The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-10-20

luton is conceived and born in an hour,
and full grown within a few days. and
the people would be disappointed if an
election went off without the eciat of
revolution.
No preparation is needed in organic
ing the fighting force, like that which
| delayed the United States at the begin
| ming Of the Spanish-American war. bo-
cause here is no commissary depart
ment. no hospital arrangements. no pro-
visions for paying the men and no
bother about arms, for if guns are
lacking, clubs, cane-cutters or any 9TH
err old thing that can be used as weap-
on answers as well. The regular army
consists of about seven thousand men.
mostly officers. When a revolution
starts the poems Ignorant farm labor
ers) are promptly drafted into one army
or the other, and upon the first victory
| they as promptly go over to the win
| ming side. Armed with bludgeons or
cane-cutters, similar to the Cuban ma
chete, they are not bad fighters being
utterly reckless Of their lives. When
good Venezuelan has a grudge against
his neighbor he usually says nothing
about it until the next inevitable revO-
! luton comes along. and then he can
easily settle it with compound interest.
The maximum penalty for the most
atrocious crime is eleven years impris-
onment. This period is usually given
for stealing, and therefore very few
thefts are committed. You may leave
doors and windows open and valuables
| laying about loose almost anywhere in
| Venezuela with perfect safety while
! your precious life might not be worth a
brass farthing A murderer is general
| ly sentenced to imprisonment for a year
or two, and he takes his punishment
cheerfully. knowing that a revolution is
sure to occur in a month or so, when
| the prison doors will be opened for re-
cruits by the faction which can soonest
get to them.
| The governor of the federal district,
who is appointed by the president, of
course resides in Caracas, where he oc-
cupies the chapel of an ancient convent,
which was long ago confiscated for sec
ular purposes. Its narrow hall is mem
orable, being the same in which the
declaration Of Venezuelan independence
was signed. Upon one of it's walls
hangs a crude painting representing
that event and called the Decree of
Liberty while on the other side APP
pears the most interesting relic in all
South America--nothing less than the
blood-sta aimed banner which Francisco
PiZarro bore in his conquest of Peru.
! 1t is about four feet square. of faded
pink silk, embroidered in gold by Queen
| Isabella herself the design being the
combined escutcheon of Arragon and
| CASTLE, the whole enclosed within a
heavy gilt frame. 1t seems peculiarly
appropriate that this ancient emblem
of avarice, cruelty and lust should
moulder to dust in the room where was
uttered the first feeble protest against
Spanish oppression.
Venezuela's commerce, which is nat
urally bound up with agricultural in
dustry, has more than doubled itself
within the last twenty years. Foremost
| among the exportable products is cof-
fee, the yearly product averaging eight
hundred thousand pounds There ought
to be great deal more of it. and would
be but for the coffee panic of 1877. when
the bean became so cheap in all mar
kets Qess than four cents per pound
when delivered at La Guaira} that hun
dreds of planters pulled up their coffee
bushes and replaced them with cocoa
trees. The plantations Of coffee and
! cocoa-"quintax," they are called-ex-
tend from the coast away up into the
mountains. The best coffee grows in
what Is known as the temperate" belt
that is at an elevation between three
thousand and five thousand feet High
er than this the air is too chilly for best
results, and lower down the coffee bush
es must be shaded by large trees to pro-
tect them from the scorching rays of
the sun. Those localities near the sea
whilh are every morning drenched by
early nlists are most productive. Ven
eZuelans claim to raise the very best
coffee in the world, but that is a dis
tinction claimed with equal reason by
several other countries, and these peo-
pie are inclined to be over-proud of
themselves in a general way. At any
rate, only the poorer grades of it ever
find their way nowadays to the United
States. Local exporters say the best
La Guaira" coffee, as the Venezuelan
product is known to the trade, Is all
sent to France and Germany. The bulk
of 1t, along with the poorest Of Brazil
ian and Mexican berries, is shipped to
Alden, the Arabian port which is believ-
ed to deal exclusively with genuine Mo-
cha, there blended with anything in the
nature of coffee of which there happens
to be surplus and disseminated to the
world as Arabian-grown Mocha AS to
pure Java coffee, there isn't any such
thing, the nearest to it being the fine
coffees grown in Suma ira, Mocha and
Java" being merely conventional trade
terms.
FANNIE BRIGHAM WARD.
THE LION OF LUCERNE.
A ocroo+ 1ooI of op.,jo+,, l., eoI4 =. A.