THE TOWN OF CART AGO AND ITS LIFE 4 1 



Cartago and the latter name was frequently applied to the 

 whole assembly of villages. 



Each district had its own chief church as well as smaller 

 ones. Cartago proper contained the handsome Gothic 

 church of San Nicolas, the unfinished Parroquia, the Sole- 

 dad and several others including the pretty chapel of the 

 Orphan Asylum at the west end of the Calle Real. The 

 Orphan Asylum had quite extensive buildings and we often 

 saw the boys at work in their large garden. The district of 

 Carmen lay just north of the railroad and the Carmen 

 church was very conspicuous from its extreme width and 

 disproportionately low, squat, square towers. 



South and east of the Parroquia was the large church and 

 monastery of San Francisco. It was unfinished when we 

 settled in Cartago and on Sunday, the eleventh of June, a 

 big "Turno" was held for its benefit. The town was pla- 

 carded for days with large posters announcing a "Turno 

 General" for the benefit of the church of San Francisco de 

 Cartago and we waited with some interest to learn what a 

 "Turno" might be — the dictionaries vouchsafing no perti- 

 nent information. The event proved to be an occasion on 

 which everyone "turned to" and worked for the church. 

 The market that day was exceedingly crowded and there 

 were all sorts of extra things for sale, — more flowers, more 

 pots, more cooked food, little odds and ends that looked like 

 personal treasures — all to be sold for the good of San 

 Francisco, Outside the market were numbers of temporary 

 booths where young ladies — not market people — sold or 

 more frequently raffled everything imaginable, just like a 

 church fair at home. There were many groups of pretty 

 little girls in the streets all day selling "chances" on dolls, 

 toys and so on. About eight o'clock in the morning we saw 

 a long procession of oxen coming down the mountain and 

 when they were nearer we found that each pair dragged a 



