Evening Star Newspaper, April 9, 1898, Page 19

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1898-24 PAGES. MORNING VIEW ON THE PLAZA, SHOWING HOTEL INGLATERRA. SPIES IN HAVANA They Dog the Footsteps of Every American There. A CITY «FULL OF DETECTIVES Combine to Make Things Too Hot for Foreigners. oe DESPICABLE METHODS or Bpecial Correspondence of The Evening Star. HAVANA, April 3, 1898. HIS CITY SIMPLY swarms with spies, and every American nowin Havana knows that all his actions, his goings out and his comings in, are watched. By whom? A spy. He knows that his mail uJ is opened and read in \ 1 transit. By whom? A jay spy. He knows that, ¥ in his absence, his room is entered, bis trvnk broken open. By whom? A spy. He knows that at any moment he may be ar- rested and thrown into Cabanas prison. On what charge? As “an American spy.” If you leave your hotel and go out in the morning you at once feel yourself in € omnipresent shadow of the spy. With the first drum beat of the voluntears the plaza in front of the opera house, and the Streets of the city begin to fill with peuple —mostly cigarette makers—on their way to work. But they all move along with the air of people who know that they are watched. They talk but tittle to each eth- er, ident that they fear to speak Moving among the people, and con- y their uniforms, the volunteers with their rifles over their shoul- ne . Slouching along, singly and in groups of two ond three, In the direction cf Morro Castle, where they are going to do twenty- fou guard duty. They, too, have an anxious, worried look. Every one seems to be living in an atmosphere of suspicion— 4 being spled upon. There is a of distrust face of nearly every one, soldier . whom you pass. The trail of > serpent-like spy ig over it all. And so life goes on in Havana from morning to night. things. at all. agents own It is a one-sided state cf The Americano is not in the game | T Spaniards never regard their spies. They say: “We are in our ninding our own business. What : ? rig these Yankees spying upon vs? ‘They Let's kick "em out.” So, jer to find an excuse for expelling the . we are rhed, individually, shining minute. The Spasiards can- not expel us in a bedy, so they proceed to us one by one. American spy,” you are put in the charge of “general con- y against the government of Spain.” ys later, to show how magnan!- an be, the Spaniard offers you om if you will leave Havana. This has been the experience of more than @ score of Americans since the blowing up ef the Maine. The Spanish Woman Spy. The <pies are all sorts and conditions of men and women. And the chief of these is the Spanish woman. Woe to the Ameri- can who succumbs to th: wiles and walks into the snares of the plump and pale-faced senora. She seems charming. She is usual- ly beautiful. She wears a black mantilla. She looks at her victim through the man- t!a with glances that kill. She is a de- lusion and a snare. Her eyes seem to swim with love, but hatred fills her heart. Her seductive smile seems all sympathy. I: is the smile of the woman who hates-- it is all cruelty. ‘The senora gives her services to Spain free of charge. She spies for love—-not of Spain, but of spying. Let this be a warn- ing to ail Americans who intend coming to Havana. Your correspondent occupies the apart- ment in which an American was arrested recently at midnight. The spy responsible for his imprisonment was a beautiful senora. On the evening of his arrival in Havana he was strolling in the park op- posite the Inglaterra Hotel. A stranger jostled against him, and stopped to apolo- gize in English. An acquaintance followed. The stranger said he would like to present the American to—ah, she was sitting just beyond the fountain. Two minutes later the American was seated by a woman whom the stranger called wife. The stranger disappeared. The band was play- ing, the Cuban night was charming, the senora’s eyes were large and luminous, her teeth were glistening—the American talked, The next evening he met the senora again in the same place, and again he talked. He met her again and again. He talked till he talked too much. Even an American will tell a woman things which the rack itself could not draw from him. The Soldier Spy. The boldest of the Spanish spies is the seldier. He makes no attempt to disguise his contempt for the Americans whose steps he is dogging. “Americano.” ‘The Spaniard in Havana never utters this word without an accompanying sneer or gesture of contempt. The soldier spy follows the unfortunate American here, there, every- where. His plan of procedure is to attempt to pass you on ene of the narrowest of Ha- vana’s narrow sidewalks. He pushes you The Spanish Woman Spy. aside roughly. You naturally resent. He proceeds on his way without a word, goes direct to his superior officer and reports that Senor So-and-So pushed him, a sol- ier of Spain, violently from the sidewalk. He had witnesses—fellow-spies, of course. Charge filed against you—“insulting the military by laying violent hands on a Span- ish soldier." ‘That night the clerk at your hotel informs you that you have been or- dered to leave Havana by the first steamer. ‘To refuse 1s to “take the consequences.” The nature of the said consequences is not specified. This little trick was played upon one of the American newspaper correspond- ents within the last few days. Cabanas prison is not always the fate of the suspected American, as is seen in the ¢as> just mentioned. The fact is that the Spanish are not anxious to fill Cabanas with American prisoners. Uncle Sim might make some inconvenient inquiries. The Spaniard’s principal object in employing spies is to get the American out of Ha- vana. Sometimes the soldier spy does not suc- ceed in trumping up a charge against the American whom he has been set to watch. {a that case the job is given to an officer. The officer contrives to meet the American, introduces the victim at the Military Club, and is so extremely polite in manner and so particularly insulting in speech that the American “talks back,” and a row fol- lows. In such instances the victim has al- Ways been iocked up in Cabanas for “‘safe Keeping” till the next steamer day. Then he has been marched aboard the steamer by & file of eight soldiers with fixed bay- onets. The spies all speak English, though they pretend not to understand a word of our lat lage. Hence, more than one Ameri- can has made indiscreet remarks to a fel- low-American in the presence of a Span- jard whom the American ‘supposed could not understand the English tongue. Spying at the Hotels. The most dangerous, most monstrous, and most despicable of the Spanish sples are hotel employes. There is absolutely no way of knowing which of these hotel rascals is ycur particular enemy. Who- ever he is he sneaks into your room when- ever you go out, searches the pockets of your clothing, and reads eny letters or scraps of paper which you have been care- less enough to leave exposed. This spy Peeps into your room through the grating of your windows. He forces fear you in the dining room, always listening and al- ways hating. An American who had been thus watched for some weeks asked a hotel porter one day to direct a cabman to crive to the cemetery to the burial place of the Maine's dead. The porter said a few words in Spanish to the cabman, the American got in, the cabman lashed his horse. After driving for ten minutes the American, who bad been to the cemetery before, per- ceived that the cabby was driving in the wrong direction. Thinking that there had been a mistake in giving the destination, the American attempted to make the driver. understand. The driver, however, paid no attention to him, and a moment later a file of soldiers, issuing from a gate in the wall, stopped the carriage, dragged the American from it and marched him into Cabanas prison. The only excuse for the imprisonment of that young man, a correspondent for a New York daily, was that he had been seen on three several occasions driving with a Cuban family in the Praedo. The charge as usual was “general conspiracy against the govern- ment.” The next Ward line steamer left Havana with that unfortunate correspond- ent aboard. Sometimes, though very rarely, the spy is a Cuban. When a Cuban is bad he is very bad. Only such a one would s2ll himself to the enemy of his island and his independence. With ell these spying, prying rascals about him, how is it that the American does not ksep out of their clutches? Be- cause it is utteriy impossible to distin- guish the spy from the ordinary mortal. Things are in such a state here that Americans have acquired a habit of say- ing, ‘‘D—n the Spanish.” This, of course, is a seditious remark, and, though the American believes that only his comrade hears it, yet it is translated to the palace officials in a wey that gives it sufficient significance to expel the Yankee. Watching Gen. Lee. The Americans have more than once “spotted” a spy. Sometimes the peck- ing, thieving, lying fellow has been caught in the very act of breaking open a trunk or of stealing important papers. In such cases that particular epy reports that he has been discovered, and another spy is put on in his place. Appeals to Consul General Lee to have certain annoyances stopped, and for re- dress of certain personal grievances, are made in vain. The general himself is lit- erally surrounded by both Spanish and Cuban spies. The Spaniard and the Cu- ban are both forever thinking of Morro Castle, the Bastile of Havana. The year 1898 undoubtedly means for Havana what 1793 meant for Paris. The Bastile fell then, Morro Castle is bound to fall now. The Spantard knows it. He is desperate. The Cuban knows it. He is in despair. Today over Morro Castle flies the flag of Spain. In a few months the Spanish flag will be gone, and another will float in its place. Which? The Cuban blue and white or the Amerjcan stars and stripes? This is the question which both Spaniards and Cu- bans are asking themselves today. Over Morro Castle each wents his own flag to float alone, and neither wishes to yield up that famous flagpole to the red, white and blue of the Americano. No wonder that Havana is infested by a horde of spies! GOOD FRIDAY IN ROME Good Friday in the eternal city, in other words, the “Tenebrae” and “Miserere” at St. Peter's. I know of few more impres- sive ceremonies. About noon the grand old church be- gins to fill, if such an expression can ever be used in reference to St. Peter’s, which can contain a vast multitude and still look empty. Of course, tke tourists are the earliest ar- rivals; they always are. Each accom- panied by what has grown to be an in- scparable companion during Holy week—a camp stool. With most unseemly haste they crowd fcrward to the very chancel rail, and after much pushing and crowd- ing there plant themselves—to stay, too. Next come the sturdy peasant women, gererally dragging’ a tugging string of little tots after them, all clad in somber colors, with flimsy scarfs thrown carelessly over their frowsy heads and knotted se- curely under their chubby chins. From be- neath this demure covering their sparkling eres shine out big with excitement and anticipation. Verily, their visit to St. Peter's is a weary pilgrimage of gra Slo stragsle up the noble old themselves at every few steps; spending a minute of so in heartfelt devotion before €very shrine, praying at every altar, kneel- ing at the confessional, imploring the blessing of the good fathér within, who gently touches each bowed head with his long, slender rod; and the pathetic little group, a veritable mountain of grief lifted [= their child-like souls, moves on to es, in awestruck silence, the well worn toe of old bronze st. Peter. Good, simple, confiding, superstitious qouls! Mary a weary mille have they ramped across the heavy, dusty roads of the “Campagna” to “assist” at this peni- tential service. Tired and footsore they gre, no doubt, and yet through the ensuing curs they will kneel uncomplainingly on the cheerless marble floor. Truly their faith is a labor of love. God biess them! With a frou-frou of silk and a breath of fragrant orris, enter the aristocracy and flower of Roman society, the ladies to take their places in the high, screened tribunes erected near the altar. The officers, gor- geous in their multi-colored uniforms, glit- tering with gold braid, strut ebout the resounding aisles to the cheer- ful clink, clink of their trailing swords. Slowly the golden glory of the setting sun, streamirg through the clear windows of the dome to gild, with radkunt beauty, the lofty canopy that eurmounts the shrine where rest the bones of St. Peter, begins to fade, and little by little the entire edi- fice ts enveloped In a dim obscurity that only serves to magnify the vast distances of this, the world’s greatest cathedral. At last appears a radiant glow upon the altar. The thirteen candles are alight. Then, steaiing through the incense-laden atmosphere, comes the faint chant of har- mcnious voices. The ‘Tenebrae!’ ah! the marvelous sweetness and power of that well-known music. Chord after chord of subtle harmony stealing out of the dark- 1.ess, soaring aloft through the silent aisles, echoing along the dim distances, and finally dying away in the mysterious shadows. Again and again, with strange monotony, it wakes the resounding echoes, till with one prolonged note of infinite sweetness it ceases altogether. One flickering candle is extinguished. Then, after a prolonged hush of expecta- tion, the melodious chant Is resumed. And so on it continues, again and again and as each psalm is ended another light ts snuffed out, until the last gleam is extin- gvished; then in the gathering night wails out “The Miserere,” with its overpowering weight of sorrow and suffering, on and on with its ever-increasing burden of sad- ness and woe. Then a crash, a flash of flaming light, and “tis ended. A rustle and whisper ripples through the kneeling audience. The religious tension is broken. The tourist chatter in undertones, the Illustrissimi Signore whisper in their lat- ticed tribunes, the officers them- selves in all their glory. Only the peasants, bewed down by their weight of religious fervor, prostrate on the floor, stumbled over by every one, seem totally oblivious of their surroundings. At last, high up in the blackness, on the disappears. Again comes the harsh clang and a piece of the true cross is held up to the worship- IME Ein the bell, and this time we see the ca handkerchief with which St. Vero- rica. wiped the sweat from our Saviors! brew, and it still bears the imprint of His sacred features. bowed heads incline still lower, and when they are again raised total darkness reigns, the tapers are extinguished, all is finished, and through the hushed gloom that vast concourse drifts silently away. BESSIE HUBER CLARK. —._—. ART -AND ARTISTS. Mr. Wiiliam Ordway Partridge, whose interesting series of art lectures closed at the Columbian University Wednesday, has been superintending the erection of a note- worthy addition to the monuments in the Rock Creek cemetery. The production of this work has occupied a share of the sculptor’s time for several yeurs, and the study and thought which he has given to its conception is as evident as the skill with which he has executed it. The spirit expressed in the beautiful female figure is diametrically opposed to that felt in the impressive figure of Augustus St: Gaudens, which ts to be found near by. Mr. Par- tridge has endeavored to embody the joy- ous, hopeful thoughts born of a sure faith inthe resurrection, whereas Mr. St. Gau- dens has presented an ideal of grief un- comforted by any ray of hope. The bronze figure b; a : - tive ‘attitude on a massive granite: dene which is semi-circular in shape and which is ornamented with @ series.of bronze bas- reliefs telling the story of life. Among the other striking works in sculpture that he has completed since his last visit to Wash- ington are a beautiful Madonna and a rugged head pada a ‘Whitman, ex- sent in for exhibition, jt is safe to promise its work is hampered, ‘fo lift it out of debt and to place it on independent, self- supporting basis, will be gratified to learn that the entertainment to be given for the nee the school = fevery indication of entire success. rge proportion of those who are to take! part gre artists, in! the limited sense of cthe wora, meaning painters, sculptors, ete,:and from begtin- ning to end the progmam has a distinctly artistic flavor. i a) - xe A meeting of the Water Color Club was held last Saturday at Miss‘Perrie’s studio, but no business of importance was trans- acted, except the election of one new mem- ber, Mr. Felix Mahoney. Some time was given to the discussion of the constitution, copies of which have been printed and di: tributed among the members. * : x eo Next week a collection of pictures by the well-known marine painter, Carlton T. Chapman, will supplant the drawings and paintings® by. Frederick Remington that have been on view at Veerhoff's for a fort- night. Mrs. Mica Heideman is now exhibit- ing at Veerhoff’s gallery an interesting bust that she has modeled of Col. Hinton. * * * There is quite a colony of Washington Siudents working at the New York Art Students’ League, most of them having very naturalty come from the Art League in this city. Miss Margaret Tomes, who holds the annual scholarship, is one of the workers, and Mr. John €. Clay, whe won the scholarship two years ago, is another. Mr. Clay has been there long enough to be- come thoroughly affiliated with the league and is one of the most popular fellows in the entire school, Mr, Clay has taken a studio where he may work by himself, and he and Mf. Jerome P. Uhl,who is finishing his first year’s study, have illustrations in one of the minor magazines this month. Mr. Giénn M. Brown has been working there a year, and Mr. Ralph Willis, who is studying with mural decoration in view, is another Washingtonian: there. Mr. Mills Thompson, who is here in the city at pres- ent, also counts himself among the stu- dents of the New York Art League. * ‘The attendance ure the first ‘week of Scciety of Washington Artists’ exhibition has been very good, as there were many who were loath to postpone their first visit to the exhibit to any later date. One of the canvases which has excited much at- tention and aroused no ifttle discussion among thg-visitors is Mr. J. Edward Ber- clay’s study of a girl reading. It is not @ picturs which by {ts similarity to its neighbors passes unchallenged, but one which at once arrests the éye by the dis- tinetly different note which is sounded in ft. To those who are only pleased by strik- ing oppositions of color ths hues may seem lacking in for:e, but the majority will find @ very genuine charm in the subtle, low- toned scheme of coloring. Mr. Robert Cole- man Child has designed a very effective poster to announce the exhibition to the pedestrians on Connecticut avenue, and he has executed this striking poster on such a large scale that even the most short- sighted cannot remain in ignorance of the exhibit. The design is. withal very artistic and is pleasing in tee pie, effect. * * Mr. Gaylord 8. Truesdell is still uncertain in regard to bis return to America to live, and is atvpresent working in London, If. he decides to come home: to the United States he will in all probability go at once to Denver, Col., and make no stay of con- sequence in Washington or any eastern city. He ts going to send two important ceinvases to this year’s exhibition of the Royal Academy in London. * A Washingtonian who spent some time in New York this week took occasion to visit the spring exhibition of the National Acad- emy of Design, and also that, at the Du- rand-Ryel galleries, of “ten American art- ists” who lately withdrew from the old or- ganization, and he afterward summarized the situation in a way that probably ex- presses the opinion of a good many visitors. “I first went to the Academy,” he said, “and after spending a little time there 1 could easily see, from the character of the exhibition, why the “ten American artists” should want to leave that institution. Then I went to the Durand-Ruel galleries to see their display, and when I saw their work Lunderstood very quickly why the Academy arouia be glad i) have ce SEES Bo. first js commonplace; the second sim- ply Hlaioddous g 2 * ** At the big loan exhibition, which will open next week in the old Corcoran Art Gallery, there are quite a number of works by Washington painters, and these pictures hold their own very creditably, though it is but natural that modern work should suffer somewhat when placed beside the mellow masterpieces of Which the collec- tion is to a great extent composed. Kdward Lind Morse is among the local portrait painters who are represented, his contribu- tion being a strong lifelike head of Justice Skiras. Robert Hinckley is seen to good advantage in a large striking portrait, and Henry Floyd displays his skill in a small, corefully painted head. J. Edward Barclay and Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy, who may, in a sense, be considered as local painters, are both represented by ‘good works on por- traiture. Alice Barney's likeness of herself is a striking piece of work, but it is not by any means the best thing that she has painted, and visitors will doubtless take moore pleasure in her attractive pastel. E. F. Andrews again exhibits his notable pic- ture called ‘‘Wat Tyler,” and Carl Gutherz sends a large decorative composition, which shows him at his best. Among the land- scapes exhibited, that by Edmund Clar- erce Messer easily takes a leading place, and it is indeed one of the best things that has come from his brush. It is sel- dcm that he has attained such glowing fullness of color, and the picture is full of the artistic feeling which ts always present in his work. Max Weyl shows another strong landscape, and Parker Mann and Hobart Nichols also show work in oil that will repay attention. The dramatic marine subject which George Gibbs exhibited at the Water Color Club last fall will doubt- less be looked upon with almost as much interest as upon its first appearance. James Henry Moser, Marietta M. Andrews, W. H. Holmes, Walter Paris and Edwin Lamasure are among the Washingtonians represent- ed by good work in water color. Sara Bar- tle contributes an attractive group of mip- latures, and Daisy Brown sends a couple of tiny portraits, in which the skillful workmanship is very Ru Pa On April 18, 14 anes there willbe an interesting exhibition of sketches and illus- trations on view from:8 to 6, at 2404 14th street. Miss Grace EK Atwater and Mrs. C. L. Spaulding wilt°contribute each a share to this coll sales; PRINCIPAL STREET OF GUAYAQUIL. IN FAR-OFF ECUADOR Wonders of Life in That Tropical Clime. WHERE NATORE FAIRLY RUNS RIOT Interesting Features About the City of Guayaquil. SOME SERIOUS DRAWBACKS Special Correspcndence of The Evening Star. (Sopytight, 1898, by Frank G. Carpenter.) GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador, March 19, 1898, HE CITY OF Guayaquil! How shall I describe it] it is one of the strangest mixtures in the world of cities. It lies sixty miles up the wide Guyas river, almost under the shadow of the equator, frowned upon by the snowy peaks of Chimborazo and Cotopaxi. Wood- ed hills surround it. “Ae The Guyas river, wider here than the Mississippi at St. Louis, flows rapidly by it, and the moist talasmatic afr of the tropics lulls it to sleep. In the river before it you are re- minded of Venice from the Grand canal. Upon its wharves the scenes make you think of Naples, and back in its business sections you are in a maze of bazaars muéh like those of Cairo, Calcutta or Bom- bay. Not only its looks, but its smells smack of the orient. It has streets more slimy than those of Seoul in winter, and some of its customs are as vile as those of Pekin. It is one of the best business points on the west coast of South America, and is the only commercial port of a coun- try at least four times the size of the state of Ohio, having a population about as great as that of the city of Philadelphia, and in natural resources one of the rich countries of the globe. It is the New York of Ecua- dor, the center of trade and the place through which all of Ecuador's exports and imports must pass. In the neighborhood of $8,000,000 worth of goods are brought here every year from the United Staies and Europe and some millions of doliars worth of coffee, cocoa, hides and rubber are sent from here to all paris of the civ- ilized world.. Guayaquil is what the Ecuadortans call a progressive city. It has 50,000 inhabitants. It covers the banks of the River Guyas for two miles, and at a distance is very impos- ing. It has fine buildings of the Spanish style, with balconies, out of which dark- eyed beauties look from under half-closed shutters down upor you as you go through its streets. It has a maze of great stores, which are open at the front, so that you look within as in an Egyptian bazaar. Stores with stocks of goods, and wide- dreds of thousands of dollars, and wide- open warehouses filled with bags of cocoa, coffee and sugar awaiting shipment. Its streets are lined with workmen who labor at their trad2s on the sidewalks, with In- dian women who comb their own and their children’s hair in the intervals of their with fierce-looking man carrying great bags and bales upon their backs, and with beautiful women of the better classes, who go along in couples, dressed in black with black shawls picturesquely draped about their olive brown fac2s. It has hun- dreds of donkeys, who carry all sorts of things through its sffeets. Here goes one loaded with boards, and there is one with two panniers filled with bread upon its back. That is the baker’s wagon of Guay- aquil. The city has also a larg> number of active business men, the richest of whom are Italians, English, French, Chi- nese or Spaniards, and two banks, one of which at times pays dividends of 33% per cent a year. It has a tramway, the cars of which were made in America, and on the river there are little steamers which were imported in pieces from the United States. Guayaquil has an excell2nt club, at which you may meet as good fellows as you wiil find anywhere in the world. It has plenty of priests and a big church facing a beau- tiful park, where the band plays after wor- ship on Sundays. It is, however, more a city of trade than of pleasur>. The cable connects it with the markets of New York and Europe, and when the wires are up it is also connected with Quito and the other towns of the iuterior. It is at Guayayuil that Col. Perry de Leon, on2 of the most efficient of our consuls general, is station- ed, and here also M. Edward Pavia has charge of the branch house of Flint, Eddy & Company, the great South American im- porting firm of New York. These are som3 of the bright spots of the picture. Low Taxes and a High Death Rate. Guayaquil has its dark spots as well. Its taxes on real estate are lower than those of any city of our country, but in the alti- tude of its death rate it tops the world. The streets of Guayaquil are unpaved. Dur- ing the summer season they are filled with dust, and the donkeys and mulés wear pantalets to keep the gadfiles and mos- quitoes from eating them up. In the winter season, which is now on, the town is flocded whenever it pours with stagnant water to such an extent that it is against: = F tax them enough to pave the streets and establish a good fire department, A Wide-Awake Police. Guyaquil has a wide-awake police force. I know this, for during my first few nights here I heard the policemen every fifteen minutes al] night long yelling out that they were awake. It is a police regulation that every man on watch shall cry out or whis- tle every quarter of an hour. The cry is “El seniinel es alerto,” and the whistle i: @ combination more, wonderful than any- thing exept the cry of the Guyaquil frog, whose hi-hi-hi is screamed out al! night long. The Ecuadorian police are soldiers. They carry swords ayd guns and both look and act in the fiercest manner. One of them almost dropped his gun on my foot the other day as I attempted to pass him. He said “atras!” which I suppose means “back.” At least I backed and walked around the other w I have since learned that no one may pass between the police and the wall, but must go outside the policeman. I supp@se if the policeman has to fight he prefers to have the wall at his back. Another regulation is that i people out after 11 o'clock p. m. mus’ an account of themselves. The cry is, “Who goes there?” and the answers must be such as will satisfy the police or they will take you to jail. I doubt, in fact, whether ‘there is a place in the world where it is so easy to break into jail as here. People are imprisoned for debt, and it is a common thing for a planter who wants hands on his estate to go to the jails and pay the debts of such of the prisoners as will agree to transfer their debts to him and work them out. He then gives them small wages and takes ovt perhaps a dollar a week from each man’s salary until the debt is paid. In the jail at Bodegas, a town further up the Guaya- quil river, I talked with a Jamaica negro, who told me he had been in prison for months because he had failed to pay a millionaire planter $16 which he had bor- rowed. Said he: “If I were free I could werk to get the money to pay my debt, but they kcep me here until some one buys me out and then EF must work for him or he can put me in again.” The Land of the Equator. But before I go further let m2 teil you something of Ecuador. The name means equator, and Ecuador is the land of the equator. It Mes sandwiched between Co- lcmbia and Brazil and Peru, on the w>st ecast of South America, in the shape of a great fan, the handle of which extends in- to northern Brazil, and the scalloped rim of which is washed by the Pacific ocean. It is one of the least known ccuntrizs of the world. Parts of it have never been sur- veyed, ard today the different geographical 2stimates of its size range all the way from the bigness cf California to that of Texas. The coast is low, and a rich tropi- cal vegetation extends from the ocean back for one hundred miles or less to the foot- Kills of the Andes. The Andes cross the country from north to south in two great parallel ridges, upholding between them a series of beautiful valleys, in which about nine-tenths of the p2ople live. These val- leys are from a mile and e half to two miles above the sea, andggive the interior a healthful climate, which fs more like that of New York city than of the equarior. Quito, the capital, is situated in one of the highest of thes: valleys. It Is almost two miles above the altitude of Washington city. Here the weather is that of May in Ohio all the year around. East of the An- des the country is a tropical wilderness. A great branch of ths Amazon, the Maranon river, fi@s along its southern boundaries, and steamers go up the Amazon, enter the Maranon and bring you within a compara- tively short distance of Quito. In fact, I am told you can come to within four days’ mule travel of Quito by water via these great rivers and the streams which flow in- to them. Ecuador thus has almost every climate known to man. Scores of its An- dean peaks ar2 ever covered with snow, and it has mighty glaciers. Chimborazo, which on clear days is visible here, is 2 200 feet above the*sea, and the great vai- ley of Ecuador is gvarded by twenty-on> reaks, ranging in height from three to four miles, while there are seventeen other peaks which are more than two miles in | height. Today in Guayaquil the air is filled with ashes. They come from one of Ecua- dor’a ten active volcanoes, and every week or so an earthquake makes the ground trem- A Bread Man of Guayaquil. ble. The houses of Guayaquil are built to withstand the earthquakes. Thoy are of wooden timbers so joined and spliced that they can sway with the trembling of the earth and not break. Th> frame work is then covered with bamboo laths, made by splitting the cane. Upon these bamboos a coating of plaster is spread. This makes the exterior of the houses look as though the walls w2re backed with brick and wher, in fact, they are actuaily made up of good-sized fishirg poles. Just now a vast deal cf building is going on here, and the hammer of the carp2nter nailing on these laths is always to be heard. Much of the lumber used comes from Oze- gon and Washington, and some from ‘Where the Melons Grow on Trees. The equatorial coast region, where I now am, is full of vegetable wonders. This is today the richest and most productive part of Ecuador. In my sixty miles’ sail up the River Guyas to this city I passed vast ha- ciendas with grass as green as the of sugar cane, which here grows to the height of ten feet, and which grows for Ww has i fil i & at H int I i in my shawl This blanket ts trunk of the demajagva jams made a cutting around the trunk to get it. and they then prepared it by soaking ft in water unth it was soft. They wd tree. The then potnded it so that the rough outside ne could de stripped off and the inside al left. The inside is of fine fibers so joined tegether by nature that it makes a beau- tiful blanket, warm enough to be used as a cover and soft enough for a mattress. The pineapples here are delicious, and the ba- hanas and coffee are unsurpassed by those of any other pert of South America. A Cup of Chocolate. The chief article of export from Ecuador, bewever, ts cacao, or, as w> call tt, cocoa. It is from this that the chocolate comes. “here are vast cocoa plantations along the Guyas river and the other rivers of the Pacific coast, and the pianters have one of the best paying businesses among the farmers of the world. There are few plan- tations which do not net 12 per cent, and many bring in five times this amount. To- day it costs here, I am told, about 3 cents of our money to raise a pound of cocoa, whereas it sells In Guayaquil for about 14 cems, making a clear profit to the farmer of 11 cents (gold) a pound, d paying him a_profit of about 400 per cent. This year Ecuador will raise about forty mill- A Blanket Cut From a Tree. jon pounds of cocoa beans, which will be shipped to Europe and the United States. The crop is not a difficult one to raise, and when an orchard is once bearing it is good for a big income for from twenty to thirty years. Until | came here [ had no ider as to how cocoa was grown. I had heard of the cocoa bean and supposed ft came from a vine or bush. The truth is, the beans, which when ground up wake our chocolate, grow on trees from twenty to thirty feet high. The tree rvch like an immense lilac bush. It is Taggec and gnarly, and its fruit, which is Digger than the pomelo or grape fruit, grows on the stem or trunk and the branches. close to It is of the shape of an immense lemon, and of about the same color, and the seeds within it are the chocolate beans of commerce. Each bale of fruit contains from twenty-eight to thirty brown beans about as big as itma beans. These are washed out of the pulj that surrounds them and dried and t d to the chocolate factories ail over rid. There is a chance for men who ‘e some capital, and who are not afraid of the miasma of the tropics, to make money here in raising chocolate. Fatal to Americans, As for me, I would not advise ang one to come to Guayaquil or tropical Ecuador to engage in anything. My experience is such that if Mount Chimborazo was one solid lump of chocolate and it was offered me as a reward for staying here for ten years I would not take it. Nearly every Ameri- can who comes here gets the fever, and I am told that % per cent of all Americans As who have tried to live here have died. to the profits of cocoa plantations, ho ever, wild lands can be gotten very che ly. "I was told yesterday hac containing enough iand for which could be bought for $14 lands can be goiten for from $10 an acre up. Cultivated orchards are worth about 60 cents a tree, and as you can easily grow over 500 trees to the acre, each of which will yield you from one to two pounds of chocolate a year, you see how valuable the yielding orchards are. The only way to make the business pay would be to grow and good your own chard. This is a matter of about five years. The first thing is to clear the ground by cutting down everything and burning it. Next bananas are set out about ten feet apart in order that they may grew up and shade the young cocoa trees. Bee tween each two bananas a hill of cocoa beans is planted, so that the hills are about ten feet apart. Three beans are put in each hill. They soon sprout. At first they look like little orange trees. They grow rapidly and at three years they begin to produce fruit. After once planting all the cultivation necessary is to keep down the underbrush and cut off the vegetation which springs up. Such a thing as hoeing and plowing a crop as we do,js not known in the tropical parts of Ecuador. Nevers theless a great amount of labor is required and the lack of suitable help is a serious drawback. Most of the planters take ade vantage of the debt laws and keep a nume ber of poor people in debt to them. One millionaire hacienda owner, whom I vis- ited last week, has, I was told, workmen on his pay roils who owe him a quarter of a milliom dollars, and he complained bitterly to me that he could not get enough men to work his estates. I doubt not he would gladly have loaned another hundred thousand for the debt slaves which such an investment would have brought him. The | laborers, you know, are, as a rule, the na- | tive Indians. They are thriftlesa, but hard workers. They are accustomed to being in debt and manage to keep themselves so, Coffee and Sugar. A great deal of money is invested in Ecue ador in coffee and sugar plantations. Six estates were set out in sugar about twenty odd years ago at a cost of $1,000,000, and there are a number of others with smaller capitals, The machinery used is chiefly American. I have visited a number of cof- fee groves and I am told that the Guaya- quil coffee ranks high in the markets. Great quantities are shipped from here to Europe, the exports last year amounting to over one million dollars in gold. The United States bought about one-fifth of this product, and it was probably sold by our retailers as old government Java. It is indeed excellent coffee. I Mke that I have had here as well as any I have ever tasted, though it is made and served in a way that any American housekeeper would say would ruin it. This is the process for : ‘The coffee, fresh roasted, is Uitte tea- safer #28 hth here