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Show Athens of SOUTH AMEHCk ft I R & L ' d i tzt il : : r ' ftp ' I k 1m r Tf M If Wi i 3mtuU lilt M "M W f( ( r ( i ' 1 1 rc h am i j fl w I fegJii'irf ! 1 ! ill; ' J 2 V; . - Primate Cathedral of Colombia in Bogota. THE name with which Licenci-ado Licenci-ado don Gonzalo Jirainez de Quesada and his warring hosts christened the Andean plateau was Santa Fe. To that nobleman nothing seemed more fitting than to give to the land he had discovered the name of his birthplace that classic Santa Fe founded upon royal command of Ferdinand and Isabella opposite the opulent Granada, to vex the multitude of heretic Mohammedans who aroused the jealousy and resentment of the Spanish by their fiestas and tourneys, the valor of their sons, the Moorish beauty of their women, and the un-equaled un-equaled romance of their arched windows, win-dows, stone lacework, and balconies adorned by expert goldsmiths. And what a thrill the conquistador must have felt, yet what homesickness must have been awakened within him as he gazed upon a plain watched over by two somber hills, so like that of his own land, with the Moorish Granada guarding the Castilian city, writes W. F. Anzola Samper in the Bulletin of the Pan American Union. But the Valley Val-ley of Castles (Valle de los Alcazares), the Teuscaquillo or recreation spot of Zipa de Bacata, its rightful possessor, was renamed by the new lords in mail and gorget. Bacata fled, abandoning his dominion, to die in the heart of the forest, never knowing that after centuries justice should be paid him; that the "very -noble and loyal city" should bear his name, slightly modified, as decreed by the Emperor Charles V in 1540. On December 3, 1548, it was given a coat of arms portraying a black eagle on a gold field, with an open pomegranate in each claw, and bordered by golden branches on a blue field. Old and New Are Mingled. Bogota, the intellectual and cultured cul-tured capital city, molder of thought, home of savants and thinkers, is a metropolis which, while offering to the tourist no startling display of New York or Parisian skyscrapers, boulevards boule-vards or Broadways, claims attention by reason of the gifts with which nature na-ture endowed it. Spring is there eternal eter-nal ; the climate is ideal; the fertility of the soil surrounding is extraordinary. extraor-dinary. Bogota conserves vestiges of her colonial period. Over the portals of rambling old houses which defied the ages are to be seen coats of arms. The century-old churches, venerable relics of the past, guard beneath panels of gold and costly wood collections of masterly paintings; Byzantine cornices of arabesque designs abut the granite pilasters which support arches, and under dais of wrought gold and silver the choir lofts are to be seen; long spiral staircases, massive towers, and belfry spires stand out against the clear sky, just as they did centuries ago. On the other hand, the tendency toward to-ward twentieth century building is irresistible, ir-resistible, and the most up-to-date talent tal-ent is displayed in the erection of luxurious lux-urious homes or public buildings in Bogota today. The national capital situated on the southern side of the Plaza de Bolivar, resembles the Church of the Madeleine in Paris, and is considered one of the best stone edifices in South America. Along the entire western side of the plaza extends buildings uniformly of pure French style, and along the northern north-ern side modern buildings occupied by banks and commercial houses; the eastern side is occupied by the cathedral, cathe-dral, a massive structure, the towers of which rise o0 meters, and some few old houses. In the heart of the plaza there is a small park which attracts notice principally prin-cipally beuiasn of the statue of Boli var the Liberator, which rises upon its marble pedestal in the center of the square, being one of the finest works of the Italian sculptor, Tenerani. From the Plaza de Bolivar the mala thoroughfares extend in every direction, direc-tion, almost all paved with asphalt and kept in excellent condition by the municipality.. Calle Real, the principal business street, and Florian street are the most bustling of the city. The former, for-mer, a wide thoroughfare, merges into Republic avenue (Avenida de la Republican Re-publican flanked by modern buildings and traversed by electric cars. Called the Athens of the South. The Colombian capital has long been the patron of science. The astronomical as-tronomical observatory, National Library, Li-brary, the academies, museums and universities form a group of institutions institu-tions which maintain the right of Bogota Bo-gota to be considered the "Athens of the South," the name with which a European Eu-ropean scholar christened her. The observatory owes its existence to the efforts of the naturalist, Jose Celestino Mutiz. It is octagonal in form, 2,636 meters above sea level ; hence, is one of the highest of the world and possesses a valuable set of instruments for taking observations. The academies were established by devotees of science and art. The Language Lan-guage academy recently took possession posses-sion of a new building. The Museum of Bogota contains objects of beauty and considerable historic worth. A Museum of Natural History founded by the Christian Brotherhood (Her-manos (Her-manos Christianos) possess exhaustive collections. The universities happily own adequate ade-quate buildings. Recently the building build-ing to be used for anatomic lecture halls was completed, equipped much like the corresponding building of the University of Paris. Public instruction instruc-tion is becoming constantly more widely wide-ly diffused and Bogota is the center of secondary schools supported by the government. Cultured and Prosperous. Bogota, by the refinement of its inhabitants in-habitants and the luxury in evidence, might be taken for a European city. Culture Is marked; foreign news is received re-ceived promptly; desirable features of Paris and London are imitated to stimulate stim-ulate progress. Unfortunately, owing to the extreme narrowness of the streets, many of the architectural features fea-tures of the city cannot be appreciated appre-ciated ; nevertheless, upon contemplating contemplat-ing the constant progress of the capital cap-ital and its development, one is forced to the conclusion that Bogota will become be-come an imperial city in the western world, the heart of the plateau which extends 16 leagues from north to south and 8 from east to west. Economically Bogota is on a sound footing, being a commercial and banking bank-ing center of constantly growing importance. im-portance. There are five banks of large capital, the American Mercantile bank (Banco Mercantil Americano) j having been established hist year, and at present the establishment of another an-other is under consideration. Several ! insurance companies contribute to the i success of financial enterprises. Large export houses have founded headquarters headquar-ters there and importation is conducted on rather a large scale. Foreign credit companies in the United States and Europe Eu-rope are added factors in Bogota's development. de-velopment. Industry also is being exploited. ex-ploited. Thread and textile industries compete with foreign establishments in the production of fabrics and cloth. Stock raising is increasing considerably consider-ably on the plain, the strains having been carefully selected from stock brought from England, and the wool market Is olenUfui. i |