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SAMOZA-WASHINGTON-HENRY CLAY.

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much fallen grandeur, such general wreck, what lessons have been taught, and what have been learned!

War is common among all the Central States. The leaders

think little of an engine which conveys death to the mass;

politics are their footballs, and the people the levers, the tools whereby their ends are to be attained. One morn, after a long walk about the suburbs, on reaching a corner, I observed a gibbet before me. I asked a muchacho standing by, what it meant. He told me the famous Samoza, a rebel chief, had been hung there. I took out my knife, and cutting off a piece, put it in my pocket, much to the boy's surprise.

The hotel I lodged in had every comfort-good beds, mattrasses, a good table, and every edible well-cooked, and, to to my surprise, every thing, even to the towels in my room, were white and clean: these luxuries cost two dollars and a half per day. Above the hotel stood the Church of San Francisco. I had been in it frequently; but one day, seated on the steps, and casting my eyes upward, to my great surprise, I marked the bust of General Washington, in a niche over the door. Amazed, I inquired of a man passing, what that bust was called. He replied: "Saint Francis." "Oh, no !" I retorted, "'tis an American, the great General Washington." The poor hombre raised his hat, crossed his hands on his breast, muttered something I supposed to be a prayer, and

then replied: "Ah, señor, he is loved very much by Nicaragua-and Henry Clay, too." Two tributes from a poor Nicaraguan to the memories of great men of my country. I took his arm, walked home with him, and spent several delightful hours in his humble house.

The price of land in and about this city is very moderate, at a short distance from town being only from five to seven dollars per acre. There are many delightful private residences, and the rent of a house, in good order, can be had for from eight to twelve dollars per month; so that on a trifling annuity, a foreigner could live as happily as heart need desire. The business habits of the people are simple; and judging by the ease with which every matter of business is characterized, it would lead to the supposition that they were unaccustomed to trade, yet such is far from the truth. They bargain well; are, in fact, inveterate Jews, whether the amount bargaining for be a dollar's worth or a dime's. The store is one corner of a front room, opening on the street, cooped off, and resembling an old-fashioned corner cupboard. Here are stowed laces, ruffles, calicoes, prints, and other commodities; pins are generally scarce articles. As a general thing, there is much to amuse one among the shopkeepers. A pound of cheese is wanted. The pound cannot be got in a lump-it being the custom to cut it into small square pieces about the size of a sugar-cracker, and in this

LIVING—A NICARAGUA COOK-STOVE.

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way one must take it. One wants to purchase chickens, beans, hides, or any thing else at wholesale. The retail price for chickens is, say, twenty cents per pair. By the quantity it will more than likely be thirty or forty cents, for the simple reason that you want them, and therefore must pay. Beef, good and fat, cannot be purchased at any price; the oxen are worked till they nearly drop, then they are penned up, without regard to fatness, until it suits the butcher to kill. The beef is cut into strips, like coarse shoe-strings, and then dried in the air for use. Whatever of fat is found, is converted into candles.

This beef with corn-cake, sugar and cheese, a sprinkle of onions and a heavy dash of garlic from the larder, is the general dish, although at an American hotel a splendid meal can be had. We give, however, the kitchen arrangements of the inhabitants of Nicaragua. The culinary department is remarkably simple-Adam and Eve might have used the same apparatus; it answers pretty well for fries and stews, but it is to be hoped that some kind of a machine may be introduced or invented by which a broil may also be had. Two round stones, on which a pot is placed, is the stove; fire is kindled underneath, and from this results your meal. In regard to wood, one sees no loads brought into town; a small bundle of short sticks is sold for ten cents, and it is very difficult to procure a large supply at any price. It is generally porous and

soft, and burns with difficulty; and in many cases is a source of great annoyance. A vast amount is taken on board the Lake steamers, and yet but little steam can be generated from it. These boats run probably six to seven miles per hour; while upon our waters, with our wood, the same vessels could easily make from sixteen to seventeen.

CHAPTER IV.

OLD STATUES THE OLD CONVENT-THE PAROCHIAL-THE BODY OF THE VIRGIN -THE PADRE AND THE CALIFORNIAN-A WAGER-THE RESULT-LA MERCEDES-SAN JUAN DE DIOS-THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE-HOTELS AND PRICES OF BOARD THE CUARTEL-THE TROOPS-THE BAND-THE MUSIC-FUNERALS -GRAVE-YARD-BURNING BONES-INSTRUMENTS OF MUSIC-DRESS-PRICES OF CLOTHING-HATS-SHOES-RENTS OF HOUSES-THE GOOD Old rule.

IN and about Granada are some few things worthy of note, to which we recur prior to commencing our journey toward the Pacific. On the corner of one of the streets in the upper portion of the city-the Jalteva-stands an old relic called "The Stone of the Mouth," which projects about two and a half feet above the ground, and is some two feet broad by the same in thickness. It was brought from one of the islands by a sailor, and is a strange old head. The mouth being open, seems to express "Oh! oh!" At one corner of the plaza, stands a statue of black basalt, representing a human figure with jaws

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