COSTA RICA. 



179 



On Nov. 12 Bridgeport commemorated the one 

 hundredth anniversary of its creation as a borough 

 with a parade of 20,000 men, a display of fireworks, 

 and a banquet. 



Nov. 22, Trinity Parish (Episcopal), of South- 

 port, town of Fairfield, observed the one hundred 

 and seventy-fifth anniversary of the dedication of 

 its first house of worship and the one hundred and 

 ninety-ninth of the founding, in London, England, 

 of " the Venerable Society for the Propagation of 

 the Gospel in Foreign Parts," to which the parish 

 was largely indebted in the first half century of its 

 existence. 



Camp Field and a soldiers' monument built upon 

 it were presented to the city of Hartford, and 

 dedicated Oct. 4. The field, which was given by 

 John C. Barker, is the site of the encampment of 

 7 regiments that were enlisted for the civil war. 

 Of these men, 394 were killed in action, 230 died 

 of wounds, and 834 died of disease. The monu- 

 ment is a statue of Gen. Griffin A. Stedman. 



Political. At the town elections, Oct. 1, 125 

 went Republican and 37 Democratic, the same as 

 in 1899, though the lists were not wholly identical. 

 One more town voted for no license 90 in 1900 

 against 89 in 1899; 78 were for license. 



The State Republican Convention was held Sept. 

 5-6, at New Haven. Following were the candi- 

 dates; For Governor, George P. McLean; Lieu- 

 tenant Governor, Edwin O. Keeler; Secretary of 

 State, Charles G. R. Vinal ; Treasurer, Henry H. 

 Gallup; Comptroller, Abiram Chamberlain. 



The candidates chosen at the Democratic con- 

 vention at Hartford, Sept. 20-21, were: For Gov- 

 ernor, Samuel L. Bronson; Lieutenant Governor, 

 Cyrus G. Beckwith; Secretary, James P. Wood- 

 ruff; Treasurer, Edwin C. Pinney; Comptroller, 

 William L. Huntting. 



The Prohibitionists made the following nomina- 

 tions, July 27, at Hartford; For Governor, Charles 

 E. Steele; Lieutenant Governor, John J. Copp; 

 Secretary of State, Robert N. Stanley; Treasurer, 

 Oliver G. Beard ; Comptroller, William Ingalls. 



The ticket of the Socialist-Labor party was : For 

 Governor, Adam Marx; Lieutenant Governor, 

 James M. Parker; Secretary, Faustin Serrer; 

 Treasurer, Edward Lapthorn; Comptroller, Henry 

 Mathern. 



The Social Democratic party named: For Gov- 

 ernor, G. A. Sweetland; Lieutenant Governor, 

 W. E. White ; Secretary, I. G. Chatfield ; Treasurer, 

 William Bartels; Comptroller, W. J. Sansoucy. 



The election resulted in favor of the Republican 

 ticket. The vote on the presidential electors 

 stood: McKinley, 102,572; Bryan, 74,014. For 

 Governor: McLean, 95,822; Bronson, 81,420; 

 Steele, 1,548. The Socialist vote on Governor was 

 1.932. The Senate will have 22 Republicans and 2 

 Democrats. The House will be composed of 201 

 Republicans and 54 Democrats. 



COSTA RIGA, a republic in Central America. 

 The legislative power is vested in the Congress or 

 House of Representatives, 32 in number, elected 

 for four years, one half being replaced every two 

 years, in the proportion of 1 to 8,000 of population, 

 by electoral colleges, for which every male citizen 

 who is self-supporting has a vote. The President, 

 who is elected for four years, is Rafael Iglesias, 

 re-elected for the term beginning May 8, 1898. 

 The Vice-President is Iglesias Llorente. The Cab- 

 inet at the beginning of 1900 was composed as fol- 

 lows: Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Wor- 

 ship, Education, Charities, and Justice, J. A. 

 Facio ; Secretary of the Interior, Police, and Pub- 

 lic Works, Ricardo Pacheco; Secretary of the 

 Treasury, Juan B. Quiros; Secretary of War and 

 the Navy, Jose Astua Aquilar. 



tji.it i^o-v^y, 17 u 



Area and Population. The area of the repub- 

 lic is about 23,000 square miles. The population 

 was reckoned at 294,940 in March, 1897. Since 

 1894 the net immigration has been about 1,000 a 

 year. In 1892 there were 6,289 foreigners, of whom 

 831 were Spanish, 634 Jamaican, 622 Italian, 342 

 German, 246 English, and 204 from the United 

 States. The Government has made liberal con- 

 cessions for the purpose of attracting colonists. 

 The descendants of Spanish settlers live in and 

 around the towns, chief of which is San Jose, the 

 seat of government, with about 25,000 inhabitants. 

 The public schools number 327. There are also 5 

 institutions for superior education. Education is 

 free and compulsory, and the law is strictly en- 

 forced. A regular military force of 600 men is 

 maintained, and there is a militia of 12,000 men 

 kept in training, which can be increased in war to 

 34,000 by calling out all males between eighteen 

 and fifty years of age. The naval force consists 

 of a gunboat and a torpedo boat. 



Finances. The revenue for 1899 was 8,413,199 

 pesos, of which 2,735,974 pesos were derived from 

 customs and 2,300,000 pesos from excise. The ex- 

 penditure was 8,069,748 pesos, of which 5,232,168 

 pesos were spent for government and 1,377,525 

 pesos for debt. The foreign debt, incurred mainly 

 for an interoceanic railroad that was not built, has 

 been scaled down on the ground of the depreciation 

 of silver, the Government having failed to pay in- 

 terest until the arrears amounted to nearly as 

 much as the principal. Of the new bonds, 1,- 

 475,000 pay 2J per cent, and 525,000 pay 3 per 

 cent. Besides these the Government owes 90,000 

 of foreign debt and 2,922,221 pesos of internal debt. 

 The adoption of the gold standard was voted in 

 1896, and the ratio of gold to silver was fixed at 

 26i to 1. The project has not yet been carried out. 

 The silver coinage in circulation is 350,000 pesos, 

 and there is no gold, the principal currency being 

 bank notes, 3,300,000 pesos in 1896, protected by a 

 specie reserve of 1,250,000 pesos, but worth only* 46 

 per cent, of their nominal value in exchange. 



Commerce and Production. Coffee is the 

 most profitable product, and bananas come next. 

 Corn, rice, yams, and potatoes are the principal 

 food crops. Cacao culture is not of long standing, 

 and is rapidly extending. The live stock, mostly 

 cattle, was valued in 1897 at 12,695,000 pesos. The 

 working of gold and silver mines has nearly ceased. 

 The value of imports in 1898 was 4,258,896 pesos 

 in gold, compared with 5,460,944 pesos in 1897 ; 

 value of exports, 5,474,774 pesos in 1897 and 

 5,659,219 pesos in 1898. The export of coffee in 

 1899 was 19,486,125 kilogrammes, valued at 

 4,209,570 pesos. Of bananas, 2,331,036 bunches 

 were exported. Other exports are cedar wood, 

 various cabinet woods, and hides. The number of 

 vessels that called at Limon and Punta Arenas in 

 1898 was 449. The shipping of Costa Rica con- 

 sists of 3 steamers, of 600 tons, and 2 sailing ves- 

 sels, of 551 tons. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The sec- 

 tion of the long projected transisthmian railroad 

 that runs from Port Limon inland stops at Ala- 

 juela, 117 miles from the Gulf coast. The Pacific 

 section, from Punta Arenas to Esparza, is only 14 

 miles long. There are 917 miles of telegraph lines. 

 The number of messages in 1897 was 382.116. The 

 number of letters and other pieces carried in the 

 mails in 1896 was 1,164,807 in the internal and 

 822,190 in the foreign service. 



The Colombian Boundary. An old frontier 

 dispute between Costa Rica and Colombia was re- 

 ferred to the decision of the President of the 

 French Republic. This was rendered in September, 

 1900. The award makes the cordillera of the 



