The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-01-03
In COLOMBIA'S CAPITAL
BOGATA HALF 4 VILE HIGHER
THAN MONTE BLANC,

Bat 1t Has Many of the Adjuncts of
Modern CiviIizstIon-Hard Work to
Get Things Up There Nobody la u
Hurry-wanderings Around the
Place.
Especial Correspondence of the Journal
andCourier).
BOgata. Colombia, Nov. 30, 1902
In this mountain capital, half a mile
higher than the very top OF Mount
Blanc, which has no direct communica-
ton with the outer world by rail or
steam, one is surprised to find many of
the adjuncts of twentieth century civ
ilization. There are telegrarhs and
telephones. street cars, electric lights,
pianos and carriages. up-to-date agri-
cultural implements and other machin-
cry, sandwiched between conditions
that SAVIOR of the days of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob None of the cars,
coaches, omnibuses and machines were
manufactured here, but imported here
from the United States, England or
Germany, brought by steamer UP the
Magdalena river as far as Honda, and
there taken to pieces, repacked in
small sections and carried over the
mountains on the backs of mules or
men. Take, for example, carriage.
One peon will carry a wheel; another
the axles, third the couplings pole or
ole with oil tho
parts of the vehicle, except the screws
and bolts, which are packed in small
boxes and toted by cargo mules, to-
gether with the cushions and curtains.
One man will some time be month in
carry a wagon wheel from Honda to
Bogata, his method being to tug it
rapidly from fifty to one hundred PAGES
and then to sit down for a long rest.
making barely two miles day. When
all the dismembered vehicle finally ar
rives at its destination, the pieces are
collected and put together by some
smithy, who may have learned his art
from an itinerant American or English
mechanic. One scarcely knows which
ought to be the greatest marvel-the
failure to manufacture all these things
in a country where wood and iron and
coal are SO abundant, or the obstacles
that are overcome in their successful
transportation from foreign countries.
Notwithstanding the enormous cost
of constructing street. car lines in this
isolated city-each rail being the load
of several men during half a dozen
days of difficult mountain climbing
the street cars have proved very
profitable investment-to the company
of New York capitalists who built
them. There are few carriages in
Bogata, not only because the stony
streets would soon wreck the strong
est vehicle, but on account of the great
expense of bringing them here. There
fore every one patronizes the street
cars; and the tariff for a ride, whether
it be for five miles or block, is a Co
lumbar real, a silver coin which
equals in value about ten cents Ameri
can money. The cars are drawn by
horses and mules and the drivers car
ry tin horns, which they are continual
" footing with might and main, to no
tify people in their houses of the
trains approach. AS in other parts of
Spanish American countries, the street
cars are never run singly, but always
in groups; that is, instead of sending
out cars five minutes apart, they wait,
altogether, half an hour or more at the
station and then all sally forth at once,
six or eight of them in long string,
the drivers making the Welkin ring
with their horns. Whenever a car
stops to take on or let out a passenger,
the whole train is halted; and when
arrived at the other end of the line,
all wait together, as before. Fancy
such a plan being adopted in any
northern city
In this Acadia nobody is ever in a
furry-unless it be our genial minister,
Mr.. Hart, formerly editor of the
Wheeling Intellingencer)-"S Senior Coro-
Zon," as he is affectionately called
here. Corozon being the Spanish word
for heart. Business never presses the
true Colombian and people are quite
friendly gossip on a street corner,
while waiting for the train. Nobody
objects when the whole string of cars
is halted five or ten minutes while
somebody who is coming finishes the
ceremonies and longwilded adeaux
which are the fashion among these ex-
cessively polite Castilanoes; or the
longer wait when female passenger
gets off, after first embracing all her
acquaintance who may chance to be
in the car and exchanging with them
the customary kisses, first on the right
cheek, then on the left
Though one might get over consider
ably more ground in less time on foot
we have been spending the better part
of two days in Bogata's mule cars
partly because their devious meander-
ings, apparently haphazzard, undoubt-
eddy show us portions of the old city
which otherwise we should not explore;
and also because active exercise in
these attitudes bring on that Distress
ing complaint called siroche, which
means violent palpitation of the heart,
and rush of blood to the head induc-
ing dizziness and often hemorrhage
corners suffer from it more or less,
without taking any exercise beyond
that ordinarily required. Many North
erners cannot endure Andean attitudes
al" all without alarming symptoms Of
heart failure, some being obliged to
turn about an dgo back to the low
lands before they have come so high as
this. Most of my readers will remem-
Der Mr. Victor Hugo McCord, former
Pennsylvania who has been for the
last twelve years or more connected