HERE is a great deal of ignorance and wrong conception concerning the little republics of Central America. Mexico has been exploited a great deal in recent years, and the location of Panama is now pretty generally known, but the five republics lying between these two countries have been too much overlooked by recent writers. We are sometimes inclined to appropriate the term republic and the name Americans to ourselves, as though we held a copyright on these words. And yet here at our very doors are five nations, each of whom lays great stress on the term republic as applied to itself and proudly calls its citizens Americanos.

The ideas of many concerning the Cen

tral American republics are drawn from the play-life of popular novels and the comic-opera stage. It is true that there is some foundation for their portrayal of life along the Caribbean Sea, and that there are many things approaching the burlesque to our eyes. When our boat stopped at the last Mexican port, San Benito, on the Pacific Coast, the news was brought on board that a former president of Guatemala with twenty-five followers armed to the teeth was camped on the border ready to march across the country and raise the banner of revolution. When we landed at Champerico the country was under martial law, and we were obliged to report immediately to the Commandante and give a full account of ourselves. This movement did finally culminate in a slight revolution during the past summer, but its effect on business was slight. The

autograph collector in the form of a barefooted soldier of the comic-opera type, made his appearance about a dozen times before the capital was reached. Then when handful of paper bills are thrust out to you in exchange for a few of Uncle Sam's gold coins at the ratio of twelve or twenty to one with the American Eagle stamped thereon, you feel as reckless in your expenditures as the stage millionaire with his play money.

There is, however, a more serious side to life in these countries, and there are thousands of Guatemaleans, Honduraneans, Costa Ricans, San Salvadoreans and Nicaraguans, who are seriously trying to solve the problem of self-government, and they are improving each year. The spirit of adventure was inherited by them from their Spanish ancestors, and it can only be overcome entirely by education, immigration and the general infusion of saner ideas. A whole country can not be plowed up and resown in a season, as the corn-fields of last year were transformed by the farmers into the waving fields of golden grain this year. It is a long and hard task that is before these struggling Spanish Americans, but they are now on the right road and will win. They deserve our sympathetic consideration rather than ridicule

Guatemala is a country of great natural resources and is the largest and most important of the Central American republics. It has rich mineral deposits. Its soil is extremely fertile and, with a territory little larger than the State of Ohio, its productions are as varied as in the whole of the United States with its vast expanse of territory. The climate varies from the tropical lowlands of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to the cool uplands of the interior where snow occasionally falls. The wealth of Guatemala is and probably always will be in agriculture. The prospective plantation-owner has a wide variety of products to select from, any one of which will yield much larger returns than farming in colder climates. The soil is in places many feet deep and seemingly inexhaustible. When one discovers that three crops of corn can be successfully raised in one year in this tropical land, one has a little idea of the possibilities of agriculture in the tropics.

Slowly but surely Guatemala is raising

itself out of the rut of three centuries of Spanish rule. The adventurers who carried the flag of Spain into the New World were men of great physical endurance, but possessed of little character, and that little dwarfed by their lust for gold. They were soldiers of fortune who came to destroy and not to create. By the aid of thousands of native laborers whom they impressed into service, the capital, Guatemala city, was constructed. Long before New York was more than a secondrate town, this city was noted for its wealth and learning, and was surpassed in importance only by Lima, Peru, and the City of Mexico. It was twice destroyed by volcanic disturbances, after which the capital was removed to the present site, which is in a broad, beautiful valley at an elevation of nearly five thousand feet, surrounded by picturesque mountains, and with the extinct volcanoes of Agua (water) and Fuego (fire) in plain view. Guatemala City has an ideal climate which does not vary more than about twenty degrees during the entire year, and is delightful in winter and in summer. Seventy-five thousand people live here. Spaniards, Indians and Mestizos, with a sprinkling of Germans and Americans, are trying to solve the problem of life and existence under favoring skies.

Twenty-one years ago the awakening came. In that year the railroad was opened from Guatemala City to San Jose on the Pacific, a distance of seventy-five miles. Recently another line has been opened connecting the capital with Champerico, another Pacific port. Even progress must have its siesta here in this land of "wait-a-while." No one improvement would be of such an advantage to this country as a railway from the Gulf to the Pacific. This has long been realized, and it was the pet project of President Barrios. Twelve years ago the Guatemala Northern was completed and opened for traffic from. Puerto Barrios, on the Gulf, a distance of one hundred and twenty-nine miles, and to within seventy miles of Guatemala City. The government then became bankrupt and leased the road. Having no good terminals the road was never a paying proposition, so that the line was allowed to deteriorate.

The difficulties in the operation of rail

roads in the tropics are many, and they were all encountered here. The ties soon decayed and in the rainy season the streams became torrents, which washed away bridges and tracks along the banks. The rolling-stock was likewise neglected. One train a day is now run over this line, which makes connection with the weekly steamer from New Orleans, and it takes two days to cover the one hundred and twenty-nine miles. The passenger does not care to go faster, for in some places there are scarcely two ties to each rail that will hold a spike. The government has now secured the services of Sir William Van Horne, who built the Canadian Pacific and Cuban railways, and men are at work reconstructing the road and building new bridges. They are also at work on the extension to the capital, which will connect the Atlantic and Pacific with iron rails before many months have passed. A branch is also

projected into San Salvador, which will be of great advantage to the United States in securing the trade of that republic.

The completion of this road ought to give the United States a monopoly of the export and import trade of Guatemala. At present shipments have been made by a circuitous and expensive route via San Francisco or Panama, so that freight charges are almost as great as from Europe. With this road completed Guatemala City could be reached in four days or less from New Orleans. For this and other reasons the United States has not been getting its fair and legitimate proportions of the trade of Guatemala and other Central American countries.

The American salesman does not understand the Spanish-American character and does not enter into sympathy with its business methods. These must be studied by the American merchant just as his English and German competitors have

done. The American drummer, accustomed to the strenuous life in his own country, arrives in a town, calls on prospective buyers, and expects to leave on an afternoon train. He has no patience with Señor Don's "to-morrow. As the Spaniard is not very particular whether he buys or not, the American will depart without orders and with a feeling of disgust toward the country and its people. You might just as well try to change the color of the Guatemalean as his habits, and the firm that wishes to secure trade here must study the conditions and meet them.

English and German houses have for many decades controlled trade in SpanishAmerica. They keep their old men on the route as long as possible, for a new man will not do much on his first trip. One English salesman whom I met in Mexico, and with whom I traveled to Guatemala City, was a fair example of the European drummer. He had made this trip every year for many years, was thoroughly conversant with the language, and understood the ways of the people. We both stopped at the Grand Hotel, and I had an opportunity of studying his business methods. For a week he did nothing but make social calls on his customers, take them to the theater and entertain them in a general way. The second week he invited them to his rooms to inspect his stock, which was large and varied. Not until the third week did he take any orders, but those secured were large and repaid for the time taken. The average American commercial traveler could hardly have contented himself during the week's wait necessary to catch the next boat, but this representative of an English house devoted one month to that city and thought nothing of it. The people prefer American goods and, with like credit of nine months or more and the same business methods, the merchants would buy American manufactures in preference to European.

Guatemala is a corruption of an Indian word, which means "the land covered with trees." Many valuable woods are found in the forests. The extent of the forest lands which abound in mahogany, ebony, logwood and other valuable hardwoods, and much of which has never been fully explored, is estimated at a million

and a half of acres. This timber land can be bought cheap, but the great problem is to get the product to market. The streams are not large enough to float the timber to the coast, and under the labor conditions it is a difficult matter to construct the necessary tramways. However, an energetic firm with money and pluck can secure a return more sure and no less remunerative than a good gold mine.

Coffee was introduced into Guatemala from Arabia by the Spanish priests. It was found to be suited to the soil and climate and to-day is the most valuable export of the country. The exports have reached as high as eighty-five millions of pounds in a single year. The grade is choice and brings a high price in the market. Most of it is sent to Europe, as it is a common saying throughout Mexico and Central America that only the poor grades of coffee are sent to the United States. This is rather a slur on the tastes of the American people, but such is our reputation down there.

Coffee trees will grow on land at an elevation of from one to six thousand feet. They begin to bear at four years and a plantation of bearing trees is very valuable. However, they require careful nursing during the first few years and sometimes a bad season will cause great injury to the growing trees. Last year there was an unusually large crop and the profits to the grower were correspondingly gratifying.

An earthquake a few years ago nearly destroyed Quezaltenango, the second largest city, and destroyed many coffee plantations along the Pacific slope.

The

Banana cultivation was the one thing that appealed to me most forcibly. returns are quick, the income regular and the profits large. Great fortunes have been made by banana-growers in Costa Rica and Honduras, and are awaiting the planter here in Guatemala. The Guatemala Northern Railway runs through the heart of the banana country, and there are weekly steamers from Puerto Barrios and Livingston to New Orleans and Mobile.

The government is doing everything possible to encourage the cultivation of the soil. Most of it has never been cleared of the dense tropical growth of trees, vines and underbrush. Title can be purchased for a very small sum per acre if assurance is given that it will be cultivated. The

preparation of the ground is very simple. The trees and underbrush are cut down and left on the ground to decay, which will not take more than a year. The banana plants are set among the piles of underbrush. After nine months or a year the plants will begin to bear. Each stalk will produce one bunch of bananas. The stalk is then cut down and a new one, or several, will spring up from the roots, and will bear in the same length of time. Thus a banana plantation that is carefully looked after will produce a marketable crop each week in the year, so that there is a constant revenue coming in to the

owner.

Sugar-cane can be raised very profitably, as the stalks grow high with many joints and have a greater percentage of saccharine than in most countries where it is cultivated. Furthermore, it does not require replanting so frequently. At present about the only use to which the cane is devoted here is in the manufacture of "white eye," the native brandy.

Rubber grows wild in the forests and has been planted successfully. The government will give one manzana (113.62 acres) of land as a bonus for every two thousand rubber plants set out for cultivation. Cacao planting is now a very profitable undertaking. It is from the cacao bean that chocolate is made. Tobacco, sarsaparilla, hemp, and grapes can be successfully cultivated. The government is now making an effort to foster the cultivation of hemp, cotton and grapes by offering to exempt from taxation for ten years lands devoted to their cultivation.

The great problem with all enterprises in Guatemala is that of labor. Five-sixths of the population are of Indian or mixed blood, and by this class all the labor is done that is done. The Indians will only work spasmodically. Under certain cir-. cumstances the political governors can compel them to work, but this can not exceed fourteen days at one time. Then they can draw their pay and leave. The plantation owners overcome this by ad