The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-10-11
DISTRESSED BY LOW PRICES
THE PEOPLE IN SOUTH AMER
 IC1

Four Dollars a Pound But Now COD-
 siderabiy Under One Do,Iar-Finatiy Began to Raise More itIce.
 Probably few persons in this city ever realize, when there is heavy drop in
 the price of some commodity in our market, how seriously this fact may af- feet many poor people who depend for their living upon the production of the
 depreciated article. We have never heard, very likely, of these humble toil-
 CTS who spend their lives in producing something or other that we seem to
 value for which we pay them a good l price, and they may know nothing of us f except that we seem to like what they
 have to sell and that, in supplying CUT demand, they are able to earn living.
 But the popular taste and fancy are capricious: the day is likely to come when commodity that sold for years at high price is a drug on the mark ct; those who thought they had an as- sured means of livelihood suddenly find themselves compelled to turn to some other industry The tonka bean is a 1 case in point.
 The tonka bean is the seed of a noble tree that grows to height of sixty or seventy feet in some parts of tropical South America. The pod contains a single seed about an inch in length, shaped like kidney bean and shiny
 black in color. It is rich in fragrant
 essence, coumarine, and has heretofore
 been used for many years in the lnanu- facture of perfumery and in s"enting snuff and tobacco. Housewives have also regarded it as very efficient in keeping moths out of woollens; and | physicians have used it to some extent. | But in this day of invention and dis covery now commodities rendering equally efficient service at a smaller cost, are coming to the front every lit- tie while to take the place of standard 1 old articles. Or high prices increase production above the demand. This is the fate that has overtaken the tonka bean.
 It is said that, years ago. all the tonka beans brought to this market readily commanded $4 pound, but for
 several years the price of the tonka
 bean has been gradually falling till now the average price is considerably under
 S1 a pound This drop has been ruin
 ous to those who grow the tonka bean.
 and particularly to the few communi- ties in South America that have long
 made it a speciality.
 | Among the ;o.lka bean growers are the humble people living along the low CT part of the Caura river. in the Orinoco basin. Perhaps not dozen persons in this city outside the traders | in the tonka bean ever heard of them.
 Their river has been very little known. A while ago, E. Andre made a journey | from it's mouth to near it's sources and his map and description are regarded as a valuable contribution to geogra- phy.
 The Caura is one os rhe large south ern aff1uents of the Orinoco and emp
 lies into that river about three hundred
 miles from the Atlantic. The lower | forty or fifty miles is on the great plain of Venezuela known as the llanos. urere great herds of cattle graze; but
 very few cattle are seen along the Caura, for the pastures are much | fu ther north. h it's upper 300 miles
 the Caura flows through one vast for
 est which spreads almost unbrokenlv 1 through the southern part of
 Venezuela The tonka trees are raised along the northern edge of this forest
 overlooking the great northern plain.
 The country is very thinly populated
 and there is carcely place that can
 aspire to the name of village. The huts are scattered here and there along
 the river each surrounded by an acre
 or two of tiled land on which the set tiers raise their food crops. They and their fathers before them have depend
 ed upon their gardens to supply them
 with food and upon the tonka tree to
 supply them with the means to buy
 conveniences and comforts from the
 outside world. None of the bean gath
 erers collected a very large quantity. It | is the hardest sort of work to gather
 this crop. The trees are not prolific
 bearers, pod yields only one bean and
 it grows high above the ground.
 The people living here are. for the
 most part, the poorest among Venezue-
 lans. They are nearly cut off from the
 rest of tbe world and have had very lit
 tie connection with 1t except through their bean crop and the cloths. hard
 ware and other things brought to them
 from foreign countries. They, speak
 nothing but Spanish, are very ignorant,
 and are of all shades of color. It is
 probably that there is considerable
 mixture of Indian blood in their veins,
 though tfer are now scarcely any h.
 dians in their neiehbOrhood.
 1 They supposed their business in life ] would always be collecting tonka beans, i loading them on their small boats and padding down the river about one hun
 dred miles to Ciudad River, where they sold them to the local dealers who for
 warded the croS to New York The bean collectors would spend the money l thus obtaine in the various kinds of
 goods they desired and return to their
 homes in the wilderness, not to be seen outside of it again till the following year took them once more to Ciudad Bolivar This has been the routine in
 the lives of these people for many years
 l Some years ago they found to their astonishment that the dealers would no
 longer pay them what they were in the habit of receiving for their beans. [ .f-a I rooon,o