Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-10-25


 air. and cause sicknes. hut may be so There is a very little cemetery out side the walls which contain the bontS of millions. Only those bodies which are under few monuments are per- lnitted to remain there for moro than two years. The rest are taken from the collins and burned in q heap where half charred skulls grin at the passers-by. The collins are often sold secondhand All who can afford it are put into ia- teles in the cemetery wall and when there are friends the bones are removed to some other resting place at the end of the two years.
 But regardless of grinning skulls and secondhand collins, the people are happy lot; music is played at night in their little parks and there is a bull- fighting ring, often used, and a theater too. Cock fights are always in order. especially on Sundays. Every night the lower classes have dances in the open air. Young lovers talk through the iron- barred windows to the seBoritas and later when all is quiet save the oeea- sienal whistle of the policeman an- uouncing the hours, serenades are sung under the balconies with guitar accom- paniment. There used to be an electric light plant but it blew up some time ago, and now the city is lighted asitwas in the old times. Under a penalty of ten dollars for every offense, there has to be a lighted lantern hung from every balcony so there is nothing to destroy the romantic flavor of the night.
 The higher class of the people, living as they do, every man in his own little castle, keep themselves to themselves, and it is very difficult for foreigner to know them. The women are almost never seen except at church. But the people who are seen are very attractive; men in freshly-ironed white linen trou- sers and clean white shirts; the women in neat dresses, cut low in the neck and short ill the sleeves-sometimes no sleeves at all.
 For the protection of the town, be- sides q regiment of infantry, there are three modern guns on the wall, which, in this advantageous position, could stand off any South American navy. As a place of business Cartagena is the main part of the whole country, though Barranquilla is a close second. Americans control the railroad running to the Magdalena river-the highway of commerce to Bogota and the interior, and an American runs the ice factory. But otherwise we are outdone by Ger many, England and France, and this, in spite of the bias in favor of the great sister republic. The prestige of the Americans is greatly due to the United States consul, Clifford Smyth.
 Though Cartagena proper is only that part which is within the walls, there are suburbs that extend to the foot of La Popa, the mountain which has a convent at it's top. There is a tradition of an underground passage from the convent to Fort San Filipe, from the fort to the cathedral, and from the ca thedral to the inquisition building. know that there is one from the fort to the city, and tried to go through it. But the air, the snakes and the bats were too much for me, and besides, in many places it has caved in. The na- tives, under the influence of inherited superstition, leave this place severely alone. In the weirdness of this dark, musty tunnel, with it's wonderful his tory, and shadowy legends of hidden treasure, 1 could close my eyes and faintly hear through the passage the echoed screams of the dying wretch on the table of the Spanish inquisition, and from the other passage, which led to the convent, the sweet voices of the nuns praying for the souls of men; then right about me, oaths, the clashing of arms, the hard breathing of strug- gling men striving against the ever-lurk- ing buccaneer with his train of pillage, murder and rapine; lastly, in my minds vision, drifted past the ghosts of Kidd and Morgan, Nesco, Nunez de Balboa, and then-Christobal Colon.
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