The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-24
HOW ECUADOR IS GOVERNED
PRESIDENT DON ALFARo AND SOME
OF HIS NARROW ESCAPES.
Schools Where Children Study ONT
Loud-Our Trade with Ecuador and
How It Could BE Increased.
Copyright 1898, by Frank c. carpenter)

of its people have as fine a climate as those
of any part Of the globe They sky
dwellers Nine-tenths of them live among
the clouds There are dozens of towns here
which are twice as high as Denver, and
there are cattle ranches in the Andes at
an altitude of 1900 feet On about the lati-
tude of the Congo, Quito has more tenn
perate climate than that OF Washington
city. Here at Guayaquil the climate is that
Of the tropics; in some of the Andean val
leys it is like an Ohio June all the year
around, and on many of the peaks the snow
never n1elts.
Quito is the highest capital city on earth.
1t is situated on the roof of the world. 1t
is more than half a mile higher up In the
air than the City of Mexico, and more than
a thousand feet higher than the Mount of
st. Bernard, in the Alps, which is the high
est point in Europe where men live all the
year around. Quito is, I am told, going
backward 1t is represented as having about
$1,000 people. 1t is a question whether it has
$1,000 and 1t had its greatest number over
$50 years ago, before the country was dis
covered by the Spaniards. Then it had sew
eral hundred thousand people, who had a
better civilization, on the average than the
masses of Ecuador have to-day. There was
a town on the site of Quito, according to
tradition, a hundred years before Christ
was born, and it is known that a city ex-
listed there in 1000 A. D. Atahualpa the
iron monarch who was conquered and muir
dered by Pizarro, had a palace at Quito,
the roof of which, it is said, was covered
with pure gold, and of the treasures which
were hidden by the Indians at this time it
is believed that vast quantities were buried
in Ecuador.
fO T how >nkE 6etoy
able to make my way to the Ecuadorian
capital. The route is flooded and the mails
are now fifteen days in coming a distance
of less than 300 miles The city lies over
the Andes in valley between two ranges,
and you ride on mules about the PERCEPTIONS
slopes of these great mountains to reach it,
In good weather the trip may be made in
eight days; now the mules must wade
through the mud up to their bellies, and in
descending some of the declivities they sit
down and slide. There are here, however,
many people who have lived in Quito, and
my information concerning the city will
give you an idea of the place as it is to-
day. Quito is about mile square. 1t would
just cover four 16O-acre farms. The streets
are laid out at right angles, but are very
narrow and ara such that the man who in
troduced the first carriage into the town
had to get permit to do so. Just back of
the city is the active volcano Mount Pich-
incha, and all about it on the sides of the
valley, walling it in as it were,
are some of the highest peaks of
the Andes. Mount Pichincha is
snow-capped and its peak is so near Quito
that the ice used for making the ice cream
Of the city comes from there. Mount Pr
chincha has a crater half d mile deep, and
fIO
higher up in the air that Mount Aetna,
and it's fires are such that it has been
said that Vesuvius would be a portable
furnace beside 1T. The top of this noun
tain can be reached by horses in a five
hours ride from Quito. Standing on the
slope of Mount Pichincha, Quito lies in
the valley below you. 1t is a city Of white
adobe two-story houses covered with red
tiles The houses look low and squatty,
and you see among them a large number
of converts naonasteries and churches
Fully one-fourth of the town is taken UP
with church establishments, and there are
as many priests and Nuns to the square
as you will find in the city of Rome Quito
rhs always been a great supporter of Rome,
and its contributions to the Catholic Church
have been so many that 1T has been called
THE little mother of the Pope
GOVERNMENT OF ECUADOR.
Until lately the government of Ecuador
has been largely a union OF church and
state and to-day the priests have great in
f1uence. Catholicism is the only religion Of
the country, and by Catholicism I do not
mean the liberal religion of Archbishops
Ireland and Gibbons, but the Spanish
Catholicism, which is as bad almost as that
OF the days Of the inquisition and of the
mid AL ~.
ly republic, but voters must belong to
the church and must be able to read and
write. Not more than one-tenth of the PEG
pie can do the latter, so the educated whites
practically control the elections-I should
rather say that the officials control them.
and that there is no such thing as a fair
election in Ecuador. The land is one of revo-
lutions. The present president, Don Alfaro,
mas been a revolutionist all his
lie and has at last cot into DOW
er. He has had number of mar
row escapes, some Of which Captain
Power, the commander Of one OF the little
Ecuadorian men-of-war, has described to
me. At one time when Power was with AL
faro his boat was captured by the enemy
and Alfaro escaped by swimming to the
shore on barrel and at another time he
lived for wooks in the Wiids OF FZcua,1or
ana Colombia, hunted by the state troops.
President Alfaro has limited somewhat the
power of the priests, although am fold
that he is afraid of them. He is progressive
in his views and he is very DESTROYS that
foreign capital should come to Ecuador and
develop it. The President lives at Quito. He
mas salary of 1900 sucres, or about Sl2,-
900 year, and his term or Office is for four
years. He has a Cabinet. one of the minis
ters of which represents the church. In ad-
dition to the President the government con-
sis-s of a Congress. system OF courts and
of governors OF the various provinces who
are appointed by the President and may be
removed by him.
Ecuador has very small national debt
and its direct taxes are low. Much of the
government income is derived from the tar
if on imports. which covers almost every
thing. and also from the tax orr salt Salt
is a government monopoly here Every city
has It's government salt warehouse, where
the merchants or private consumers must