Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-11-24

The municipal council of San Jose con-
sisis of three chief magistrates and two
syndle pracurGdores. These officers are
elected annually by the property holders
of the city end are presided over by the
Governor of the Province They employ
a secretary and door-keeper and hold
meetings at least once q month. The
duties of this council consist in framing all
necessary local regulations, the designa-
ton of those citizens liable to serve in the
militia, the collection and disbursement of
the municipal taxes and the assessment of
the expenses of each canton or district
within the Province; besides superinten-
dance of the agricultural interests. trades,
manufactures. and the rudimentary public
schools. The council is also empowered to
negotiate loans on the municipal revenues.
The latter are partly derived from the to-
bacco and other customs duties, but princi-
pallY from the license tax imposed upon
shop-keepers and traders generally.
The educational system of Costa Rica
has established free school in every
town. In addition TO this there are in
San Jose a Normal school, lyceum,
female seminary and Catholic college,
besides the celebrated University of St.
Thomas, which, in an architectural point
of view, occupies by far the finest building
in the country. The grandest structure,
so far as size is concerned, is the hospital
of San Juan de Dios, which stands few
rods from the main boulevard leading to
the Campo de Marie The entire length
of the building is $50 feet, including two
wings each 100 feet square. The left
wing contains the sick and insane of both
sexes while the right is used, temporarily,
as prison.
In this Acadian valley there is not much
need of a hospital, except in seasons of
epidemics, and those are so rare that the
Oldest inhabitant remembers but two or
three of them. This Saint John of God"
hospital was established by charitable
association, called FL Junta del Caradad,
soon after the terrible epidemic before
mentioned, with the view that if another
should strike the people it would find
them not wholly unprepared, nor the poor
without proper treatment. For many
years the medical superior of San Juan
was DR.. John Hogan, Philadelphia,
who gave his services gratuitously.
The inmates are few indeed, the major
ity being females in the lunatic wards. l
suppose the reason is that while as rule
the people of the tropics are not long
lived, and seldom linger with chronic dis
eases, as at the North-the passions of
love, hate, grief and Jealousy, intensified
SO near the equator, unsettle the reason
more readily, especially among the weaker
sex. 1t Is significant circumstance in all
Central American prisons, that while
many male prisoners are incarcerated for
drunkenness and other minor crimes,
nearly every woman land the iiails are full
OF them, was committed Tor the murder of
her lover, husband or rival, the moving
cause being love or jealousy, aud the agent
poison or the small stiletto which every
female wears in her hair or stuck in her
garter.
The San Jose theater is a pretty edIfce,
adorned with Grecian front and occupy
ing an area of seventy feet square. The
street door opens into a vestibule hung
with China lanterns, beneath which bare
footed soldiers lounge about on benches
during every performance. There are two
tiers of boxes, and beneath the lower tier
are several rows Of seats partitioned from
the parquette by horizontal bars of iron.
The Presidents box is draped with the
Costa Rican colors, and he is generally
present on Sunday nights-the fashionable
time for theater-going in this part of the
world, when the performers are always at
their best, the boxes rustling with silks
and fiuttering fans, and brilliant with the
flash of jewels, the glitter of white teeth
and the splendor of black eyes, and musical
with chattering Spanish. Between the
acts the gentlemen promenade the gal
leries and Hobbies and call upon their
friends in other boxes, putting necessarily
at puros and cigars, while the ladies smoke
peacefully in their seats. At frequent
intervals lemonade (colored bright red is
handed around, and in some of the boxes
of the aristocracy the popping of cham
payne eorks may be heard, and the ever
lasting cigarettes give way to cakes and
ices. FANNIE B. WARD.