NICARAGUA AND THE ISTHMIAN ROUTES 



249 



The present population of Nicaragua is estimated at about 

 400,000, or only about eight to the square mile. Of each hun- 

 dred inhabitants there are 50 Indians, 1 negro, 45 of mixed blood, 

 and 4 whites. They are sharply divided into classes, the Cabal- 

 leros, or "gentlemen" and the peons, or laborers, who can be dis- 

 tinguished by their costume as far as they can be seen. This 

 classification is punctiliously observed on all occasions, and is 

 particularly noticeable on railroad trains and steamboats. The 

 upper classes dress very much as we do in summer, that season 

 being perpetual in Nicaragua. Among the lower classes the 

 men's costume usually consists of a straw hat, a short cotton 



PRESIDKNT S PALACE — CHURCH ON LEFT INJURED BY EARTHQUAKE 



shirt, and trousers of darker material. No shoes are worn, but 

 sometimes a pair of light sandals are used as a protection against 

 hot or thorny ground. The dress of the women is even more 

 scant, being minus the hat and sandals, a skirt substituted for the 

 trousers, and the arms and upper part of the bust entirely bare. 

 The country peop\e and the poor of the cities live in thatched 

 huts, with walls rudely constructed of upright poles, or with no 

 walls at all. The better buildings in the cities are of stone, brick, 

 or adobe, stuccoed with cement, and covered with tiles. The} 7 are 

 cool and comfortable and almost fireproof, but sadly lacking in 

 light. The president's palace in Managua has glass windows, 



18 



