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

| ~ "AASS P0AAtS0 HOOOCu OUSIlbA VI
rude proportions and ruder workman
ship, which commentaries the services
| of
| GENERAL JOSE MARIA CANAs,
native of Puenta Arenas. who fought
bravely in the war against the Fill
busters,
Not far from this point, Just off the
main street and around the nearest
corner is the market plaza, which the
stranger will find well worth visit
Here, especially on Sundays, may be
found busy scene, every booth, store
and stall crowded, and the arcades
which shade three sides of the buzzing,
busting space all packed with eagerly
vooiferating Costa Ricsns. Carts pass
continually to and fro, laden with
merchandise for the interior, or carry
ing coffee down 10 the landing. 1t Is
not easy to convey with the pen an
accurate picture of these clumsy struc-
lures. A pole projects from an oblong
frame, to which an axle is bolted under
meath. The ends of the axle protrude
through enormous wheels of solid
cedar, the latter being at least four
inches across the tire and five feet in
diameter. Within these ponderous
wheels is some open cane work, which
supports an awning of untanned OK
hide. Upon a platform at the bottom
OF the box thus formed, lies the load
generally coffee, sewn up in bags of
| coarse white cotton. Each cart
will carry from 800 to coo
pounds of coffee, and the freightsge
thereon averages rs cents per 100
pounds. Over the bags another OK
hyde is fastened with thongs of leather
and dangling outside are the water
gourd, iron pot and other utensils for
use along the road.
Hundreds of these carts bring coffee
here for shipment to the United States
and Europe. Many of them come from
long distances from fields beyond Car
tsgo and San Jose, even from the far
away valley of the Tiribi, overlooked by
the mountains of San Miguel.
Peering out from beneath the ox-hide
canopy one may often see the brown
face of some daughter of the noun
tains, whose dark eyes, like those of
Dante Rosetti's Damosel, are deeper
than the depths of waters stilled at
eYen." The wives and children of the
cofee-carriers long to accompany the
head of the house on the long journey
W PO1G NCIN 0SCAuA lhCy P1Otc
themselves en- route, making the tortel-
las and cooking the beans, gathering
garlic or plantains and supplying the
teams with fresh water and edible PALM
tops. While on the march the fore
heads of the oxen are shaded by the
broad leaves of the paul, and their
drivers conduct them with a long pole
tipped with an iron spear. o..
Such a conglomeration OF things as
one finds in this market place literally
beggars de scription. There are pyra-
mids, high as your head, of cocoanuts
and pineapples, and heaps of bananas
and oranges-at prices that astonish
Northerner, for q few cents will buy
more than he can carry away, both in
side and out. The diversity of the
natural productions displayed here
testif1es to the probability of Swiss
Robinson's experiences in the ingenious
use he made of many articles from ma
lures store-house. For instance, what
do you think of a country where bread
and butter grows on trees, where milk
flows from some plants, and wine from
others, and where soap, candles and
tallow are also vegetable products2
Truly mother esrths' accessive
liberality in this little corner of crea-
ton is astonishing! In her wooded
solitudes the hunter and traveller may
find banquet ready spread, to appesse
his hunger and assuage his thirst. To
be sure this vegetable bread being
rather tough for any teeth but those
of monkeys, is vastly bettered by boil
ing; but on the 'butter'' from the
fruit called aquacale, there can be no
improvement. The milk tree" on
being punctured, rends forth a cool
ing, tactical fluid similar to cows milk,
but with the advantage that it may be
kept for months without becoming
rancid. The coyGl, or wine tree" is
more rare, but repays q long search.
muscatel, without its intoxicating prop
critics.
In some portions of this marvellous
country, another tree abounds, from
whose leaves the natives extract a sub
stance for frying and lubricating pur-
poses, which an expert could hardly
distinguish from the best beef tallow.
The berries of another bush make ex-
cellent soap, having merely to be
moistened and rubbed to become even
more saponaceous than Gnlole, the root
in general use for1 soap throughout
Mexico and Lower California. Then
there are castor beans, growing wild
everywhere, which are as useful for il
Illuminating purposes as for fuel and
medicine. A few of the beans, stuck on
stick and lighted, are better than a
dozen tallow candles.
All sorts of tropical fruits are found
in this market, fresh, dried and pre-.
served, including great slabs of guave
jelly. Every stall is hung with strips
and rags of dried meat (bon CAM, often
side by side with switches of jute and
false hair. There are French-heeled
shoes and ox-hide sandals, white gowns,
rainbow-hued blankets and gaudy cal
icos; n.echates, clanking spurs and mu-
steal instruments; sailed fish and other
sea food, vegetables. cheese, pickles.
stewed beans served hot, and patties
chill con carne; birds, kids, pigs and
monkeys, alive and dead, for food or
pets, according to the fancy of the
buyers; and ten thousand other things
coarse and common, choice and strange,
piled up and spread out in the glowing
sunshine.
Here we learned that the famous
Panama hats are not made in Panama,
but in GuVaOuil and EcuadOr. and re-