Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1895-04-04
ABOUT GUATEMALA.
The Minister to This Country Gives Some
Statistical and Other Facts.

The Minister to This Country Gives some
Statistical and Other Facts.
Little Guatemala is in some respects
the most wonderful country on the
face of the earth. She is beyond doubt
the most prosperous nation in the
world, at present. just now she is
building railway to connect the At
lantc and Pacific oceans, which is
marvel of engineering, and promises
TO be the chief pathway of traffic across
Central America, climbing over noun
tains mile high.
The minister to the United States
from Guatemala, Senior Don Antonio
Lazo Arraiga, said recently:
Guatemala has no standing army,
but every male citizen is soldier, and
liable to military duty. We have no
ships, but we could afford to buy them
in case of necessity, for we have plenty
OF money. While all the rest OF the
world has been suffering from business
depression, we have not felt it at all.
During the last five years there has not
been failure in Guatemala. The sill
YER trouble does not reach us, because
we do not produce silver in any guam
tity. We export more than fifty mil
ion pounds of coffee every year, and
al of this we sell for gold. Thus we
may be said to grow gold. Ours is the
only county in the new world that
produces much more than it consumes;
our exports are double our imports.
"We have a labor question, but it is
the very opposite of that which is max
ing so much trouble in the United
States. In Guatemala there is plenty
of work and an unsatisfed demand for
people to do it. 1t is difficult to get
the crops harvested for lack of hands,
and in every branch of industry in the
towns employment is seeking labor If
one hundred thousand honest and in
dustrious Americans were landed in
Guatemala tomorrow, all of them
could find work Immediately. With a
few thousand dollars in gold you may
go to Guatemala and make fortune
in few years. You can get for little
or nothing tract of fertile land, on
which you plant coffee. For half a
dozen years you receive no income
from the investment, but at the end of
that time you are rich man. Thou
sands of Americans now reside in
Guatemala. They came poor, and al
ready nearly all of them are rich.
Such opportunities as are offered in
Guatemala for the investment of capi-
tai cannot be found anywhere else in
the world.
1.-TWO years hence the Transguate-
malan railroad will be completed, join.
ing the Atlantic ocean with the Pacific.
In order to realize what wonderful
work of engineering this will be you
must remember that the road has to
climb over the range of lofty noun.
tains which forms the backbone OF
Central America. On the lofty plateau
of this range is situated Guatemala
City, the capital. From San Jose, the
principal seaport on the Pacific side
the railway has already been built to
Guatemala City. In a distence of sew
enty-one miles it ascends to an altitude
of five thousand feet. This part of the
railway has been constructed by Amer
leans, with American money. The
other part, which will connect Guate
mala City with the Atlantic coast, q
distance Of two hundred miles, is be-
ing built at government expense by
American engineers. Trains drawn by
locomotives made in Philadelphia are
running between Guatemala City and
San JOSE This road is destined to be
the greatest pathway of traffic across
Central America, having marked ad'
vantage over the Panama and Te-
huantepec lines"
Guatemala is the most northernly OF
the five Central American states, ad-
joining the southern boundry of Mex
leo. 1t is this boundry line that is now
in dispute. 1t has population of one
million five hundred, two-thirds of the
people being white and the rest In
dians. The whites, however, are
largely of mixed blood, having inter
married with the Indians pretty gen
orally. These Indians are for mos
part quite civilized, being descended
from the ancient Aztecs, who had nc
mean civilization of their own before
the Spaniard reached the shores of the
new world. The white, of course, are
mainly of Spanish descent, and the
country is Spanish. The women o,
the country are particularly beautiful
Minister Arraiga showed to the writer
a collection of photographs of pretty
girls of Guatemala City, which, as al
exhibit of female pulchritude, coulG
not be equaled in New York, Philadel
phia or Baltimore, nor yet in St. Loui
or San Francisco.
Two thirds of Guatemala is untitled
and much of the far northern part ha
never been explored. In the depart
ment of Peten, at the north, dwell tribes
of savages, who are fierce and intract
able, their Appetite for gore being sucl