Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-03-15

prevailing style of architecture Is, OF
course that which the Moors bequeathed
to the early Spaniards, every house like a
fort, its bare, blank walls, built flush with
the pavement, carefully concealing from
the pss<er-6y every trace of home life !;
while within are bloom and beauty, sun
shine and cheerfulness
Those casas that exult in the luxury of
a second story, and there are more of them
in Bogota than one often finds in Span
ish-American city, have no windows on the
ground floor, the rooms fronting the street
being used for shops, warehouses and sta
bles, for the proprietors and their families
always prefer TO live above. Even the
biggest and grandest of these houses have
never more than one entrance, and that
consists of a pair of enormous double
doors, often elaborately carved, opening
upon narrow passage paved like the
or patio, around which the house is built
and with which all its apartments directly
communicate.
THE HANDsoMEsT RESIDENCES,
Including all the two-storied ones, have
each wide corridor surrounding its court
yard, above and below, and into this corri-
dor every room opens. The court has its
fountains, shrubs and flowers and the corri-
dors are shaded with curtains of striped
canvas, arranged on rollers so that they
can be raised or lowered according to the
position Of the sun. Bird-cages and flow
ers abound in the corridors, hammocks are
swung in the shaded hooks; here the meals
are mostly partaken, the mistress Of the
! ,b,.r.il Il
guitar, the children their playthings; in
short, the family life practically goes on
out of doors, but in strictest privacy so far
as the outher world of the street is con-
cerned, because of the high, windowless
walls.
The city is constructed after no regular
plan, but straggles down gently y-sloping
hillside with three considerable streams
running through it. Its streets are named
after the saints, famous public men, or the
dates of decisive battles-such, for exam
pie, as the Gale de San Juan BdW sta (St.
John street,, Bolivar street, Fifth of May
street, ETC. A distinctive feature of Bogota
is its eucalyptus trees, of the globulus va
riety, which, interpreted with few sickly
willows, shade every avenue. Less than
quarter of a century ago the first eucalyp-
/ tus was introduced here, and now there are
thousands of those scraggy, melancholy
| looking trees.
There are telegraphs and telephones,
electric lights, street cars and newspapers
away up here; and yet every bit of freight
has 10 be laboriously lugged over the ST.
! eras on the backs of men or mules, as de-
scribed in previous letter. On this point
let US again quote
| MR.. sCRUGGs.
| He SAYS: "None of the commodious
! coaches and omnibuses and not one of these
agricultural implements were manufactured
/ here nor elsewhere in Colombia. They
have all been imported from the United
States and England-brought to Honda by
the river steamers, then repacked into
small sections and carried, piece by piece,
| over the mountains. One peon will carry
a wheel, another an axle, third a coup
| ling-pole or single-tree, while the screws
and bolts, packed in small boxes, are toted
by the cargo mules. The upper part of
the vehicle is likewise taken to pieces and
packed in sections. One man will some
times be a month in carrying a wagon
wheel from Honda to Bogota, his method
being to tug it from fifty to one hundred
PAGES, and then to sit down for long rest,
barely making two miles day. When all
the dismembered vehicle finally reaches its
destination the pieces are collected and
put together by some smithy, who may
have learned his art from an American or
English mechanic One scarcely knows
where ought to be the greatest marvel, the
failure to manufacture all these things in
country where wood and iron and coal
are so abundant, or the obstacles that are
overcome in their successful transportation
from foreign countries"
Notwithstanding the enormous cost of
constructing street-car lines in this isolated
place-each rail being the load Of half a
dozen men during several days of difficult
mountain climbing-they have proved a
very profitable investment to the company
of
NEW YORK CAPITALISTS
| Who own them. There are few carriages
| in Bogota, not only because the stony
streets would soon wreck the strongest We
| hicle, but on account of the great expense
of bringing them here. Therefore every
body patronizes the horse-cars, and the
tariff charged for ride, whether it be for
|
coin which equals in value about ten cents
American money.
The horse-car drivers carry tin horns,
which they are continue Y footing with
might and main to notify people in their
houses of the trains approach. Through
| out all Spanish America the street cars
are never run singly, bat always in groups;
that is, instead of sending out cars five
minutes apart, they wait altogether at the
\ station, half an hour or more, and then all
sally fourth at once, six or eight of them
close behind one another, to the other end
of the line, where they wait in a group as
before. Fancy the New York elevated
railway adopting such plan, or the street.
cars of any rushing Northern city
But in this Acadia nobody is ever in a
hurry. Business never presses and people
are content to collect on the corners and
spend half an hour in friendly gossip
while waiting for the train. Often the
whole string of cars is halted while some
body who is coming finishes his chat en-
casa and goes through with the elaborate
and long-winded adieux which are the
fashion among these excessively polite
| CdSiiaHGes. And whenever a passenger
gets of, especially if it be female, an
other wait ensues while she embraces all
her acquaintance who may chance to be
in the same car and exchanges with them
the customary kisses and ''come and see
mes" The other day we visited
THE BARRACKS,
Whose lofty blank walls line one side OF
pretty plaza. Among other curiosities
we were shown some old bronze carron-
ades, one of which is highly priced for its
history, an inscription on the breeeh
showing that the Spaniards captured it
from the French at the battle Of Paira.
The artillery of the Colombian Guard are
/ furnished with Armstrong mountain guns
and a few Gatlings. Among the latter is
/ -. IL .-. --;o;-a.tr,linc Ao.o,r.a ncr,nni n1