THE BATTALION.
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which we only partially succeeded.
After much quarreling and fussing with
the landlord we succeeded in having our
trunks brought ujc, which like every
thing else is generally put off for the
morning in that “dolce far niente” land.
We then proceeded to introduce ourselves
to the American consul, who proved to
be a very amiable, cordial gentleman of
good intellect, who takes great care that
the United States flag should be protect
ed. He is the same gentleman that re
cently subdued the Nicaraguan govern
ment, when that government fired on
one of our merchant vessels. We spent
a delightful evening at his house and
were made to believe that on Washing
ton’s birthday something extra would
transpire.
The next day we spent in roaming
about the city and viewing its curiosi
ties. There was, right opposite our win
dows the ruins of an old cathedral, shat
tered by the great earthquake in 1884,
which followed by an eruption of the
Traquez, devasted a great portion of the
country. In the city park another great
cathedral stoo 1 joined by the mansion
of the bishop of the district, who, we
were told was a thorn in the govern
ment’s side, which did not surprise us, as
Catholic priesthood and Catholic govern
ment have for all times agreed to disa
gree sadly. The park isabe 'utiful bit
of ground, enclosed by great bread fruit
trees and dotted everywhere with flower
beds of exotic beauty, enlivened by the
prattle of the parrot and children, alike.
A band plays in this park three days in
the week and every morning guard
mounting is gone through with on its
spacious walks. On the days of the con
cert the park presents an ever varying
ialaidesoope of bright colors, originat
ing from the various shawls of the-
senoras and senoretas, without which
none of them would venture out into-
the streets.
Another interesting feature of this city
of 20,000 inhabitants is its museum,,.,
which we visited in due time. It con
tains an innumerable number of stuffed
birds and animals, among which the
parrot, monkey, catamount and panther
were most conspicuous. They have an
old Egyptian mummy there, the son of
the Pharos. There is a fine collection
of old gold coin§ and figures, amulets
and idols recently discovered by a lucky
fellow who received $80,000 for them
from the government.
Those of my readers who went to Chi
cago probably saw the collection there,,
as they were being gotten ready for
shipment when we saw them. The cu
rios we saw are too numerous to be men
tioned, so I hasten hence only naming a
ferocious looking living wild cat that
tried to shake hands with us through its
cage, but naturally we did not accom
modate him. We spent several days ex
ploring the sights of the adjoining coun
try, visited Allahuela, the terminus of
the railroad and made several excursions
into the mountains, of which it will be
interesting to describe only one.
A party of ten started one morning on
a back track to Carthago, there we hired
necessary donkeys and guides to conduct
us up the Traque. We left Carthago at.
noon and traveled fifteen miles that eve
ning to a little hamlet where we rested
for the night. At four in the morning
we were up and off to complete the-
hardest part of the journey before Sol.
would be able to spoil tire pleasure of it
for us. We ascended steep inclines and
sometimes followed the course of a