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

Special Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier)
 Caracas. Venezuela, Aug. fl, 1902.
 If you want to get as near to heaven as it is possible in this disappointing world-as least so far as climate IS concerned find a mountain almost any where in the. equatorial regions and go up it just far enough to secure eternal summer without excessive heat, with never a hint of frost in the cOldest breeze, and immunity from tropical dis eases. There are many such places within easy reach of the United States; and the prospects are that if the coal famine in our Eastern States contin- ues, greater numbers of our wise cOun- l trymen than ever before will seek them this autumn. With our long, uncer- | tain winters-Our trusts, making sky high the prices of provisions-and our strikes sending coal literally out of sight, "the Greatest Republic" bids l fair to be one of the best places in the world to stay away from during the next six or eight months. How de- lightful to exchange, for time, the everlasting effort to be warmed and fed and make ends meet, for the dolce far niente of life in the tropics, where clothes and shelter are not prime ne- cessities and food may be had for the gathering.
 Greatly to our surprise we find that Venezuela's capital is a perfect terres- +s oP even surpassed by those far-famed re- sorts in the mountains of Southern Mexico, the deserts of Peru. the Hima- layan range and the plains of Algiers and Morocco. No other capital in the world is so we'll situated as Caracas for ideal climate, healthfulness and fine scenery. From year to year the weather remains like that of day in early June at the North with cloudless skies and pure, invigorating at mosphere. Though barely ten degrees , removed from the equatorial line, the thermometer seldom falls below sixty degrees at midnight and runs above 75 degrees at monday; and fresh breezes are always flowing from the snow-topped mountains on one side, or ! LiE0 0oullulGSS OCGdll bIl luG OlDGIE III fact, you may get any sort of weather you like in Venezuela as in any other mountainous country of the tropics not by travelling north or south or east or west for 1t, but by merely go- ing a little farther up or down. This small republic has three distinct zones, depending altogether upon altitude. Away up among the untrodden snow fields of the Andes is a degree of cold too intense to be borne by man or beast; along the level of the sea--as at La Guayra, for example--the fiercest heats Of the torrid blister and scorch and shrivel the unhappy way-farer; while in these temperate middle valleys we find New England corn and apples
 potatoes and black-berries fiourishine side by side with pomegramites, guavas and mangoes. Here royal palms of Brazil and Cuba, stately mauretia palms of the Orinoco, date palms of Sa, , haran deserts, oil palms of Africa arc. . matic spice trees of India and Ceylon
 bread-fruit of Otaheite, silk cotton anG , fibre trees of South Pacific Islands mingle their majestic plumes with the
 sombre pines, hemlocks and cypresse! of North America; while sumac ant
 golden-rod, dandelions and wild violet' : seem as much at home as the passion j. flowers, orchids and other tropica
 flora.
 Caracas is barely four thousand fee above sea-level; but it lies in a littl'
 pocket on the western side of the glor
 ious "Silla," Saddle mountain) en olo oil bx,o f,o y six to ten thousand feet high, as with l in solid, continuous wall. No fore - that ever claimed to rule the worlt $ could take this Venezuelan stronghold
 in time of war, for one moderl Leonidas could hold the pass" agains
 the combined legions of Johnnie Bul = and Uncle Samuel. Between the noun 0 tain spires, streams innumerab bl
 trickle down, watering the valleys ia
 below, while four considerable river
 traverse the plains of Caracas like tn four rivers that Watered the Garden 0
 Eden, as the Venezuelans who are ex
 cessively proud of their capital, ar sure to tell you. At first you feel sense of captivity being apparentl shut in on every hand by inaccessibl peaks and Andean snows which no hu man foot has trodden; but if you g up to the top of a hill called CalvariC Spanish for Calvary) you will see tw lroads leading out of the valley, whicl
 the Indians traversed centuries befor . the advent of Don Diego de Lasadc
 with his following of greedy Spaniard ito say nothing of the railway, whicl , emerges from black hole in the near est mountain. The rough, uneve ridge that environ the cup-like valle 7 are dark with forests to the horizon . their foothills bright with emeral grass, and lower slopes covered wit cocoanut and orange groves, pale vel , low sugar cane and dark green coffe
 bushes. The city lies at your fee three hundred feet below-acres an $ acres of red-tiled roofs, broken by te
 great squares or plazas the towers C
 the splendid cathedral, the dome of tn
 great opera house, the Pantheon, an
 the spires of a score of churches; whil
 through gap the mountains you ge
 a glimpse of the Caribbean, only si
 miles away as the crow flies, lookin
 like milli-pond and it's fleets lik
 painted ships upon a painted ocean.
 The Caracas of to-day, founded nor
 than three centuries ago, has abou
 one hundred and eleven thousand ir
 habitants; who, one and all, to mal
 woman and child, boast of it as 'tf