The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1895-09-28
AMONG, THE NICARAGUANs.
A Recent American Visitor Dc
-..@3 scribes the Country.

Pr ss@ AMONG THE NICARAGUANs.
Recent American Visitor Dc.
-Sa scribes the Country.
Vincent L. Cooke has recently re.
turned from Nicaragua where he spent
considerable time with the untamed Ill.
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, on
account of the fevers of a ma1alial sort
which take hold very readily upon I'M,
acclEnated persons. There are a good
many Americans at Bluefelds, and one
OF them. Missourian, keeps the hotel
at which I stopped. He charges hia
fell0W-cOuntrymen $3.50 for a bottle OF
beer and SO cents for an ordinary
drink. That is the usual charge, but it
varies according to the rate Of ex-
change. Outside of Bluefelds 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 little
1nconvenient TO one not speaking
Spanish to travel through the country
[ made the trip and was followed most
OF the way by government detective,
who finally succeeded in stealing from
my grip lot Of notes that had made
to use in my articles. They were in
English, and he probably could not
read them. The country, about that
time, was keeping strict espionage
on ali strangers, and may have been
regarded as a suspect.
1.-The first night [ was in Bluetields
was arrested, considerably to my sur.
prise, for being on the street after 8
o'clock. [ was wandering around very
innoccntly when two guards threw
their guns up in my face, and demand.
ed, III Spanish, who was. Not being
able to understand or answer them, ]
said: NO savey,' and they took me tc
the hotel and communicated to me
that had better stay there all night,
The country was undergoing one Of its
frequent changes in the heads of de-.
paltments 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 pre-
feet, or, as it would be called in this
country, a governor. The president
who is elected, appoints the projects,
and they make all the laws for their
departments, which are absolute and
constructed entirely according to the
hunlor Of the prefect making them
Tie laEyy against murder is such as te
q q lna'ssRase II the taking of hur,aan
life. The penalty for & fefson 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 q 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 q
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 beat Of
fight they throw away their gtfHs 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 arc barefooted, and they general.
ly wear trouesrs 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 usrl.
ally wear nothing but cloth around
t>cir waists, and they, too, go bare.
I>c ed.
The transporta ton facilities in Mic,
aragua are both limited and primitive,
There is only one 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 a 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 person
could make a fortune raising coffee
and other native products if there was
amy means of getting what is produced
to shipping port. But the water
ways leading from these sections are
so shallow that they would have to be
dredged to a considerable extent OF
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 away,
The land, however, which is near the
shipping ports is we'll worth investing
in II a man can stand the climate.
Anyone who can afford to invest $4,000
without getting amy returns for five
years can make a fortune quite rapid.
ly after that period of time has elapsed
by planting coffee. It takes the coffee
five years to grow and bear a good
crop, but at the end of that time a per
son would realize 100 per cent ON the
money Invested
''The Nicaraguans are very much
provoked with this government on ac-