COSTA RICA. 



CRAPE-STONE. 



235 



Keith by the next mail. Shortly after an ' Offi- 

 cial Gazette ' of July 14, 1883, was received, 

 which contained the terms of the contract as 

 drawn up between Mr. Keith and the Govern- 

 ment. The Minister of Finance, in reply to 

 the dispatches informing the Government of 

 the resolutions of the committees, under date 

 of the 17th of September, expressed the hope 

 of the President that the committees would 

 defer giving a definite opinion upon the con- 

 tract until they had an opportunity of discuss- 

 ing it with Mr. Keith. Mr. Keith has since 

 arrived in England; but, after a short stay 

 here, he has returned, without making any 

 proposal, to Costa Rica, for a brief period, in 

 tbe hope that he may be able to return with 

 power to make some satisfactory arrangement 

 with the bondholders. It is understood that 

 the Government are quite without funds to 

 continue the railroad, the cost of which is esti- 

 mated at 900,000." 



Commerce. The chief destination and source 

 of the exports and imports of Costa Rica, and 

 their respective values, for the year 1883, are 

 exhibited in the subjoined table: 



The chief article of export is coffee; but 

 . the prices of late years brought by that staple 

 have been unremunerative, and attention is 

 now being directed to the culture of other 

 products, such as tobacco, the sugar-cane, 

 bananas, etc. A sack of coffee pays at present 

 a freight of 75 cents to Puntarenas, on the Pa- 

 cific coast, and $1.50 to Carrillo, the nearest 

 station to the capital on the Atlantic branch 

 of the railway, and not one half the distance 

 that Puntarenas is. Of the total value of the 

 exports as given in the foregoing table, coffee 

 represented $2,000,593; India-rubber, $166,- 

 509; metals, $92,951 ; skins, $81,721 ; bananas, 

 $55,401. Other minor articles were dye-woods, 

 tortoise-shell, silver in bars, etc. The coffee- 

 crop for 1884, it was predicted, would be over 

 300,000 sacks, at an estimated value of $3,000,- 

 000. In April it was announced that the to- 

 bacco monopoly was fully established, and the 

 decree issued prohibiting the cultivation of the 

 plant by the farmers. On the other hand, the 

 free working of India-rubber in the lands of 

 the republic was authorized by decree, in Octo- 

 ber following, but its exportation restricted to 

 the established ports of entry on either coast. 



Shipping. The movement at the two principal 

 ports of the republic was as follows, in 1883 : 



PUNTARENAS. 



ENTERED : 80 steamers and 15 sailing-vessels, with an ag- 

 gregate of 126,240 tons. 



CLEARED : 81 steamers and 15 sailing-vessels, with an ag- 

 gregate of 126,192 tons. 



ENTERED: 72 steamers and 25 sailing-vessels, with an ag- 

 gregate of 108,326 tons. 



CLEARED : 71 steamers and 26 sailing-vessels, with an ag. 

 gregate of 110,270 tons. 



Weights and Measures. The metric system of 

 weights and measures was adopted in the 

 course of the year, and the corresponding regu- 

 lations issued by the Government. 



Railways. There were railways in operation, 

 in 1883, as follows : Alajuela to San Jos6, 13$ 

 miles ; Puntarenas to Espartera, 14 ; San Jose" 

 to Cartago, 13; Limon to Rio Lucio, 70; total, 

 110 miles. The total receipts were $52,931, 

 and the total expenditures, $82 ? 857. 



Telegraphy. Costa Rica has had a line be- 

 tween Puntarenas, its port on the Pacific, and 

 the capital, San Jose, since 1866. Within a 

 few years the line has been extended from San 

 Jos6 to Limon, the Atlantic port ; and in July, 

 1879, telegraphic communication with Nica- 

 ragua was established, and thus with the rest 

 of the world, through San Juan del Sur, where 

 the Central and South American Telegraph 

 Company have a cable-station. The lines are 

 owned and controlled by the Government, 

 employes being paid from twenty dollars to 

 fifty dollars a month at way-offices, and some- 

 what more liberally in the departmental capi- 

 tals. The total length of telegraph lines in 

 the republic on Jan. 1, 1884, was 366 miles. 

 The number of dispatches transmitted in 1883 

 was^S^lS, of which 5,831 were official ; the 

 receipts of the department amounted to $5,- 

 974; and the expenditure to $27,101. 



Post-Office. The amount of revenue from 

 this department jn 1882-'83 was $21,156, or 

 $335 less than the cost of the department. 



Political. At the beginning of the year the 

 Colegio de Abogados was directed by the Gov- 

 ernment to inquire into and report upon re- 

 forms required in the existing legislation on 

 juries. It was reported in July, 1884, that the 

 Jesuits had incurred the displeasure of the Cos- 

 ta Rican Government, and been banished from 

 the country. Their enemies charged them with 

 conspiracy against the existing administration. 

 Costa Rica was the last of the Central Ameri- 

 can republics to tolerate the society, the pres- 

 ence of whose members in the other four 

 states had always been regarded as prejudicial 

 to the peace and welfare of the country. Ru- 

 mors of a probable suspension of relations be- 

 tween Costa Rica and the Papal See were cur- 

 rent toward the close of the year. A projected 

 revolutionary movement was, in October, dis- 

 covered in time to be prevented. It was to 

 have begun in the military barracks. Some 

 arrests were made. The pretext for the move- 

 ment was sought in the supposed attack upon 

 religion implied in the expulsion of the Jesuits 

 by the Government. 



CRAPE-STONE, an article used for jewelry to 

 be worn by persons in mourning. Pins and 

 brooches for fastening mourning garments have 

 commonly been made of wood and covered with 



