The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1914-05-29

otner nalf were perfectly POSITIVE tnd'
she was going to visit Porto Rico.
Such, astonishing ignorance is not con-
fined to Plainfeld. Not one person
out Of thousand at the average break
fast table can tell where the bananas
come from which they are drawing
themselves over like boot. To this
end am going to give a brief de-
scription of this rather remarkable
country. Costa RIGA is the southern
state in Central America and is sur
rounded by two oceans and several
Latin American revolutions. 1t is
shaken down occasionally by earth
quakes and all the time by the United
Fruit Company who are said to own
everything in the country except the
gold lace on the presidents uniform.
However this may be it is a fact
that this company owns the railroad and
the electric light privileges and all tie
fruit land. Their rival, the Atlantic
Fruit Co. tried to get foothold here
but were croweed out. was going to
say froze out but that don't sound Just
right in Costa RIGA.
Costa RIGA is one vast garden spot,
where the largest fruit in the tropics
grow. Besides fruit they raise vast
quantities Of coffee.
In this country where the American
dollars have done so much in the way
of development, the Americans them
selves are not held in high esteem, but
they are tolerated because they have
taught a new standard of living, and
the American is something of neces-
sity, whether they like him or not.
The native Costa Rican has natural
dread OF fire. They know the horrors
following earthquakes and accordingly
have come to doing without fire wher-
ever possible. They do not mind the
house falling down so much as they do
what comes after. To this end such
cooking as they do is done out of
doors, and they wash their clothes in
cold water. Since the American in
vasion they have come to use electric
cooking and heating devices and as
current is sold very cheap this has
come to be the standard wherever pos
sible to get the current. In San Jose.
the capital city, electricity enters into
the necessities of everyday life with the
great majority OF the people.
I am one Of those who do not ap-
prove of Americans trotting over to
Europe to gaze on the stage settings
as prepared by the innocent natives,
not at least until the sights worth see
ing on this side have been exhausted.
For instance, in San Jose they have
one of the finest theatres in the world.
1t was designed by the architects who
planned the congressional library.
How many Of our European travellers
have seen this theatre2 Probably
there are thousands OF Americans who
know all about the cathedral at Milan
who have never heard of Costa Rico
and some who know nothing OF the
Congressional Library. |
A peculiar custom in San Jose is the
wash tub. AS above men
toned the natives dread fire and will
not put a hand in hot water. All
laundrying is done in cold water. One
of the priests gave the city municipal
wash tub, which consists of cement
basins fed by mountain streams. Each
woman has compartment and here in
the center of the city the native women
gather and do their laundrying. While
nothing but cold water is used it is
said the laundry work Of these women
surpasses our northern methods. The
clothes are alternately bleached and
sprinkled and allowed to remain spread
on the cactus bushes for three days be-
fore ironing.
I met native Costa Rican at Colon
and learned that he lived at an altitude
Of six thousand feet. He is high
enough to be in the temperate zone
and raises many crops such as we raise
in New York State. Below him he can
look down on the coffee plantations
and on other tropic vegetation. He