Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-12-01

with deep trench on either side, backed
by an embankment and bristling hedge.
The latter was constructed years ago, by
merely sticking into the ground green
stalks of yucca, which, speedily taking
root, have thrown out limbs and leaves in
such profusion that now mechdtes find hard
work to keep them within respectable
limits.
At La Ascuncion, eight miles from San
Jose, we halt for breakfast at posadd
(inn), whose broad white face shines out
Hospitality through clouds of yellow dust
perpetually rolled up by passing coffee
carts. Everything within is remarkably
clean, even to the buxom, bare-armed
that somehow reminds one of melting
butter. The table is without cloth, but
shines like a mirror, and all the queerly-
shaped furniture is of rich black mahog-
any, highly polished The breakfast con-
sists of small loayes of crusty bread, which
we dip into the most delicious chocolate
Next comes the regulation beef, stewed
with garlic and garnished with a sauce of
chile-pepper-fery enough to draw tears
from the eyes of a wooden Indian. Then
we are treated to an excellent salad
composed Of edible palm-tops, olive
oil and aguacates and afterwards we
stop off" with the inevitable fejoles
(red beans) boiled in lard. In all
Central America, as in Mexico, it is mat
ter of stern necessity to eat frejoles at
every meal, or by abstaining, to stand con-
fessed as barbarian and a Gringo. But
in the seasoning of the beans, you pays
your money aad you takes your choice"
Those to the manor born garnish them
with crumbled cheese or with the thin
native molasses, or pour curdled goats
milk over the greasy mess. Before leaving
the festive board, everybody lights his or
her cigarette, as an appropriate close to
the final course.
An hour later we find ourselves in the
plains of Carmen, environed on one side by
great cordillera, broken by volcanic
peaks, and on the other by the ragged
sierras of Santa Anna and San Miguel.
This vast amphitheater of Central Costa
Rica was undoubtedly once the bed of a
great inland sea, whose walls were torn
asunder in some convulsion of nature, and
the imprisoned waters found liberty
through the rent that now forms the out
let of the Rio Grande. The plains of Car
men comprise the lower portion of this
amphitheater and exhibit loose, dark
loan, interspersed with quantities OF vol
canic debris. For miles no sign of human
life disturbs the scene, nothing bat
breadth, lightness,' 'infinitude-the sun in
his fullness, rumblings of thunder over
head, though not an angry speck appears
upon the cloudless blue and the sound of
visible waters pulsing through the warm
earth.
In due course we reach Atenas, city of
church, a posada and a score or more of
poor huts. The inn, where we lunch while
the horses are resting, has an amazingly
high-peaked roof, thatched with plantaIn
leaves the interior furnished with little
but plaster floor, a fame-colored wood
cut of San Francisco de Assis and half
dozen naked children. The landlady,
whose head was shaped precisely like a
cocoanut, with skin the fac simile of bread
fruit, frankly acknowledged that bugs and
pigs infested the house, and advised us not
to remain over night which, assure you,
we had no intention of doing.
At the point called Delmonte a ravine
opens below us in which mountains like
the Catskills might be hidden, and disclos-
ing San Pablo, the eternal sentinel of the
Republic, IN all the magnitude of his glory.
Still toiling up the Aguacale range, every
turn in the winding road deceiving us into
the belief that it would be the last-often
obliged to draw close to the rocks to let
train of coffee. carts go by-we journeyed
on through the clouds.
Long after nightfall we reach Esparza,
the poorest, LATEST and most down heel
town we have yet encountered. 1t has the
look of a deserted village-not of one vio-
lently depopulated, or whose inhabitants
have gone away on an errand, but as if it
had slowly died of old age and neglect.
In truth, it is one of the very Oldest towns
on the American Continent. Columbus.
you remember, entered the Boca del Toro
in the year 1902, and only twelve years
later the foundations were laid for this
Spanish stronghold, which was christened
Esparza-"t the Holy Spirit of Hope"
There are no ruins to tell the story of his
misfortunes, no footprints stamped in blood
upon her pavements, for in these southern
climes Nature soon heals the wounds which
torch and sword inhict. In 1920, when
richest in orange groves and wine-yielding
palms, Esparza was seized and sacked by a
band of French marauders. Hardly had
she recovered from that shock when war
dealt her deadlier blow, and only fifteen
years afterward a gang of English robbers,
under command of a cut-throat named
Sharp, pounced upon the beautiful city and
plundered it right and left Then they
set it on fire and decamped, carrying with
them several prisoners from the first fami-
lies (men and wemen), whom they after
ward released upon the payment by their
relatives of large sums of money.
From the terrors of those days Esparza
has never recovered. Many of her inhab-
itants fed to the fertile plains of Bagaces,
IN the province of Guanacartis, others took
refuge beyond the mountains, and few
hid themselves in the unknown valley of
the Frio. Despite all she has lost and all
she has suffered and the withered old age
of the town, the outskirts of Esparza are
still beautiful with odorous orange-groves.
well stocked portierreras, and neat white
farm houses, within whose walls are
huertas overfiowing with fruits and flowers.
All around lie the richest lands conceiv-
able, open as well as wooded, capable of
yielding cocoa, sugar, indigo and cotton
in short, nearly everything lavish guam
titles. But truth compels US to admit that
they are by no means cultivated as they de-
serve-a few scant patches of sugar-cane
being raised here and there, for fodder
only, and their products equally neglected.
And here in this old-time stronghold of
"The Holy Spirit of Hope" we will leave
ourselves for the night-our last night in
Costa Rica. FANNIE B. WARD.
Reading Characters by the Laugh.