The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1903-04-02

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| ing we'll cemented in, is further pro-
tected by an iron grating and a pad
| lock to prevent thieves from stealing
the coffin to sell again and stripping the
| cadayer OF its clothes and valuables.
That sort OF robbery became so COM
! mon awhile ago that now the fashion
prevails of dressing the corpse in all the
| jewelry and finery the family can COM
mand OF borrow while it remains on
show in the house, but taking off every
ornament and wrapping it in plainest
garments just before burial.
If you were living in Ecuador and
wished to hire a servant, you could
hardly get one by himself, or herself,
but would be compelled to take up with
drove of them, probably far outnum-
bering your own family. For example,
with cook you would have to receive
her husband and children, and perhaps
also her father and mother, into your
house to bed and board and each would
| bring along all his or her portable prop
erty, consisting mainly of domestic
pets, such as pigs, chickens, rabbits,
dogs and other Give ste ok The hus-
band may have some trade which he
follows during the day, but at meal
times ard when night comes he returns
to the bosom of his family and yours.
1t would be considered downright in
human to refuse them food and shelter,
and not a servant IN Ecuador would
work for so mean master, or mis-
tress. The children of your cook may
be utilized for light services, such as
running of errands, wedding the gar
den and tending the baby; but the nu-
merous brood is apt to be eight finger
ed and certain to be lousy, dirty and
probably diseased. There is no help for
it. however because eel costumere'
has decreed that for every servant you
hire you must expect at least a dozen
extra mouths to feed. Nor is this the
worst of it. Occasionally the cooks
relatives from another village come to
pay her a visit of fortnight or two
lasting as long as you will tolerate it
men, women and children bringing
more dogs, pigs, chickens, etc, to be
housed and fed. Fortunately they are
not accustomed to ''downy beds of
ease" or sumptuous living, but consid-
er themselves in clover if plentifully
supplied with beans, corn-meal and po-
tato soup, and will sleep contented on
the stones of the patio or the straw of
the stable. The danger is that some of
the stranger hangers-on may not be as
honest as the cook herself is supposed
| to be, and cases are known where
| thieves and even murderers thus gain
ed admission to the inside of the casa,
| with disastrous results.
| In Ecuador there are only two
seasons, the invierno, or wet, and the
verano, or dry The invierno, or winter,
though astronomically it is summer
time). begins in December and ends in
May. The heavy rains come on about
Christmas. March is the wettest month
of the year, July the coolest, and in
May fevers are most prevalent. During
the dry season the climate of Guayaquil
is nearly perfect, broken only by few
days rain after the Autumnal equinox.
The latter is called Gel Cordonazo de
San Francisco" and throughout all
South America the periodical alterna-
lions of wet and dry are laid to the
account of some saint whose "day'
| happens to coincide with the epoch of
change. But if the weather be rainy
when it ought to be fair, or if showers
are heavier than ordinary, the fault
| therefore is always ascribed to the
moon, that ''inconstant orb" which in
other parts of the world suffers a good
deal of undeserved blame for the sour-
ing of milk, the slow teething of babies
and the backwardness of gardens. Lord
Byron understood it when he remarked
''The devils in the moon for mischief"
| 1t is during the rainy season only
that Guayaquil has earned its reputa-
ton for unhealthfulness. Them the air
is as hot and oppressive as that of
! Turkish bath; rank vegetation lies fest
ering in the sun; the country roads and
even some of the city streets are impass-
able; fevers and dysenteries do the
work of death, and the living keep
up perpetual warfare on pestiferous
mosquitoes, cockroaches large as the
palm of your hand, centipedes, scorpions
and deadly serpents. The very finest
thing about Guayaquil, of which one
never tires, is the Incompatible view to
| be obtained from the balconies. especial