Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-11-03
ONCE A FINE CITY
La Antigua is but Memory Of
Former Greatness.
IT WAS THE ORIGINAL GUATEMALA
People the Victims of Earthquake
and Pestilerce.
SPLEN DID B U ILD1NG S
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star.
Thirty miles from the capital city of
Guatemala there stands with jagged walls
half hidden in the wealth of semi-tropical
verdure, metropolis of ruins. The wealth
that was once its boast has passed away.
The proud Spanish families that ruled 1t
have long been scattered. The monks and
friars who built its splendid ecclesiastical
palaces are dead and there are no success
sors to them. Even the name Of Guatemala,
once It's own. has passed from 1t, and it
IL now known only as La Antigua. the Old.
1t has lain for a century dead. The rank
forest growths have filled its stately court
yards, and where the priestly companies
ohanted their prisons the half-wild pigs
now root in the debris. A few thousand
humble poems live in their little houses,
built side by side with the vast ruins, and
that is all that Is left of that which was
once the greatest city except Mexico on all
the western hemisphere, and which out
shone Mexico in the beauty and splendor OF
its transplanted civilization.
In 1924 Alvarado, ordered by Cortez to
subjugate the country to the southwark,
founded the city of Guatemala, the city of
St. James of Gentlemen, as he called 1t.
The site he chose was on the grassy slope
fa- down the side of great extinct volcano,
and was almost overshadOWed by another
and an active volcano TO the north. To
him he gathered the natives of the sur
rounding country, and as If by magic there
rose great and fair city That mighty up
building agency, the Church of Rome, sent
Its monks and friars there and they made
1t a city of such palaces and cathedrals as
the new continent had never before seen.
The Spanish king himself took personal
interest in the city concerning which he
heard such wonderful accounts from re-
turned travellers. Guatemala destined
to be the metropolis of the new world.
Q MANNED
habitants. But the hand Of God was laid
on it and it fell. to become La Antigua, I'M
known today to travellers who pass within
a few miles of it without even hearing of
its existence.
Destruction by Water.
Seventeen years elapsed after 1t was
founded when there came a terrible day.
The rain fell in torrents, the wind blew
with fury, lightning rent asunder the heav-
ems and thunder pealed forth in terrific
crashes; the earth shook and trembled, and
muttered strange sounds, and when the
heavens We're overcast with darkness, there
came down enormous fragments of the
truncated mountain; rocks, trees, stones,
mud and water. The crater Of the extinct
volcano filled with water had burst asun-
der and when the storm had spent Its fury.
and the sun arose again. Alvarado's first
city was no more. 1t lay buried with
great number of its inhabitants beneath the
mountain.
lndaunted by this terrible calamity the
remaining people set to work to build new
city, choosing site farther down. in the
center of the plain between the mountains.
Word Of the terrible calamity which be-
fell the first city went forth and Mexico
poured out her bountiful wealth and old
Spain sent her skilled artisans to build the
new one and there arose the metropolis of
Gentlemen. Priests and friars fiocked into
Alvarado gave It. the city Of St. James of
Gentlemen. Priest and friars flocked into
the valley. and conquering soldiers with
their Indian slaves Wed with each other in
building churches. monasteries, palaces and
homes. There arose monasteries covering
acres of ground; and there were beautiful
gardens and fountains, and 1t is said that
water heated by the fires of the live vol
cano was conveyed by an aqueduct to the
city. SO that there was continual supply
of hot water well cold.
Splendid Buildings.
A cathedral was erected 800 feet long by
12O broad, lighted by fifty windows. Its
grand altar stood under a dome nearly sew
enty feet high supported by sixteen columns
Of stone faced with tortoise shell and