The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1897-11-04
Affairs In Costa RIGA.
odd Bits OF Information Concerning Our Little
sister Republic. "InstitutiOns," Beneflcent And

Special Correspondence of The Journal
>AN JOSE del INTERIOR. Sept. II, 1897.
one would hardly think that hospitals
we're needed in this Arcadian valley,
IS here contagious diseases are almost I'M
l.uuwn. Yellow fever seldom climbs to
Ibis altitude, (3S6S feet above the sea) and
-lt oldest inhabitant can remember few
-easons of epidemic. But Yellow Jack
las been here two or three times, and
years ago, the charitable association
blown as Ell Junta de Carload determin-
that no future epidemic should find
people unpre pared and the sick with
..t a home To this end they built the
e3t hospital, San Juan de Dios, the larg-
building in San Jose and one of the
LIST notable in Central America. The
'~- Of its erection was betrayed from a
ld in the hands of the Junta and from
utiing percentage on wills; and to this
ty the same means maintain it. The
aItable association is by no means
.ul one. 1t frequently happens that
wing Costa Rican leaves a fat legacy to
e Junta to be used for sweet charity's
ike, OF a living citizen contributes a few
lousand to its store in acknowledgment
heaven favor, such as the birth of
d. the recovery of a loved one from i'll
IS. or the successful outcome of some
siness venture. The expenses of ''Saint
lin of Gud' S hospital are few, although
nee its doors We're opened, (1o52), no one
need Of shelter native or foreign has
CT been turned away. For many years
. John Hogan, of Philadelphia, gave his
Aluable services. gratiutously as medical
lperntendent. The sick are few indeed
his hollow of the hills where the air is
are and sweet-a happy mean between
0pic heat and the rigors OF northern
winters. The great white painted struct-
Ate on the road that leads to the GENE
rites is $50 feet long, including two wings
c4 100 feet square. The left wing is
5re than sufficient for the ordinary uses
the hospital-the right wing being
asionally utilized for a prison for un-
nvicted persons charged with venial
+enses. The few inmates are most in
lt lunatic wards, and nine tenths of them
women. ! suppose the reason is that
lile the people of tropical regions are
1t long lived, as a rule, and seldom ling
with chronic diseases, as at the North,
ne passions of love, hate, grief and jeal-
asy, intensified by proximity to the
u1ning sun, unsettle the mind more
eadily-especially among the weaker sex.
IS significant circumstance in all equa-
o1ial regions that the prisons contain
more women than men; the latter mostly
ucarcerated for theft drunkenness and
minor crimes, the former for the murder
+ lover, husband, or female rival-the
moving cause being jealousy and the agent
oison, or the small stiletto which every
oman of the middle and lower classes
wears stuck in her hair or her waist band.
lie only male lunatic just now in San Juan
osptal has been there many years.
lis is an amusing case, though a hopeless
de-. his mild vagary consisting in a be-
-l that a multitude of zopj}otes turkey
nzzards) are after him, and all he wants
Nith which to disperse them and secure
erfect happiness, is a hat. Needless
say that hundreds of hats, of every
vie age and condition, have been pre-
-ented to him; but he tear up every
ne the instant he lays hand on it
1d clamors for more. The imaginary
aIkey buzzards keep him perpetually
1usy. Night and day they never cease
ursuing each other through lis dsordered
rain; while he boots and bowls and
isses at them, and pelts them with bits
plaster, rushing round and round the
ON and dispensing them in desperate
1shion. The wonder is that more peo-
ne are not mad on the subject of zopi-
les, Here, as everywhere else in Spanish
america, the canion birds are protected
10y law from human assault, the penalty
for injuring one being greater than that
4NI house breaking or horse stealing.
they are the scaveugers provided by ma
IRE, and the hotter and therefore tine
tzier the region, the more vultures has
wise Mother Nature provided. At the
.rst peep of dawn you see them perched
IA the house tops, the church steeples, the
emetery walls and every other available
costing place generally with bedraggled
wings outstretched to dry. During the
lay they tumble awkwardly about the
streets in search of garbage of every sort,
and all is grist that comes to their mill,
rom dead eat to the offal of the sewers.
Their sight and scent is remarkably keen
even uncanny. Before an ailing animal is
lead, the vultures may be seen collecting
from all directions, circling round and
round until they alight near the expected
prey. They are sometimes compelled to
await the repletion of the miserable ours
VI the country, and fight noisily among
themselves over some particularly filthy
moroccan; and afterwards gorged and