188 
GUATEMALA. 
by the Government, much of the system being due to the 
enlightened policy of General Barrios. Provided for spe¬ 
cial instruction, and also supported in the same way, 
are the Technical School (Escuela de Artes y Oficios), well 
provided with laboratories and steam-power; the Agricul¬ 
tural College, with fields near the city for practical work; 
a Business School, with night sessions for clerks; a Law 
School, Medical School (Medicina y Farmacia), Normal 
School, Polytechnic Institute, and School of Design; 
besides many schools supported by private means. 
Benevolent institutions, too, are not wmnting, — among 
them the Asylum for Orphans and Invalids ; the Central 
Hospital, where four hundred patients are cared for daily; 
and the Military Hospital in the suburbs. The Peniten¬ 
tiary seems to be well conducted, and the House of Cor¬ 
rection has extensive workshops, in which good work is 
done. No less than twenty public fountains and washing- 
places adorn and keep the city clean. 
All business is not conducted in the shops, which are 
small, and seldom make much display ; but there are two 
markets, one of which, the Nacional, is very extensive, 
and seems to contain within its bounds merchandise of 
every sort, — in one place pottery, in another fruit; 
saddlery and cloths, confectionery and hardware, bread 
and guns, are close at hand. The prices are high, even 
of the necessaries of life; and the cheapest things were 
pottery and nets, both of Indian manufacture. It was 
not a little amusing to remember that the great retail 
stores of Boston were imitating the variety-shops of this 
uncommercial city, and collecting within their walls all 
kinds of goods, — from shoes to hats, from dinner-sets 
to carpets, from stoves to books. The country variety- 
