ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IV. 159 



along in the middle of the narrow street. He halted hitn and inquired 

 who he was. 



"I am the captain of the day police, on my way home," explained the 

 man. 



"If you are captain of the day police, what are you doing out at 

 night?" Bang went his gun, and the officer dropped. What could you ex- 

 pect of an ignorant mountaineer who had been given a bent-barrel gun, 

 more dangerous behind than in front, and authority to make arrests. 



Much of the business of the country is carried on by telegraph. This 

 is because the mail is slow and uncertain, due to its being carried over 

 the mountains on mule-back, and during the rainy season the streams are 

 swollen so that it is not only dangerous to ford them, but frequently im- 

 possible. The government owns the lines, and the rates are very reason- 

 able. However, matters of importance or state secrets are sent by trusted 

 messengers, for the operators "leak" and cannot be trusted to keep confi- 

 dential matters to themselves. Not all of them are strictly temperate, and 

 it not infrequently happens that an office will be locked up for a day or 

 two until the operator gets through his spree. In the meantime, business 

 at his station is halted and accumulates until he returns. 



Central America is the home of Americans who "can't come back." 

 When you meet one, you do not know whether the name he gives is his 

 right name or not. It is a matter of etiquette peculiar to the country not 

 to ask too many questions concerning a stranger's previous whereabouts. 

 Most of them are men who have brought some money with them, and, 

 by taking advantage of financial opportunities, are able to live without 

 the necessity of actually working for a living, although some few actually 

 work. Some of them are managers of branch stores or look after the 

 interests of foreign investors. These men, however, can not take unto 

 themselves all the credit for questionable transactions, for graft was 

 started early in Central America. It is related that during the Spanish 

 regime the people of the capital told their sovereign king that they had 

 started a monument to his memory which, when completed, could be seen 

 by him from his castle. He was so impressed with the idea that he is 

 said to have given the government a large sum of money. The monument 

 was pointed out to me, and it was not over twenty-five feet high . 



All towns are situated on a stream, and all farms and ranches near a 

 water supply. There are no wells or pumps. All of the family washing 

 and laundry work is done in the streams. The women — who do nearly 

 everything that is done at all — take the clothes in a bundle on their heads 

 and go to the stream and stand in the water to do the washnig. After 

 the clothes are washed, they are spread on the grass or on the bushes to 

 dry. They do not have washboards, but use a shallow wooden trough 

 in which to rub them. 



Coal oil in the interior of the country sells for $2.45 a gallon, and some 

 of it is adulterated. This is the price in silver. In gold ,it represents 

 91 cents a gallon. Only people of the more prosperous classes have it, 

 while the native gets along with candles and the very poor use pine 

 splints, which are lighted and put in the middle of the dirt floor in the 



