The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1898-05-07
VOL. Il. NO. 10.
OUR LATIN NEIGHBOR.
WAYS AND INSTITUTIONS IN A
CENTRAL AMERICAN REPUBLIC
nan jose Del Interior-An Evident Striving
Tor Education and Improvement-Fate of
an Editor who was Candid-Nationa,
Liquor Factory. ...

SAN JOSE DEL INTERIOR, ~ L.
Special Correspondence--One would hardly
think that hospitals were needed in this Ar
cadian valley, where contagious diseases are
almost unknown. Yellow fever seldom climbs
to this altitude (3S68 feet above the seal, and
the Oldest inhabitant can remember few sea-
sons of epidemic. But yellow jack has been
mere two or three times. and after the last
calamitous visitation. some forty years ago,
the charitable association known as Ell Junts
D de Carload determined that mo futGse erf-
demic should find the people unprepared, and
the sick without a home. To this end they
built the great hospital San Juan de Dios, the
largest building In San Jose, and one Of the
most notable in Central America. The cos.
OF its erection was betrayed from q fund in
the hands Of the junta, and from trifling
percentage on wills; and to this day the same
means maintain it. The charitable associa-
ton Is by no means poor one It frequently
happens that a dying Costa Rican leaves
lat legacy to the junta, to be used for sweet
charity's sake, or living citizen contributes
q few thousands to it's store in acknowledge
ment OF heaven S favor, such as the birth Of
son, the recovery Of loved one from illness.
or the successful outcome of some business
venture. The expenses of Saint John of
Gods hospital few, although since it's
doors were opened qs52), no enc in need of
shelter, native or foreign, has ever been
turned away. For many years DR.. John
Hogan of Philadelphia gave his valuable serv-
Ices gratuitously as medical superintendent.
The sick are few indeed in this hollow of
the hills, where the air is pure and sweet
q happy mean between tropic heat and the
rigors of Northern winters. The great white
painted structure on the road that leads to the
cemeteries is $50 feet long, including two
wings, each 100 feet square. The left wing is
more than sufficient for the ordinary uses OF
the hospital, the right wing being occasionally
utilized for prison for unconvicted persons
charged with venal offenses. The few in
mates are mostly in the lunatic wards and
nine-tenths of them are women.
Tropical Tendencies.
I suppose the reason is that, while the peo-
pie of tropical regions are not long-lived, as
rule, and seldom linger with chronic dis
eases, as at the north, the passion of love
hate grief, and jealousy, intensified by prox-
unity to the burning sun, unsettles the mind
more readily, especially among the weaker
SEX 1t is significant circumstance in all
equatorial regions that the prisons contain
uIore wUlncu Lnan meu-Lue latter mosLiy IN
carcerated for theft, drunkenness, and minor
crimes; the former for the murder OF lover,
husband, or female rival, the moving cause
being jealousy and the agent poison or the
small stiletto, which every woman of the
middle and lower classes wears stuck in her
hair or her waistband. The only male luna
tic just now in San Juan hospital has been
there many years. His Is an amusing case,
though hopeless one, his mild vagary con-
sisting in belief that multitude of zopi-
lotes turkey buzzards) are after him, and all
he wants with which to dispense them and
secure perfect happiness is hat Needless
to say that hundreds of hats, of every style,
Ige, and condition, have been presented to
him; but he tears up every one the instant
he lays hands on it and clamors for more.
The imaginary turkey buzzards keep him per-
petually busy. Night and day they never
cease pursuing each other through his dis
ordered brain; while he boots and bowls and
misses at them, and pelts theme with bits Of
plaster, rushing round and round his room
and dispensing them in desperate fashion.
The wonder is that more people are not mad
Dn the subject Of zopiotes. Here, as every
where else in Spanish America, the ugly car
rion birds are protected by law from human
assault, the penalty for injuring one being
greater than that for house breaking or
horse stealing. They are the scavengers
provided by nature and the hotter and there
fore the lazier the region, the more vultures
has wise mother nature provided. At the
first peep of dawn you see them perched on
the housetops, the church steeples, the GEM
etery walls, and every other available roost-
ing place, generally with bedraggled wings
outstretched to dry. During the day they
tumble awkwardly about the streets in search
of garbage of every sort, and all is grist that
comes to their mill, from dead cat to the
offal of the sewers. Their sight and scent Is
remarkably keen, even uncanny. Before an
ailing animal is dead the vultures may be
seen collecting from all directions, circling
round and round until they alight near the
expected prey. They are sometimes COM
PEELED to await the repletion of the miserable
ours of the country, and fight noisily among
themselves over some particularly filthy
moroccan; and afterward, gorged and stupe-
piied, they rest upon the roofs, occasionally
regarding you with sleepy eyes, as If specu-
lating how soon they may count upon your
carcass.
There are other homes for the sick and I'M
fortunate which reflect great credit on San
Jose. Among them are the Lepers' hospital,
in q comfortable building furnished by the
government; the lying-in hospital, the
Orphans Asylum for Girls, amply provided
for in the will Of Dona Jeronima Fernandez
de Montealegre; the hospital for incurables
esp,sTe'!1 designed for the aged poor: and
the new idiot asylum. The last named in
stitution endowed by means of lottery
conducted under government auspices, and
is not only an ornament to the capital, hand
some building standing in the midst Of we'll.
kept grounds but long-fet want. "
Educational Institutions. i
In an architectural point OF view one OF the
finest building in San Jose is the University OF
Santo Tomas, founded as early as 1915. It has
the usual profeSsOrship for various courses
and all needed equipments, and contains the
national library-some 5000 volumes, scien-
tifc and miscellaneous. There are two other
equally good colleges In little Costa RIGA
the San Luis, in Carriage, and the San Agustin
in Heredia; besides a young ladies' seminary
in San Jose and another in Alajuela. There
Is also normal school in the capital, school
of arts and trades, a conservatory o. music
and several night schools. Costa Rica's edu-
caticnal system, established and fostered by
the government, maintains free school in
every town, with the dream in view of 8
country in which every citizen Shall know
how to at least read and write. At present
only about IL per cent of the inhabitants are
educated to that extent; but there is bright
hope for the future, since the 280 so-calle6
model schools, supported by the government
report an average daily attendance of 5000
pupils, to say nothing of more than hundred
private schools including several kindergar-
tens conducted on the German plan. Tht
amended constitution somewhat ambiguously
says: Elementary instruction Of both sexe'
is obligatory, free, and provided for by thu
government t. Its immediate supervision shall
be for the municipality; the supreme inspec
ton for the executive. Every Costa Rican O.
foreigner Is free to give or receive instruction
in institutions which are not maintained a
public expense
Journalism, that important adjunct to pop
ular education, is still attended with diff
fcult;es in the most progressive of the revo
lutionary republics. At present there ar
published in San Jose two dailies La Repub
lica and Ell Concrete, and one triweeki,
called La Gaceta They are all single sheets
about eighteen inches by twelve, and sci
for 10 cents each. La Gaceta is the cficie
Journal, published at the national printing OF
fee, and contains acts of Congress, report