University of South Carolina Libraries
J: I % Hm** J’lorcme Dailn £imco. LOVELY CARACAS. I j — WL* 1 IIIB M « Published Eetry Day Etcpt Sunday. Terms of Hnbscriptiou, 10 ceiits per week; 81 for three months, in H <1- vance; paper delivereR promptly. r>ates for Advertising furnish<-<t on np plication at the office of The Times, 194 and Hlt> W. Kv,.ns Sr. * H. L. DAUB, H. A. BliUXSON, Manager. Editor. VRNEZURLA’S CAPITAIi AND SOME OK ITS ATTRACTIONS. ► Homes of t!ie Inhabitants—An Im pressive Capitol—A Famous Corteo Region — Statues of Wuhli* IiiKton and Rolivar. I’lcased Africans. Cnpt. Benker, a Belgian explorer Id Africa, and an official of the Congo .Free Stale, undcratands the negro char- (iteter very well, and has hit upon a ■pleasant and efTittive means of influ K-nelng the natives. He caused to lit imported from Europe a good and loud hand-organ, and played It licforo tht blacks. He even allowed some of the most trusty of tho blaeks themselves to turn the crank. The natives were wild with delight.’ They gathered from fur and near to near the new machine. They regarded it ns something supernatural, hut not to be dreaded or feared—as something to be venerated Instead. To change barbarous habits, Cnpt. Becker has encouraged the celebration «•; Christian marriages among the mn lives; and ns they were somewhat averse to this civilized procedure, he announced that the hand-organ should be played at every Christian marriage, us a compliment to the bride and groom. As soon as this announcement was made, the bridal couples began to ar rive at the station In considerable numbers. Scarcely a day passed with out a wedding. Before long all the native men of marriageable age were lawfully married, and by this means were brought to some extent within the range of civilizing influences. Indeed, the marriages Increased to such an extent that ('apt. Becker began to suspect that some of his couples were being married the second time. This was the case; and precautions had to be taken to prevent this sort of tri fling with a sacred ceremony. The hand-organ Is used for certain other important ceremonies; hut tht» Captain takes care that It Is not brought out so often ns to penult of the negroes growing too familiar with it. If this were pennltted it would lose Its charm and extraordinary Influence. There Is one air In particular with which the blacks are especially delight ed. It Is an air from the opera of “La Travlata,” by Verdi. They listen to this us if their senses were enthralled and their souls uplifted. They seem to show in this a genuine musical sense, for the music of “La Travlata” Is of the purest and most beautiful sort. On nil ordinary occasions, this cher ished tune is “skipped” by tho astute operator of the hand-organ, and re served for the special gratification of the people at the most solemn cere monies. > It Is not Improbable that this Instru- jment, of a kind deemed tedious and objectionable lb civilized countries, pay exert a most beneficent influence barbarous Africa. Laugh and Grow Well. ! Tn n singular treatise on laughter, thej writer gives an Instance that la of itself laughable enough. A patient being very low with fever, nnd the physician In attendance being at a loss as to how he should produce a reaction, had ordered a dose of rhu barb; but after the medicine had been, prepared, fearing Its debilitating ef fects, the order was countermanded. Not long thereafter, a pet monkey be-, longing to the patient that had been la; the room all the while, seeing the gob let In which the nurse had prepared the rejected medicine still standing on the table, slipped slyly up, took It In his bauds, and put It to his lips. Tho Urst tasto was probably novel, and he made a comical grimace, hut he 1 •disliked to give It up. Another sip nnd he got the sweet of the syrup. His grotesque visage brightened. He cast a furtive glance around, and then sat quietly ddwn, with the goblet grasped firmly; nnd pretty soon he had placed it to his lips, and drank to the dregs. Perhaps there had been half a wine- glassful of syrup of manna—not more- while the rhubarb had all settled. But be had found It. a ml before he had fully realized the change of taste he had 6wallowed nearly the- whole of the nauseous dose. The patient was spellbound. Never In his life had he seen anything so gro tesquely and ridiculously human! The visage of the disgusted monkey was a study. It was a whole volume of utter abom ination and chagrin. He ground his teeth, and actually stamped his foot, as he had seen h!s master do when iu .wrath. Anon the climax came. He stood up, his eyes flashed, he grasped the goblet by Its slender stock with all his might, shut his teeth, and then, with a spite ful, vengeful snap, he hurled it with mad fury uuon the floor, and seemed entirely satisfied as ho saw the thou sand glittering pieces flying altout. Never before had the patient seen anything to equal It. Tho whole scene, and all the circumstances—everything about It—appeared to him so supreme ly ami comically ridiculous, that lie burst into a lit of laughter that lasted until his nurse came in to see what was ,the matter. And when he tried to tell jior he laughed again, more heartily, 'if possible, than l»cfore—laughed until he sank back exhausted, and In a pro fuse perspiration. ! The nurse anxiously sponged nnd rwlped his skin: he perspired and laugh- led agalu until he slept. When he awoke •the reaction had come, the fever had ibecn broken, and he w'as on the sure iroad to convalescence. G ’V ABACAS, for throo hnndrod r years the capital of Venezuela, presents itself to view with en chanting dramatic eflect, writes Almont Barnes iu the Washing- | ton Star. One goes by rail or other ; road up from the edge of the sea at | La Guayra, winding among tho corves and lifts of the mountains nntil he is five thousand feet above that city, be yond whiuh the Caribbean looks like u mill pond, and its fleets like “painted . ahipsou a painted ocean,” but five or | six miles away. The peak of Naiguita and La Hilla Mountains tower above Metraelles three thousand feet. But he winds a!oug through the di vide, amid shrubbery and forests of tropica; Amonoa was manifestly wise. No style of dwellings can be more comfortable and healthy outside a snowy zone. High and commodious rooms built around a largo open cen tral court or patio secure privacy, shade, open air and light, with room for plants and flowers, where women and children are at homo out of doors. Caracas is full of such homes, usually neatly plain outside, but elegant and inviting within. They are eminently social homes, suited to the inhab itants. The capitol is a massive building of stone am! stucco, the legislative part being one grand story, the part for offices of two, and ail the building, inclosing a large open square, of equal height. The style of architecture is Grecian. From the impressive front entrance, or from an immense salon to its left, which contains portraits iu oil of all tho most distinguished citizens of the country, mostly by native artists, you may look oat upon a statue of Washington, while still farther to the let*, in the beautiful plaza fronting tho Casa Amarilla (yel low house) of the President, on one M i i .A ' 13 .MJ i t I if llii THE UNIVERSITY OF CARACAS. perfect growth and loveliness, and a bewddoriug profusion of wild flowers, in view of a plantation, protected on one side by a sheer declivity of 1500 feet, and with flocks of swift parrots nnd more brilliant birds above his head, and all at once at his feet, a thousand feet below, lies Caracas, spread out in a basin of which all sides are apparently mountains to the south, hazy, golden, far-away, as in dreams, but hold and don nant||where you are passing and along to the nine- mile distant coast. What a city that is for a now world—a mostyo of white TUB CiPITOIi. walls and red roofs, with patches of trees in the plazas, palms beyond the city edges, and outlined against tho clearest of skies the spires and towers of public buildings and chr,rohes, and then again, beyond the .jity, coflee grows on the mountain side and emerald green crops of alfa( i fa and cane upon the plain—the city antique as tho crusades, its setting u( v and fresh as the youngest babe of ti| te. Santiago de Leou do Caracas (St. James of the Liou of Caracas) has its last name worthily from on Indian h^of. It is a city of roma|ytio history. Chile tho buccaneers swept the South ern Bias it never had a carriage road to it from the coast, yet it a as cap- side, and public offices of large pro portions on another, you may see the splendid equestrian statue of Bolivar. Tho 5th of July is celebrated in Venezuela officially in each city with orations in the legislative or municipal chambers, processions headed by the chief officials and foreign representa tives, to the churches, ending with a mass and fireworks. The writer can never forget one such celebration, in which the orator, as is usual, lauded Washington and Bolivar as the great liberators, and in which, side by side with General Carabano, he aided in officially representing the two Be- pub ics. We of the older Bepublic do not sufficiently appreciate how tha best people of the new ones love the liberties they have and the ancient difficulties they have to combat in sustaining them. On the western edge|JofJ the city of Caracas is a round hill of considerable extent, upon whicb is located the dis tributing reservoir of the city water works, aud a fine public garden, adorned with flowers and shrubbery along open and shaded walks, center ing at a heroic statue of Guzman Blanco, the self-styled aud to some ex tent real “illustre Americano” and “regenerador” of his country. He certainly gave it a vigorous forward impulse, and took his pay as he went along. From the hill, which is reached by beautiful carriage ways and walks, one may study at leisure nearly the whola city spread below, tho greater extent of the plain, and the surround ing mountain masses. The view is one of mingled loveliness and grandeur, aud when the bells from the numerous churches ring out their chimes and the music comes back in softened echoes, repeated from the mountains, until the air is saturated with softest and almost saddest melody, tho un reality of it all becomes intense. And ther, beneath it all, sleeps the earth quake and the possible rain. This thought returns and makes paradise imperfect. Caracas has street car lice - lot iu ! S0,000 people; railways reaching in- i land, and to its eeaport at La Guaira and its bathing resort at Macuto; electric light and telephone service, GBXZBAI. BOI.1VAll's STATUK. and the telegraph, of coarse. Its pub lic aud National schools, including tho l niversity of Caracas, are of well known excellence. It hasa large pub lic library, aud its book stores and current publications are well patron ized. Its people are highly cultivat ed, intelligent, active, honorable, hos pitable and have a geniux and destiny of their own. .* Caracas is flanked and backed by a famous coffee and cacao region, and as these products are tho principal ones ot the country’s so called agriculture, the city becomes the only point of convergence for them before they are shot down the seaward side of tho mountain, through La Guaira, into the export steamers. Caracas cacao is second only to that of Ecuador in the foreign market, though the Mexican is perhaps as good ; aud “La Gnaira” coffee was famous before it became simply false Mocha and Java. In 1877 coffee was so cheap in sll markets—four cents and less per pound in La Guaira—that large numbers of plantations were destroyed and reset with cacao trees. But since the use of coffee now increases faster than the production, coffee raising has become profitable beyond most products, and V'enezuela is gaining greatly in pros perity, and Caracas planters in easily earned wealth, many citizens having country plantations, and taking life more without care than the old cotton planters. The enchanting Venezuelan capital would be, with the sanitary care of this capital city, one of the healthiest cities of the world. At present it is one of the safest of South Americau cities, seldom bciug troubled even with yellow fever, and then in mild form. Latterly more care has been given to sanitation, with obvious ben efit. But usually it is a safe as well as a delightful city to visit, where “Eng lish is spoke” as well as Spanish, aud an American rnciv chance to meet sev eral of his countrywomen married and happy there, aiqong them Mrs. San tana, a daughter of Josh Billings, who, with her family, sometimes 'makes a visit “home.” A Great dilucse Beauty. Hero is a curious and quite authen tic portrait of one of tho most cele brated actresses in China. In Pekin eat, l) after achieving the inAspendenco of Venezuela, Colombia, Rcu&aor, Bo livia end Peru, and dying in exile and poverty, there his bones are gathered n the Pantheon, and bis bronze statue adornestha principal plaza. Above aud extending down into the newer city are the ruins of the old one, de stroyed in 1812 in an earth^uake of a few moments* duration, with twelve thousand or mrre of its people. The earthquake delayed independence, as the people were taught that thus deity canifested His displeasure. The importation of the Spanish method of domestic architecture into tured and sacked by Sir Francis Toward the capitol is the splendid Drake. Thsn, m 1811, cm the 5th of I church of Santa Ana, and the face of July, the revolutionary s*embly there ; its pictured Virgin is as the face of the passed its declaration o* Independence ! wife of Guzman Blanco. Nearer is of Spain. the new theater, the finest in South There Bolivar was beg i. liberated America. Far to the front is the his slaves, was President Dictator amt Masonic Temple, with its twisted and ungraceful columns, and on ground near the foothills of La Silla (the saddle) where the earthquake made havoc, stands the Pantheon, where the bones of heroes of the independence are enshrined. In removals there of the remains of General Paez, once President, and Admiral Brion, com patriots of Bolivar, the writer was privileged to take part aud to heat noble orations in honor of liberty and republicau institutions, worthy of anv laud. If Washington City knew Caracas as Caracas does Washington City, the latter would be always a more interested and willing neighbor. CONSTDEKED A BEATTY IX CHINA. she is considered to be very beautiful. It would eeem that Eastern aud West ern notions as to what constitutes beauty differ even more widely than one would have thought. Another Mammoth Cave. Another mammoth cave has been discovered in Kentucky. James Hoar- ino, E. N. Ingram and John H. Hurst made an exploration of a cave at the limestone quarry near Pineville. They report going into the earth half a mile and finding a small lake some eight een or twenty feet square, of ice water. They brought out with them some stalactites and other peculiar formations. It is at present wet and muddy, aud after leaving the entrance and going back about one hundred feet, one comes to a precipice about twenty-five or thirty feet high, aud down which people must let them selves with a rope or ladder, it is not yet known how far back the cave ex tends, nor if it will become popular as a place of resort.—Atlanta Constitu tion. ^ A Station Indicator. The introduction of advertisements on the walls of the railroad stations in London has made it necessary for the Metropolitan Bailway to introdnoe a station indicator to annonnoe to the passengers the name of the etation which tho train he ia riding in is ap proaching. —— STYLISH APPAREL r' SOME STRIKING FEATURES OF WOMAN’S COSTUME. A Handsome Basque of Blue Elamlne Cloth for Dressy Occasions —The Newest Thing iu '’loves is a Mirror. “f v OBIN’Segg blue etamine cloth I—that matched the skirt made \ the handsome basque depicted (Z~in onr large illustration, the full vest, collar, revers and belt being of lemon colored penu-de-soie. The revers and inside of medici collar an covered with black point-ue-gene lace. n&d r. steel Inoklo trimming. complete the XIIBBOBS IN GLOVES. ‘A mirror in the pajm of a glove is the latest novelty. With its assistance its owner is enabled to be snre that her bonnet is on straight aud also that her curls are in perfect order. She cau likewise ascertain if her bow is at the most becoming angle at the prop er time. All these things and a hundred others, Important from the feminine point of view, she can find out on the street without attracting the attention of passers-by, with the aid of this simple contrivance. The inventor of this device has so arranged the little looking glass in HANDSOME AND DRESSY BASQUE. finished with narrow edging to match. The fronts and lower edges are faced with tho light silk. The mode is a variation of the Louis XVI basque, the rippled revers forming a soft and graceful finish to the jacket fronts. The full blouse vest, gathered at the neck and waist line, is arranged over linings fitted by double bust darts that close in centre front. The vest is sewed to the right front lining and closes with the standing collar at the left shoulder aud under the left jacket frgnt. The wrinkled belt is joined to the lower edge, and closes with the drooping front. The jacket fronts are reversed at the top in largo pointed revere that are creased to fall with graceful rippled effect. Two large fancy pearl buttons decorate each front. The flaring medici collar is finished inside to match revers, meet ing them at the top. The lower out line forms short points before the single darts that are lengthed beyond and slightly out away over the hips. The glove-fitting back is adjusted with the usual seams, each being sprung below the waist to form ripple plaits with points at every seam. Basques in this style are sometimes made of brocade and other fancy silks to con trast widely with the skirt. These are intended for afternoon receptions or other dressy occasions. For ordinary wear the material should match the skirt as here shown, endless variety being possible by the introduction of different vests. tho palm of the glove as not to inter fere with the shutting of the hand. He has likewise taken the precaution of putting it in tho left-hand glove, so that when its owner shakes Lands with a friend it will not be observed. MIRROR IN THE PALM OP A CLOVE. It is not the fair sex alone that will find this ingenious contrivance useful. Men are quite as vain as women, so the latter claim, and will be seen by any observer to look at themselves in every mirror they pass on tho streets. —New York Journal. STYLISH LADIES’ JACKET. The quantity of material forty-four inches wide required to make this basque for a lady iu the medium size is three and one-half yards. BLACK HATS WITH WHITE DRESSES. Black hats with white dresses are considered very effective. These are laden with plumes, five or six being considered a small number for one feat. A smart ribbon bow on one side WIDE RINGS. Bings that cover the finger fiomtho knuckle to the joint above are tho latest designs in tho matter of swell jewelry. Their only disadvantage lies in the fact that the number worn must necessarily be limited by the size of one’s finger. Moderate sized dia monds surrounding some single large stone, or set just above it in a pear shaped group, form the usual setting.