening to avoid the blistering sun, and it
is a welcome diversion to stop at the bodegas to listen to the songs of the
cartmen, and watch them dancing with darkeyed, barefooted señoritas.
The women of the lower classes do not wear either shoes or sandals, but
go barefooted from infancy to old age; yet their feet are always small and
shapely, and look very pretty under the short skirts that reach just below the
knees. The native girls are comely and coquettish in the national dress,
 THE MARIMBA.

which consists of nothing but a skirt and a chemise of white cotton, with a
brilliantly colored scarf, or “reboza,” as they call it, thrown over their heads
and shoulders, and serving the double purpose of a shawl and bonnet. The
features of the women are small and even, and their teeth are perfect. Their
forms, untrammelled by skirts and corsets, are slender and supple in
girlhood, and the scanty garments, sleeveless, and reaching only from the
shoulders to the knees, disclose every outline of their figures, and are worn
without a suggestion of immodesty. Such a costume in the United States
would call for police interference; but one soon becomes accustomed to
bare arms and necks and legs, and learns that these innocent creatures are
quite as jealous of their chastity as their sisters in the land where the
standard of civilization forbids the disclosure of personal charms outside
the ball-room or the bathing beach. The ladies of the aristocracy imitate the
Parisian fashions, except that hats and bonnets are almost unknown. They
seldom leave their homes except to go to mass, and at the entrance of a
church every head must be uncovered.
There is not a millinery store in the land. Every woman wears a “reboza”
of a texture suitable to her rank and wealth, and as it is not considered
proper to expose their faces in public, the scarf is generally drawn over the
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