Charlevoix county herald., 1912-11-02

;. Nicaragua, Is regarded the worst
post in the world. Men who have
been stationed there sometimes
form little groups In the Metro
politan club. in Washington. and talk
OF their Nicaraguan service as Rus
SLAMS talk Of the siege OF Port Arthur
or survivors speak of Ladysmith. The
old Spanlards called the place the
Paradise Of Mahomet," but the taste
OF the conquistadores in houris was
VIGOROUSLY catholic. 1t is actually a
place Of villainous climate, wretched
people, poverty. heat and disease,
writes Paxton Hibben. late American
charge d'affairs to Chile, in the In
dianapolis News.
We have often before this been In
more or less difficulties with the gov
,ernment Of Nicaragua and sometimes
with other governments over Nicara-
qua. In 1854 the U. 8. S. Cyane bonn
barded and burned the Atlantic port
ofaSan Juan del Norte, and the follow
ing year the soldier of fortune, VIII
liam Walker, with his American pba-
lanx, began his brief but picturesque
Central American career in Nicara-
qua, of which country he was presi-
dent for while.
BY 1884 we had had so much trou-
BILE with the country that, when the
Nicaraguan canal project was being
talked OF. renegotiated a treaty with
that republic expressly providing for
American Intervention whenever 1t
might seem necessary for US to pro-
tect any canal that might be built,
but the treaty never became opera
tive. In 1907, Mr.. Root, then secre-
tary of state. conceived the altruistic
scheme OF insuring permanent peace
in. Central America by establishing an
international Central American arbi-
tration court In Costa RIGA, but 1t was
scarcely opened when the Nicaragu-
ans had violated both the letter and
the spirit of this arrangement Final
ly.. the United States expelled Don
Jose Santos Zelaya, the arch trouble
maker but peace has no more reigned
since his departure than before.
Nicaragua has a permanent source
Of difficulties In the existence of the
two ancient cities of Leon and Grana-
da, the guelf and ghibelline rivals. as
bitterly hostile as were ever Florence
and Pisa. To put an end to their con-
tinental struggles. in which the whole
country was involved, Managua was
built between the two, in 1851, and
made the capital of the republic in
place of Granada. A less favorable To-
cation for a city than that Of Managua
would be difficult TO conceive. The
heat is intense and the situation OF
the place, on Lake Managua, could
not be more exposed or less pleasing.
The streets are dusty and unpaved.
The buildings have none of the charm
of age and good architecture which
redeem those of Leon and Granada, to
a certain extent. They are OF plas-
tered adobe. one-storied, stained, sun
faded, unclean. forlorn and the people
are as stained, unclean and forlorn
as their houses. One can not blame
the people for fighting. The victory
of a Nicaraguan grave may be an
easy one. but there is surely not much
sting to death.
Birdseye Of Corinto.
Corinto. the Pacific port, is, IL any.
thing. worse. AS a port, it's accommo-
dations are better than those Of any
harbor between Mexico and Panama,
because at least ocean going ships
may dock at Corinto, which cannot be
done in the splendid anchorage of
Amapala. A funny little railroad, with
engines that take one back to ones
childhood, running parallel to the
beach, a few scorching streets, with
eandaled, almost naked Indians pat
tering up and down them, some ware
houses, the property of foreigners,
strung along the shore. and q truly
dreadful hotel kept by an Italian
that Is Corinto. Hotbed OF yellow
fever. malaria. fieas. lice, plague and
other discomforts, It is only two days
sail from the canal zone. where we
have exterminated these things at
such cost.
was there four years ago, when l
met Zelaya-a quick, shrewd, cum
ming, fearless man, with close-cropped
black hair. Having seen him, | be-
lieved the stories l heard of him
and some of them were wonderful
stories, indeed. He was no doubt
great rogue and probably n brutal
one; but found nothing sinister
about the man, as there was about
Castro, OF Venezuela
lie really did great things for his
country. not. OF course, forgetting
himself. For Is years he maintained