The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1897-09-09

IKE a railroad switch, thus loading direct
~ into hand-ca which run through tb,
custom house building to the railway az
tension inland toward the capital. Dutie
are enormous here, and there is besides
wharfage, on every pound of luggage O.
freight received upon the pier. For man,
years Punta Arenas was the principal por
OF entrance into Costa RIGA; but now
owing to the development of commerce,
on the Atlantic side of the country, it.
harbor is not SO often visited by foreign
vessels. The result is that charges are
higher than ever and the Custom House
examination more minute and exasperat.
ing, every thing being turned out from
passengers trunks and every small pack.
age opened, in the determination to fine
dutlable articles. The town takes its name
from the peninsula upon which it is built
"a long narrow point of land extending
into the gulf, covered with sand so dark
that it is almost black, with a dull CLINT in
the sunshine like that on anthracite coal,
Near its eastern junction with the main
land large river enters the gulf, thus
making a protected but shallow harbor.
To the right and left are long stretches of
cocoa palms and jungles of wild bamboo
and banana, and beyond rise the cloud
capped, forest clad hills. As we neared
the wharf | noticed a railway car at the
edge Of the jungle-no doubt on the road
which leads to Esparza and Adajuela, and
will soon be completed to San Jose, the
capital. Having passed the custom house
gates the traveller finds himself surround
ed by about the queerest conglomeration
of the genus homo that can be collected in
one small town-bare- footed women with
huge bouquets of flowers in their thick,
black hair, mahogany colored natives, In
dians, mestiZoos, ,(crosses between Span
iards and Indians) Negroes, Chinese, and
every. conceivable mixture. Most of the
men content themselves in the negligee
costume of merino undershirt, cotton
trousers and straw hat-some dispensing
altogether with the shirt and trousers cut
short, like bathing trunks. The women
wear very low cut chemises and gray
colored calico skirts, with blue or black
cotton long shawl draped carelessly over
the head and shoulders All are bare
footed, and strange to say, while the men
do not seem to be such lnveterate smokers
as one finds elsewhere in Spanish America,
the women are rarely seen without a cigar
OF cigarette between their lips. From an
urban standpoint the town is miserable
failure and derives its only Importance
from the fact that it is the eastern termi-
nus of the $50 miles of railway above
mentioned.
Yet to one who first sees a tropical town.
the waving palms, and screeching parrots
and chattering monkeys, playing with
naked pickaninnies, throw a charm about
the place which renders it almost attrac-
tive-until the. novelty wears off. The
wide streets, laid out at right angles, are
much overgrown with grass, and along
their middle, posts are set at frequent in
teryals, supporting kerosene lamps. The
narrow, dilapidated sidewalks, formed OF
rough stone, brick on tiles, are all beauti-
fully shaded by orange, lime and magnolia
trees, and every garden abOunds in cocoa
nuts, palms, almonds, papaws, tamarinds.
mangoes, and other fruit trees. These
together with the favorite style of fence
growing cacti, eight or more feet in height
almost conceal the one story dwellings,
with their red tiled roots and boarded
sides painted white. The population is
probably about 1000, though no regular
census has been taken within the memory
of man. Among the most favorable fea-
lures of the town is the Grand Hotel,
which has no competitors, it being the
only one short OF Esparza. 1t is big
wooden building, resting on piers out on
a coral reef, where the Caribbean sea
throws its spray, rejecting rainbow tints
in the sunlight. The windows are glass
less, and the partitions do not 90 high
enough to give the occupants of its apart
ments much sense of privacy-but the
climate is responsible for both those short
comings. Hammocks OF canvas cots are
wisely used for sleeping purposes in this
vermin-infested region, and carpets are
conspicuous by their absence. Meals il,
the Grand Hotel, at which beans, rice
bananas and red peppers always figure
conspicuously, consist of two full dinners
a day-at 10 a. m. and p. m.-with the
addition of coffee and bread brought to
the bedside very early in the morning
Back of the hotel is large plaza, which is
now in the hands of landscape gardener,
and bids fair to develop in time into a
beautiful place. At present it is ankle
deep in dust, and he who would rest him
self upon one of its adobe benches must
first look carefully around for scorpions,
centipedes, vipers and other pests of the
tropical region, which have the unpleasant
habit of meandering on voyages of dis
covery up the legs of trousers and down
the inside of coat collars. In the middle
of the plaza is a white painted wooden
Olp' IL of rnJo ,,rono,t;n,e ,,,l ,,,la,,