The Republican journal., 1902-11-27
ing of steamer with coffee. AT IL a.

Ine lutVlIdUic SlcSCd, anu Is EoI r.
sumed before or3 p m. Meanwhile
the streets are deserted, the post Office
and business houses closed, and every
body seems to be sound asleep. Not a
soul is to be seen anywhere, except a
few workmen lying upon the docks, or
Gin the shade of the whispering palms"
in the plaza, often with their heads pill
lowed in the laps of their faithful
wives, who snooze sitting up.
Minister LOOMS says that the most
interesting feature of the Maracaibo
basin, together with the similar adjoin-
ing area in Colombia, which is drained
by the Magdalena river relates to their
limitless capacity in the line of furnish
ing North America with the best of
tropical fruits, such as bananas, pine
apples, oranges, and aguacates. 1t is
only little matter of sixteen hundred
miles from the great fruit region of
Maracaibo, and hundred miles from
the possible gardens and orchards of
the Magdalena, to New Orleans and
Mobile-points through which our
northern and western States ought to
be much better supplied with southern
Injuries than theyare to-day. Already
we receive excellent coffee from these
regions, but mainly by remote route OF
foreign conveyance. Lines of steamers
| to carry our flour, pork, kerosene, can
ned-SoodS, etc, and to bring back to us
coffee, cocoa, hides and skins, would
soon find abundant freight in fruits of
superior quality to any now imported.
| For example, no bananas now reach us
except those varieties which are used
solely for cooking purposes in the
countries where they are grown. Not
one person out of a thousand in the
| United States ever tasted the right
banana for raw use-fully ripe without
being partially decayed, small, but
plump to almost bursting juicy and
delicious as California pear. The
banana sold in the northern cities is
considered in the tropics only fit for
frying, or boiling to take the place of
bread, or for the expectation to people
who know no better than to eat them
| raw. The oranges of Venezuela far
surpass any that are imported from
the Mediterranean, and are more Juicy
than most of the famed Florida fruit,
with thinner rind and fewer seeds.
Given ample steam facilities by sea
and land, and modern refrigerating
conveniences. our people might enjoy a
great many varieties of delicious fruits
! which are now unknown in the North
such as mangoes, sour-sops, custard-
apples, sapodillas, zapatoes and gran
, adlllos.
AS lake Maracaibo is the highway to
the Caribbean Sea for the riches of it's
large area on the east side of the PENN
Sula which forms the northern end of
South America, so is the Magdalena
| river on the west side of the same pen
insula the great highway to us for the
trade of Colombia; and both of them
have their mouths wide open, so to
speak, toward the Mississippi and the
| United States-the Magdalena for al
most all of Colombia, and Lake Mara
caibo for the rest Of Colombia and
most OF Venezuela, to float their com
| merce directly to US and to receive ours
in return. Nor are coffee, fruits, cocoa,
etc, the only valuable products to
! which we might have easy access and
practically monopolize Besides the
ores and asphalt, and gold and silver
mines whose riches are only limited at,
there are rare woods in abundance-ma-
hogany, rose, CEDAR tulip and hundred
other choice varieties for furniture and
interior adornment, to say nothing of
those that produce India rubber, or
bear tons of vegetable wax, soap, silk
and tibres.
A well-known American writer who
recently visited Lake Maracaibo con-
cludes his description of it as follows:
Everything along the shore of this
wonderful lake will slowly change under
American influence, while the general
features, dominated by the perpetual
Andes, will remain as they have been
since the first Indians built their lake
dwellings within the scene. AS here
the Indians are not paternalized by the
government, nor scrambled over for
their spiritual scalps, they will still
farm the placid waters for excellent
fish, gather the wild bananas and other
abundant fruits, raise pigs and fowls on
extemporiZed islands in shallow waters.
and enjoy etfortless lives in their own
sweet way-in cabins raised on piles
ten feet above the water, with palm
matched roofs, reed-woven sides and
reed-carpeted floors, with notched log
for ladder up from the softly tapping
waves and their rocking dug-outs; free
i from wild beasts, snakes and cares of
every kind, relieved from want by
abundant nature, and happy as the day
is long" And so good bye to Lake
Maracaibo.