The San Francisco call., 1895-11-05
DR. E|SEN ON GUAT EMALA,
The Country of Coffee, Low
Wages, Ignorance and a
Rich Soil.
California Could Not Grow Coffee
as It Requires the Warm
Summer Rains.


Guatemala, her people and her ancient
builders formed the subject of an illus
trated lecture delivered before the
Academy of Sciences last night by Dr.
Gustav Eisen, an old traveller and personal
investigator in the country of which he
spoke Some $50 slides were used in show
ing characteristic features of this great
coffee-growing State, with its many in
teresting ruins of the works of pre-
historic civilization.
During his two hours lecture DR.. Eisen
said:
giant of the vegetable world. The trunks of
some of these landmarks OF all the Guatemalan
towns have diameter greater than the giant
SeQuoias
Anything will grow in Guatemala after it
gets start.
Only the very rich are buried under the
ground.
Water and bathing form very important
factors in the life of the Guatemalans, the
water being cool and delightful and entirely
free from malaria. The water supply OF
Guatemala and other Central American cities
is brought in through large aqueducts, but
such supplies are not good for drinking pur-
poses. The drinking water is brought on the
backs OF men from springs In ancient times
great wells 300 feet deep used to be excavated
and down into them the natives would climb
on great ladders built of logs and then lug the
water up on their backs
Everything is carried on the backs of the
men,. There are thousands of these carriers in
the city. Some of them come from distances of
several hundred miles and can always be met
on the roads going from one town to another
with burdens. They are satisf with very
little and are content If they clear two or three
dollars from one of their longest trips. Ordi-
nary laborers receive 10 cents day.
Attempts OF Americans and other foreigners
who have gone to Guatemala and tried to re-
form native methods OF cultivating the land
by using plows have always met with failure.
The land will not stand deep blowing;
Coffee raising is the principal industry in
| that part of Central America. In the lowlands
| the coffee grows more luxuriantly and pro-
duces bigger yields, but the trees wear out
| quality as that grown in the highlands where
| the yield is less but of better quality.
| 1t is not possible that coffee can ever succeed
| in this country. Coffee cannot grow where
| there are no summer rains. The rain is neces-
| sary to open the flowers.
Low thatched awnings have to be erected
over the young coffee plants, which are for
some time too tender to Withstand the fierce
rays OF the sun.
| The roofs of the natives houses are made of
palm leaves and are very steep. Glowing Goals
| when thrown upon these roofs do not cause
| them to burn the palm leaves being covered
| with natural coating OF silica.
During my journey through the country /
sent my native carriers into town to buy 55
| cents worth of bread, and after several hours
| my men returned with the justicia, or seven
judges OF the town, who came out to arrest me
| as suspicious character, for never before had
any one wished to purchase SO large an
amount. showed my passports | was finally
| invited into the town. An English traveller
| had once sent clock to the place. The people
| said it had run for week and then stopped,
! and they wanted to know if 1 could repair it.
| found the KEY and wound it up and it ran
| again, probably after disuse of fifty years be-
cause of the great Ignorance and simplicity Of
| the people.
| The nicely and accurately executed HERO
| glyphics on the monuments in the extensive
ruins of ancient time show evidences of such
| accuracy and similarity in the characters in
| different parts OF the country that it appears
| the people must have had text books from
which they copied the characters. Some of
| the sculptured heads and fancy designs are
very artistically wrought in stone.
The following new members were voted
into the academy: Professor Fl. P. John
son, Professor w. A. Setchell and Pro
fessor J. II. Merriam, of the University of
| California; Professor Vernon l.. Kellogg of
Stanford, A. G. Booth and Professor A.
| Van Der Naillen.