The Republican journal., 1897-04-15
nd prayer ourselves to the fraudulent

At last on the second morning of wait
ing within stones throw of San Jose,
the captain of the port came on board, in
all the glory of gold embroidered blue
coat and gold striped red trousers which
would have eclipsed French general of
artillery, and the hour of landing had
come. But such landing! The use Of
small boats being rendered impossible by
the constant agitation of the waters, pas
sengers and baggage were let down over
the steamers side into a great coffee
launch that lay tossing and backing be-
low. II is not the most pleasant of ex-
periences to be seized bodily by ships
"hand'' and tied into chair like
naughty child, then swung out in mid air
over raging sea and dumped among other
commodities, animate and inanimate;
but that was by no means the worst of it.
A screeching little steam tug towed the
cotfee-boat shoreward, over swels heavy
enough to upset the stoutest stomach
ever encased in human frame, and eau
tiously approached the pier, against
whose massive iron beams it seemed
in momentary peril of being dashed and
shattered like an egg shell. And while
the boiling surf around us pounded the
shore with thunderous reverberatons that
seemed to shake the universe, we saw de-
scendipg upon our heads from the dizzy
heights of the blood red scaffoldS above,
great iron cage, for which, on account of
the cratic movements of the tossing
launh, it seemed utterly impossible to
make room, without crushing a few sea-
sick passengers under its weight. But the
feat must be accomplished some way, and
that very quickly-for if old Neptune
were not instantly seized by the forelock
there was no telling when we might be
able to get into Guatemala. The luckless
passengers crawled precipitately fore and
aft-for between the tumultuous motion
and NAL de mer nobody had any use of
his legs-tumblng over trunks and bag
gage and rolling upon their companions
in misery who had already gained the bow
and stern. When the cage was safely
placed in the centre of the launch, amid
lamentations and imprecations in several
languages-in which the good round
swear words of our Y ankee escort were as
balm to our lacerated shins and feelings
a commanding voice called out, ''Pasa-
jeros. Tomen puesto en- ell jaula.' (pas-
sengers, take places in the cage) There
was room for only four or five at once,
and however slightly allrring appeared
the prospects of an aerial voyage at the
end of rope which might break midway,
everybody naturally wished to be first;
and the struggle that enSued, in which
the victory was to the strongest, well nigh
lost the day for all of us. Thus, ascend
ing and descending several times, in the
course of two wretched hours the coffee
boat was finally emptied and the last of
its human cargo, more or less bruised and
battered, deposited upon the historic soil
of the Clutches, the Cakchiqueles and the
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. to the modern times as
Guatemala.
AS before mentioned, the famous pier is
all OF cast-iron. its piles being hollow and
filled with auger- points, by which they
are screwed down into the sand The
seward end of it is covered by cor
rugated iron shed and provided with three
steam hoistin9 machines, for hauling up
and letting down everything that comes
in or goes out at this gate to Guatemala.
The railway, which was completed to the
capital in 1880, runs its track along the
pier to facilitate the handling of freight,
much of which is lumber brought from
Oregon, and sugar, coffee and hides to be
sent to san Francisco. At first we sat
dazed and half-unconcious on the spot
where the cage had dumped us-until the
sight of New Y ork City police uniform
in this strange place aroused-or perhaps
we should say arrested-our wandering
wits. Club and star, coat, cap and Chilly"
almost persuaded us that we had mad
vertently landed on some wharf in the
North River But the swarthy complex
ions of these guardians of the peace the
intense heat of the place, and above all
the stern realities of the cage from which
we had just escaped, brought us to our
proper bearings. The chief of the Qua
temalan police is an ex-policeman of
Philadelphia the familiar outfit.
He has drilled his men into tolerably good
form, but the Angel Gabriel himself could
not manage the small boys of San Jose,
who beset the pier and consider passen-
gers as lawful prey. They grab your
luggage right and left, fighting and
squabbling over it and threatening to rend
each article in twain, like Soloman's baby;
and when one end or the other of the pier
is reached according as you are arriving
or departing-a score of boys, whose dark
faces look so exactly alike that you are
unable to recognize those who really rem
dered a service, demand "reales'' for tot
ing perhaps half a.dozen pieces, all told.
Truly, this getting into Guatemala is at