The herald., 1898-04-11
that country. Coffee OF the finest grades
grows luxuriantly and wild.
SWEEsr 0RA NfSES

SWEET ORANGES
Fruits of all kinds grow wild. Oranges
of very fine grade. sweeter' and better
than any grown In Southern California
| (possibly this statement is treasonable)
are plenty and cheap. They are not culti-
| waited, but they grow wild. They are
green when they are ripe, but of course
cannot be shipped to this country, because
Of the long voyage and the tariff.
Pineapples are plenty. So are apples
but they are of a large, coarse kind, wit;l
large seeds.
Recently one eastern nurseryman shipped
| into that country $4,000 worth of choice
| fruit trees, such as are grown in the
United States. The trees sold at a high
| price, and the fruits of that country in
many respects will be improved by the
shipment.
TELEGRAPHIC FACILITIES
| A telegraph line has been built from Bar
ranquilla near the coast, to Medillin, a
distance of about 500 miles. 1t is owned
and operated by the government. They
| have a range of prices for the service. the
| highest price being four times greater than
the lowest, and 1t provides that the dis
patch shall be sent and delivered at once.
Mr.. Taylor paid the highest price at Bar
ranquilla for dispatch 10 Medillin, and
then started on his journey to that place.
going one hundred miles OF the distance or
foot. He was twenty days on the trip,
but managed to get to his destination one
day ahead of the dispatch.
The government owns nearly all rail-
roads, telegraph lines, ETC., and most of
them are managed by Americans, but the
under service is mostly by natives.
FREIGHTING BY MULE POWER
Over the mountain trail from Caracon to
Medilin there are 10000 mules used for
freighting purposes. Each mule carries
$50 pounds. Goods for shipment over tina.
trail must be put up in packages not ex-
ceeding lao pounds in weight one package
for each side of the mule. The trail is
strewn with goods which have been left
from time to time. Sometimes they re-
main where they have been left for sew
eral weeks, and yet they seem to be per-
fectly safe. There were 100000 packages
at Medllin when Mr.. Taylor left. waiting
mule transportation. and 10000 packages at
Coracoli.
The Germans and English have possess
sion of most of the mercantile and trans
portation business in that cA,ntry, but
WneU lHe government Ndhts any WOIN
done by expert foreigners they usually call
upon Americans.
England .and Germany furnish most os
the goods shipped to that country. al
though the people there would prefer to
purchase of the United States, but our
manufacturers will not put the goods up in
convenient forms for safe shipment by
mules In Germany silks are put up in
tin boxes, carefully sealed, SO that any
exposure to the rainy season will not in
jure them.
CHEAP CIGARS
In Colombia they raise as good tobacco
as they do in Cuba. A Havana cigar that
can be had in the United States for 5 cents
will there cost at the rate of four cigars
for cent.
SCANT CLOTHING
In that country children wear no clothes
until they are about eight or ten years
old, and the women wear but little after
that age. At Barranquilla the women take
off all their clothes and wade out into the
river to do their washing. Mr.. Taylor had
kodak with him.
GOVERNMENTAL CONCESSIONS
Colombia is a country of concessions.
They give concessions for everything. The
governmentcharges an annual sum, which
is nominal considering the value received
and the amount of profit in the concession
An American has a concession on salt. He
alone can sell salt in the country, at least
all salt used in the country must come
from him. 1t costs 20 cents per pound
There are concessions on matches, beer
dried fruit, etc. Nearly every Improvement
of public nature has a concession of some
nature.
THE GOLD STANDARD
Gold mining is entirely free and the gov
ernment will assist to get it out of the
country Mr. Taylor says: II went to seven
banks in three cities and wanted to ex-
change American gold for the paper money
of the country. If I had taken drafts in
stead of gold I could have sold them TO the
bankers for per cent more than the mar
ket price of English exchange but could
not sell the gold at any price. The bankers
said they had their vaults full of gold and
could make no use of it. only ship it out of
the country and they would not state any
price that they would pay for it, A hun
dred dollars in American exchange is
worth $2.1O in the paper currency of the
country. l finally sold my gold to Ger
man firm for shipment home. told the
bankers that they were different from our
bankers on the gold question. We wanted
gold, but they only answered that they
did not"
The Colombia government will assist
miners in shipping their gold out of the
country. They will furnish an escort of
soldiers to guard a shipment of gold from
the mines to the sea coast and see it safely
on board vessel, for the nominal price Of
60 cents a thousand dollars-S6OO on a mil
lion dollar shipment.
Mr.. Tayler brought home with him a
quantity of seeds, fruit, etc.
POSTAL FACILITIES
Letters can come out of that country to
the United States in forty-five days time
but when they go in it sometimes requires
several months. An American paper in
Medellin only sixty days old is considered
new.
When hogs and cattle are killed, they
are choked to death, and they then are
snged over a hot fire to take off the hair.
They are then ready to have the meat cut
off for the table
No bones of the animal are ever broken
You don't have to eat the meat unless you
want to. You can go without it.
A TARIFF ARGUMENT
The manager of the railroad a. Barran-
quila was an American, and had been there
five years. In this country he was Re
publican, and in favor of high tariff, and
yet he says that the tariff works very
that in the United States keg of nails is
N. Dow Ilo tla,{