The Republican journal., 1902-08-07

volume. Address Dr. R. v Pierce, Buff.
falo n V
| bastion de San Conception at the land
gate, which leads out Of the city 10 the
interior. The moat and IunetteS that
once defended gates and bastions are
now III ruins but at the two main gates
a strong guard is constantly kept on
duty. under commissioned officer. who
is responsible to the military governor
OF the city for every person who enters
or departs. At 5 p. NJ. the gates are
closed for the night, and no one is al
lowed to pass until they are opened
again after daylight the following morn
ing.
Having satisfied the officer in charge
and passed through the Puerto Cate
del -Ataranza into the Old city, YOU seem
to have taken sudden plunge into the
past. to another age and country, and
lind yourself face to face with re-
markable conglomeration of beauty and
squalor. dirt and venerable antiquity.
The streets are extremely narrow. COW
cred with hard cement which is
dangerously broken in many places and
outlined by three-foot sidewalks \ few
of the streets are partly devoted TO
shops. but there is no exclusively bust
ness portion, except the market space,
which is given up to the smallest re
tailers, while the importers and whole
sale dealers are scattered through the
heart OF the city. You see casas three
or tour centuries old painfully mas
Querading i'll fresh coats OF gaudy blue
and yellow, like beWigged and bepaint-
ed octogenarians.
Against the massive walls OF dis
mantled converts, once the populouS
homes OF learned and holy men, lean
the worthless shanties Of lazy blacks.
their owners summing themselves all
day at ease. without a care OF trouble
in the world.
You lind cobblers, tailors. vendors OF
tripe and liver, dealers i'll every small
local commodity, occupying what re
mains of ancient palaces, now mostly
fallen in pieces. OF the thirteen or
fourteen thousand inhabitants OF the !
city. but a very small portion are pure
whites. the majority having more or
their b0asted ''bluest blood of Old Cas- |
tile" and a most desplcable community
are many of them, almost too inert to |
breathe They lurk ike snakes in the |
corridors of mody palaces of long-de |
mobiles, under the arches of the city |
gates, even in holes Followed out of the |
walls, coming out an hour or two every |
day to enjoy the sun and beg of passing |
strangers. crawling back to their dens
at nightfall. Everything reminds you |
that the Anglo-Saxon associations of !
yentionality are exchanged for the dirt !
and shiftlessness of Latin-American life |
in the tropics.
Horsemen, obscured under straw hats
of such breadth OF brim that beside
them Mexican sombreros would look as
pignies gallop reStlessly through the
crowd on their nervous little island !
ponies; and if they trample a few of |
the fat piccanies that roll around in the
cutters, entirely unencumbered by a |
shred of clothing, nobody cares much,
there being an embarrassing supertluity
of such spawn. Troops of half grown |
boys ride through the streets-each !
comfortably clad IN a single garment: |
fashioned like the cutie sarks'' of |
Tam OShanters' witehes-their bare
black legs aStride immense straw sad |
dies on the backs of diminutive don |
keys. Knots of men and women, most
ly highly colored and all grinnina broad |
ly and talking at the tops of their |
voices, obstruct the streets and loiter
on the plazas, apparently with nothing |
to do but take life easy. But every
body is charmingly cheerful, polite and |
communicative, evidently taking great !
pride i'll the antiquity and historic asso-
Citations of their city, ready to point
out all objects of interest to strangers
and to spin yarns about them that
would stagger the marines. For ex-
ample-you may buy of almost any
darkey on the street, for a medic, six
cents, bit of human bone, which he
swears by his patron saint came from
the sacred box containing Columbus
remains, which he stole Sin the dark O.
the moon" expressly for you.
The buildings in the heart of the city,
especially those in the vicinity of cathe-
dral square, bear the marks OF anti
guilty. They are of lime stone, in the
Spanish architecture of the sixteenth |