The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-03-02
And who are your asks one agape,
Shuddering in the gloaming lighti
Il Know not Said tho gnCpnd shane.

| Al,
But when the stars were lost IN Tue sea
| oil crimson and gold that presagess we tas-
ng OF the tropic sun. Dame Nature suddenly
] shook OF her comatose condition, mellow
ers lifted their dewy heads, BIRDS pegan
70 twitter, smoke TO curl from housetops,
and the hum OF human activity was heard.
presently the road became alive Win In
dams trudging to market under heavy Loads,
oare-footed women in short calico skirts
and vice Straw hats, sitting astride OF
mules, each beast generally carrying Two
persons; and doukeys and black and white
bullocks, SO heavily laden as to be literally
COVERED FROM STEM TO STERN
with piles of chincona bark, bags of gold or
silver ore from the mines, or loads oil mer-
icnandise of various sorts. The principal
towns OF Colombia, scattered along the, Ter
tile valleys lying between the spurs OF the
Andes, are distant from the Magdalena
from sixty to one hundred miles; and to
them al goods must be forwarded over the
rugged mountain pathways. Merchandise
is distributed into bales of 125 pounds each,
allowing two bales or $50 pounds to don
key-load. Parcels exceeding this weight
must be opened and repacked, or they viii
not be carried at ali. The majority OF in
terror cargadores are women and their
charge for each load is from twenty-four to
thirty reales "a Colombian real being about
ten cents American money! or between
three and four dollars. Their system of
transit applies only 10 articles of COMPARE
lively light weight, making il utterly i'm
possible to forward across country to those
places where they are most needed such
neavy objects as agricultural implements,
mining machinery. fire engines, wagons, Or
indeed anything else weighing more than
hall q ton.
Yet we are told that in Bogota every
well TODD family has piano. which had
to be Brought piecemeal over the Sierras
ut the cost OF q thousand dollars per piano
for It's transportation aionei They have
street-cars, too, IN Columbias capital,
which were also toted in sections over the
mountains, as were the rails and ties, on
the backs of mules and human beasts of
burden.
Soon the road grew rough and stony, like
the bed Of rocky river, winding over
hills which i'll some places ascend almost
perpendlcularly and in others offer so mar
row pathway that our little beasts, am
bling one behind another, can hardly ind a
footing
HEAVEN BLESS THE DONKEY,
say l. Whatever his faults, he is sure
footed and faithful, and has borne many d
traveller IN safety over periloEs paths where
a horse would refuse TO 90.
About pm. we reached Consuelo, and
stopped at a straw thaUchcd poSddd, or inn.
Tor breakfast, which, though very poor,
was acceptable, you may be sure, as we had
leaten nothing since the hasty desdjUno of
bread and coffee before daylight.
Two hours sicstG. and Il good rubbing
down with alcohol and hot water the best
remedy, by the way, for tue lamenesS of
joint and soreness of muscle that ailicts the
amateur equestrienne, and by three o'clock
every body eheerfully responded to the call
OF boots and saddles not wishing to re-
main over night in desolate Ccnsuelo.
However, there is not much choice in pos
dddS on the road to Bogota, one being about
as bad as another.
As we assembled, ever higher and higher,
the air grew cooler, and at 900 feet above
Honda the temperature was delightful
Wind ng around the steep sides of the Sier-
ras, We caught glimpses of q most wonder
fol panorama in the Magdalena valley
which, far below, looked like gigantic
chess board. squared off by hedge-row en-
closing cultivated fields, the pale yellowish-
green of sugar-cane patches interspersed
with the dark, glossy foliage of coffee
groves, and palm matched huts for paWns.
all environed by distant heights whose tops
were lost in the Clouds
Long before we reached
GUADUAs
the moon was UP, though the miles are not
many between these w8yside hating
places, because the dullest donkey in the
cayaicade had learned that we were not
Mazzepas, and therefore he need not hurry
himself. Down into a green valley, over
an antique bridge built three centuries ago
and now crumbling to lis fall, past pretty
white casa in the midst of a coffee grove !;
and at last the poSddd was reached where a
smoking dinner awaited aud the night was
to be passed. Gaaduas is said TO be one of
the most comfortable places on the road
though its high priced poSadd would bear
no comparison TO the poorest hotel in tue
| United States. +. and | enjoyed the rerc
luxury OF clean and airy room, and
though its floor was paved with damp
bricks, its walls covered with old news
papers, the window entirely without glass
aud the door fastening pole TO be set up
against 1t, we slept the sleep Of the just,
each IN her little white-canopied cot In
these southern countries the beds are ali
single" two persons never sleeping to-
gether, though several of the narrow cots
may be put into the same apartment.
Thanks to another thorough rubbing with
hot alcohol, we Were IN tolerable order to
start next morning by the first peep of
dawn, while the early mists mercifully OBJ
scured from view the heights we were yet
to climb. Always upward amt upward
ike that foolish youth who bore banner
with the strange device ''Excelsiorr and
came 10 grief, rs he richly deseryad-till
hefoie midday we had assembled something
over , CJt feet The highest point here
aboats is known as