COLOMBIA. 



173 



have deposits to the amount of $2,304,747. An 

 artesian well, the water of which is highly im- 

 pregnated with mineral salts and possesses me- 

 dicinal qualities, was bored by the city in 1875, 

 in Fountain Park. It has a depth of 1,475 feet 

 anil pressure of 52$ pounds to the square inch, 

 sufficient to force a stream 114 feet above the 

 surface of the ground. A fountain has been 

 ended at . cost of $2,500. By the State Com- 

 missioner of Labor Sheboygan is ranked third 

 in the State in the number of factory hands. 

 Over 5,500 are so employed, the increase in num- 

 ber during 1892 having been 800. The monthly 

 pay roll is $225,000. The leading industry is 

 the manufacture of furniture, the city being the 

 largest chair-manufacturing center perhaps in 

 the world. Five factories turn out 6,000 finished 

 chairs daily, and 40,000 feet of lumber are con- 

 sumed by the furniture factories every day. 

 Other establishments are extensive tanneries, 5 

 large cheese warehouses that handle 18,000,000 

 pounds of cheese annually, 2 factories of en- 

 ameled ware, 1 boot and shoe company, 2 car- 

 riage works, a foundry, machine shops, a flour- 

 ing mill, various factories of wooden ware, milk 

 safes, toys, office and hotel furnishings, Venetian 

 blinds, table slides and mattress frames, soap, 

 and cigars, over 300 persons being employed in 

 the last-mentioned industry. There are also 2 

 breweries and 1 firm of shipbuilders. Exten- 

 sive fisheries are here and large quantities of 

 fish are shipped. The courthouse, completed in 

 1860, cost $65,000. 



COLOMBIA, a republic in South America, 

 formerly known as New Grenada. As the result 

 of the revolution of 1885 the 9 federal States 

 were consolidated into the centralized republic 

 of Colombia. The President is elected for six 

 years. The Congress consists of a Senate of 27 

 members, each department being represented by 

 3, and a House of Representatives, elected in the 

 departments in the ratio of 1 to 50,000 inhab- 

 itants. The President is Dr. Rafael Nufiez, 

 elected for the fourth time in 1892, for the term 

 ending in 1898. Colombia has an estimated area 

 of 564,773 square miles. The population at the 

 census of 1870 was 3,320,530, and in 1881 it was 

 officially estimated at 3,878,600. The Govern- 

 ment derives its revenue mainly from customs. 

 The. revenue for the biennial period 1891-'92 was 

 estimated at 25,153,600 pesos, and the expendi- 

 ture at 25,693,015 pesos, in paper, the peso being 

 worth about 30 cents in United States money. 

 For 1893-'94 the budget of receipts is 24,899,200 

 pesos, and of expenditures 27,322,136 pesos. A 

 foreign loan of 1,913,500, contracted in 1873, 

 has paid no interest for many years, and nego- 

 tiations were begun in June, 1891, for a settle- 

 ment of this debt, which amounts, with arrears 

 of interest, to 3,059,985. 



Internal Affairs. On Jan. 30, 1893, a con- 

 flict took place in Bogota between a mob of 

 workingmen and the police, which was not ended 

 till 100 persons were killed and 500 wounded. 

 The mob attacked the house of Prof. Gutierrez, 

 a Jesuit, and held possession of the city for two 

 days. The troops were then called out, and 

 martial law was proclaimed. The soldiers had 

 difficulty in restoring order and arresting the 

 leaders, all of whom were executed. After this 

 street gatherings were prohibited, and the city 



was strongly guarded by troops. An executive 

 decree was issued suppressing all labor organiza- 

 tions and secret societies. The Liberal party, 

 reorganized under the leadership of Santiago 

 Perez, a former President, planned to overthrow 

 the system of arbitrary government represented 

 by Nuflez. Arms were introduced through Vene- 

 zuela, until the Government discovered it and se- 

 cured the co-operation of the Venezuelan author- 

 ities m putting a stop to the importation. The 

 Liberals issued a manifesto condemning the new 

 Constitution and the laws framed under it which 

 confer extraordinary powers on the national Ex- 

 ecutive, and charging the Administration with 

 abusing these powers in a manner not warranted 

 by the Constitution. A projected rising in 

 Cucuta, Santander, was prevented by the vigi- 

 lance of the authorities. Liberal newspapers 

 were suppressed for attacking the Government. 

 In consequence of the alleged discovery in Bar- 

 ranquilla of plots to blow up public buildings 

 with dynamite and start revolutions both in 

 Colombia and Venezuela, martial law was pro- 

 claimed. An executive decree was issued in the 

 summer, and published abroad by Colombian 

 consuls, forbidding the importation of arms or 

 powder except for the National Government. 



A heavy tax, of 8 pesos per kilo on cigars and 

 cigarettes, and 5 pesos on smoking and unmanu- 

 factured tobacco, was decreed by Congress, in 

 the form of a monopoly, for the purpose of in- 

 creasing the revenue. The Government offered 

 to farm the monopoly for 2,500,000 pesos in gold 

 for thirty years, but the general discontent caused 

 by the measure, not only among the merchants 

 who were affected but throughout the commu- 

 nity, compelled the Government to defer the ex- 

 ecution of the law. 



A severe famine afflicted the fertile department 

 of Cauca in 1893, reducing a half million of 

 people to starvation ; and a volcanic disturbance, 

 which leveled a ridge near Popayan and inter- 

 rupted the course of three rivers, in March, added 

 to the general distress. The revolutionary fer- 

 ment in the country led to the reconstruction of 

 the ministry in February, when Jose M. Campo 

 Serrano became Minister of the Interior, and 

 Domingo Ospina Camacho Minister of War. Dr. 

 Nufiez, who has never taken the emoluments 

 coming to him as President of the republic, re- 

 nounced also the traveling allowance of 30,000 

 pesos voted by Congress in 1888, to disarm any 

 suspicion of the purity of his motives in combat- 

 ing the efforts to overthrow his administration. 



The Panama Canal. The original conces- 

 sion for the construction of a canal across the 

 Isthmus of Panama was granted in 1878 to Lieut. 

 Lucien Napoleon Bonaparte Wyse, of the French 

 navy, the engineer who made the survey for the 

 company that was organized by Ferdinand de 

 Lesseps to build the canal. After the appoint- 

 ment of a liquidator for the company in 1890, 

 Lieut. Wyse, who had long before been excluded 

 from the direction by the speculators and con- 

 tractors who mismanaged the enterprise, went 

 to Colombia and secured from the Government 

 a prolongation of the concession for two years, 

 pending the organization of a new company to 

 carry the works to completion. The prolonga- 

 tion expired on Feb. 28, 1893, and was extended 

 from month to month while negotiations for a 



