COSTA mr.\. 



241 





lulian, ami \ii-ir;ili:in. iiml in denomination 

 riaii, Methodist, and Kpiscopalian. Step- 

 n taken fur tin- translation of a stundard 

 r-ion of I he Hi I ilc, the first effort s in this direc- 

 n having been made l>y the l!e\. .Inhn Koss, of 

 ukileii. China, ten \cars ago. 

 Medical Science. Cm-can medical literature 

 a good reputation in China. Several 

 ndard works in the art of therapeutics have 

 iu r been kiiuwii in .lapan also. Nevertheless, 

 the treatment of their own sick is rude and bar- 

 barous from the standpoint of Western science. 

 " ie | MX ir and the infer ted are cast out from their 

 ..ml left with food and water in rude huts 

 >traw on the waste lands beyond the city 

 es. The Government, appreciating the value 

 the medical skill displayed by an American 

 physician. 11. N. Allen, after the coup d'etat and 

 the battle between the Chinese and the Japanese 

 1, has established the Royal Corean Hos- 

 pital in Seoul. Served by American physicians 

 on umdern principles and methods, 11,000 cases 

 were t rcated in this hospital in 1889. The Metho- 

 diM hospital treated 8,000 cases in the same year. 

 There is also a Japanese hospital at Fusan. 

 I il n cat ion and Literature. The basis of 

 cation is the Chinese literature. Appoint- 

 nts to the Government service are through 

 the literary examinations held at. stated intervals 

 in the provincial and national capitals. At 

 Seoul, in the Royal Corean Government College, 

 : n languages and science are taught, the 

 i chief instructors being Americans, gradu- 

 of colleges in the United States. Several 

 ng men, graduated at this institution, are now 

 ployed in Government service. Education for 

 people is entirely a matter of private enter- 

 ;. Libraries and book-shops are found in 

 large cities, but there is little true vernacular 

 rature, the books containing serious informa- 

 >n being in Chinese. There is a genuine native 

 habet, consisting of 25 letters, 11 vowels and 

 consonants, and classified according to the 

 _ans of speech. It is phonetic, and is one of 

 the simplest and most perfect in the world. This 

 Un-inun alphabet was invented in the fourteenth 

 century, at about the same time that movable 

 metal types were used for printing, wooden types 

 having been known since 1320, and authentic 

 printed Corean books bearing the date 1317-'24 



J). being extant. The apparatus for the study 

 Uorean by Europeans now consists of a large 

 tionary and a grammar by the French mis- 

 sionaries, a grammar and dictionary in English 

 b\ the Rev. H. G. Underwood, a dictionary by 

 1 Scott, and phrase books and critical articles 

 W. G. Aston, John Ross, and others. 

 COSTA RICA, a republic in Central Amer- 

 ica. The executive authority .is concentrated i" 

 the hands of a President, who is elected for four 

 years, and the legislative power is vested in a 

 single chamber, called the House of Representa- 

 < imposed of 26 members, elected indirectly 

 for four years, one half retiring each second 

 year. Jose Joaquin Rodriguez was elected Pres- 

 ident on May 8, 1890. 



Area and Population. The republic is esti- 

 mated to have an area of 20,000 square miles, 

 and it- population in 1889 was estimated at Jfi'.t.- 

 644. In that year there were 9,151 births. 5,238 

 deaths, 6,330 arrivals, and 3,706 departures. 

 VOL. xxxi. 16 A 



I 



*! 



Finance. The rcvume for 1H89-'90 was 



Hiti. and the expenditure $.V.nM.!H5. The 

 chief items of expenditure wen- *v!.ii Mi.047 for 

 the debt. *.VI'..1I2 for war, $9HO,517 for public 

 works, and !f44!.K?7 for education Tin- foreign 

 debt, contracted in England at Hand 7 per cent, 

 inleiv-i in 1H71 and 1*N2. amounted to .IXMl'.M.- 

 :i(M), and the interest in default to .f2.!M.:jM) 

 in 1887, when tin- whole was converted into a 

 loan of 2,000,000 paying 5 per cent, interest. 

 The debt was disputed by the Costa KicanCn.v- 

 crnnicnt, which expended" $5(H).(XX> in an uiisiic- 

 ce-sful suit against the London bankers, bccaii-c 

 of the total nominal sum of $26,21H,4'J5 only 

 $4,877,865 had reached the treasury. The con- 

 verted debt is guaranteed on the customs rev- 

 enue, and since 1888 the interest has been regu- 

 larly paid. All the debts outstanding in IS'.MI 

 amounted to $17,712,338 in silver. A land and 

 loan company with a capital of $5,000.000 has 

 been granted important concessions for the sake 

 of promoting agriculture and immigration. 



Commerce and Production. The chief 

 commercial products are coffee and bananas. 

 Out of a total exportation valued in 1889 at 

 $6,965,371, coffee stood for $6,186,656, and ba- 

 nanas for $569,020. About three fifths of the 

 coffee went to England and the remainder and 

 all the bananas to the United States. Other ox- 

 ports are hides, skins, cocoa-nuts, cacao, mother- 

 of-pearl, cedar wood, and gold. Rice, corn, 

 wheat, and potatoes are cultivated in addition to 

 tropical products. The total value of the im- 

 ports in 1889 was $6,306,408. 



The shipping entered at Costa Rican ports in 

 1889 consisted of :!()!) vessels, of 367,052 tons. 



Communications. There were 180 miles of 

 railroad completed before the beginning of 1890, 

 to which 51 miles have been added, uniting Port 

 Limon with San Jose, the capital. 



The telegraphs in 1889 had a total length of 

 600 miles. The number of dispatches in 1888 

 was 112,639. 



Public Affairs. Since the last Central Amer- 

 ican war, Costa Rica has made peaceful progress 

 in developing her great agricultural resources 

 and building railroads with the aid of American 

 capital and in improving the sanitation of the 

 towns and advancing education. A plot against 

 the Government was suspected or discovered in 

 April, 1891, and several persons were arrested, 

 but no disturbance of the peace occurred. 



Reciprocity. A treat v of commercial reci- 

 procity -between Costa Rica and the United 

 States was negotiated in 1885, which was never 

 ratified by the two governments. Under it, su- 

 gar, coffee, cacao, pea-nuts, ginger, bananas, po- 

 tatoes, pita or hat straw, gums, dye woods, rub- 

 ber, hides, timber, and other Costa Iiican prod- 

 ucts were to be admitted free into the United 

 States, and cattle, salt, petroleum, coal, preserved 

 meat, bricks, lime, mining and agricultural ma- 

 chinerv. and cotton from the United States into 

 Costa Rica. In 1891 negotiations were reopened 

 for a treaty containing the same provision-. The 

 Costa Rican Government was bound not to im- 

 pair the security of the foreign debt, for which 

 the customs receipts are pledged, and therefore 

 sought to make an arrangement with the Eng- 

 lish bondholders to release this lien and free its 

 hands. 



