The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-02-23

wonder grows why some thrifty Yankee
has not bethought himself that fortunes lie
in the eXhaustless crop.
On board Magdalena steamer
THE ORDER OF EVERY DAY
is about as follows: AT six o'clock the
steward thrusts under your misquito III ct a
cup of coffee and small but very crusty
loaf of bread (the size of a biscuit) of course
without butter. This is the desdj,tno, uni
versal in Spanish America. Not another
mouthful will you get until breakfast or
alm,terzo, which occurs between eleven and
twelve o'clock, and is much like a northern
mid day dinner (barring the excess of
grease and garlic, served in five or six
courses, always beginning with soup and
ending with fruit and coffee. Dinner comes
about 6 pm, and is the counterpart of
breakfast, with the addition of wine and
dessert.
No matter how the days may drag, one
makes great mistake who does not arise
with the lark and the alligator. for by far
the pleasantest time is in the early morn
ing. No pen or tongue can describe the
beauty of sunrise and sunset in this lati-
tude, where the skies flush marvellous
colors of crimson and gold, orange, pale
blue, pink, sea green, bending to the snow
tipped mountains on either side, whose
stately slopes change from amethyst to
There are tall, gray and white storks,
standing silent and motionless, in tho ira
ditional
oNE-LEG ATTITUDE
on bits of floating log, watching for fish.
There are the big gray blue herons and
sometimes white ones; and clumsy pelicans
which, by the way, invariably fly from
south to north in the morning, never by
any chance or circumstance turning toward
another part of the compass. And then
about five O'Clock pm. home they go again
every mothers bird of them, flying in a
straight line from north to south, one be
hind another
Occasionally we pass a canoe, followed
out of the trunk of a single tree and
manned by copper-hued, shock headed In
dams, dressed in the exceedingly summary
costume OF a white apron tied around the
waist. There are many small islands in
the river, all green as emeralds, tlecked and
checkered with sunshine among the trees.
There are miles of banana groveS-noW
mostly stripped of leaves by the locusts,
that have been doing great damage through
out the country; and sometimes the land
scape is varied by groups of tall trees over
grown with poisoning creepers. There
is the papaW, the guayacon, the tamarind
the papaya, the mango, whose luscious
fruit perfumes the air, enormous gourd
trees and the Holy Tree" which grows
TO tremendous height and has Single
cluster of flowers growing away at the top,
IN which live great numbers of ants.
Brown and black monkeys swing from
their branches and splendidly dressed ma
caws with ruddy-brown and black feathers
and long scarlet tails, fly screaming at our
approach.
Two or three times day we stop at some
little village for freight and fuel, where
half naked negroes come on board, selling
strangely carved spoons and bottles made
of long necl1ed gourds, flowers, fruits,
chickens, eggs, etc. The women seem to
do all the business in these places, and to
carry all the burdens, the men being simply
ornamental. The universal dress of the
latter consists of nothing but pair of
breeches stripped red and white reaching
to the knees, leaving the wearer bare above
and below; wa the women permbulate
in low-necked, sleeveless, short and scanty
gowns OF purple calico.
Sometimes we get off and enjoy ramble,
always returning laden with strange flow
ers, rare butterflies and other curiosities
However lovely these riverside hamlets
may appear from afar, their bamboo walls
and matched roofs shaded by cocoa palms
and broad -leaved bananas, a nearer ap-
proach discloses filth and squalor, in the
midst of which black pigs and variously
colored babies roll about together.
FANNIE 3. WARD.