190 A GLIMPSE OF RUBBER PLANTING 



With its well-kept streets, its trolley lines, electric lights, fine stores, and 

 alert looking inhabitants, it is more like a modern American city than any- 

 thing else. Although it contains but twenty-four thousand inhabitants, 

 it gives one the impression of a city of double that size ; partly, perhaps, 

 because the buildings are nearly all two stories only, as the frequent 

 earthquakes do not invite the erection of skyscrapers. The single unpleas- 

 ant feature is the open sewage, which is said to invite typhoid. Aside 

 from that, there is practically no disease, the climate being equable, and the 

 people, except on rare occasions when they take too much aguardiente, 

 give the military police little trouble. 



MOUNTAIN ROAD NEAR SAN JOSE. 



Almost from the first of our landing in this country we 

 heard of the magnificent National Theatre that San Jose pos- 

 sessed. The Latin American description of it made it more 

 elegant and on a larger scale than anything in New York 

 or .London. For this reason, the first view of it was a bit 

 of a disappointment. It certainly was beautiful architecturally, and its 

 decorations w r ere most elaborate, but it is a question if it would hold more 

 than a thousand with comfort. Most of the decorative work was done 

 by artists who were brought from Italy, and some six hundred thousand 

 dollars gold was "spent upon the building. In the foyer on the beautiful 

 inlaid floor were some of the most gorgeous rubber mats that I have ever 

 seen, in red, white, and blue, with green leaves, yellow trumpets, golden 



