The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-03
A RIvER oF vINEGAR.

| live in 1t, and it goes by the name of the
Rio Vinagre, which means the Vinegar
river. The MagdaIena, the chief river of
Colombia, corresponds with our Nissls-
sippi 1t is more than one thousand miles
long. 1t is as wide but not so deep as the
Mississippi, but it cuts the country right in
two. Steamers of light draft sail weekly
from Barranquilla, on the Caribbean sea,
up the Magdalena. to Hondo, where you
take mules and climb up to the great plain
Of Bogota, on which Bogota, the Colombian
capital, is situated. Then there are branches
of the Amazon and of other big rivers in
Colombia, so that the country is almost as
well watered as China. Ten of the little
steamers on the Colombia were made at
Pittsburg and brought from New York in
pieces and here put together.
Just word or so about Bogota. It is a
town Of 100000 inhabitants, and it has cleo
trio lights and street railroad, which were
put in by Americans. 1t has univer-
sity ninety-five years old, a national thea
ter, library of $4,000 volumes, an astro-
nomical observatory and a poorhouse. The
town is on plain about a half mile higher
up in the air than Denver, and it's climate
is, am told, much the same. This is the
headquarters of the army, and the scene of
a revolution now and then.
"A LAM Of HAI COINCEFoSlONS.
1t is at Bogota that the President lives
and here the Congress meets. 1t is here
that the fat concessions are given out.
Colombia is a land Of concessions. / have
told you of the big fortunes which Amer
leans have made out of the Panama Rail-
road, which now pays a quarter of mill
lion dollars year to the government. An
| other valuable concession is the salt mo-
nopoly. No salt can be sold except by the
| party owning this concession. At present
| the owner is Mrs Nunez, the widow of the
late President Nunez. She has salt mines
and furnishes the 100000 people of Colon
! bia with very poor article at very high
| prices. Tobacco is another concession, and
playing cards another. The gambling
houses at Panama pay $4,000 a year for
| the right to keep other people out of the
| business, and as far as can learn they
are glad to do it. There is, of course,
nothing like the money afloat now that
there was during the old canal days, but
every once in while they catch a sucker,
as they did just before arrived when
| young Irshman lost $1,000 in one night at
roulette. Another concession at Panama
| is the lottery. This is owned by a stock
company, which has a capital Of $4,000
| The stock pays dividends of 40 per cent.
year. and 10000 tickets at 81 apiece are
| sold every week. The prizes range from
| So, 900 downward. You see the lottery-ticket
peddlers everywhere. Men, women and
| children, black and white, accost You
| in the hotels, on the streets and in the
railroad trains and offer you chances for
| the next drawing. 1 happened to be pass
| ing the lottery office on Sunday when the
| drawing was going on and stepped in. A
| little boy of about eight years of age had
| been picked out of the crowd and put upon
| a table In front of him was revolving
wire basket filled with hollow ivory balls,
| each containing one of the numbers from
l to 10. The basket was whirled and the
boy picked out a ball. The number in 1t
was the thousands of the price, another
whirl gave the figure for the hundreds,
third for the tens and fourth for the
| units. The whole thing was fair enough,
only, as the alcalde, or city judge, in charge
/ told me- there was only about one chance
| in five hundred of ticket holder drawing
! anything The president OF this company
| is a naturalized American citizen named
| Duque. He is the owner of the only paper
| in Panama, and his profits from his eighty
| thousands dollars worth of lottery stock
are about $4,000 in silver year.
There is a chance for a concession here
! for water works. Panama is now supplied
with water by peddlers, who go about
through the streets, seated on barrel carts.
each of which is pulled by mule. In the
wet season the city relies on the cisterns.
There is, am told, good water in the hills,
twelve miles away, and it could easily be
piped to the city. Panama has about $500
people.
GOLD MINES OF COLOMBIA.
The idea prevails in the United States
1 Of aoric &c
| low, moist and unhealthful. This is not SO.
There are vast areas here which are as
| salubrious as any part of North America.
| Mr.. Kennedy, an American mining engineer,
| who has prospected in ell parts of our con-
| tinent, as we'll as in many parts of this,
| tells me that for every habitable square
| mile in North America there is an equally
| rich and healthful square mile here, and
! that south Of the equator there are vast
| areas Of undeveloped agricultural territory
which have not been touched. He says that
this1s the Klondike of the future in gold as
well as in other things, and predicts that
the eyes of the world will soon be turned
southwark. In Colombia the most of the
people live back from the coasts, where
there are plains and valleys of vast extent
from 1900 to 5000 and more feet above the
sea. Colombia is land of gold 1t is like
Alaska in that you cannot wash the soil
| anywhere along the rivers without finding
what the miners call color. / saw men
washing the sands of the sea IN the bay of
Panama and, though they said they did not
get nnuch. I am told that they have been
| doing the same work for years. 1t was
here that the Spaniards got some of their
first gold. and since the conquest an aggre-
gate Of s70O, 10000 worth Of precious metals
has been taken out OF Colombia A great
deal of mining is now going on Ia the de-
partrnent or State of Antigua, which is
reached by going several hundreds of miles
up the Magdalena river. Here small dia-
monds are sometimes found with the gold.
English parties own number of the best
mines in this region, and much capital is
invested There are now between three and
four hundred gold mines being worked In
| Colombia.
Nearly all the Indian tribes have more or
less gold. / have been told OF a curious
method which the church has OF getting
the Indians to give up their gold. They
are prone to hoard It but as they ara very
superstitious the priests have in some OF
the churches the images OF certain saints
lCQntinued On E'onst1enfh PnneY