The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-09-11
Central America Has Many Ruins to
 Lure "Trippers"

'Trippers'' with a fondness for ruins need not despair because the war has shut them off from Europe. Central America has many ruins as can offer, and they may now be reached without any unduel hardships or exertions. This is the anniver- sary of an earthquake which provided one fine set of ruins for the delec- ftation of twentieth century tourists for it was on Sept Il, 1541, that an earthquake destroyed the city of An tigua the old capital Of Guatemala
 The history of Guatemala and it's capitals deserves more attention than it has been given. In the early part of the sixteenth century the Central American country was the seat of na- tions which, although not so powerful as the empires of the Aztecs and the Incas, were even further advanced in civilization. They had almost. if not quite. attained written language, and in architecture and the arts were far ahead of the other inha bitants of the New World. They had sent col onies into Yucatan, which carried the elements Of civilization into Mexico long before the foundation of the Az tee empire.
 It was this civilization that the Spaniards, through Pedro de Alvara-. do, destroyed. After several terrible battles Alvarado 3subjugated the peo- pie, burning many of them alive 'in the hope that it might have a whole some effect on those left living" He built his capital in the center of a valley between the volcanoes of Agua and Feugo. In this grand and beau tiful setting the conqueror, by the la Dor of native slaves, reared a wonder full palace and cathedral, around which quickly grew a populous town On the terrible night of Sept. Il, 1541, a great earthquake, accompanied by deluge of water from the volcano, destroyed the city. All that is left today are the foundations of the spa cious palace and the crumbIine wall of the cathedral
 The survivors abandoned the site, and started new Antigua four miles away The new Spanish capital flour fshed on a far grander scale than it's predecessor, and soon, by the unceas- ing toll of the natives; the white walls again giittered in the sunlight in the valley between the towering volcan- oes. In the course of time Antigua became one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of Spanish cities Its viceregal palaces, and it's hundred churches and twenty monasterfes made it the political and ecclesiastical center of the wide expanse of country between Mexico and Peru, while the University of San Carlos, founded in 1850, made the city a mecca for SCuoenpS. The city was built around a square, and from it the traveller enjoys a prospect the beauty and inn pressiveness of which it is impossible. to convey in words
 The second Antigua shared the fate of the first, and after it's partial des+ truction in 1773 the capital of the country was removed to what is now the city of Guatemala twenty-fo miles away, at a safer distance from the great volcanoes.
 Of the first Spanish capital of Qua tenala, now called Ciudad vieja or "O1d Town" little remains, but the se- cond Antigua, is rich in ruins. Several thousand people still live there, with in the shadow of the menace of the peaks, but they dwell in squa1id huts, while the great palaces of the past are untenanted and falling into decay. Chapels have been inprovised in the ruins of some of the old churches which Antigua boasted. The rats have their home in what was the chamber of the Inquisition, and most of the great cathedraIs and palaces are roof1ess, and their floors over grown with grass and wild flowers. Europe has nothing to offer in the way of ruins more impressive than the remains of the vanished city of An tigua.