The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-30

1 empowered to do, in case of the treaty
 with Colombia failing of ratification as
 It has his administration may now
 without wasting more months turn to
 President Zelayas government of Me
 aragua, with which the interoceanic
 canal can be promptly negotiated for 1 the beginning of the work. 1t is high
 time-the canal has been over-long
 myth. That for weighty considerations
 of American defense, and the canals
 own secure holding, this old line is bet
 ter after all than the Panama there can
 be little doubt, and if the administration l takes the opportunity it will do an inn
 portant service to it's record as well as
 patriotic one. It is worth while to
 glance again over the rich and weirdly
 country where the canal should lie at
 last.
 Least Civilized.
 Perhaps the first thing to appreciate about Nicaragua Is that she Is the least
 civilized of the small Central American
 republics distinctly so. Northward, Guatemala, Salvador and Honduras are l considerably developed with railroad,
 with a certain settledness of things that 1 follows that fact. So also of Costa Rica, l the neighbor and enemy on the south, where all is orderly and prosperous; and many foreigners-many Dutch-liVe Tn Costa Rica, as also numerous Americans and Europeans do in the upper states. But Nicara qua is almost all tall or l tangled forest and the population hap l py, irresponsible woodland people. So far | from a railroad there is not even road | for driven vehicles across the country; | the natural waterway affords the only | transport, traveled by several odd steam 1 boats. Of course, Granada and Leon are dignified old cities, and some sedate fam I ilies of perfect Spanish descent relate to l such centres, or to rrmoter haciendas l growing rubber or plantations of coffee | or cacao. President Zelaya Is member l of one of these educated famlies; but
 at his capture of power in 1893 his lb- | eral government decreasing what little | civilization there was, drove the con
 servadores Representing his own born | class) out of the country. The conserva- I dores constitute the revolution, a factor
 without which any Latin-American re- public would be off color, and which
 simply means a party out of power and
 going to fight or fighting. The conserva- l dores turk in Costa Rica, which sym
 patheticaIly detests Zelayas regime as 1 demagogue's and all this is part of the
 reason of Nicaraguas wary hostility to
 her neighbor.
 1 But there is longer standing reason for 1 that. Nicaragua maintains her frontier l pressed three miles down against Costa Rica from the lake and length of the San Juan river, which are part of the
 line of the canal. Costa Rica always wanted to read her border as the south
 ern shore and river bank, in case the
 canal were to be. 1t is understood that 1 the conservador revolutionsts have promised this to Costa Rica if she will help them to recover the reins of Me
 aragua. But General Zelaya with his ragamuffin soldiery is a firm and ready
 man, and in spite of his having hardly to exaggerate) not one-tenth of the
 drill or modern arms of his adversary he has for years vigilantly forestalled and beaten all Costa Rican attempts, hunted the revolution back southward from Rivas Associated with the hlibus- ter Walker). and preserved the Mic araguan line of tlree miles below the waters. There is no question that he Is the paramount figure in Central America, as I think the reader will verify by
 watching between the lines of news para
 graphs from that quarter. Although
 Nicaragua Is perhaps the weakest of
 those states. the others have all found
 that its de facto dictator is to be reck- oned with. and he has no friends-ony
 
 charming or pleasant person. there in the presidential palace at Managua on
 the smaller lake. He was educated in Paris. At the closes of his four-year terms he assumes himself reelected" Thus Nicaragua Is a republics the presi-
 dent does the voting and saves private
 citizens the trouble.
 From New York or Mobile. lT If your steamer goes down for example I'from New York or Moble-that is' not from the Pacific coast-you land at Grey town (San Juan del Norte). This port of entry on the Caribbean is little more
 than fixed settlement. The season should be from January to July, to avoid the rains; the high temperature remains about the same the year round, but 1t Is not try ing when one has relaxed Into the natu-
 ral and necessary incidence. Most faces are black or mulatto with frequent Span
 ish air and style from the nobler strain but pure Iberian race is almost absent
 most gentlemen met are consular or commercial agents from over seas And here is the mouth of the San Juan river
 but the eastern end of the hoped-for canal
 will hardly be immediately at Greytown
 Because from here up and beyond the effluent branch called the Colorado, which bends southward and reaches the Carib- bean through Costa Rica. the river has its "
 enough to make deepening very expensive
 Either the Colorado should be used in
 place of this section of the San Juan. or
 an Independent land cut made to the sea,
 which latter plan seems to have been the
 more entertained.
 In your open-sided steamboat there is | apt to be a troop of soldiers, for Zelaya's
 military patrol the San Juan in the yes l sells. both to guard the craft from Costa | Rican surprise and to observe the dis puted bank. The bare-footed soldiers are 1 lad-like figures with some clothes on. l mingled with elder men with villains | eyes; in fact there are bad, dark glances | among them all They are ridiculous, I pretty cut-throat crew, their gaiety un-
 pleasant-the scoundres and scapegraces l of the country. Their one or two officers of complexion approaching white, wear
 their shoulder-straps on their feet-at l least the mark of an officer is that he has l shoes and instead of swords they carry something like ramrods with which they
 cut any of their mob about the legs when 1 he gets too obstreperous.
 | There may not be a general on the first l class deck above, but one is as likely to be | there as seen from the railing. a log-like alligator asleep on the water or angled, say two or three, against the foot of the | land
 | Winding River.
 The river is winding avenue It is enclosed on both hands by impenetrable