414 



HANCOCK, WINFIELD SCOTT. 



Mexicans, 267 Americans, 127 Italians, 117 

 Frenchmen, and 115 Germans. 



Railroads. On Dec. 27, 1885, work was be- 

 gun on the railroad that is to connect La An- 

 tigua with the Central Railroad of Guatemala. 

 In March the Minister of Public Works made 

 a contract with J. F. Anderson, by which the 

 latter and his partners engage to construct and 

 put in complete working order, within eighteen 

 months, the first section of the Northern Kail- 

 road, from Puerto - Barrios to Tenedores 

 twenty miles. They furthermore bind them- 

 selves to build a wharf at Puerto-Barrios 400 

 feet long and 30 feet wide, with a front so as 

 to form a T 100 feet long and 50 feet in 

 width; they to have the privilege of the rail- 

 road and wharf for a term of twenty years, on 

 condition of keeping both in good order. The 

 wharfage dues are not to exceed those at pres- 

 ent levied at Livingston, Santo Tomas, and 

 Puerto-Barrios; all material to be admitted 

 duty free. The contractor and associates are 

 at the same time granted, by way of Govern- 

 ment aid, 500 edballerias of public lands, to 

 be located in the departments of Izabal and 

 Livingston. 



Telegraphs. On Jan. 6, 1886, the line of tele- 

 graph between Jocotan in Guatemala and 

 Santa Rosa in Honduras, forty-four miles, 

 went into operation, Guatemala having fur- 

 nished all the material, and Honduras the labor 

 within its limits. 



Hospitals. In 1885 there were admitted to 

 the hospitals of the country 13,284 sick per- 

 sons, and dismissed as cured 12,245, only 778 

 having died. There remained under treatment, 

 on Jan. 1, 1886, 841 individuals. The total 

 expenditure for the hospital service in 1885 

 was $67,632. 



Textile Industry. Mechanical cotton spinning 

 and weaving is carried on with power by two 

 establishments, after the most approved meth- 

 ods, and with modern machinery, one at Bar- 

 cenas, and the other at Cantel. There are also 

 in operation throughout the republic two thou- 

 sand hand-looms weaving cotton. Guatema- 

 lan cotton goods are exported to other Central 

 American countries to a notable extent. 



Exhibition. There is to be held, opening on 

 Dec. 1, 1887, a national exhibition of products 



of all kinds in the city of Guatemala, under the 

 auspices of the Central Society of Mechanics, 

 and under the patronage and with the aid of 

 the Government. 



Abolition of Torture. A law passed on May 

 25, 1886, prohibits whipping, and decrees that 

 torture which was occasionally inflicted up 

 to quite a recent date shall under no circum- 

 stances be applied, whether direct, through 

 privation, or otherwise. The observation of 

 this decree is enjoined as much on military as 

 civil officers, whether in peace or war. 



Events of 1886. In January the President is- 

 sued a decree to the effect that, although the 

 Government is bound to foster immigration, it 

 is equally bound to impede the ingress into the 

 republic of persons who constitute a pernicious 

 element, which proves an obstacle to the ad- 

 vancement of liberty and progress. The de- 

 cree then alluded to the Roman Catholic priests 

 belonging to other nationalities, who, it says, 

 breed discord and create opposition to the Gov- 

 ernment. It is ordered that such priests shall, 

 on the discovery of their designs, be expelled 

 from the country. 



During the same month a plot to overthrow 

 the Government was discovered in the capital. 

 It was a scheme to set fire to the Grand Hotel 

 and the theatre, at a time when there might 

 be expected to be a full house. In the panic 

 that would ensue, the intention of the conspir- 

 ators was to take possession of the barracks 

 without any great risk to themselves. A prom- 

 inent feature of the programme was to murder 

 President Barillas and his family ; next to at- 

 tack all foreigners, and finally to sack the city. 

 The discovery of the plot led to the arrest of 

 about fifty persons, including some officers in 

 the army. 



The Executive, under date of Sept. 13, 1886, 

 issued a decree declaring martial law. 



On October 10 great excitement was caused 

 in the city of Guatemala by the exposure of an 

 attempt to poison the President by two broth- 

 ers, druggists. They prepared a poison, and 

 gave it to a servant of the President, with $2,000 

 as a bribe to administer it. But the servant 

 handed over to his master both the money 

 and the poison. The druggists were put to 

 death. 



H 



HANCOCK, Winfleld Scott, an American sol- 

 dier, born in Montgomery Square, Montgomery 

 County, Pa.. Feb. 14, 1824 ; died on Governor's 

 Island, New York Harbor, Feb. 9,1886. His ma- 

 ternal grandfather and great-grandfather were 

 soldiers in the War of the Revolution, and his 

 paternal grandfather was one of the impressed 

 American seamen of the War of 1812. His 

 father, a lawyer of some distinction, named 

 one of his twin-boys after one of the heroes of 

 that struggle. While Hancock was still a child, 

 the family moved to Norristown. Here he at- 



tended the academy, and became known as a 

 vigorous, upright boy, with a fondness for out- 

 door games, and more than the usual boyish 

 inclination to play at soldiership. 



He received an appointment to West Point, 

 entered that institution in 1840, and was grad- 

 uated with honor June 30, 1844. Among 

 those at the Military Academy during that pe- 

 riod were Grant, McClellan, Buell, Rosecrans, 

 Reynolds, Longstreet, Pickett, and Stonewall 

 Jackson. It is said that when Gen. Scott asked 

 young Hancock, on his graduation, to what 



