CHAPTER III 



SAN JOSE 



The American traveler Stephens wrote of the capital of 

 Costa Rica as he saw it in February, 1840: 



"San Jose is, I believe, the only city that has grown up or 

 even improved since the independence of Central Amer- 

 ica. . . . The buildings in San Jose are all republican; there 

 is not one of any grandeur or architectural beauty; and the 

 churches are inferior to many erected by the Spaniards in the 

 smallest villages. Nevertheless it exhibited a development 

 of resources and an appearance of business unusual in this 

 lethargic country; and there was one house in the plaza 

 which showed that the owner had been abroad, and had 

 returned with his mind so liberalized as to adopt the im- 

 provements of other countries, and build differently from 

 the custom of his fathers and the taste of his neighbors. . . . 

 In San Jose, by-the-way, all the ladies were what might be 

 called good business-men, kept stores, bought and sold 

 goods, looked out for bargains, and were particularly know- 

 ing in the article of coffee." 



During the following seventy years the "development of 

 resources" brought considerable grandeur which has been 

 described in English many times by visitors of very different 

 abilities. Owing to this wealth of description, to the exist- 

 ence of several albums of photographic views (such as that of 

 Zamora) and to the character of the present volume, we 

 shall devote but a very few pages to the capital. 



On Dec. 31, 1910, San Jose had a population of 30,854. 

 Its plan was that of a chess-board with perfectly straight 



