The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-11-25

and oil. Aside from attending 10
the lamps of the alert. Cost RIGA S
guardians of the peace have little to do,
especially in San jose, where the great
est dissipation is the Sunday cock fight,
peacefulness and temperance prevail.
Indeed, all over the country, drunken
ness, that frightful curse of crime and
riot, is almost unknown, though every
body who is rich enough to procure 1t,
drinks wine instead OF water.
Altogether too short is the journey
between San Jose and Nicaragua Gulf
one point of enc barkation for Panama
for every regrsttul step seems fare
well to the land we have learned to
love. Turning our backs upon
THE SMART sITTLE CAPITAL,
in the twilight of an early morning.
We are whirled out of town fast as
horses can carry US; past long lines of
neat white cottag5 lining both sides of
the road then past carefulIy-cuitiYated
h1tertdS and farmyards and small plan
tations, which extend all the way from
the municipal limits to the bridge of
IbirilIa.
Ell Puenta del Arco de Ibirilla.- the
VI Vic III iOSC SCI JOIJ1 vi
bles of stone inserted in its battIements
spans sunken bed of lava rock, over
which brawls The Rio Grande before
taking its 300-feet leap into the chasm
of the Garita. The road is over hung by
huge masses of lava stone and below
the bridge, breaking through thick cluS
tiers of regia and convolvulus, are thou
sande of tons of it, smelted into one
steep cliff.
Then come peaceful cane fields and
coffee plantations, laid out with studied
regularity in squares and avenues. The
rad from San Jose to La AsunciOn is
in the best possible condition. broad
and level, with a deep trench on eth r
side. backed by an embsnkment and
bristling hedge. The latter was con-
structed years ago, by merrly sticking
into the ground green stalks of yucca,
which, speedily taking root, have
thrown out limbs and leaves in such
profusion that now nechateS find hard
work to keep them within respecta BILE
limits
At La ASCENSION, eight miles from
San Jose,
WE HALT FOR BREAKFAST
at pdsada (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 hostess, with her
several chins and smile that somehow
reminds me of melting butter. The
table is without cloth. but shines like
a mirror, and all the q1eerly-sheped
furniture is a rich black mahogany,
highly polished. The breakfast con-
sists of small loaves of crusty
bread, which we dip into the
most delicious chocolate. Next comes
the regulation beef, stirred with garlic
and gsrnished with chili-peppers, and
firery enough to draw tears FROM the
eyes of wooden Indian. Then we are
treated to an excellent salad, composed
of edible palm tops, olive Oil and april
cots, and afterwards we top of y with
the inevitable ffejOleS (red beans) boiled
in lard. In all Central America, as in
Mexico, it is a matter OF stern neces-
sity to eat frejOLeS at every meal, Or by
sustaining, to stand confessed as
A BARBARIAN AND A GRINGo.
But in the seasoning of the beans,
You pay your money and you take
your choice" Those to the manor
born garnish them with crumb ed
cheese, or with the thiR, native mo-
lasses, Or pour enrolled goats milk
over the greasy mass. 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 the great Cordillera, broken by
volcanic peaks, and on the other by the
ragged Sierras of Santa Anna and San
Miguel. This vast amphitheatre of Cen
trail CostaRica was undoubtedly once the
bed of a great inland sea, whose walls
were torn asunder in some CONFUSION
of nature, and the imprisoned waters
found liberty through the rent that now
forms the outlet Of the Rio Grande.
The plains of C,rmen comprise the
lower portion of this amphitheater and
exhibit a loose dark loan, lnterspersed
with quantities of volcanic debris. For
miles no sign of human life disturbs the
scene, nothing but breadth, lightness,
infnitude-the sun in his fuIlness, rum
blings of thunder overhead, though not
an angry speck appears upon the cloud
less blue, and the sound of visible waters
pulsing through the warm earth.
In due course We reach Atenas, city
of
TRUE REPUBLICAN SIMPLICITY,
with one wretched church. a posada,
and score or more of poor huts. The
wise, where we lunch while the horses
are resting, has an amazingly high
peaked roof, thatched with plantain
leaves; the interior furnished with lit
lie but plaster floor, a fame-coloy eG
woodcut of San Francisco de Assls
and half dozen naked children. The
landlady, whose head was shaped pre-
cisely like cocoanut, with skin the
fac simile of bread-fruit, frankly
acknowledged that bugs and pigs in
tested the house, and advised as 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 noun-
tains like the Catskills might b. hidden.
and disclosing San Pablo. the eternal
sentinel of the Republic, in all the
Yooopitu,In nf his Glory Still tojlJD. =,