The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-09-27


 line and plummet could make them. few of them are tolerably well paved, with wide cement sidewalks. but most l of them, with their rough, sharp cob ble stones, broken in many places. would make excellent paths for peni- tentes. if painful progress is tine end desired. The system of nomenclature of these streets, and the numbering 0f the houses, is easy-after you get used l to it. Taking as a center the intersec- tiOn of the streets where the tower Of | the cathedral stands. the street run ming north from that point to the na- tional pantheon is called Avenida Norte i North Avenue" From the same starting point, going south to the Guaira river, runs Avenide Sur South Avenue" Those running east and west from the cathedral tower one to the Central Railway station the other to the old high road that leads down to the sea, are respectively Avenida Este and Avenida Oeste- East and Vest avenues. The streets parallel to these are numbered even numbers to the westward. and odd numbers to the eastward, such as NdIlC NOIlCCly ANpl IC l. N0llS A'N4 'f Calle Este 3, Calle Oeste 10, etc. The houses are also numbered-even num- bers on one side and odd numbers op- posite Besides the streets, there are several important alleys devoted to traffic and three Passages" named "Pasaje Linares," "Pasaje del Cen tenario" and "Pasaje" de Altagracia." One would think that with an ex- haustless lake of Asphalt within their borders. the Venezuelans would better pave their beloved capital; but they reason that what was good enough for the old-time Spanish nobility is good enough for them, and meanwhile the wonderful lake is an unfailng source of revenue from the various foreign com panies that are mining" it. The houses of Caracas are all of the usual Spanish American style, no variation being permitted by law. They are of stone, or of sun baked mud, covered with cement that looks like marble,
 every year renewed and repainted in
 all the colors of the rainbow-pinks, purples and yellows predominating.
 They are really the very best sort of houses for the climate, their enormous ly thick walls being almost bomb and
 earthquake proof and keeping out both heat and cold. With their elaborately succeed facades, Indian-red peaked tile covered roofs and inner court yards with trees and flowers growing
 in them, they are "joy forever" in the way of beauty and picturesqueness. Among the characteristic features of Caracas are it's forty-seven bridges, all ornamental which span the four
 rivers running through the valley, and its great number of costly statues in
 marble and bronze. The most remark able bridge is near the railway station In general appearance it is an ordinary steel construction span, springing from lone hill to another, over the canyon Hike roadway So far it does not differ from other bridges, the world over The peculiarity of this is that it never had any occupation, and probably never
 will have as neither end is there lanything in the shape of road or path Heading anywhere. The great, costly. iponderous work is simply hung up in
 the air. for no purpose Whatever-ex- lcept that Crespo, the then dictator, de- sired for some political reason to give a valuable contract to a certain bridge
 building firm. The city was already
 swarming with useless bridges. and
 Crespo could think of no place to put
 another but this-where at least it
 ould be out of the way So he gave
 the contract, the more cheerfully be-
 cause it was not his money that built
 it; and the people point with pride to
 the only bridge in the world that be-
 gins nowhere and leads nowhere Other
 countries can have bridges needed for itrafffc and travel but few can afford the luxury of steel structures hung up
 in the air for ornament.
 Among the innumerable statues that decorate Caracas perhaps the most beautiful is that which was erected by
 Guzman Blanco in honor of Bolivar the local Washington, who filled one world with his benefits and all worlds
 with his name" It is a colossal eques-
 trian figure, the horse in the usual i'm possible attitude of the sculptor's imag-
 ination, ingeniously supported by his s, tail. which touches the ground, while , , his fore-legs paw the air. The images . are of bronze the pedestal of blue-grey | granite, highly polished. An inscrip , , ton on the front of the base informs beholders that Sonor Bolivar, (pro
 nounced Seemone Boleevarl was tn ''liberator" of Venezuela, New Grenad; and Peru and the founder of Bolivia , On another side it is stated that the 2 illustrious patriot was born in Caraca: July "A, 17S3; that he died at Sants
 Marta, Columbia, December 17, 1880 : that his remains were brought to tht city of his nativity and re-entombed . on December F, 1S42; and that in 1S71 the illustrious American" Guzmal 1 Blanco, then president of the Republic caused this monument to be erected You may be sure that Blanco, with hi :, customary modesty would never bt . l guilty of leaving himself out! I - should be remembered that Bolivar :, though now revered as a saint, wa , driven into, exile by his ungratefu Icountrymen and that he died of , broken heart, in extreme poverty, in { y neighboring republic" Ten years af
 ter his death, Dictator Paez-the sam l who overthrow Bolivar and sent hin ! into exile-bethought himself that i