The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-04-21

in crossing these streams. and damp
food and wet clothing were things one
actually became used TO.
Animals. when dead, are never
buried, but are left to the buzza rds
TO dispose Of, so that when you see
number of these birds together YOU
instinctively turn your head aside, for
the buzzard is doing his duty.
Bridge of Monkeys. q
The rains sbatod 10 some extent in
the latter part Of the trip, and ono
could begin TO enjoy the pretty flowers.
palm trees, the beautiful birds of bril-
liant plumage. the wild deer, and when
one day fifteen or twenty wild
bridge from tree 10 tree across the
roadway. il surely seemed like the
tropics You read about, after all WiId
parrots arc as plentiful as sparrows
are TO us. and every native has two
or three in his home. The chief OBJ
lection 10 This is that one Of the first
things a captured parrot learns is to
cry like the babies in the house. so
that there is always tremendous
hubub in every household, the parrots
taking up the noise where the babies
leave of,
Fine fish abound in all the streams,
and in the interior the native BOYS
know of no such way as catching them
with hook and line, but shoot them
with bow and arrow as they come
near the surface. In the ocean near
the coast cities the fish are so plenti.
ful that men dynamite the harbor or
swing ont nets, and as the tide recedcs
great quantities of FISH are left in
them. The clear. cool appearance Of
some of the inland streams inspire the
-tr la-,
bathing, but it is 4 great blow to ono s
hopes to have a frantic native inform
You in a terrorstricken voice that the
river is full Of alligators, and not safe
for even watering your animals,
Probably the greatest annoyance a
foreigner finds In the American tropics
is the numerous crawling and biting
insects, the worst of which is q sort
of wood tick, for both man and
beast. This bug buries its head in the
flesh, and can only be gotten out by
stupefed, and then it is an easy mat
ter to take il out. for it will eat
into the flesh and make large, pain.
full sores if il is not attended to
promptly. There are lots of snakes,
too, and if when riding at night the
mule gives q sudden and terrified
jump, you realize with a shudder that
some loathsome reptile was not far off.
All along the trip the different
chiefs Of police aud other officials
met the travelling party and made
roads are what they are clamoring for,
and they think every foreigner they
see, especially an American, must have
some railroad project In view.
The ignorance of the lower native
is appalling, but none the less amusing
1t was desired TO give dinner TO
some diplomats in one Of the cities.
and the cook of the so.called "hotel'
was ordered to serve as good a dinner
as she knew how, and some American
canned goods were given her. When
insisted upon waiting on the guests.
She had evidently had a headache, for
her head was generously wrapped up
in white cloth; she wore no shoes; her
clothes We're by no means clean, and
in her mouth was n long black cigar,
which she putred away at vigorously,
and as each dish was brought in she
would stand for a moment, hands on
hips, and with satisfied smile would
remove the cigar from her mouth,
emit comfortable spit upon the floor,
and resume her duties To cap the
climax, the canned corn and tomatoes
were placed on the table open, but in
their original tins, cold and uncooked,
and when dessert was mentioned dish
OF hot asparagus was proudly laid on
the cloth.
Many like incidents happened en-
route to Managua, and it was with
relief and thankfulness that thhe city
Of Matagalpa, comprising mostly Eng
lish and Americans. was reached. and
the foreign population went wild with
delight. 1t is not often that visitors
of any kind reach these inland towns,
much less an American woman, and,