The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-02-17
In COLOMBIA.
A FEW GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES
FOR FOREIGNERS
In the Neighboring RepubIIc-The
Falls of TequiondnmR- Spleen
did Scenery.


and Courier)
Carthagena. Colombia, Jan. 10, 1908.
Before leaving this big republic,
which lies as next door neighbor" to
the United States, we ought to pay
some attention to the inducements it
offers to North Americans. AS mistress
of the connecting hyphen between the
two continents, Colombia must some
day become a very important part of
the western hemisphere; and with the
completion of the Panama canal route,
under the sheltering wing of Uncle
Samuel, it will progress more in the
next decade than it has in the four
centuries since the first Spaniards at
tempted to colonize it. So far, the OPP
portunities for profitable investment of
foreign brains and capital in Columbia
have not been numerous nor varied, but
are literally golden because there is
almost no competition. Everything in
the line of American manufactures is
needed here, and finds a ready market
when brought by merchants who I'M
derstand the ways of the people-their
long credit system, (even when they
could just as we'll pay cash DOWN, and
their tedious ceremonies of politeness in
the smallest business transactions.
For example, in the cheapest articles,
so common among us, so difficult to OBJ
tain here: the shrewd Yankee who first
introduced our cheapest market baskets
made an enormous fortune. The paper
bag man made another; the Wheel-bar-
row man another; and the peddler of
pressed tinware actually coined money
in his tour of the country. OF course
piano, organ and melodian agents,
sewing machine agents, electric light.
telephone and lightning-rod agents
have been abroad in the land. some
years and already reaped rich harvests.
But even these things have been sup
piled only to three or four of the lar
gest cities and there is still unlimited
demand for them. And the fields of ag-.
Tfculture, according to improved meth
DDS; fruit raising; cattle raising; the
poultry business with incubators; rub
Der culture; the manufacture of choc-
olate from the native bean, and a thou
sand other ways of utilizing what ma
ture so bountifully offers in Colombia
are all unworked. The resources of the
country are absolutely incalculable,
both in extent and variety. It's numer-
Gus rivers render the agricultural and
manufacturing facilities exceptional,
j while in metallic wealth it shows the
same richness that characterizes the
mountain section of the rest of South
America. You know it is said that the
world produces every year about one
hundred million dollars worth of gold
and seventy-five million dollars worth
of silver; and of this amount, credited
to the entire globe, Spanish America
in spite of its primitive methods and
continual revolutions, contributes an
nually as its quota the respectable sum
of FIVE millions of gold and twenty-five
millions of silver According to Null
hall, than whom there is no better au-
thority, Spanish America has already
{ put into circulation something over two
thousand, two hundred and fifty tons of
precious metal or the enormous amount
of one billion, six hundred million dol
lars! Most of the old mines are still
yielding as we'll as they did centuries
ago. and new ones are being constantly
discovered. BY the way, Hulhall places
the United States second on the list of
gold and silver producers; and Austria
liza third.
The principal minerals yet discovered
in Colombia are gold, silver lead, mer-
curry, platinum, cinabar, rock-salt and
nitre The region of the central cor
tlillera has never been much explored,
and therefore an accurate estimate OF
> ha do
There is a wonderful emerald mine not
Z far from Bogota, and gems taken from
it rival any the world can produce.
The pearl fisheries of Panama are too
well known to need mention. They are
still worked by native and Chinese
divers, with very profitable results; but
naturally those who hold government
permission to work the fisheries are
saying as little about them as possible,
to avoid competition. Some of the
finest tobacco in the world grows In
sColonbia-that from which the famous
lAmbalema cigars are made. Sugar
cane, cotton and coffee thrive to per-
lection here: and in other sections po-
tatoes, wheat, corn and all the fruits of
the temperate zone flourish side by side
with CrOplcdI SfOWlHS. LIE SplclldIu
forests that cover at least four-tifths of
the entire country, abound in valuable
woods of all descriptions-mahogany,
tulip, rose, cedar the tree whose sap
makes InGiia-rubber, the shrub from
whose leaves cocaine, is made, the tree
whose bark comes back from Germany
in the form of quinine, and an endless
list Of medicinal undergrowths. Many
of the latter are known to science, but
are exceedingly rare; while others are
equally potent, and some of them I'M
6loubtedly superior to anything yet en-
ployed in materia-medica, have been
used by the Indians since time out of
mind, For one thing. what all the re-
sources of science have failed to COM
pass-the cure of hydrophobia and the
bite of the most deadly serpents-has
been long ago accomplished by the Co
lonlbian Indians with simple roots and
herbs. A few Americans and other for
eigners in this paradoxical republic are
making good incomes from hunting sar-
saparila, vanilla beans and other spon-
taneous productions of the forest, and
not a few are getting rich in the ship
merlt or rare orchids to European mar
kets. As everywhere else in Spanish
America, doctors, dentists, photo
graphers, even school-teachers. mo-