Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-04-05
a vER1rABI,E WoNpERL AND.

United States Consul DuPre, at San
Salvador, Central America, in his report
to the government at Washington in
January, gives the following description
of that truly wonderful country, which
reads like romance. though it may be
accepted as at least approximately cor
rect statement:
/ Eighty miles from the harbor of La
| Union, going north through the greatest
length OF Salvador. the traveller will rest
at the fathomless lake of Ilopango,
twenty-five miles long and eight to ten
miles wide. It's tepid waters occupy
craters OF extinct volcanoes. In 1870,
when Salvador was shaken violently by
earthquakes, the water of the lake sank
IN the night nine feet, and along Its
shores were gathered earthern vessels
curlously colored, and images carved
out OF porphyry, and others precisely
IKE those at the museum at Washing
ton taken from Egyptian tombs. A
few miles southeast from the rail
way the ever-active volcano Izalco
rises 5000 feet, perfect cone,
from the plain about Arme-
MA. The railway crosses the state
OF Santa Ana, district of Salvador fifty
miles square, producing, it is stated,
more coffee than any equal area OF land
IN the world. In truth, every acre of
the mesa of Salvador is cultivated, each
producing from two to four crops an
naally. The products are rice, tobacco,
indigo, sea-isiand cotton, coffee, sugar,
cocoa (chocolate). India-rnbber, and Pc
11a1 1aoor,cn
originally sent from Salvador to Peru
ald thence to European markets. The
railway penetrateS from La Union to
Puerto Barrios or to Port Isabal, which
ever harbor may be its northern ter
minus. very paradise. The average
density of population along the whole
rouse exceeds 100 for each square mile
Here villages and towns are almost con-
terminus, and the population-Aztecs
hlnety-two per cent. and Spanish eight
per cent.-toil most industriously. Labor
costs twenty to twenty-five cents, and
food ten cents per diem. The thatch-
rooted, hoorless adobe huts of the natives
(Aztecs) are the cheapest pos
sibie, and only useful in pro-
tecting the occupants against
rain storms of July, August and Sep
TENDER tthe rainy season., when the
country is flooded almost every day.
There is not a stove or fire place in any
house in the republic: none are needed
where the thermometer never falls below
10 or rises above so degrees. So great is
the annual production of fruits, as well
as OF indigo, tobacco, sugar and coffee,
and so short the distance from Port Bar
rios to Mobile, that it is believed that
most delicate and delicious tropical
fruits, never seen in the United States.
will be distributed everywhere from
Mobile; and SO redundant are crops of
Salvador and of the districts of Guate-
mala penetrated by this railway that it
must have two tracks-one for immense
local, the other for interoceanic, freights
and travel
But the great good to be achieved by
this transisthmian road consists not so
much in the fact that it will enable
travelling multitudes to cross the CONT
nent where narrowest without possible |
hanger from deadly fevers and plaques
incident to detention at the sea-level, |
0ut, with its branches. binding together !
,hese five Central American states in
perfect political and social unity. it I
'ccomplishes their perfect commercial |
to the United States. Puerto |
8arrios is within fifty hours or less of
Dauphin's Island wharves at Mobile. and |
'nly sixty hours would be required to
ransfer traveller or bale of goods from
Mobile to the Pacific coast harbor at La
Union. United States and other
steamers now pay from $50 to $50 ton
It La Union for English or Australian
,oal. 1t may be delivered there from
Alabama over the transisthmian railway
or from So to 81 ton.