Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-10

lW w ~ All fairs, in the position of in
lg VI 81 fiuence it holds among the
| ia y NGI group of little republics, or
lEZAa7AMSesI in the advanced policies OF
its government, Guatemala
takes first rank among the fiVe nations
of Central America. In no other way
is the progressiveness of the Guate-
malans shown so well as by the fact
that the study Of English has been
made compulsory in the public schools.
Even the primary pupils are compelled
to study it. In issuing the order the
president said that there are too man.
opportunities open to the master of
English to permit the Guatemalan
youth to grow up without a speaking
knowledge of it.
Another illustration of the enterprise
of the Guatemalans is their determine
tion to have rail connection with the
United States. They are arranging to
have their narrow gauge roads widened
and all links filled in to give them
direct connection with the national
lines of Mexico, and through them with
New Orleans, Chicago, Washington and
New York. 1t is expected that the con-
cessions already granted will result in
the early completion of this work. 1t
then will be possible for the traveller
to take a Pullman in New York or
san Francisco and go to the very heart
of Central America without change of
cars.
Guatemala is the most populous of
the five republics, having a population
of nearly two million souls. Salvador
is the only other state with a million
people. Guatemala has the densest
population with the exception of Sal
Vador, and is the only one of the re-
publlcs with an export trade amounting
to more than ten. million dollars year.
Coffee is its principal article of eX
port, although tropical fruits, precious
and dye woods and minerals add much
to the total of the things it has to sell.
There are three principal classes of
people in Guatemala-the whites, who
are mainly Spaniards and Americans;
the Indians, who have maintained their
racial integrity through four centuries
of white domination, and the Ladinos,
who are a kind of racial jumble, with
the blood of three of the five great
races of mankind in their veins. The
whites are exclusive and are unpopu-
lar with the Ladinos, who are in turn
hated by the Indians. The whites are
cultured, but fond of ease and luxury.
The Ladinos work, but the Indians
shirk as long as necessity will permit.
The latter refuse to be civilized, and
their main way of making money is by
competing with the little Guatemalan
donkeys as freight carriers.
Bands of Indians come into the cities
bearing all sorts of burdens on their
backs or heads. They have a queer
custom of trotting like horses for long
distances, keeping regular step as they
go. One may be carrying a cupboard,
another sofa, another a bureau, an
other a barrel and another a lot of
chickens. Sometimes an Indian, his
mule and his wife travel together, each
we'll laden. The woman may have a
load on her head and a baby on her
hip. Most of the men have a mecapal
and net, the mecapal being a band
around the forehead, to which the net
is attached-a sort of carry-all for
small packages. The Indian bends over
as he walks and the load in the net
rests on his back. The mecapal is a fit
companion to the yoke which is at
tached TO the horns of an OK instead of
to the neck. Many business men pre-
fer the Indian freight carriers to mules
and oxen.
Nearly two-thirds of the entire pop
ulation of Guatemala are Indians, and
most of them live in the same primitive
way that their ancestors did before the
arrival of Columbus. They knew moth
ing amout intoxicants in those days,
however. so that their chief dissipation
has come with white civilization. They
are now hard drinkers. At an Indian
funeral one may see the "mourners"
carrying jugs of liquor, and the de-
bauch, begun shortly after the death
of the occupant of the coffin, reaches a
grand climax shortly after the inter-
ment.
The productivity of the soil of Guate-
mala is almost beyond belief. When
the traveller to Central America is told
that fence posts grow in the ground he
is apt to be skeptical, but when he gets
there he sees it with his own eyes. The
posts begin to sprout and finally take
root and flourish as trees. A 3000-acra
plantation in Guatemala produces each
year 100000 pounds of coffee, 10000