594 



NICARAGUA. 



Tammany Hall, 20; Republican, 3; County 

 Democracy. 2. 



In the Tenth Congressional District an election 

 was held to fill the vacancy caused by the death 

 of Francis B. Spinola, and the following votes 

 were cast: William Bourke Cockran, Democrat, 

 13.234: James B. Townsend, Republican, 7.160; 

 John Hauser, Socialist, 343 ; Alfred L. Manierre, 

 Prohibition. 199. Likewise in the Twelfth Con- 

 gressional District an election was held to fill 

 the vacancy caused by the resignation of Ros- 

 well P. Flower, at which the following votes 

 were cast : Joseph J. Little, Democrat. 19.306 ; 

 William McMichael, Republican, 11,465; Theo- 

 dore L. De Vinne, County Democrat, 1,075 : and 

 John J. Flick, Socialist, 1,075. 



Events. On Jan. 2 the Fifth Avenue Thea- 

 tre, at the corner of Broadway and 28th Street, 

 was burned. On May 5 the music hall founded 

 by Andrew Carnegie, at the corner of 57th 

 Street and Seventh Avenue, was opened with ap- 

 propriate exercises. On Oct. 27 the New York 

 Court of Appeals decided the Tilden will case 

 in favor of the natural heirs, thus ending a long 

 controversy, and depriving New York city of 

 the free public library originally proposed by 

 Samuel J. Tilden. But a compromise with one 

 of the heirs leaves $2,000,000 in the hands of 

 the trustees for the original purpose. 



NICARAGUA, a republic in Central America. 

 The members of both the Senate and the House of 

 Representatives are elected by universal suffrage 

 for four and six years respectively. Congress 

 meets every two years. The executive power is 

 exercised by the President with the aid of a 

 Cabinet of five ministers. Dr. Roberto Sacasa 

 was elected President for four years in November, 

 1890, and his election was confirmed by Congress 

 on Jan. 14, 1891. His Cabinet is composed as 

 follows: Rosendo Lopez, Minister of Foreign 

 Relations; Jose del C. Bengoechea, Minister of 

 Finance and Public Credit ; Federico Marenco, 

 Minister of the Interior; Augustin Duarte, 

 Minister of War; Francisco J. Medina, Minister 

 of Public Works. The regular army has 700 

 men and the militia 25,000. The revenue in 

 1888 was $3.814,140, derived from monopolies of 

 spirits, tobacco, and gunpowder and duties on 

 imports and slaughtered cattle. The expendi- 

 ture was $4.024,602. There is an internal debt 

 of $1,592,000. 



Area and Population. Nicaragua is the 

 largest in extent and the most sparsely popu- 

 lated of the five republics of Central America. 

 With an area of 49,500 square miles, it has a 

 population that was estimated in 1883 at only 

 350,000. The Cordillera, which occupies the 

 central part of the country, rises in few places 

 higher than 1,000 feet, and the large valley to the 

 west of it. containing the large lakes of Nicara- 

 gua and Managua, has an average elevation of 

 125 feet above the plane of the ocean. Managua, 

 the capital, has 18,000 inhabitants. There are 

 no religious trammels, and education is fostered 

 by the Government, which has brought in teach- 

 ers from the United States and Europe. There 

 were 251 schools, with 11.914 pupils, in 1887. 

 The population consists of Indians, negroes, and 

 mixed races, and a few people of European 

 origin or descent, who have decreased in num- 

 ber. 



Commerce and Production. The principal 

 occupation of the people is cattle-raising. There 

 are about 400.000 head of cattle in the country. 

 In recent years the cultivation of bananas for 

 the American market has become a considerable 

 industry. Coffee of excellent quality is also pro- 

 duced, and India-rubber is gathered. Cedar, 

 Brazil wood, mahogany, and dye woods abound 

 in the forests. Indian corn, sugar, potatoes, 

 cacao, and indigo are cultivated. Various met- 

 als are mined to a small extent, and recently 

 gold has been discovered. The imports consist 

 of manufactured articles. They were valued in 

 1888 at $2,146,000, of which $706,000 represent 

 imports from Germany ; from the United States, 

 $395.000 ; from France, $351,000 ; from Central 

 America. $268,000 : from Great Britain. $252,000 ; 

 from Italy, $42,000 ; from other countries. $72.000. 

 The expo'rts were valued at $1,522,000, of which 

 $665,000 went to Great Britain, $334,000 to the 

 United States, $253,000 to Germany, and $246.000 

 to France. The articles exported were coffee, rub- 

 ber, woods, gums, sugar, indigo, and cacao. Ac- 

 cording to the United States revenue returns, the 

 exports to Nicaragua from the United States 

 amounted to $900,813 in 1889 and $1,270,073 in 

 1890. and the imports from Nicaragua into the 

 United States were $1,747,246 in 1889 and $1.655,- 

 690 in 1890. The chief exports to the United 

 States were coffee, bananas, hides, and wood, and 

 the chief imports of American produce were 

 iron and steel manufactures, wheat flour, furni- 

 ture, and provisions. 



Communications. There is a railroad in 

 operation between Corinto and Momotombo, 58 

 miles, and a separate section of the same line 

 has been built from Managua to Granada, 32 

 miles. A projected railroad will connect the 

 Pacific port of San Juan del Sur or Brito with 

 San Jorge, on Lake Nicaragua, and another will 

 connect Matagalpa with the eastern shore of 

 Lake Managua. A concession has been obtained 

 for a railroad from Matagalpa to the east coast, 

 a distance of 90 miles. 



The post-office in 1886 delivered 3,306,500 let- 

 ters, papers, etc. There were 1,549 miles of 

 telegraph in 1890, uniting the chief towns and 

 joining the international cable at Grey town *or 

 San Juan del Norte. 



The Nicaragua Canal. A concession for a 

 ship canal from San Juan del Norte to San Juan 

 del Sur was granted in April. 1887, to the Nicara- 

 gua Canal Association of New York. The Mari- 

 time Canal Company was organized and incor- 

 porated by the United States Congress on Feb. 

 20. 1889. A construction company, of which 

 Warner Miller is president, took the contract of 

 building the canal. The Nicaragua Government 

 granted one year in which to begin and ten years 

 additional in which to complete the canal. The 

 work of construction was begun, and in Septem- 

 ber. 1890, the Nicaragua Government formally 

 acknowledged that the stipulated sum of $2,000,- 

 000 had been expended within the year. The 

 canal was expected to cost $90.000.000, to be six 

 years in building, and to yield a revenue of $17.- 

 500,000 when completed, calculated on the rates 

 of toll that are charged on the Suez Canal. (For 

 a Complete description of the work, see " Annual 

 Cyclopaedia for 1888," page 614.) An application 

 was made to the United States Congress in Janu- 



