The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1897-08-28
SAN SALVADOR.
SOME OF THE CURIOUS Gus
TOMS AMONG THE PEOPLE.
When two Rival Orators Meet Then There
Is Sometimes Great Trouble-Cheerful
Funerals-Salvador's Criminal Code
Curious Holiday Customs.
Continued from End Col.

: p
o!ytcs: the ravorlte portrayal is the adora-
ton or the magi, and human figures are usual
~ framed by the priest tn personate the va
rlous characters. The most beautiful woman
Ill the city Is selected to act the part of the
Virgin, and somebody's baby is volunteered
10 represent the infant Christ The church
is Illuminated with thousands of candles and
crowded with expectant people, while the
altar is shrouded by black curtain. At the
proper moment the curtain is swept aside.
End the choir breaks out in a glorious an
them, the bells of all the churches clash and
)angle together IN mad refrain, and the vast
audience, rising to their feet, join in the ex-
ultant "Jubilate! Jubilats!' Professions of
priests enter, incense is burned, and at the
close OF the anthem the Bishop sings high
mass to living representation Of the mother
and child.
There is more freedom among the sexes
In Salvador than in most parts of Central
America, though the Spanish notion, Dor
rowed from the Moors, of secuson for
women, still prevails, and it is noticeable that
the slight degree of laxity here is not at the
cost of morals, for, as rule, in all parts Of
the world where social restrictions are most
severe there is the greatest amount of Ii
cent1ousness The education of the masses
has proved the greatest safeguard The
constitution of Salvador confers superior ad-.
vantages upon married men, and law limit
ing the once exorbitant marriage fee of the
clergy was wise stroke Of business for the
country, though it curtailed the church's in
come.
Cheerful Funerals.
Hereabouts girls usually marry very young
mothers ID years OF age being not uncorn--
mon. Among males of the lower classes few
reach the age OF 20 unmarried, but the young
men of wealth are falling more and more into,
the bad habit of prolonged bachelorhood
This morning we visited the cemetery.
which lies little west of the city, almost
overhung by the yawning crater Of Salvador
Mountain. Even this gods acre, like every
thing else in the vicinity, suffered in the.
great earthquake of fifty years ago. Be-
fore that time its high wall was faced with
q very beautiful facade, and had several
dependent chapels, all of which, together with
most OF the monuments and mural tombs.
were shaken down. The sole survivor of the
catastrophe is an enormous ceiba tree. 200
feet high and fully thirty feet in diameter, at
the base, which stands near the gateway of
the present high, plain wall. Now earth or
vault burials are exclusively used, in pref
erence to the former mural mode, to prevent
another premature resurrection by earth
quake agency. Scattered throughout the
Enclosure are many handsome marble monu-
ments, some of them made in Italy. One OF
the most noticeable is that of a former presi-
dent OF Salvador who was shot underneath
the great ceiba tree outside by an opposins
Salvador's Criminal Code.
Since time out of mind it has been the
cheerful custom Of the party in power to
bring troublesome opponents to the cemetery
gates, where squad Of soldiers administers
quietus While we were wandering about
the cemetery, funeral came in escorted by
brass band. The procession was on foot and
consisted Of the male friends of the bereaved
family, for in these countries women never
attend their dead to the tomb. All the men
held bouquets, and a few of them carried
lighted candles, flaring strangely in the sun
light; they were barefooted, in clean white
cotton trousers and calico shirts (worn with
Haps outside), and most of them were notice.
ably the worse for "a guardiente"-taken, no
doubt, to keep their spirits up The small
white casket, uncovered in the sun, showed,
the corpse to be baby. 1t was heaped with
flowers and borne by four laughing boys on q
blithe jog-trot, which threatened a general
overturning. Nowadays only soldiers an6
poems go to the grave to the music of bras:
bands, the upper classes having discarded the
custom. On the return to town we met an
other painful sight-a gang Of prisoners.
chained in couples, at the ankles, by huge
Iron links, the weight Of the chains being
somewhat lightened by a leather strap at
tached to the waist-belt. Escorted by 4
strong guard Of soldiers, they were on their
way to one Of the public works" which il
being built by convict labor. Article 10 Of
salvador's amended constitution says: "The
penalty OF death shall not be applied except
for very grave crimes, purely military, COM
mitted on the field, and designated by the
military code; and also for the crimes OF
parr1clde, murder, arson, or larceny, If death
supervenes. Penalties for life, flogging, and
Ill kinds OF torture are forbidden
FANNIE BRIGHAM WARD