Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-31
A Wide-Open Town.

1t was not easy to elude the general ard
his numerous cocktails, and when I did
escape into the streets there were hundreds
of others like him, who were equally I'M
Fortunate for an early celebration of the
New Year. The cracked bells were still
pealing forth their discords, calling the
people to mass. Troops were marching
through the streets, clad in their gaudiest
uniforms; crackers and bombs were being
exploded in every direction, and the ''po-
sadas' and restaurants We're decorated
with flags, roses and hundreds of other
flowers.
If ever there was ''wide-open" town, it
was Caracas that day. 1t was quite I'M
necessary to pay money for anything. The
saloons, restaurants, hotels and cigar stores
handed out their wares free to all corners.
The well-known customer could eat and
drink and smoke of the best, and an offer
of payment was almost an insult; while the
very beggarS from the slums could enter
and enjoy themselves to their hearts con-
tent with ''aguadiente, cheap cheroots and
other humble fare.
Everybody was gay and happy. To look
upon their smiling faces you would not i'm
agine they had every reason to be pro-
foundry misera BILE. Their nation, at that
time, owed money to all the civilized world,
and had provoked three of the great pow
ers to blockade it's ports. Civil war was
devastating the country. and pestilence and
poverty were walking hand and hand
through Caracas. But the VeneZuelans
true to their Latin blood, lived only in the
moment. So long they could enjoy their
fiesta" and have few of the luxuries of
life, they would let the responsibilities and
| necessaries go hang.
They Called It Dull.
To the stranger, it seemed giddy whirl
| of festivity, but the old inhabitants shook
their heads dolefully and said there had
never been such a dull New Year. The
OLE oh, For
coaches. smothered in roses, used to cut
figure in the plaza a that season, had
lost their money in successive revolutions,
and were no more to be seen. They were
obliged to live very quietly and economi-
cally. The huge, gaudy stucco opera house
| which Guzman Bianco built at cost of
many millions of dollars, and in which
| Patti and De Reszke and all the greatest
stars had sung, was shut up, but the lot
| teries and the gambling houses still did a
thriving business.
Your Venezuelan will spend his last bolt
var on lottery ticket, even though he Is
starving for loaf of bread, especially if it
| happens to be the New Year. The soldiers
| will sell their swords to get money to gam
BILE with at that season. For the misera-
BILE sum of 81 I bought the virgin blade
/ of colonel in the presidents own guard.
Around the New Year you cannot enter
| a cafe pass a street corner without be-
| ing pestered to buy lottery ticket by some
| ragamuffin urchin. Even in the president S
| palace a man is not safe from them. hap
| pened to be there one afternoon when an
| Indian boy did a brisk business selling
| these tickets to Cipriano Castro and his
| ministers as they emerged from a cabinet
meeting.
Luxuries of Life.
| But it was not until evening that the
| real fun began After dinner the entire
] population of the city gathered in the Plaza
| Bolivar. Under the shadow of the immense
| equestrian statue of the South American
| Washington, which stands in the middle OF
| the square. the presidents own band play
| ed dance music until the dawn. 1t was a