The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-15

iigious. and they go from ohu. ca i
church saying their prayers. Only ii
ieN of them can read and write. bul|
they are superstitious and are largeIi|
controlled by the priests.
Until recently Ecuador was altogeth1
er Catholic. and until about Is year
ago Its constitution prohibited any 9th i
er kind of worship. Since then law
have been passed giving fun religfoul
liberty, and the Protestants have san
IN missionaries, and tons of Bibles havsj
been carried over the mountains and
scattered throughout the land. Thd|
principal religion is still Catholic. and
1t will probably always be so, although
the introduction of the purer and bette
Catholicism of North America vii |
change the church from what II now isl
The people of Ecuador are now in ths
throes of a revolution. The outs ard
trying to depose the ins, and the presi Il
dent. Gen. Leonidas Plaza, may or maSI
not be deposed. When | was here last
the president at the head of the admin Il
istration was Don Alfaro, who after
ward came back from Panama and lostI
his life in trying To recapture the office
Alfaro was born revolutionist, and he
had many narrow escapes. AT one time|
y
while on one of the little Ecuadorian|
men -ofwar. and escaped by swimmin a
TO the shore on a barrel. At anothelI
time he lived for weeks in the wilds of|
Ecuador and Columbia, being hunted bs|
the state troops.
The president gets a salary of s12,00|
a year. He rules his country through
a cabinet. which, with seven other mem
bers forms a council of state. There isl
a Congress elected by the people TheI
President has the power of veto, bud
Congress can pass laws over his vetoI
Just now one of the chief public cues
tions is the improvement of the ports|
and another is the building of railroads.
Both of these involve the expenditure
of considerable sums of money and tn 4
holding of influence and power. 1t may|
be that this is one of the causes of thel
revolution.
The opening of the canal and the|
cleaning up of Guayaquil will greatly
increase the trade of this country, and
1t ought to materially increase its busi
ness with the United States. The for
eign commerce already amounts to "a
or % million dollars a year: and, ad
present, Great Britain leads all coun1
tries in sales. In 1g09 the imports frond
that country amounted to more thanl
$S,oo0,000, being something like $500, ,00O
more than those of the United Statesl
In 1910 they were more than 5000, ,000
more than ours, and that notwithstand- !
ing the American imports were more
than double those of Great Britain
About all of the British goods cam q
by way of the Straits of Magellan and
this has been so of most of the goods
from Europe, which constitute by far
the greater part of the trade. With the
opeing of the canal we shall have much
Ia 81, n..1 . i. n
come to us.
As it is now Ecuador Is getting most
of its cotton goods from the United
Kingdom. More than three fifths of its
woolen goods come from there, and of
its shoe leather about one-third comes
from Germany and little more from
the United States In boots and shoes
the United States leads and it does also
in lard and wheat flour, as we'll as in
coal, although considerable is imported
from Australia. As to machinery, it is
now coming from the United States, the
United Kingdom and Germany.
The exports of Ecuador amounted last
year to little less than $4,000, 600 and
about $10.000,000 worth of them went 10
France, Germany and the United States
The principal commodity was eacao and
ivory nuts, the former selling for over
$lO,OOO,OO0 and the latter for something
like $2,000,000 In addition there was
rubber to the amount of 81 000, 900. The
eacao and ivory nuts come almost alto
gether from the tropical lowlands along
the Pacific and the chief port for them
is GuayaquiL a great part of the land
about here is given up to cacao; and 1
am told that there are few plantations
which do not net a S much as IL per cent
per annum, and that some, ARE bringinx 4
four or five times that amount The
cacao bean is that from which choco-
late is made. The fruit grows on a
tree. which is much like an immense
lilac bush. 1t is ragged and gnarly and
the fruit, which is shaped like squash.
grows on the stem or close to tho
branches. When ripe it is of lemon
color and the seeds within are of red
dish brown. The seeds are the beans of
commerce. They are about as big as a
lima bean and of much the same shape.
There are from 2S to 80 of them in each
fruit. They are washed out of the pulp
that surrounds them, and then dried
and packed up for shipment to all parts
of the world.
The ivory nuts that form the second
great export come from low palm
tree. known as the tagua. The fruit of
this tree consists of burs, which look
for all the world like chestnut burs ex-
bigger. Each bur contains from so 10
30 of these vegetable ivory nuts. as big
as the fist of two-year- baby The
nuts are as hard as iron when ripe. but
when green they are filled with soft
jelly-like substance which tastes like
cocoanut milk.
The ivory palms grow wild in the
forest. and the natives travel through
woods gathering the nuts which they
bring down to Guayaquil. OF late wears
the business has greatly increased, and
there are now organized bands of tag
uaros. or ivory nut gatherers, who camp
out in the forest and bring boatloads OF
this crop down to Guayaquil. l am told
that the United states annually buys
20 oCo.00O pounds of these nuts and
tur- them into buttons paper knives
ana .lhe many other things which are
mace from vegetable ivory We have
% vegetable ivory factories, and more
than $4,000, 600 is inested in the bust
ness The chief centers of manufacture
are Rochester and Brooklyn in New
York, Newark in New Jersey and
Springfield, Mass. The greater part OF
the buttons we use are made of the
fruit of these palms so that it may be
truly said that this little land of Ecua-
dor upholds Uncle Sans pantaloons