The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-11-25
COSTA RIGA LETTER.
Bachelors Tabooed in the
Little Republic.
COSTA RICAN CONSTITUTION.
The Picturesque Cops-Drunkepn es s
Unknown-OraDge Groyea-VertiIe
Lands in Lavish Quantities

SAN JOSE, November II, 1855
Special correspondence to THE
HERALD before bidding adieu to
Costa RIGA, to continue our wander
ings in other parts of the Isthmus, let
US briefly review some of the promi
nent features of this little Republic.
hitherto overlooked in these disultory
letters.
No country outside of Central
America has SO unique Constitution
as that under which Costa RIGA was re-
organized in 184S 1t claims to be
patterned after that of the, model
Republic of the world-the United
Sta tes-but in many respects is very
different. For example, to exercise
THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE
citizen must be 25 years old. be either
the father of family or the head of a
household, and own real estate to the
value of at least $1,000. In this par
tIcular Uncle Samuel might well
pa tern after his feeble little sister.
TO be a member of Congress in
Costa Rica the citizen must be Is years
old and own real estate to the value of
So 600, or be professor of some recog-
med college = it being taken for
granted, apparently, here as elsewhere,
that the children of genius are born to
be moor.
The President and Vice pro sident are
each elected for term of six years by
the electoral assemblies of the coun-
ties; and to be eligible to either office,
the citizen must be 80 years old, own
property 10 the value of $40 600, and be,
or have been, married. What bless
ing it would be to Washington society
could the same laws be enacted in the
United States and
BACHELOR CONGRESSMAN TABooED."
Our southern neigabors evidently rec
ognize the fact that if man amounts
to much, all things being equal, he will
have accumulated a respectable amount
of property before middie-age; and
also the older truth that the possession
of home and freside, wife and child
rem, gives the citizen a more vital in
teress in the welfare of the country
upon whose judicious government their
freedom and value depend.
The Costa Rican Constitution has
other points equally worthy of imita
ton. 1t presc-ibes hospitality to
strangers as a sacred duty, and de-
clares citizenship to be forfeited by in
gratitude to parents; the abandonn ent
of wife or children, and neglect OF the
obligations due to the family and
homestead. 1t also asserts some things
that look we'll on paper but cannot
very readily be carried out-such as
LIBERTY OF THE PRESS"
(heaven save the markD personal
security, the inviolabiIity of property
(Which still may be infscated on the
slightest political putred,) and the
equality of all citizens.
The legislative power resides in q
Congress, composed of one chamber,
with twelve memb ers, presided over By
the Vice President of the Republic
The other two branches of the
supreme power are the executive
and judicial. The later power
is YES Ell in Supreme Court
and other tribunals created BY
law. The Supreme Court consists of
regent, five judges and an attornt y
general. The officers with the exc: p
ton of the latter, who Is elected for six
years. hold their commissions durir g
good behavior; but none of them can
be suspended unless under impeach-
ment nor can they be deposed except
by formal judicial sentence.
Neither the President, Vice. President
nor any member of tt e c. bnet can vote +;
and ali the Offices as well as the judge
ships of the Supreme Court, are incom-
patble with representative position.
Congress appoints the Judges, pro-
roguPs its own sessions and names for
its recesses a permanent commission,
consisting of the Vics-President and
four of its own members. The passage
of law requires the approval of a
Congressional majority, after three
days discussion, or a lapse of three
days, and the sanction OF the ExeCu-
tive.
THE CONSTITUTION PROHIBITS SLAVERY,
privileged classes, the violation of cor
respondence, and primogeniture, and
restricts capital punishment. The re-
public is DIVIDED into five provinces
and thes. subdivid, d into cantOns OF
counties, and these, again, into dis.
tricts. The provinces have their gov
ernors and mill airy commentaries, and
the cantons and districts have alcaidis
and other political chiefs.
A picturesque looking body are the
Costa Rican police, clad in scanty linen
and "a little brief authority" each
with carbine slung over his shoulder,
and dangling at one side short
brass hilted sword and a cartemshe
box; the costume completed by greasy
old blanket and a ragged sombrio OF
Panama grass. Every evening, i'm
mediately after sunset, they are
mustered in the main plaza and
marched off to duty, each having his
own particular beat" They patrol