THE TOWN OF CART AGO AND ITS LIFE 51 



the walls and climbing over the top. Three wise men were 

 riding, single file, up an inclined plane leading to the middle 

 of the altar. The rest of the space was taken up by farms, 

 trees, wild animals, a railroad train on little tracks, hunters, 

 horseback riders, a glass lake in a very realistic bower of 

 branches and moss, with swans, ducks and geese swimming 

 on its surface and giraffes feeding in the underbrush, a wind- 

 mill, etc., etc. All these things were dolls and other toys, 

 cleverly dressed and arranged in the midst of moss, lichens 

 and green cloth, with small tree-trunks, bushes and little 

 toy houses. These Christmas altars were said to be in many 

 houses in Cartago, but this was the only one we saw in our 

 short walk. 



The Fifteenth of September is the Costa Rican "Inde- 

 pendence Day" and was celebrated in Cartago by the school 

 children singing patriotic songs. The military band played 

 in the Plaza, the first number on the program being "Himnos 

 Centro-Americanos, " or the national anthems of Costa 

 Rica, Guatemala and so on. The twelfth of October, being 

 the anniversary of the day on which Cristobal "Colon 

 desembarca en la isla de S. Salvador," as the daily calendar 

 in the hotel dining-room put it, was observed as a holiday, 

 stores and schools being closed. 



The Presidential Election was held in August, 1909, and 

 when we arrived in Costa Rica in May we found the houses 

 and shops everywhere freely placarded with the red signs 

 and posters of Don Rafael Iglesias or the blue signs and post- 

 ers of Don Ricardo Jimenez. The former was the candidate 

 of the Civilista Party and supposed to be favored by the 

 United Fruit Company and almost all the foreigners. The 

 latter was the candidate of the Republicanos and we were 

 told that Don Ricardo was the really popular candidate 

 supported by the large majority of Costa Ricans and particu- 

 larly by the numerous element that disliked all foreigners 



