The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1895-10-10
AMONG THE ~NICARAGUANs.
A Recent American Visitor De-
scribes the Country.


turned from Nicaragua, where he spent
considerable time with the untamed ma
tives. This visit was sufficient to sati-
ate Mr.. Cooke with the Central Ameri-
can states, and he returns convinced
that he does not care to spend his days
In that sunburned country. 'There are
a good many opportunities for making
money In Nicaragua" said Mr.. Cooke,
IF one could stand the climate. But
this is hard for an American to do, OF
account of the fevers of a malarial sort
which take hold very readily upon I'M
acclimated persons. There are a good
many Americans at Bluefields, and n
of them, a Missourian, keeps the hotel
at which / stopped. He charges his
fellow-countrymen $3.50 for a bottle of
beer and 80 cents for an ordinary
drink. That is the usual charge, but it
varies according to the rate of eX-
change. Outside of B1uetields and Grey
town, however, there are no Ameri-
cans or English, and from the Atlantic
to the Pacific nothing but Spanish is
spoken, and consequently, it is a little
incOnvenient 70 one not speaking
Spanish to travel through the country.
I made the trip and was followed most
of the way by a government detective,
who finally succeeded in stealing from
my grip a lot of notes that l had made
to use in my articles. They were in
English, and he probably could not
@ them. The country, about that
time, was keeping a strict espionage
on all strangers, and l may have been
regarded as a suspect.
1.-THE first night / was in Bluefields 1
was arrested, considerably to my sur
prise, for being on the street after 8
o'clock. / was wandering around very
innOcently when two guards threw
their guns up in my face, and demand
ed, in Spanish, who | was. Not being
able to understand or answer them, I
said: No savoy and they tool me to
the hotel and communicated to me
that l had better stay there all night.
The country vas undergoing one of it's
frequent changes in the heads of de-
partments about that time, and the
officials were careful to prevent people
being around too much.
Nicaragua Is divided into depart
ments, corresponding to our states,
each department being under a pre-
feet, or, as it would be called in this
country, a governor. The president,
who is elected, appoints the projects,
INT they make all the laws for their
departments, which are absolute and
constructed entirely according to the
humor Of the project making them.
The law against murder is such as to
almost encourage the taking of human
life. The penalty for a person con-
victed Of this crime is ten years i'm
~prisonment, but in order to convict,
there must be two witnesses to the
deed. AS a result, it Is comparatively
easy to commit murder and be acquit-
ted. When a foreigner is convicted
they usually bleed him and his friends
as much as possible and then kick him
out of the country.
"The country's standing army is a
ridiculous affair. 1t consists of from
1000 to $500 men and boys, ranging
in age, all the way from fourteen to
sixty years. The men are armed with
the old Remington rifle of the 1874 pat
ent, but when they get into the heat of
a fight they throw away their guns and
use the machette, a knife something
like those used by butchers, but con-
siderably longer. They use this, in
fact, for everything from a table knife
to a corn parer. The most of the sol
diers are b~arefooted, and they general
Nv wear trousers made of jeans and a
light shirt, open in the front at all
times. The costumes of the civilians
are very limited, and the women usu-
ally wear nothing but a cloth around
their waists, and they, too, go bare
footed.
THE transportation facilities in Mic
aragua are both limited and primitive.
There is only n railroad, and that is
a short one. The general method of
travel is by small boats, built after the
pattern of the stern-wheel steamers on
the Mississippi river, which ply slow
ly upon shallow streams, ranging in
depth from six to two feet. At the
start q boat Is taken which suits the
depth of water, and as the river be-
comes shalloWer the passengers are
transferred to other boats of less
draft successfully. 1t took me six DAYS
to make a trip of 100 miles in this
way There is a great deal of land in
the country out OF which q person
could make a fortune raising coffee
and other native products if there was
any means of getting what is produced
to a shipping port. But the water
ways leading from these sections are
so shallow that they would have to be
dredged to a considerable extent or
railroads would have to be built, which
would be very expensive on account of
the heavy brush and underground
which would have to be cleared awrv
The land, however, which is near u
shipping ports is well worth inveitu.
in If a man can stand the climate.
Anyone who can afford to invest $4,000
without getting any returns for five
years can make a fortune quite rapid
ly after that period of time has elapsed
by planting coffee. 1t takes the coffee
five years to grow and bear Il good
crop, but at the end of that time a Der
son would realize $50 per cent on the
money invested.
The ~NicalaguanS. are very much
provoked with this government on nc
count of the part it took in the Blue
fields troubles. They thought that the
United States should have sent a fleet
of war ships here to blow the British
boats out of the water in order to pro-
rect their mud huts, and they cannot
be convinced that we were right in not
doing it," Milwaukee Sentinel.
Effect of Cold Water on Tan.
T1lA 80, HI e.