Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-08-28

had at any price. Silver coin there
is from 81 down. Bank notes are no
longer taken, although the bank is so
involved with the government that its
credit would hold good if that govern
Eent were good. At intervals the
dloator has sent gold out of the coun-
try to buy silver TO be coined in
France and brought back for ~circula-
tiCn at a gain-to Caracas-of 100 per
cent.
An excellent description of Caracas
which is apparently oon to be the
scene of the most important g
ment of the war, is given by William
L. Scruggs in his book, "The Colon
bian and Venezuelan Republics
Three thousand feet above the
sea, less than seven miles in direct
line from the coast, yet separated
from it by mountain peaks which
tower fully 5000 feet above it's streets,
stands picturesque Caracas the Tit
tie Paris of South America, the politi-
cal capital and literary center of the
republic of Venezuela. The city is ST.
uated in the center of the beautiful
little Chacao valley, a deep basin in
the eastern cordillera of the Andes.
less than II miles long by four wide.
Around this little valley stands a
cordan Of blue mountains and green
foothills, fringed with coffee estates
and sugar plantations; and coursing
through it is the rapidly running little
river Guira, fed by limpid streams of
pure mountain water. The spot is as
beautiful as a picture, the climate is
equable and temperate, the air is soft
and balmy, and a stranger, seeing the
place for the first time, is apt to con-
clude that it must be indeed the
earthly paradise it is sometimes rep
resented 1t is no quite
SO attractive on further acquaintance.
You discover that the atmosphere is
sometimes damp and malarious, and
that mountain fevers, catarrh, liver
complaints and in1ammatory rheu-
matism are common ailments. .
The city is regularly laid out in blocks
or squares of uniform size, extending
from the banks of the Guira, on the
south, to the height of several hundred
feet up the slope of the mountain, on
the north. The streets are generally
narrow, though somewhat wider than
those of the average Spanish-Ameri-
can city, and are generally well paved
with stone, macadam or asphaltum.
-. Caracas, unlike most Span
ish-American cities, abounds with
public parks and flower gardens. There
are some II or IA altogether, and
some of them are we'll kept and ex-
quisitely beautiful. In the center of
nearly every one of them is a costly
statute in bronze or marble, erected in
honor of some popular hero or states
man OF the country. The
new capitol, erected during Guzman's
reign, occupies a whole square near
the center of the city. The building
is a large and snowy edifce, though
somewhat cheaply built of rather in
feriOr materials"
Porto Cabello, one of the important
strategic points, is an important sea-
port and one OF the most beautiful
and picturesque places on the Carib-
bean coast. 1t is said to have one of
the finest harbors in the world and it's
name is said to have been derived
from a saying of the old Spanish
navlgators that "a vessel is safe here
anchored by a single hair" The city
is situated on a long. narrow peninsula
at the foot of a high range of noun
tains. It's population is about 10, 900
and it is the market of export for the
states Of Carabobo, Lara and Zamora,
three Of the most productive common
Wealths OF Venezuela. 1t is one OF
the historic spots of the Caribbean
coast, having been a rendezvous of the
old buccaneers. Less than 100 years
ago it was successfully defended
against an assault of a British fleet.
Americas Oldest City.
Cumana is the Oldest city on the
American continent, having been
bounded by Gonzales Ocampo in 1920,
45 years before the settlement of st.
Augustine, Fla, and 81 years before
the English -colonists landed at
Jamestown, Va Some Spanish mis-
sionaries really landed at the point
where Cumana stands as early as
1912, and made a tentative effort to
found a mission there, but the Indi-
ans, enraged by the atrocities of
Spanish pirates, who were continually
kidnapping the natives and selling
them into slavery in the islands of
Santo Domingo and Porto Rico, mas
sacred all the whites on the coast of
the mainland. Through the good Of