The Republican journal., 1896-12-10

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maintaining large harbor on the delta of
any great river, is generally mere waste
Of money and energy-the respected
engineer corps of the ship canal to the
contrary notwithstanding.
Everybody landing at San Juan del
Norte has more or less exciting expert
ence in the ordeal of being ''lightered"
ashore. If the sea be heavy-as it is about
800 days in the year-the passenger is
placed in chair on deck, and then lower
ed, chair and all, to the lighter, bobbing
and dancing on the waves below; he
spins crafty around like badly balanced
top and clutches frantically at ''empty
air. during the transit between the roll
ing steamer and lurching lighter, and re-
peats the performance without an encore
before rendering thanks for safe deliver
ance from the latter to the little tug that
finally takes him to terra firma. The
American company which undertook the
construction of the ship canal opened
artificial communication into the old har-
Dor; but to-day only the smallest coasting
vessels can drift over the bar with a swell,
and once inside must anchor in the mid
die OF the lagoon for lack of water; while
all ocean going craft wait far outside.
The landing place includes small wood
en- bulkhead and a big corrugated iron
rooted shed for goods. The goods are
Al,
boom, and few white faces are seen
among the wharf loungers. The build
lngs of the canal company lie to the right
OF the channel leading into the lagoon,
! and ''Greytown'' on the left Once land
ed, the tilst evidence of North American
interest in the place is the tramway, rum
ming from the farther end of the old town,
San Juan, to the proposed canal town,
named America by it's founders. The
cars make half hourly trips and the little
donkeys pulling them keep up a lively trot
under the lashes and yells of the Jamai-
can drivers. The cars themselves have a
precious history, as evinced by the legend
on the brass plate over the door, viz
Eighth Avenue" OF course this ram
shackle hamlet has no avenue at all, and
the cars are a relic of Greater New York.
The line runs down the main street. on
which the Governor mansion and princi-
pal shops are located, all ordinary frame
buildings, such as are seen in our poorer
western villages. Along one side of the
street few planks laid lengthwise form a
walk. A few rods from the landing this
street ends in the most forlorn and barren
plaza have ever seen in Spanish America,
wholly devoid of any attempt at shade or
ornamentation and criss-crossed by well
worn paths leading in all directions.
Farther up town is another open square,
or plaza, with few trees in it, around
which the principal buildings are grouped
Two of them are American hotels. The
'oan Juan" at which the great banquet
was given to President Warner Miller of
the Nicaragua Canal Construction Com
pany on the occasion of his memorable
visit is now closed; whether ''busted''
by the banquet aforesaid | am unable to
say ''The "Hotel Victoria, conducted
by an English woman assisted by several
of her female relatives, is open to guests,
but wears the most unhotel-like air
Imaginable. One large airy room serves
at once as parlor, dining-room and ban
room, and sleeping apartment of the lady
of thn lo 1,a l.,
bed rooms above is found back of the
house, under a Shed in the garden. How
ever, it is clean and comfortable and its
specialties are American rocking chairs
and English crumpets, both blessings
when encountered in unexpected places
Most Of the large dwellings in the town
are now unoccupied and all wear a wealth
er-worn, banquet hall deserted appear
ance, melancholy to behold. One story
is the rule, the more ambitious ones of
two or three stories being all of American
origin, In houses of the better class.
wooden shutters generally take the place
of window glass, in the poorer ones there
is nothing to close the openings; while
the former have wooden floors, the latter
none but mother earth. There are three
or four ragged looking streets running
, east and west, crossed at intervals of per-
, haps 100 yards by others running north
and south. All are unpaved, and the few
people lettering about them, like those
{ met at the landing, are mostly black and
{ apparently tired. Cocoa palms and ba-
nanas are seen in a few of the yards, and
{ the rusty rails of the street car line run
| off into the brush that lines the town
limits. Even here the 'means of grace
are not wanting, and the Protestant, as
we'll as the Catholic, route to heaven is
/ open. In the winter of 1887 Jamaican
Baptist minister landed here, simultane-
ously with the expedition for the final
r survey of the canal, and established the
, only Protestant place of worship on Mic
; arauguan soil. His little chapel can ac-
? commodate 200 people, and although it
seldom holds half as many, it is kept neat