The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-10
DEBTOR SLAVES OF ECUADOR
A LAND OF Low TAXES, ACCOMPA-
MED BY A HIGH DEATH RATE.
Money in Sugar, Vegetable Ivory
Who Are Not Afraid of Fever.
Ccopyright. lggg. BY Frank G. carpenterl

N@opyTigHl, 1885, py FRANK Ii. CarDenter.)
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador, March 19-The
city of Guayaquil! How shall describe
1t! It is one of the strangest mixtures in
the world of cities. 1t lies sixty miles up
the wide Guyas river. almost under the
shadow of the equator, frowned upon by
the snowy peaks of Chinborazo and Coto-
paxi. Wooded hills surround it. The Guyas
river, wider here than the Mississippi at
st. Louis, flows rapidly by it, and the moist
mldSmatic air of the tropics lulls it to sleep
In the river before it you are reminded
OF Venice from the Grand canal. Upon its
wharves the scenes make you think of
Naples, and back in its business sections
you are in maze of bazars much like those
of Cairo, Calcutta or Bombay. Not only it's
locks, but it's smells smack of the Orient
1t has streets more Shiny than those of
Seoul in winter and some of it's customers
are as vile as those of Peking 1t is one
of the best business points on the west
coast of South America, and is the only
commercial port of country at least four
times the size of the State Of Ohio, having
population about as great as that of the
city of Philadelphia, and in natural re-
sources one Of the rich countries of the
globe. 1t is the New York of Ecuador, the
center of trade and the place through which
pass. In the neighborhood of $1,000, 900
worth Of goods are brought here every year
from the United States and Europe and
some millions of dollars worth of coffee
cocoa, hides and rubber are sent from here
to all parts of the civilized world.
Guayaquil is what the Ecuadorians call
progressive city. 1t has $1,000 inhabitants
IT covers the banks of the River Guyas for
two miles, and at a distance is very impos-
ing. 1t has fine buildings of the Spanish
style, with balconies, out of which dark
eyed beauties look from under half-closed
shutters down upon you as you go through
its streets. 1t has a maze Of great stores
which are open tne+-front, so that you
look within as in an Egyptian bazaar
Stores with stocks of goods worth hundreds
Of thousands of dollars and wide-open ware
houses filled with bags of cocoa, coffee and
sugar awaiting shipment. It's streets are
lined with workmen who labor at their
trades on the sidewalks, with Indian women
who comb the insects from their own and
their children's hair and lunch upon them
in the intervals of their sales, with fierce
looking men carrying great bags and bales
upon their backs, and with beautiful women
of the better classes, who so along in
couples, dressed in black with black shawls
faces. 1t has hundreds of donkeys, who car
ry all sorts of things through its streets.
Here goes one loaded with boards, and
there is one with two panniers filled with
bread upon it's back That is the bakers
wagon of Quayaquil. The city has also a
large number of active business men, the
richest of whom Italians, English
French, Chinese or Spaniards, and two
banks, one of which al times pays dividends
OF 50 1-3 per cent. year. 1t has a tram
way, the cars of which We're made in Amer
lea, and ON the river there are little steam
ers which were imported in pieces from the
United States Guayaqull has an excellent
club, at which you may meet as good fellows
as you will find anywhere in the world. 1t
has plenty of priests and big church fac
ing a beautiful park, where the band plays
after worship on Sundays. 1t is, however,
more city of trade than of pleasure. The
cable connects it with the markets Of New
York and Europe, and when the wires are up
it is also connected with Quito and the other
towns of the interior. 1t is at Guayaquil
that Colonel Perry De Leon. one of the most
efficient of our consuls general, is stationed,
and here also M. Edward Pavia has charge
of the branch house of Flint, Eddy & Co.,
the great South American importing firm
of New York. These are some of the bright
spots of the picture.
LOW TAXES. HIGH DEATH RATE.
Guayaquil has its dark spots as we'll It's
taxes on real estate are lower than those
of any city of our country but in the alti-
tude of it's death rate it tops the world.
The streets of Guayaquil are unpaved Dur
ing the summer season they are filled with
dust, and the donkeys and mules wear
pantIets to keep the gadfies and mosquitoes
from eating them up. In the winter sea-
son, which Is now on, the town is flooded
whenever it pours with stagnant water to
such an extent that it is against the law
to drive a cart or carriage through the
streets without a special permit from the
police. This is the unhealthy season of
Guayaquil-the season of the yellow fever
the season of malaria-when death hovers
over the town and the doctors make enough
to give them summer vacations in Europe
The water now lies all about me in pools
upon each of which a rich green coat Of
slime sullenly floats, ready to be turned into
poisonous steam by the equatorial sun. The
town lies between two rivers 1t could be
easily drained with ditch pillow, so that the
tide, which is here very high, would flush
it twice day. but its people let it remain
as it is. The result is that every now and
then there is a great epidemic. The yellow
fever of last year carried away thousands,
and during the winter season some kind of
fever is almost always present. Guayaquil
has no sewers. It's water works are pit
holes sunk in the streets, into which pumps
are inserted at the time of fire. The re-
suit is that the city has been burned again
and again. There was a fire last year
which consumed half of the houses, causing
loss of more than $S000o,OOO. This also
makes fire insurance especially high, the
current Guayaquil rate here to-day being
per cent. per annum on all city property.
The American consulate has its offices in a
three-story building which pays a yearly
insurance of $1,000, and am told there are
many other buildings which cannot get in
surance even at the above rate, for the rea-
son that the various companies have al
ready written up all the risks they care to
take in Guayaquil At the same time. the
tax on real estate Is only $40 OF per cent,
and the natives woiIId have = ,ox,ol,.ffn,,