COSTA RICA. 



CREMATION, PROGRESS OF. 255 



Steamer Lines. During the year, the Govern- 

 ment made a contract with the Hamburg- 

 American line, and another with the Spanish 

 Transatlantic line, to touch once a month at 

 Port Lirnon. The contracts witli the Marqu6s 

 de Campos and with Don Rafael Montufar were 

 forfeited for not complying with engagements 

 iu time. 



Colonization. A contract has been made by 

 the Government with Eric Guido Gaertner to 

 go to the United States and Europe and form 

 colonizing companies for the settlement of de- 

 sirable immigrants on the agricultural and min- 

 eral lands of the republic. 



Exploration. Another scientific exploration 

 of the volcano Irazu was resolved upon by the 

 Government during the spring, and U. Pittier, 

 an American topographic engineer, was in- 

 trusted with the task. The exploration was 

 made to the satisfaction of the Government, 

 and valuable facts in connection with this 

 mountain were ascertained. It was shown 

 that its altitude is 1,411 metres, and not 1,503, 

 as the first measurement had erroneously fixed 

 it. The volcano has three craters, the most 

 recently formed of which dates from the erup- 

 tion of 1723. Mr. Pittier deplored the barbar- 

 ous destruction of the magnificent forest that 

 covered the flanks of this gigantic cone, and 

 urges the Government to prevent the devasta- 

 tion from becoming complete. 



Central American Union Movement. On July 6 

 President Soto issued a decree advocating the 

 assembling of a Central American diet for the 

 purpose of planning the re-establishment of a 

 union of the five republics, pending which 

 Costa Rican citizenship was extended to the 

 citizens of Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, and 

 ^Nicaragua. This initiative on the part of Costa 

 Rica having met with a cordial response, the 

 diet, which was composed of one representa- 

 tive from each of the five republics, met at 

 San Jos6 on September 15, and Don Ricardo 

 Jimenez, the representative of Costa Rica, 

 was elected chairman. 



American Arbitration. On March 24 President 

 Cleveland announced his decision on the dis- 

 puted questions between Costa Rica and Nica- 

 ragua, in which -he said: 



The functions of arbitrator having been conferred 

 upon the President of the United States by virtue of 

 a treaty signed at the city of Guatemala on the 24th 

 day of December, 1886, between the republics of 

 Costa Rica and Nicaragua, whereby it was agreed that 

 the question pending between the contracting govern- 

 ments in regard to the validity of their treaty of limits 

 of the loth day of April, 1858, should be submitted 

 to the arbitration of the President of the United States 

 of America ; that, if the arbitrator's award should de- 

 termine that the treaty was valid, the same award 

 should also declare whether Costa Rica has the right 

 of navigation of the river San Juan with vess< -l-~ of 

 war or of the revenue service, and other points. And 

 the arbitrator, having delegated his powers to the 

 Hon. George L. Rivt >, .WUtant Secretary of State. 

 who, after examining and considering the said allega- 

 tions, documents, and answers, has made his report 

 in writing thereon to the arbitrator. 



Now, therefore, I, Grover Cleveland, President of 



the United States of America, do hereby make the 

 following decision and award : 



1. The above-mentioned treaty of limits, signed on 

 the loth day of April, 1858, is valid. 



2. The republic of Costa Rica under said treaty, 

 and the stipulations contained in the sixth article 

 thereof, has not the right of navigation of the river 

 San Juan with vessels of war ; but" she may navigate 

 said river with such vessels of the revenue' service as 

 may be related to and connected with her enjovment 

 of the " purposes of commerce " accorded to her in 

 said article, or as may be necessary to the protection 

 of said enjoyment. 



Retaliation. On September 17 the Secretary 

 of the Treasury at Washington issued the fol- 

 lowing circular in regard to discriminating dues 

 on Costa Rican vessels: 



This department is informed through the Depart- 

 ment of State that various lines of foreign and Costa 

 Rican vessels plying between Costa Rica and New 

 York, New Orleans, and other ports in the United 

 States, as well as between Costa Rica and European 

 are allowed in Costa Rica a rebate of five per 

 cent, of the customs duties and also certain privileges 

 as to port charges. Such rebate is not conceded to 

 vessels of the I'nited States. The cargoes of Costa 

 Rican vessels entering the United States, therefore, 

 will be subjected to the discriminating duties levied 

 by section 2,501, Revised Statutes, as embodied in the 

 act of March 3, 1883. Officers of the customs will take 

 action accordingly. 



CREMATION, PROGRESS OF. The argument 

 that Sir Henry Thompson published in 1874 

 (see "Annual Cyclopedia" for 1876, p. 216) in 

 favor of cremation as a method of disposing of 

 the dead, although it was urged principally 

 upon sanitary grounds, was shocking to a con- 

 siderable part of the public. Many persons 

 regarded it as a covert attack upon Christi- 

 anity. Yet the thought was not new, for it 

 had been broached in Italy in 1866; Gorini 

 and Pollini had published the results of experi- 

 ments in cremation in 1872. and a model fur- 

 nace, illustrating the practicability of the pro- 

 cess, had been shown by Prof. Brnnetti, of 

 Padua, at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873. The 

 Cremation Society of England was formed, in 

 1879, for the purpose of obtaining informa- 

 tion on the subject, and adopting the best 

 method of performing the process as soon as 

 that could be determined. Legal opinions 

 having been obtained to the effect that this 

 method of disposing of human bodies was not 

 illegal, provided no nuisance was occasioned 

 by it, an arrangement was made with one of 

 the London cemeteries for the erection of a 

 crematory on its grounds. The execution of 

 this contract was forbidden by the Bishop of 

 Rochester, and then an independent property 

 was obtained at Woking, and a Gorini furnace 

 was erected upon it, in which it was proved 

 by experiment, in 1879, that a complete com- 

 bustion of an adult human body could be 

 effected in about an hour, without causing any 

 smoke or effluvia, and with the reduction of 

 every particle of organic matter to a pure, 

 white, dry ash. Human cremations had al- 

 ready taken place abroad, by Brunetti in 1869 

 and 1870; at Dresden and Breslau (the latter 

 in a Siemens apparatus, with gas) in 1874; 



