Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1895-04-22

than passing mention among the ma
tions Of the earth. In area it Is far
from large, having only 10000 square
miles, or about two-thirds that of Mis-
souri,. At the last census there We're
100000 population, of which over co
per cent. were of Indian blood, the re-
mainder mixed, pure whites being de-
cidedly in the minority.
The Indian population may be said to
give tone to the entire republic, and the
tone it gives, by the way, is by 10
m MS as exalted as it might be, for n
lazier set of people than the Central
American Indians are hard to find.
But they are philosophic in defense of
their laziness, for their country pro-
duces all things necessary to the sup
port of human life, and why should
they work? Why, indeed? The qucs-
ton is Il conundrum, for when bananas
and oranges and bread fruits are to be
had for the plucking, 1t is not easy 10
see why man should exert himself, par
ticularly in Il tropical climate. In
certain lazy way the Guatemalans do
exert themselves, however; they export
II good deal of coffee, the greatest trou-
bic of which is in the picking. A good
many hides, gathered from the half
wild cattle that roam over the plains,
and here lately, n considerable quantity
of bananas, every bunch gathered at
the risk of mortally offending a cent?
pede or venomous serpent that may
be concealed therein. But of the re-
sources of their magnificent country
they really know nothing at ALL
Though limited in extent, the terri
tory of Guatemala is capable of de-
velopment that, in the hands of enter
prising men, would make the State not
only by far the most important in this
section of the continent, but, also, capa-
Lle of welding no inconsiderable le-
gree of foreign influence. The country
Is an elevated table-land rising abrupt
ly from the Pacific In a range of LOFTY
mountains and sloping gradually away
to the sea on the east coast. 1t is
continuation of the table-lands of Mex
'c0 and Yucatan, and has many of the
principal characteristics of both. While
there is no mountain range, in the geo.
logical sense of the word, there are in
Vulnerable mountains, which rise in the
most unexpected quarters, solitary IN
their grandeur, and so irregular and
broken that the Indian legend of Cen
trail America, regarding it as q place
where all the waste material left by the
Creator was dumped, is far from being
ridiculous when illustrated by view
Of the mountains themselves. And the
mountains command unbounded re-
spect in Guatemala, for no small pro-
portion of their number are volcanoes
Of the most eruptive and aggressive
kind, liable at any moment to send out
a shower of stone or lava, and capable
of generating more earthquakes than
any other set of mountains on the plan
ct. The native-born Guatemalan docs
not mind earthquakes much-he is too
well accustomed to them. He general
ly lives in one-story house of flimsy
construction and the earthquake can do
no more than knock 1T down about his
ears, and when this happens, as in
some quarters 1t does about once in six
months, he crawls out of the debris gen.
orally with no worse injury than a few
scratches, builds another house and
continues the even tenor of his lazy