Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1914-02-20

0RAV ELERS from tn1s country
cross continents and seas to
find nothing more curious or
picturesque than may be found
on the west coasts OF Central
America and Mexico, comparatively
close at hand. To be sure, accommo-
dations for tourists are few. There Is
nothing luxurious about the hotels at
AL, but the traveller sees land OF
quaint customs and interesting people
and sees it just as 1t is. writes G. X.
King In Grit.
within the next few years there will
certainly be a wonderful change in
conditions along this coast. With the
opening of the canal win come new
steamship lines, lower freight rates
and increased travel. Probably the
uities along the coast will lose some
Of their picturesque characteristics.
Travellers sailing through the canal
in the days to come will see but little
of the real Panama The trip across
the isthmus by train allows opportu-
ndty for seeing the sights at each end.
II is surprise to most passengers
who sail from Panama for California
ports to and that the boat does not
start west but south. 1t is commonly
supposed that the isthmus has west
Urn and an eastern coast AS mat
ter OF fact, 1t has a northern and
southern coast. why, SEQ that sun.
cried one of the passengers on my
boat, ut Is coming up on the wrong
side" II was dificult to realize that
We were sailing due south to round
huge boot top.
| had taken a slow boat instead OF
an express steamer, because / wanted
to stop at the various ports along the
coast The republics, big and little,
strung along in this order-Pansma.
Costa Riea, Nicaragua, Honduras, Sal
vador, Guatemala, Mexico. Honduras
has only a few miles on the Pssinc
shore, and Salvador no Atlantic coast
ape at all Most OF the republics have
been torn by revolutions, beggared by
graft and kept back by lack Of educa
ton to an extent which can scarcely
be realized in this country, near neigh
bors OF ours though they are. There
| N u IllDC Vi ln0AAno III alfalfa WhtOh
has never been conquered and which
Is quite independent of the govern
nsent boasting that no woman in the
tribe has ever borne a child to a white
man, and obeying laws of their own
making.
Immense Tracts Of Fertile Land.
Much of Honduras IL a Wilderness
IN Nicaragua and Guatemala are i'm
mense tracts of land OF the most fer
tile character and in the finest eli
mates simply waiting the development
which shall come with peace and pros
psrfty Slavery is an actual II not an
admitted fact in many of these r~pub-
fics The law says that a peon shall
remain in the service of his master so
long as he is in his debt, which 10
all the time Further, the law says
that the debt is inherited by the mans
descendants and kinsmen. Peonage Is
really slavery
svsr, in the fact that few msn own
al the land and that the peon sees
nothing ahead but a continual round
of labor. When, as in Mexico, all the
hand ia In the hands of 5000 indfvid-
uals, while the total population In It,.
0oo, 900, there is little future for a poor
man
Costa Rfca is the one country IN
Central America which seems to have
solved the land problem. There the
government is the supreme landlord
and the hand is parccled out m small
lotz 10 families who win actually work
It. An result Costa Rioa Is made ar
Of Ersan farmers and In prosperous
and happy, the serenity OF fts affatrs
being disturbed only by an occasional
revolution engineered by an ambitious
politician
, Conditions in Nicaragu&, next door
10 Costa Rfc&, are about m difrereni
- can well be imagined. Nicaragus
n hand OF revolutions, bloodshed and
bad dsosz- Yet its natural resources
are beyond estimate. fts climate 1,
3satghtful 1t has coast line on tws
oceans and good steamship eonneo
lions. Some day 1t may prove an II
r Dorado. Already tho need of progress
= 10 feat and the government has signed
. contract with an American com
p&ny FOR more than hsf a million dol