Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-04-09
tax them enough to pave the streets an
establish a good fire department
A Wide-AwaiSe Police.

Wide-AWake Police.
Guyaquil has a wide-awake police force.
1 know this. for during my first few nights
here 1 heard the policemen every fifteen
minutes all night long yelling out that they
were awake. 1t is police regulation that
every man on watch shall cry out or whis-
tie every quarter of an hour. The cry Is
FL sentinel es alerto." ana the whistle is
combination more wonderful than any
thing except the cry of the Guyaqml frog.
whose hi-hi-hi is screamed out all night
long The Ecuadorian police are soldiers
They carry swords aud guns and both
look and act in the fierceSt manner. One
OF them almost dropped his gun on my
foot the other day as I attempted to pass
him. He said 'atras." which / suppose
means means back; AT least L backed and
walked around the other way. 1 have since
learned that no one may pass between the
police and the wall, but must go outside
the policeman. 1 suppose il the policeman
has to fight he prefers to have the wall at
his back Another regulation is that all
people out after IL O'Clock p m. must give
an account of themselves. The cry is, "Who
goes there? and the answers must he
will take. you to jail. / doubt In fact.
whether there is a place in the world
where IT is so easy to break into jail as
mere People are imprisoned for debt. and
II Is common thing for a planter who
wants hands on his estate to go to the
Jaiis and pay the debts of such of the
prisoners as will agree to transfer their
debts to him and work them out He then
gives them small wages and takes out
perhaps dollar week from each mans
salary until the debt is paid. In the Jail
at Bodegas. town further up the Guaya-
gull river l talked with q Jamaica negro
who told me he had been in prison for
months because he had failed to pay
millionaire planter SIG which he had Dor
rowed. Said he: IF 1 We're free / could
Werk to get the money to pay my debt,
but they keep me here until some one buys
me out and then 1 must work for him or
he can put me In again."
The Land Of the Equator.
But before 1 go further let me- tell you
something Of Ecuador. The name means
equator, and Ecuador is the land of the
equator. 1t lies sandwiched between Co
lcmhia and Brazil and Peru, on the west
coast OF South America, in the shape of
great fan, the handle of which extends in
to northern Brazil. and the scalloped rim of
which is washed by the Pacific ocean, 1t
IS one of the least known countries of the
world. Parts of 1T have never been sur
veysd ard today the different geographical
estimates of its size range all the way
from the bigness Of California to that of
Texas. The coast is low, and a rich tropi-
cal vegetation extends from the ocean back
for one hundred miles or less to the foot
hills OF the Andes. The Andes cross the
country from north to south in two great
parallel ridges, upholding between them
series of beautiful valleys, in which about
nine-tenths Of the people live. These VAL
leys are from a mile and half to two
miles above the sea, and~give the interior
healthful climate, which is more like that
of New York city than of the equartor
Quito, the capital, is situated in one of the
highest Of these valleys. 1t is almost two
miles above the altitude of Washington
city. Here the weather is that of May in
Ohio all the year around. East of the An
des the country is tropical wilderness. A
great branch of the Amazon, the Maranon
river, flows along its southern boundaries,
and steamers go up the Amazon enter the
Maranon and bring you within a compare
lively short distance of Quito. In fact
am told you can come to within four days
mule travel of Quito by water via these
great rivers and the streams which flow in
to them. Ecuador thus has almost every
climate known to man. Scores of its An
dean peaks are ever covered with snow
and 1t has mighty glaciers. Chimborazo,
which on clear days is visible here, is H.
200 feet above the sea, and the great wall
ley of Ecuador is guarded by twenty-one
peaks, ranging in height from three to four
miles. while there are seventeen other
PEAKS which are more than two miles i'm
height. Today in Guayaquil the air is filed
with ashes. They come from one of Ecua-
doris ten active volcanoes, and every week
or 50 an earthquake makes the ground trem-