GUATEMALA CITY. THE CAPITAL OF GUATEMALA.
GUATEMALA has had three capitals, all called Guatemala City, since the Conquest. The first was founded by Alvarado in 1524, and buried under a flood of sand and water in 1541. The second capital was founded the same year, a few miles eastward of the old site, and was destroyed by an earthquake in 1773. The present capital is the largest and by far the finest city in Central America, and is more modern in its appearance than any other. It is situated in what is called the tierra templada, or temperate zone, about forty-five hundred feet above the level of the sea, at the northern extremity of an extensive and beautiful plain, and has a climate that is very attractive. The plain upon which it stands is by no means as fertile as many other portions of the country, and is deficient in water. The supply which is used by the people is brought for a distance of fifteen miles in an aqueduct, which has the honor of having been described by Charles Dickens in his sketch of “The Flying Dutchman.” These water-works were commenced as far back as 1832, and involved an expenditure of over two million dollars, but without them the city could not have prospered.
Guatemala City is not favorably situated for commerce, as it is a considerable distance from both seas, and is shut out from the most productive portions of the country by walls of mountains. The city is laid out in quadrilateral form, and formerly was surrounded by a great wall through which it was entered by gates opening in various directions. It covers a vast area of territory for a place of its population, as the houses, like those of other Central American cities, are very
VIEW OF GUATEMALA CITY.
large, and enclose attractive gardens. During the last twelve years, under the presidency of General Barrios, Guatemala has made rapid progress, and but for the low and commonplace appearance of the houses would resemble the more modern cities of Europe. All the streets are paved, with gutters in the centre, and have broad paths of flag-stones on each side for foot-passengers.
Antigua Guatemala, the old capital, thirty miles to the westward of the new, is still a place of considerable importance, and in its time was far superior to the present capital in size and appearance. Previous to its destruction in 1773 there were but two cities on the American hemisphere which compared with it in population, wealth, and magnificence. These were the City of Mexico, and Lima, Peru. New York was then a commercial infant, Boston a mere village, and Chicago yet unknown. But here was a city in which were centred the ecclesiastical and political interests of the Central American colonies, where millions of dollars were spent in erecting churches, convents, and monasteries, which covered acres of ground, and beautiful residences whose shattered portals still bear the escutcheons of the noble families who ruled the city and cultivated the plantations of coffee, sugar, and cochineal.
Antigua, as it is now called (properly old Guatemala), was not only the scene of wealth and influence, and the commercial metropolis of the country, but the home of the most learned men of all Spanish America, the seat of great schools of theology, science, and art, for two hundred years the Athens and Rome of the New World, the residence of the university, as well as the Inquisition, and the headquarters of those untiring apostles of evil, the Jesuits. The population is said to have been about one hundred and fifty thousand. It is not known that a census was ever taken, and this estimate is based upon the size of the city and number of inhabitants its ruined walls could have contained. It is situated in the centre of a great valley, between the twin volcanoes Agua and Fuego; and as the old Spanish chroniclers used to say, had Paradise on one side and the Inferno on the other. The beauty of its position and the richness of the adjacent country, the grandeur of the scenery that surrounds it, have called forth the most extravagant admiration from travellers, and have made it the theme of the native poets. Mr. Stephens, who wrote the most elaborate sketch of Central America we have, some forty years ago, says that Antigua Guatemala is surrounded by more natural beauty than any location he had ever seen during the whole course of his travels. The city is watered by a stream bearing the poetical name of El Rio Pensativo, which encircles the mountains and winds about through the plain in most graceful curves. It has for its tributaries many rivulets that water the plain, and finally falls over a cataract and flows through the valley below to the sea.
This valley was formerly famous for the culture of cochineal, and much wealth was derived from this source before aniline dyes drove it out of the market. The cochineal is a little insect which clings to the leaves of a species of the cactus, known as the nopal, and in the natural state the white hair upon its body causes the leaves to look as if they were covered with hoar-frost. Before the rainy season sets in the leaves of the nopal are cut close to the ground and hung up under a shed for protection. Then they are scraped with a dull knife, and the insects are killed by being baked in a hot oven or dipped into boiling water. If the first process is used, the insects become a brownish color, and furnish a scarlet or crimson dye. Those killed by baking are black, and are used for blue and purple dyes. They are then packed up in little casks, covered with hides to keep out the moisture, and sent to market, being valued at several dollars a pound. The great part of the expense is due to the time and trouble required to detach the insects from the nopal, two ounces being considered a fair result of a day’s labor; and it is said that it requires seventy thousand to make a pound. When they are dried they look like coarse powder.
The first capital was founded by Alvarado, the Conqueror. The exploits of Cortez in Mexico had become known among
RUINS OF THE OLD PALACE AT ANTIGUA GUATEMALA.
the Indian tribes in the south, and the native kings sent an embassy to him offering their allegiance to the crown of Spain. Cortez received the embassy with distinction, and sent Alvarado back with them to take possession of the country. In 1523 Alvarado left the City of Mexico with three hundred Spanish soldiers and a large body of natives, and nearly a year later arrived at a place at the foot of the volcano Antigua, called by the Indians Almolonga, meaning in their language “a spring of water.” On the 25th of July, 1524, the festival of St. James, the patron saint of Spain, Alvarado, under a tree which is still standing, assembled his horsemen, the Mexican Indians who had accompanied him, and as many of the natives of the country as could crowd around, when the chaplain, Juan Godinez, said mass, invoking the protection of the apostle, and christening the city he intended to build there with the name of San Diego de los Cabeleleros—the City of St. James, the Gentleman. After these religious services, Alvarado assumed authority as governor, and appointed his subordinates.
For fifteen years thousands of Indians were kept at work building the city. A church was the first structure raised; but in September, 1541, there came a calamity which entirely destroyed the place, and buried more than half the inhabitants under the ruins, among whom was the Donna Beatrice de la Queba, the wife of Alvarado. It had rained incessantly for three days, and on the fourth the fury of the wind, the incessant lightning and dreadful thunder, were indescribable. At two o’clock in the morning the earthquake shocks became so violent that the people were unable to stand. Shortly after an enormous body of water rushed down from the mountain, forcing with it large pieces of rock, trees, and entirely overwhelming the town with an avalanche of earth and ashes.
It has generally been assumed, and is believed by the people, that this flow of water was a real eruption, and for that reason the volcano was named Agua. The theory of some scientists is, that the water flowed from an accumulation of rain and snow in the extinct crater, the walls of which were broken through by the pressure during the earthquake. Such a thing is not only doubtful, but almost impossible; and unless the situation of the crater has changed, there is no evidence of it. Any torrent of water cast from the crater would have gone down on the other side of the mountain, and there are ashes upon the slope near the summit which must have lain there for hundreds of years. About three thousand feet from the summit there is evidence of a terrible struggle between a storm and the earth. Great trees were uprooted, rocks were hurled from their places, and a vast fissure is seen, fifteen or sixteen hundred feet deep, extending directly to the buried city, growing in depth and width until it reaches the valley. From this gorge came the mass of ashes and sand which buried the first Guatemala, like Sodom and Pompeii, and it must have been carried down by a water-spout or some agent of that sort.
The cathedral was buried to the roof; but years afterwards, when the sand was dug away, it was found uninjured, with all its contents preserved, because of the interposition of St. James. The palace, being in the immediate path of the torrent, was undermined and overthrown by its force. The ruins, half covered by sand, are the only remaining evidences of the massive grandeur of the building, one of whose angles points in the direction from which the water came. Many excavations have been made in search of treasure, as Alvarado had the reputation of keeping there stores of silver and gold. They have resulted in no remunerative discovery, but have disclosed some fine carvings, wonderful frescos, and other evidences of the beauty which the place is said to have possessed. Over its ruins to-day stands a low-browed house, with an inscription over its door reading, “Complimetaria Escula Para Ninos”—A Free School for Girls.
The tree under which tradition says Alvarado and his soldiers first camped, and where Padre Godinez sanctified the city by religious services, is still standing. When I visited it, the most noticeable things about the place were a wagon made by the Studebaker Brothers, of South Bend, Indiana, and several empty beer bottles, bearing the brand of a Chicago brewer.
ALVARADO’S TREE.
The fountain of Almolonga, which first induced Alvarado to select this spot as the site of his capital, is a large natural basin of clear and beautiful water shaded by trees. It has been walled up and divided off into apartments for bathing purposes and laundry work; and here all the women of the town come to wash their clothing. The old church was dug out of the sand, and is still standing. In one corner is a chamber filled with the skulls and bones that were excavated from the ruins. The old priest who was responsible for the spiritual welfare of the people showed us over the ruins, and told us stories of Alvarado and his piety. He said that the pictures, hangings, and altar ornaments in the church were the same that were placed there in Alvarado’s time, and unlocking a great iron chest he showed us communion vessels, incense urns, crosses, and banners of solid gold and silver. Among other things was a magnificent crown of gold, which was presented to the church by one of the Philips of Spain. It was originally studded with diamonds, emeralds, and other jewels, but they have been removed, and the settings are now empty. Yankee-like, we tried to buy some of these treasures, for they were the richest I had seen at any place, but the old priest refused all pecuniary temptations, and crossed himself reverently as he put the sacred vessels away. The only people who patronize this church are the Indians, who, to the number of two or three thousand, live in the neighborhood, and the ancient vessels are never used in these days, but are kept as curiosities.
ANCIENT ARCHES.
The second city of Guatemala was built about three miles
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
from the original one, a little farther down, and nearly at the foot of the volcano Fuego. Both of these ruined cities offer the greatest attractions to the antiquarian, but few have ever visited them, and very little has been written of either place. In Antigua, as the second Guatemala is called, is the most extensive collection of ruins that can be found in this hemisphere. From a tower of the cathedral one can see on either side the ruins of many churches, monasteries, convents, and miles of public and private residences, large and costly; some with walls still standing, liberally ornamented with stucco or carved stone, but roofless, without doors or windows, and trees growing within them.
The ruins of forty-five churches can be counted, and nearly every one of them had a convent or monastery attached. Some cover several acres, and have cells for five or six hundred monks or nuns. Several of the churches are as large as the cathedral in New York. They are not so much ruined but that their outlines can be traced, showing the noble architecture and costly work by which they were built. The force of the earthquake can be seen by broken pillars of solid stone five or six feet in diameter; walls of ten or fifteen feet thickness were shaken into fragments, and buildings with foundations of stone as deep and solid as those of the Capitol at Washington were crumbled into dust. About ten per cent. of the houses have been rebuilt, but the remainder are still in ruins. The inhabitants occupy the old residences that have been restored, but appear to know little of the place as it was before the earthquake. They have forgotten what their fathers told them, and no attempt has ever been made to secure a permanent and accurate record of the antique conditions.
In the centre of the town is a great plaza, which, as usual in all of the Central American capitals, is surrounded by public buildings and the cathedral. In the centre stands a noble fountain, which is surrounded every morning by market-women selling the fruit and vegetables of the country. The old palace has been partially restored, and displays upon its front the armorial bearing granted by the Emperor Charles the Fifth to the loyal and noble capital in which the Viceroy of Central America lived. Upon the crest of the building is a statue of the Apostle St. James on horseback, clad in armor, and brandishing a sword. The majestic cathedral, 300 feet long, 120 feet broad, 110 feet high, and lighted by fifty windows, has been restored, and within it services are held every morning, the faithful being called to mass by a peon pounding upon a large and resonant gong.
HOW THE OLD TOWN LOOKS NOW.
Without warning, on a Sunday night in 1773, the disaster came, and the proudest city in the New World was forever humbled. The roof of the cathedral fell; all the other churches were shaken to pieces; the great monasteries, which had been standing for centuries, and were thought to be useful for many centuries more, crumbled in an instant. The dead were never counted, and the wounded died from lack of relief. Those who escaped fled to the mountains, and the earthquake continued so violent that few returned to the ruins for many days. The volcano, whose single shudder shook down the accumulated grandeur of two hundred and fifty years, has since been almost idle, but is smoking constantly, and emitting sulphurous vapors which tell of the furnace beneath. As if satisfied with its moment’s work, it stands at rest, tempting man to try again to build another magnificent city, as firm as he can make it, for another test of strength. The people, like the dwellers over the buried Herculaneum, seem to have no fear of ruin or disaster, because, as very respectable citizens will tell you, the volcano which did the damage has since been blessed by a priest.
FRAGMENT OF A RUINED MONASTERY.
In one of the old monasteries, established by the Franciscan Friars, is a tree from which four different kinds of fruit may be plucked at one time—the orange, lemon, lime, and a sweet fruit called by the Spanish the limone. It was a horticultural experiment of the Friars many hundred years ago, and still stands as a monument of their experimental industry. It was they who first introduced the cultivation of coffee from Arabia into these countries, and who discovered the use of that curious insect the cochineal. The latter used to be an extensive article of commerce, but the cheapness of the aniline dyes has driven it out of the market. Now it is cultivated only for local consumption, and is extensively used by the natives, whose cotton and woollen fabrics are gayly dyed in colors that will endure any amount of water or sunshine. Thirty years ago two million tons were exported annually, but now very little goes out of the country.
JOSÉ RUFINO BARRIOS.
The progress of Guatemala during the last twelve years, and the advancement of the country towards a modern standard of civilization, has been very rapid, and it is due to the energy and determination of one man, José Rufino Barrios, who stands next, if not equal, to Morazan as a patriot and benefactor of his country. President Barrios studied the conditions of social and political economy in the United States and European nations, and used a remarkable amount of energy to introduce them among his own people. There has been no man in Central or South America with more progressive ideas or more ardent ambition for the advancement of his countrymen.
The prevailing opinion of President Barrios is that he was a brutal ruffian. He drove out of the country many political opponents who occupied themselves by telling stories of his cruelty, some of which were doubtless true. The methods which he habitually used to keep the people in order would not be tolerated in the more civilized lands. But in estimating his true character, the good he accomplished should be considered as well as the evil. Until the history of Central America shall be written years hence, when the mind can reflect calmly and impartially upon the scenes of this decade, when public benefits can be accurately measured with individual errors, and the strides of progress in material development can be justly estimated, the true character of General Barrios will not be understood or appreciated even by his own countrymen. Like all vigorous and progressive men, like all men of strong character and forcible measures, he had bitter, vindictive enemies, who would have assassinated him had they been able to do so, and repeatedly tried it. There was nothing too harsh for them to say of him, living or dead, no cruelties too barbarous for them to accuse him of, no revenge too severe for them to visit upon him or his memory. But, on the other hand, people who did not cherish a spirit of revenge, who had no political ambition, and no schemes to be disconcerted, who are interested in the development of Central America, and are enjoying the benefits of the progress Guatemala has made, regard Barrios as the best friend and ablest leader, the wisest ruler his country ever had, and would have been glad if his life could have been prolonged and his power extended over the entire continent. They are willing to concede to him not only honorable motives, but the worthy ambition of trying to lift his country to the level with the most advanced nations of the earth. Ten more years of the same progress that Guatemala made under Barrios would place her upon a par with any of the States of Europe, or those of the United States. While he did not furnish a government of the people, by the people, it was a government for the people, provided and administered by a man of remarkable ability, independence, ambition, and extraordinary pride. While his iron hand crushed all opposition, and held a power that yielded to nothing, he was, nevertheless, generous to the poor, lenient to those who would submit to him, and ready to do anything to improve the condition of the people or promote their welfare.
FRANCISCO MORAZAN.
That a man of his ancestry and early associations should have brought this republic to the condition in which he left it when he died is remarkable. Without education himself, he enacted a law requiring the attendance at school of all children between the ages of eight and fourteen years, and rigorously enforced it. People who refused to obey this law, or sent their children to private schools, or educated them at home, were compelled to pay a heavy fine for the privilege. He established a university at Guatemala City and free schools in every city of the republic, to the support of which a larger proportion of the public revenues were appropriated than in any one of the United States or the nations of Europe. He founded hospitals, asylums, and other institutions of charity with his own means, or supported them by appropriations from the public treasury. He compelled physicians to be educated properly before they were allowed to practise; he punished crime so severely that it was almost unknown; he regulated the sale of liquors, so that a drunken man was never seen upon the streets; he enforced the observance of the Sabbath by closing the stores and market-places, which in other Spanish-American republics are always open, and was active for the material as for the moral welfare of the people. During the twelve years he was in power the country made greater progress, and the citizens enjoyed greater prosperity, than during any period of all the three centuries and a half of previous history.
His ambition to reunite the five Central American republics in a confederacy was not successful; but it was inspired by a desire to do for the neighboring States what he had done for Guatemala. His ambition was for the advancement and development of Central America; and while the means he used cannot be entirely approved, his purpose should be applauded. His crusade was quite as important in the civilization of this continent as the bloody work England attempted to accomplish in Egypt and the Soudan. He was better than his race, was far in advance of his generation, and while he did not succeed in lifting his people entirely out of the ignorance and degradation in which they were kept by the priests, what he did do cannot but result in the permanent good, not only of Guatemala, but of the nations which surround that republic.
CHURCH OF SAN FRANCESCA, GUATEMALA LA ANTIGUA.
After the independence of the Central American colonies the priests ruled the country. Their excesses awakened a spirit of opposition, which finally culminated in a revolution. The famous Morazan became dictator, and might have been successful but for a decree he issued abolishing the convents and monasteries, and confiscating the entire property of the Church. This was in 1843. Led by the priests, the people rose in rebellion; but Morazan retained his power until an unknown man, tall, dark, and blood-thirsty, came out of the mountains—an Indian without a name, who could neither read nor write, whose occupation had been that of a swineherd, like Pizarro, who had graduated in the profession of a bandit, and led a gang of murderous outlaws in the mountains. Urged by a greed for plunder, this remarkable man, Rafael Carera, came out from his stronghold and joined the Church party in their war against the Government.
His successes as a guerilla were so great that what was a small, independent band became the main army of the opposition, and he led a horde of disorganized plunderers towards the capital. The priests called him the Chosen of God, and attributed to him the divinely inspired mission of restoring the Church to power. The pious churchmen rushed to his standard, and fought by the side and under the command of the savage, whose only motive was plunder. He drove Morazan into Costa Rica, and proclaimed himself Dictator. The Church party were amazed at the arrogance of the bandit, but had to submit, and he soon developed into a full-fledged tyrant, ruling over Guatemala until his death for a period of thirty years.
When Carera died there was no man to take his place, and the Church party began to decay. The Liberals gathered force and began a revolution. In their ranks was an obscure young man from the borders of Mexico, from a valley which produced Juarez, the liberator of Mexico, Diaz, the president of that republic, and other famous men. He began to show military skill and force of character, and when the Church party was overthrown and the Liberal leader was proclaimed President, Rufino Barrios became the general of the army. He soon resigned, however, and returned to his coffee plantation on the borders of Mexico. But the revival of the Church party shortly after caused him to return to military life, and when the Liberal president died, he was, in 1873, chosen his successor.
ONE OF FIFTY-SEVEN RUINED MONASTERIES.
From that date until 1885 there was but one man in Guatemala, and he was Barrios. He began his career by adopting the policy that Morazan had failed to enforce. He expelled the monks and nuns from the country, confiscated the Church property, robbed the priests of their power, and, like Juarez in Mexico, liberated the people from a servitude under which they had suffered since the original settlement of the colonies. Then he visited the United States and Europe to study the science of government; sent men abroad to be educated, at Government expense, in the arts and sciences and political economy, and upon their return placed them in subordinate positions under him. He offered the most generous inducements to immigrants, and the country filled up with agricultural settlers, merchants, and mechanics. The population increased, and the country began to grow in prosperity with the development of its natural resources, and there was a “boom” in Guatemala the like of which was never before witnessed on that continent.
Although he found Guatemala in a condition of moral degradation and commercial stagnation, he educated the people in a remarkable degree to an appreciation of his own ideas, and by introducing many modern improvements succeeded in inspiring them with his own ambition, so that they co-operated with him in any measure for the welfare of the country. He secured the enactment of laws which have been of great benefit, and compelled the natives to submit to what they first regarded as hardships but now accept as blessings. Roadways were constructed from the sea-coast to the interior, so that produce could get to market; diligence lines were established at Government expense; liberal railroad contracts were made, telegraph lines were erected, and all the modern facilities were introduced. The credit of the country was restored by a careful readjustment of its finances, and encouragement from the Government brought in a large amount of European capital. So that to-day, while the other Central American States are still in the condition that they were one hundred years ago, or have retrograded, Guatemala has stepped to the front, rich, powerful, progressive, and but for the peculiar appearance of the houses, the language of the people, and the customs they have inherited from their ancestors, Guatemala is not different from the new States of our great West.
Under a compulsory education law free public-schools have
FAÇADE OF AN OLD CHURCH.
been established in every department of the republic, at an expense aggregating one-tenth of the entire revenues of the Government, an amount larger in proportion than is paid by any of the United States. Not only is tuition free, but textbooks are furnished by the Government. In 1884 the total number of schools in the republic was 934, with an attendance of 42,549 pupils, supported at a cost of $451,809, being an average cost to the public treasury of about ten dollars per pupil. Of this aggregate 850 were public graded schools with 39,642 pupils, 55 were private schools with 1780 pupils, 20 were academies for the education of teachers and others desiring education in the higher branches. In addition to these the Government supports a university, with a faculty of high reputation, some of them imported from Germany and Spain, who are paid salaries of four thousand dollars a year each, a compensation greater than is received by instructors in the colleges of the United States, except in rare instances. Under this university are two law-schools with fifty-two pupils, one school of engineering with eleven pupils, a music-school with sixty-six pupils, a school of arts and drawing with one hundred and seventeen pupils, and a commercial college with fifty pupils, besides a deaf and dumb asylum with nine inmates. It is required that students in this university shall study the English language, and in a female college adjacent to it nothing but American textbooks are used. No language but English is spoken by the pupils residing in the institution, and the teachers as well as the principal are from the United States. This system of education was established about ten years ago, but has gradually improved until it has reached its present importance, and cannot but have a wholesome influence in the elevation of the people and the development of the State.
Having overthrown the religion in which the people had been reared, Barrios recognized the necessity of providing some better substitute. He therefore, through the British minister, invited the Established Church of England to send missionaries to Guatemala; but owing to the disturbed condition of the country it was not considered advisable to commence work at that time, and the opportunity was neglected. In 1883 President Barrios visited New York, where he had conferences with the officers of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, which resulted in diverting the Rev. John C. Hill, of Chicago, who was en route to China, into this field of labor. Mr. Hill returned with the President to Guatemala, receiving a cordial welcome, and the President not only paid the travelling expenses of himself and family from his own pocket, but the freight charges upon his furniture, and purchased the equipment necessary for the establishment of a mission and school.
A REMNANT.
The reception of the President on his return to the country after an absence of nearly two years was a royal one, and the journey from San José, the Pacific seaport, to the capital of Guatemala was a triumphal march. Of all the honors, of all the attentions General Barrios received, he insisted that Mr. Hill should have a share, and the blushing young parson found himself again and again on public platforms, with the President of Guatemala leaning upon his shoulder and introducing him to the people as his friend. This demonstration had its purpose, and resulted precisely as General Barrios intended it should. He meant that the people should know that he had taken the missionary and the cause he represented under the patronage of the Government, and expected them to show the same respect and honor he bestowed himself. He went still further. He placed Mr. Hill in one of his own houses, and there the school and chapel were opened. He sent his own children to the new Sunday-school, and notified members of his Cabinet to follow his example. He issued a decree to the Collectors of Customs to admit free of duty all articles which Mr. Hill desired to import, and in every possible manner showed his interest in the success of the work. The Protestant Mission became fashionable, and was known as the President’s “pet.”
The encouragement President Barrios gave to the Presbyterian Mission was an example the people were glad to follow, and the mission met with nothing but the most cordial and respectful treatment. The Catholics looked very sour at the rapidity with which the breach was widened in the walls they were nearly four hundred years in erecting, but they dared not utter even a remonstrance against those favored by the potent force behind the military guard. They saw the monks and nuns expelled, the churches sold at public auction for the benefit of the public treasury, and with a muttered curse against the power by which all these things were done, submitted servilely to his will for fear of losing what they had been able to retain.
Mrs. Barrios was the loveliest woman in Guatemala; beautiful in character as well as person, socially brilliant and graceful, charitable beyond all precedent in a country where the poor are usually permitted to take care of themselves, generous and hospitable, a good mother to a fine family of children, and a devoted wife, loyal to all the President’s ambitions, and an enthusiastic supporter of all his schemes. Like a wise man who knows the perils which constantly surround him, and the uncertainty of the head which wears a crown in these countries, he had made ample provision for his family by purchasing for Mrs. Barrios a handsome residence in Fifth Avenue near Sixty-fifth Street, New York, and investing about a million dollars in her name in other New York real estate. His life was also insured for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in New York companies, which, it must be said, carried a hazardous risk, as there were hundreds of men who lived only to see Barrios buried. Very few of them were in Guatemala, however, during his lifetime. They did not find the atmosphere agreeable there. They were exiles in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico, California, or elsewhere, waiting for a chance to give him a dose of dynamite or prick him with a dagger.
FORT OF SAN JOSÉ, GUATEMALA.
Mrs. Barrios and her children talk English as well as if they had always lived in New York. While the President himself could not speak the language fluently, he could understand what was said to him, and apologized for what he called a misfortune, on the ground that he did not have the opportunity to learn it until he was too old to master its intricacies. But he required English to be taught in all the common-schools, and the children use nothing but American text-books. I talked with him one day, with his little girl as an interpreter. She was a beautiful child, about ten years of age, and when she said she was an American (which means a citizen of the United States) the President patted her fondly upon the head and cried “bueno” (good).
Several years ago there was a conspiracy to assassinate the President. A woman, who was the Mrs. Surratt of the plot, and at whose house the conspirators were in the habit of meeting, did not like the arrangement, and on the afternoon of the night on which the plan was to be carried into execution revealed the whole thing to the President. He had the conspirators arrested, and ordered the men shot who proposed to ravish his wife, but he pardoned his treacherous private secretary. The latter rewarded the President’s generosity by forging an order to the commandant of the prison to release the condemned men. He was arrested again, confessed his crime, even boasted of it, and was shot also. Several other attempts were made to assassinate Barrios. The last came very near being successful. He was on his way to the theatre, when three men, who had been employed by an ambitious politician for the purpose, threw a bomb at him. He coolly stepped on the fuse, extinguished it, picked up the dose of death that had been prepared for him, and remarked to his companion,
“The rascals don’t know how to kill me!”
The leader of the plot was sent into exile, but his tools were pardoned, and are walking the streets of the city of Guatemala to-day.
The prettiest and most picturesque of the native costumes to be found in Spanish America is worn by the women of Guatemala, who are of a dark complexion, nearly that of the mulatto type, but are famous for their beauty of form. A Guatemala girl in her native costume makes as pretty a picture as one can find anywhere. Her face is bright and pretty, her figure as perfect as nature unaided by art can be, and her movements show a supple grace and elasticity that cannot be imitated by those of her sex who are encumbered by modern articles of feminine apparel. Her head is usually bare, in-doors and out, and her thick black tresses hang in braids often reaching to her heels.
YNIENSI GATE, GUATEMALA.
Her garments are only two—a guipil and a sabana. The first is a square piece of cotton of coarse texture, covered with embroidery of brilliant colors and simple but artistic designs. In the centre of the guipil is an aperture like that in the ordinary poncho, through which her head goes, and it is usually wide enough to constitute, when worn, a low-neck waist. The ends are tucked in her skirts at the belt. Her bare arms come through the open folds of her guipil, and when she raises them her side is exposed. Her skirt is a straight piece of plaid cotton of brilliant colors, like the Scotch plaids, and is wound tightly around her limbs. It is secured at the waist by a sash, usually of scarlet, woven by her own hands of the fibres of the pita grass, and executed in the most skilful manner. These belts in their texture resemble the Persian camel’s-hair shawl, and often cost months of labor. Very often the name of the owner, and sometimes mottoes, are woven into the texture, and they are brought away from the country as curiosities by travellers.
Every article the Guatemala girl wears she makes with her own hands, and the natives of that country are as ingenious, industrious, and intelligent as are found in Spanish America. Even her sandals are home-made, and her little stockingless feet look very pretty in them. The small size of the hands and feet of the men and women is always noticed by those who visit Guatemala, and they are usually very shapely and delicately formed.
The costume which has been described is worn only by the peasants. The upper classes dress just as they would in New York, and the fashions are followed quite as closely. The women are very pretty, but have the habit of plastering their faces over with a paste or rouge that makes them look as if they had been poking their heads into a flour-barrel. This cosmetic is made of magnesia and the whites of eggs, stirred into a thick paste, and plastered on without regard to quantity. The natural beauty of complexion is thus concealed, and in time totally ruined. There is a Swiss lady at the head of a large seminary in Guatemala City to which the daughters of the aristocracy are sent. She has forbidden the use of this plaster by the young ladies under her charge to prevent the boarding pupils from destroying their fair skins, but over the day-scholars she has no control out of school-hours. Every morning she stands at the entrance with a basin of water, a sponge, and a towel, and puts the girls through a system of scrubbing that arouses their indignation.
The natives are fond of bright colors, and have a remarkable deftness in their fingers, which hold the embroidery-needle as well as the hoe and machete. The guipils are embroidered in gay tints and artistic patterns, and a group of peons
A VOLCANIC LAKE.
returning from or going to market looks as quaint and picturesque as the peasants of Normandy or Switzerland. The women are short, squarely built, and very muscular, and carry as much load as a mule. Their cargo is always borne upon their heads in a large basket, and they seldom walk, but move in a jog-trot, with a swaying, graceful motion, swinging their arms and carrying their shoulders as erect as a West Point cadet. They travel up hill and down without changing this gait, and make about six miles an hour, being able to outstrip any ordinary horse or mule not only in speed but in endurance. It is a common thing to see a woman not more than twenty-five or twenty-eight years of age coming to town with a hundred pounds of meat or vegetables upon her head, a baby slung in a reboso or blanket fastened around her hips, and several children from six to twelve years of age, each heavily laden, trotting along by her side. Almost as soon as they are able to walk, the children receive loads to carry, and the little ones come seven, eight, and ten miles to market every day or so, thinking nothing of bearing on their heads a weight that would be a burden to the ordinary man of North America.
The men do not carry their loads upon their heads, but upon their backs in a pannier, which is held by bands around the shoulders and across the forehead. They are wonderfully strong and fleet of foot. “If you are going to buy wood or hay,” said a friend who has lived long in the country, “always take the man’s load. You will get more than if you bought the load of a mule.” These men come into town driving ahead of them three or four pack-mules loaded with coffee, sugar, corn, hay, or wood, which they sell to the commission merchants or at the market. When they return at night to their homes in the country they never ride, but drive the unladen mules ahead of them, and many of them are so accustomed to a weight upon their backs that they place a great stone in the pannier to give them a proper balance.
Some are very fleet of foot. Barrios had a runner attached to his retinue of whom some tall stories are told. He was sent as a courier into the country with messages, and his average speed was ten miles an hour. This runner was kept pretty busy in war times, and was constantly in motion. Once he carried a despatch thirty-five leagues into the interior and returned with the answer in thirty-six hours, making the two hundred and ten miles over the mountains at six miles an hour, including detentions and delays for food and sleep.
These men wear short trousers, like bathing-trunks, and a white cotton shirt, with sandals made of cowhide. The shirt is kept for occasions of ceremony, and is worn only in town. While on the road they are naked except for the trunks.
When Barrios issued his decree that the peasants should wear clothing the country narrowly escaped a revolution; but policemen were stationed on all the roads leading into the city, and confiscated all the cargoes borne by those who did
ON THE ROAD TO THE CAPITAL.
not comply with the regulations and put on a shirt or a guipil. The peons pleaded poverty, when Barrios, who was as generous as he was tyrannical, furnished the cloth to make the garments.
It is a novel sight to see a native policeman wearing a uniform like that worn by the policemen of New York—helmet, club, badge, and all. Here extremes meet. Quite as significant and striking a contrast is often furnished in the picture of one of these peons, laden down with his pannier, leaning for a moment’s rest upon a letter-box like those used in the United States, attached to a telephone-pole; or one of the gayly dressed women, with a load of vegetables upon her head, dodging a still more gayly painted mail-wagon, the exact counterpart of those used in our postal service, except that the coat of arms of Guatemala appears in the place of the American eagle.
Barrios imported a sergeant of the New York police force two years ago, bought a lot of uniforms, and organized a patrol system that is remarkably successful. He put letter-boxes on nearly every street-corner, and had the mail carried to and from the railroad-station in wagons made by the same man and after the same pattern as those in use in the United States. He introduced the letter-carrier system also. It is not successful, because the natives object to have their correspondence carried through the streets, preferring to send for it themselves.
The military law of Guatemala requires the enrolment in the militia of every able-bodied man between the ages of eighteen and forty, and when Barrios issued his pronunciamento they were all called out for service. Even the hotels were stripped of servants, the business houses of porters, and all industries of laborers. Jesus Maria was the name of a male chamber-maid at the Grand Hotel, where all the work is done by men. Jesus was very patriotic, and made many vows, he said, for the success of Barrios, but he did not want to go to war, and appealed to all the boarders who had influence with the Government to secure him an exemption-paper. He could say a few words of English, and expressed his sentiments concerning the pending struggle in the words, “La union much grande; la guerra no good.” That exactly describes the attitude the United States took in the contest.
When the conscripts come in from the country, rag-tag and bob-tail, in all kinds of costumes, and usually barefooted, they are sent to the garrison, where each receives a uniform made of white drilling from the United States. About every twelfth one bears across the seat of his trousers or between his shoulders the legend, “Best Massachusetts Drillings XXXX Mills.” This rather adds to the beauty of the uniform, and there is quite a strife among the volunteers to secure trousers or blouses so marked. Each is given a straw hat, a cartridge-box, a gun, and a blanket, with which they were marched to the front at the rate of five or six hundred a day, while the streets were lined with tearful women giving parting words to sons, husbands, and sweethearts. The Guatemalatacos, as the inhabitants are called, are said to be the best fighters in Central America, and were inspired with an intense admiration for Barrios, who had never shown anything but a fatherly solicitude for the welfare of the common people. He may have been cruel to his political enemies, and arbitrary in his treatment of aspiring rivals, but to the masses, the poor, he was always generous and kind. Much of his strength came from the fact that he always shared the shelter and food of the common soldier. He never took any camp equipage with him, but slept on the ground, and ate beans and tortillas (corn-cakes), which constitute the ordinary soldier’s rations.
Although the hotels are clean, and have better beds and food than are found elsewhere in Spanish America, there is one peculiarity which is decidedly objectionable—the bill of fare is never changed. One gets the same dinner and the same breakfast every day. There is enough and a variety at both tables, but there is always the same amount and the same variety. First, at breakfast, there is always soup; there is an omelette, or eggs cooked as you want them; next comes cold beef or mutton left from the previous day; then beefsteak, usually with onions; then beans and fritters. For dinner, soup is first served; second, rice with curry; next, boiled beef with cabbage; then turkey or chicken; then roast beef, salad, fruit, and cheese in order. All the native food (beef, fowls, fruit, and vegetables) is cheap, but flour and other imported products are very expensive. The hotel-keepers are usually Frenchmen or Germans. You seldom find a native keeping a hotel, but if you do, avoid it.
The people of Guatemala have a peculiar way of preparing their coffee for the table. Every week or so a quantity of the berry is ground and roasted, and hot water is poured upon it. The black liquid is allowed to drip through a porous jar, and when cool is bottled up and set upon the table like vinegar or Worcestershire sauce. Pots of hot water or milk, with which the coffee-drinker can dilute the cold, black syrup to such a weakness as he likes, are set before him. This plan has its advantages, but it takes a long time to become accustomed to it.
The laundry work of the city is never done at home, but always at the public fountains, which are scattered over the city, and have basins of stone for the purpose. The wet clothes are placed in a basket and carried home on the head of the laundress to be dried. Every morning and evening, Sundays included, there is a long procession of washer-women going to and from these fountains, with baskets of soiled or wet garments upon their heads.
Sunday is observed in Guatemala more than in any other Spanish-American city. Usually, in all these nations, Sunday is the great market-day of the week, when all the denizens of the country dress in their best suits to come to town to trade and have a little recreation; but in Guatemala there is a law, which is respected and generally enforced, requiring the market and all other places of business to remain closed on the Sabbath. Sometimes a cigar shop or a saloon will be found open, and the hotel bar-rooms, or “canteens,” as they are called, do more business than on any other day but there is no more general business done on Sunday than in the cities of the United States.
All the city stores sell what is known in the slang of trade as “general merchandise;” that is, they keep all sorts of goods. You buy your canned fruit or sardines where you get your shoes or hat, and can fill an order for every variety of edible or apparel in the same establishment. An exception should be made of drugs, for the apothecary shops are usually kept by the physicians, who compound their own prescriptions, and the drug-stores in Guatemala, as in every other city of Central and South America, are usually fine establishments. But when you send for a “doctor” a lawyer comes. If you are sick, always ask for an apothecary or a physician. When you see a man alluded to as Dr. Don So-and-so, you may know that he is an attorney of distinction. The notaries draw all legal documents, as in Europe. Nobody ever asks a lawyer to draw a contract or a will.
The photographers of Central and South America are almost invariably from the United States, and there is usually one in every town of importance. The people are vain of their personal appearance, hence photography is a lucrative business. But customs differ. In Venezuela, or Havana, or the Argentine Republic, if a gentleman possesses the photograph of a lady, he is either a near relative or is engaged to marry her. Otherwise her brother or father has good cause to thrash him, or challenge him to fight a duel. If the photographer sold the picture, or gave it away, he is liable to be punished by fine and imprisonment.
In Guatemala, on the other hand, as in Peru, the pictures of the belles of the city, whether married or maidens, can be purchased by any one who wants them at the photographers’, and often at the shops, and the rank and popularity of the subject is usually estimated by the number of her portraits so disposed of. Codfish is a luxury. It is served at fashionable dinners in the form of a stew or patties, or a salad, and is considered a rare and dainty dish. They call it bacalao (pronounced “backalowoh”), and the shop-windows contain handsomely illuminated signs announcing that it is for sale within. It costs about forty cents a pound, and is therefore used exclusively by the aristocracy.
TILED HOUSE-TOPS.
The railroads in Guatemala are run on the credit system. Freight charges are seldom paid upon the delivery of the goods, but merchants and others expect three or four months’ time, and sometimes more. If a package arrives with your address upon it, the railroad company is expected to deliver it at your residence, unless it happens to be very bulky, and a few weeks after a collector comes around for the freight money.
The cars came into Guatemala for the first time in August, 1884, and have not yet ceased to be a novelty. There is always a large crowd of spectators at the station upon the arrival and departure of every train, and among these are the best people of the place. Twice a week, at train time, the National Band plays in the plaza fronting the station, to entertain the people who are waiting.
The Government owns the telegraph line, and charges low tariffs, the cost being twenty-five cents for a message to any part of the republic. But the cable rates are very high—$1.15 per word to the United States, and $1.50 per word to Europe.
The literary people here always spell general with a “J.” Barrios was the “Jeneral Presidente,” but after his pronunciamento “Supremissimo Jefe Militar”—Most Supreme Military Chief.
When a letter is addressed to a person of distinction the envelope reads, “Exmo y’ Illustra Señor Don John Smith”—The Most Excellent, or His Excellency, the Illustrious Señor Don, etc. One is apt to feel very highly complimented when he gets a letter bearing this inscription.
Everybody is named after some saint, usually the one whose anniversary is nearest the hour of their birth, and the saint is expected to look after them. When a man comes here who doesn’t happen to be christened after a saint, the ignorant people express their surprise, and ask, “Who takes care of him? Who preserves him from evil?”
General Barrios was always dramatic. He was dramatic in the simplicity and frugality of his private life, as he was in the displays he was constantly making for the diversion of the people. In striking contrast with the customs of the country where the garments and the manners of men are the objects of the most fastidious attention, he was careless in his clothing, brusque in his manner, and frank in his declarations.
MARKET-PLACE, GUATEMALA.
It is said that the Spanish language was framed to conceal thoughts, but Barrios used none of its honeyed phrases, and had the candor of an American frontiersman. He was incapable of duplicity, but naturally secretive. He had no confidants, made his own plans without consulting any one, and when he was ready to announce them he used language that could not be misunderstood. In disposition he was sympathetic and affectionate, and when he liked a man he showered favors upon him; when he distrusted, he was cold and repelling; and when he hated, his vengeance was swift and sure. To be detected in an intrigue against his life, or the stability of the Government, which was the same thing, was death or exile, and his natural powers of perception seemed almost miraculous. The last time his assassination was attempted he pardoned the men whose hands threw the bomb at him,
IN THE RAINY SEASON.
but those who hired them saved their lives by flight from the country. If caught, they would have been shot without trial. He was the most industrious man in Central America; slept little, ate little, and never indulged in the siesta that is as much a part of the daily life of the people as breakfast and dinner. He did everything with a nervous impetuosity, thought rapidly, and acted instantly. The ambition of his life was to reunite the republics of Central America in a confederacy such as existed a few years after independence. The benefits of such a union are apparent to all who understand the political, geographical, and commercial conditions of the continent, and are acknowledged by the thinking men of the five States, but the consummation of the plan is prevented by the selfish ambition of local leaders. Each is willing to join the union if he can be Dictator, but none will permit a union with any other man as chief.
MAGUEY PLANT.
Diplomatic negotiations looking to a consolidation of the five Central American republics extended over a period of several years, but were fruitless because of local jealousies. The leading politicians in the several States feared they would lose their prominence and power, and distrusted Barrios, although he assured them that he was not ambitious to be Dictator. He thought he was the right man to carry out the plan, but as soon as it was consummated he proposed to retire and permit the people to frame their Constitution and elect their Executive, promising that he would not be a candidate. As he told me shortly after his coup-d’état, he desired to retire from public life and reside in the United States, which he considered the paradise of nations. He had already purchased a residence in New York, and invested money there, and was educating his children with that intention.
Sending emissaries into the several States to study public sentiment, he became assured that the time was ripe for the consummation of his plans. He believed that the masses of the people were ready to join in a reunion of the republics, and had the assurance of Zaldivar, the President of San Salvador, and Bogran, the President of Honduras, that they would consent to his temporary dictatorship. He determined upon a coup-d’état. Moral suasion had failed, so he decided to try force, with the co-operation of San Salvador and Honduras, which with Guatemala represented five-sixths of the population of Central America. He believed he could persuade Nicaragua and Costa Rica to accept a manifest destiny and voluntarily join the union.
Realizing how impressionable the people he governed were, and knowing their love for excitement, he always introduced his reforms in some novel way, with a blast of trumpets and a gorgeous background.
The union of Central America was announced in the same way, and came upon the people like a shock of earthquake. On the evening of Sunday, the 28th of February, 1885, the aristocracy of Guatemala were gathered as usual at the National Theatre to witness the performance of “Boccaccio” by a French opera company. In the midst of the play one of the most exciting situations was interrupted by the appearance of a uniformed officer upon the stage, who motioned the performers back from the foot-lights, and read the proclamation issued by Rufino Barrios, the President of Guatemala, who declared himself Dictator and Supreme Commander of all Central America, and called upon the citizens of the five republics to acknowledge his authority and take the oath of allegiance. The people were accustomed to earthquakes, but no terrestrial commotion ever created so much excitement as the eruption of this political volcano. The actresses and ballet-dancers fled in surprise to their dressing-rooms, while the audience at once organized into an impromptu mass-meeting to ratify the audacity of their President.
Few eyes were closed that night in Guatemala. Those who attempted to sleep were kept awake by the explosion of fireworks, the firing of cannon, the music of bands, and shouts of the populace, who, crazy with excitement, thronged the streets, and forming processions marched up and down the principal thoroughfares, rending the air with shouts of “Long live Dictator Barrios!” “Vive la Union!” A people naturally enthusiastic, and as inflammable as powder, to whom excitement was recreation and repose distress, suddenly and unexpectedly confronted with the greatest sensation of their lives, became almost insane, and turned the town into a bedlam. Although every one knew that Barrios aspired to restore the old Union of the Republic, no one seemed to be prepared for the coup-d’état, and the announcement fell with a force that made the whole country tremble. Next morning, as if by magic, the town seemed filled with soldiers. Where they came from or how they got there so suddenly the people did not seem to comprehend. And when the doors of great warehouses opened to disclose large supplies of ammunition and arms, the public eye was distended with amazement. All these preparations were made so silently and secretly that the surprise was complete. But for three or four years Barrios had been preparing for this day, and his plans were laid with a success that challenged even his own admiration. He ordered all the soldiers in the republic to be at Guatemala City on the 1st of March; the commands were given secretly, and the captain of one company was not aware that another was expected. It was not done by the wand of a magician, as the superstitious people are given to believing, but was the result of a long and carefully studied plan by one who was born a dictator, and knew how to perform the part.
But the commotion was even greater in the other republics over which Barrios had assumed uninvited control. The same night that the official announcement was made, telegrams were sent to the Presidents of Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, calling upon them to acknowledge the temporary supremacy of Dictator Barrios, and to sign articles of confederation which should form the constitution of the Central American Union. Messengers had been sent in advance bearing printed official copies of the proclamation, in which the reasons for the step were set forth, and they were told to withhold these documents from the Presidents of the neighboring republics until notified by telegram to present them.
The President of Honduras accepted the dictatorship with great readiness, having been in close conference with Barrios on the subject previous to the announcement. The President of San Salvador, Dr. Zaldivar, who was also aware of the intentions of Barrios, and was expected to fall into the plan as readily as President Bogran, created some surprise by asking time to consider. As far as he was personally concerned, he said, there was nothing that would please him more than to comply with the wishes of the Dictator, but he must consult the people. He promised to call the Congress together at once, and after due consideration they would take such action as they thought proper. Nicaragua boldly and emphatically refused to recognize the authority of Barrios, and rejected the plan of the union. Costa Rica replied in the same manner. Her President telegraphed Barrios that she wanted no union with the other Central American States, was satisfied with her own independence, and recognized no dictator. Her people would protect their soil and defend their liberty, and would appeal to the civilized world for protection against any unwarranted attack upon her freedom.
The policy of Nicaragua was governed by the influence of a firm of British merchants in Leon with which President Cardenas has a pecuniary interest, and by whom his official acts are controlled. The policy of Costa Rica was governed by a conservative sentiment that has always prevailed in that country, while the influence of Mexico was felt throughout the entire group of nations. As soon as the proclamation of Barrios was announced at the capital of the latter republic, President Diaz ordered an army into the field, and telegraphed offers of assistance to Nicaragua, San Salvador, and Costa Rica, with threats of violence to Honduras if she yielded submission to Barrios. Mexico was always jealous of Guatemala. The boundary-line between the two nations is unsettled, and a rich tract of country is in dispute. Feeling a natural distrust of the power below her, strengthened by consolidation with the other States, Mexico was prepared to resist the plans of Barrios to the last degree, and sent him a declaration of war.
A NATIVE SANDAL.
In the mean time Barrios appealed for the approval of the United States and the nations of Europe. During the brief administration of President Garfield he visited Washington, and there received assurances of encouragement from Mr. Blaine in his plan to reorganize the Central American Confederacy. Their personal interviews were followed by an extended correspondence, and no one was so fully informed of the plans of Barrios as Mr. Henry C. Hall, the United States minister at Guatemala.
Unfortunately the cable to Europe and the United States was under the control of San Salvador, landing at La Libertad, the principal port of that republic. Here was the greatest obstacle in the way of Barrios’s success. All his messages to foreign governments were sent by telegraph overland to La Libertad for transmission by cable from that place, but none of them reached their destination. The commandant of the port, under orders from Zaldivar, seized the office and suppressed the messages. Barrios took pains to inform the foreign powers fully of his plans, and the motives which prompted them, and to each he repeated the assurance that he was not inspired by personal ambition, and would accept only a temporary dictatorship. As soon as a constitutional convention of delegates from the several republics could assemble he would retire, and permit the choice of a President of the consolidated republics by a popular election, he himself under no circumstances to be a candidate. But these messages were never sent. In place of them Zaldivar transmitted a series of despatches misrepresenting the situation, and appealing for protection against the tyranny of Barrios. Thus the Old World was not informed of the motives and intentions of the man and the situation of the republics.
The replies of foreign nations and the comments of the press, based upon the falsehoods of Zaldivar, had a very depressing effect upon the people. They were more or less doctored before publication, and bogus bulletins were posted for the purpose of deceiving the people. The inhabitants of San Salvador were led to believe that naval fleets were on their way from the United States and Europe to forcibly prevent the consolidation of the republics, that an army was on its way from Mexico overland to attack Guatemala on the north, and that several transports loaded with troops had left New Orleans for the east coast of Nicaragua and Honduras.
The United States Coast Survey ship Ranger, carrying four small guns, happening to enter at La Union, Nicaragua, engaged in its regular duties, was magnified into a fleet of hundreds of thousands of tons; and when the people of San Salvador and Nicaragua were convinced that submission to Barrios would require them to engage the combined forces of Europe and the United States, they rose in resistance and supported Zaldivar in his treachery.
The effect in Guatemala was similar, although not so pronounced. There was a reversion of feeling against the Government. The moneyed men, who in their original enthusiasm tendered their funds to the President, withdrew their promises; the common people were nervous, and lost their confidence in their hero; while the Diplomatic Corps, representing every nation of importance on the globe, were in a state of panic because they received no instructions from home. The German and French ministers, like the minister from the United States, were favorable to the plans of Barrios; the Spanish minister was outspoken in opposition; the English and Italian ministers non-committal; but none of them knew what to say or how to act in the absence of instructions. They telegraphed to their home governments repeatedly, but could obtain no replies, and suspected that the troubles might be in San Salvador. Mr. Hall, the American minister, transmitted a full description of the situation every evening, and begged for instructions, but did not receive a word.
ORNAMENTAL, BUT NOISY.
The Government at Washington had informed Mr. Hall by mail that its policy in relation to the plan to reunite the republics was one of non-interference, but advised that the spirit of the century was contrary to the use of force to accomplish such an end; and acting upon this information, Mr. Hall had frequent and cordial conferences with the President, and received from him a promise that he would not invade either of the neighboring republics with an army unless required to do so. If Guatemala was invaded he would retaliate, but otherwise would not cross the border. In the mean time the forces of Guatemala, forty thousand strong, were massed at the capital, the streets were full of marching soldiers, and the air was filled with martial music, while Zaldivar was raising an army by conscription in San Salvador, and money by forced loans. His Government daily announced the arrival of so many “volunteers” at the capital, but the volunteering was a very transparent myth. A current anecdote was of a conscript officer who wrote to the Secretary of War from the Interior: “I send you forty more volunteers. Please return me the ropes with which their hands and legs are tied, as I shall need to bind the quota from the next town.”
In the city of San Salvador many of the merchants closed their stores, and concealed themselves to avoid the payment of forced loans. The Government called a “Junta,” or meeting of the wealthy residents, each one being personally notified by an officer that his attendance was required, and there the Secretary of War announced that a million dollars for the equipment of troops must be raised instantly. The Government, he said, was assured of the aid of foreign powers to defeat the plans of Barrios, but until the armies and navies of Europe and the United States could reach the coast the republic must protect itself. Each merchant and estancianado was assessed a certain amount, to make the total required, and was required to pay it into the Treasury within twenty-four hours. Some responded promptly, others procrastinated, and a few flatly refused. The latter were thrust into jail, and the confiscation of their property threatened unless they paid. In one or two cases the threat was executed; but, with cold sarcasm, the day after the meeting the Official Gazette announced that the patriotic citizens of San Salvador had voluntarily come to the assistance of the Government with their arms and means, and had tendered financial aid to the amount of one million dollars, the acceptance of which the President was now considering.
Barrios, knowing that the army of Salvador would invade Guatemala and commence an offensive campaign, so as to occupy the attention of the people, ordered a detachment of troops to the frontier, and decided to accompany them. The evening before he started there was what is called “a grand funcion” at the National Theatre. All of the military bands assembled at the capital—a dozen or more—were consolidated for the occasion, and between the acts performed a march composed by a local musician in honor of the Union of Central America, and dedicated to General Barrios. A large screen of sheeting was elaborately painted with the inscription,
“All hail the Union of the Republic!”
“Long live the Dictator and the Generalissimo,”
“J. Rufino Barrios!”
This was attached to heavy rollers, to be dropped in front of the stage instead of the regular curtain at the end of the second act of the play, for the purpose of creating a sensation; and a sensation it did create—an unexpected and frightful one.
As the orchestra commenced to play the new march the curtain was lowered slowly, and the audience greeted it with tremendous applause, rising to their feet, shouting, and waving their hats and handkerchiefs. But through the blunder of the stage carpenter the weights were too heavy for the cotton sheeting; the banner split, and the heavy rollers at the bottom fell over into the orchestra, severely wounding several of the musicians. As fate would have it, the rent was directly through the name of Barrios. The people, naturally superstitious, were horrified, and stood aghast at this omen of disaster. The cheering ceased instantly, and a dead silence prevailed, broken only by the noise of the musicians under the wreck struggling to recover their feet. A few of the more courageous friends of the President attempted to revive the applause, but met with a miserable failure. Strong men shuddered, women fainted, and Mrs. Barrios left the theatre, unable to control her emotion. The play was suspended; the audience departed to discuss the omen, and everybody agreed that Barrios’s coup-d’état would fail.
The President left the city at the head of his army for the frontier of San Salvador, his wife accompanying him a few miles on the way. A few days later a small detachment of the Guatemala army, commanded by a son of Barrios, started out on a scouting expedition, and were attacked by an overwhelming force of Salvadorians. The young captain was killed by the first volley, and his company were stampeded. Leaving his body on the field, they retreated in confusion to headquarters. When Barrios heard of the disaster he leaped upon his horse, called upon his men to follow him, and started in pursuit of the men who had killed his son. The Salvadorians, expecting to be pursued, lay in ambush, and the Dictator, while galloping down the road at the head of a squadron of cavalry, was picked off by a sharpshooter and died instantly. His men took his body and that of his son, which was found by the roadside, and carried them back to camp. A courier was despatched to the nearest telegraph station with a message to the capital conveying the sad news. It was not unexpected; since the omen at the theatre, no one supposed the Dictator would return alive. All but himself had lost confidence, and it transpired that even he went to the front with a presentiment of disaster, for among his papers was found this peculiar will, written by himself a few moments before his departure.
THE WILL OF BARRIOS.
“I am in full campaign, and make my declaration as a soldier.
“My legitimate wife is Donna Francisca Apaucio vel Vecusidario de Quezaltenanzo.
“During our marriage we have had seven children, as follows: Elaine, Luz, José, Maria, Carlos, Rufino, and Francisca.
“Donna Francisca is the sole owner of all my properties and interest whatsoever. She will know how much to give our children when they arrive at maturity, and I have full confidence in her.
“She may give to my nephew, Luciano Barrios, in two or three instalments, $25,000, for the kindness which this nephew has rendered to me, and which I doubt not he will continue to render to my wife Donna Francisca.
“She will continue to provide for the education of Antonio Barrios, who is now in the United States of America.
“She is empowered to demand and collect all debts due to me in this country and abroad. The overseers and administrators of my properties, wherever they may be, shall account only to Donna Francisca or the person whom she may name.
“It is five o’clock in the morning. At this moment I start forth to Jutiapa, where the army is.
“J. RUFINO BARRIOS.
“Monday, March 23, 1885.”
The attempt to reunite the republic ended with the death of the Dictator, and the whole country was thrown into confusion. In Guatemala City anarchy prevailed. The enemies of Barrios did not fear a dead lion, and kicked his body. They came out in force, stoned his house, and his beautiful wife was forced to seek the protection of the United States minister, whose secretary escorted her to San José, where she took a steamer for San Francisco, and has since resided in New York.
Señor Sinibaldi, the Vice-president of the republic, called the Congress together, and a new election was ordered, at which Señor Barrillas, a man of excellent ability and wise discretion, was chosen President of the republic.
