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Show EL SALVADOR l , - v k iT i r - - r i El Salvador Women Are Industrious and Contented. Prcrvircd bv National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C. WNU Service. EL SALVADOR, whose capital city, San Salvador, Is rising out of the wreckage of the recent re-cent devastating hurricane which swept the Central American republics, repub-lics, Is the only country between Canada and Colombia without an Atlantic as well as a Pacific seaboard. sea-board. Though no larger than the state of New Jersey, El Salvador has been strangely deprived of its rightful right-ful place in at least one respect. As the average layman fails to consider con-sider Ecuador as the chief manufacturing manu-facturing place of "Panama" hats, so he also fails to appreciate El Salvador as the chief producing region re-gion of balsam of "Peru." In colonial days cargoes from the Spanish Pacific seaboard settlements, settle-ments, destined for Europe, were unloaded un-loaded at Panama City and transported trans-ported overland across the Isthmus because of the perilous voyage around Cape Horn. Peru then was the best known of the New world regions re-gions and, in the European mind, Central .American balsam which quickly came Into favor for healing wounds, somehow became confused with Peruvian bark, the source of another newly discovered remedy. The balsam tree, one of the most beautiful of the tropical forest, is cousin to the acacia. It grows rather rath-er isolated from its neighbors, even from its kind, its graceful branches high above the ground. Native to the west coast of Central America, it has been exploited only in Salvador, Salva-dor, where it grows in a limited area of 750 square miles. It has of late years been introduced into Ceylon. Watch the balsam tappers at work. Their method is primitive. Although Al-though the tree holds sap all year round, the tapping takes place only in the dry season. The outer bark is first cut with a blunt instrument, leaving the Inner bark exposed, the flow of sap being stimulated by the application of a burning torch. After several days the sap exudes slowly but steadily. Cloths attached in the wounds, having become impregnated im-pregnated with the balm, are collected, collect-ed, thrown into boiling water, and subjected to heavy pressure. The crude balsam settles to the bottom and the water is then poured off. The balsam, later clarified through evaporation, is packed in metal cases for shipment to Europe and America, where it is used for medicinal medi-cinal purposes and as a basis for perfume. Coffee the Best Product. In the coffee tree, however, with Its creamy flower and ruddy berry, rather than the rare balsam, lies the wealth of most Salvador planters. plant-ers. A Brazilian school teacher in 1S40 brought the coffee tree to El Salvador Salva-dor from his own country. The day he planted that first coffee tree in his garden he laid a corner stone of the republic's national prosperity. pros-perity. The Salvadorian aristocracy Is of Spanish and other European blood, many Britishers, Frenchmen, Belgians, Italians and Germans having married into the old Spanish-colonial Spanish-colonial families;, but the masses are of American stock, with a Spanish Span-ish admixture that stock that is loosely called Indian. Salvador boasts of having very little African blood. Often on the highways one meets a bronzed man or woman with those pronounced features and unique profile typical of the ancient Maya people whose temples, in jungle-clad ruin, are strewn from Honduras to Yucatan. Such place names as Chalatenango, Cuscatlan, Usulutan and their like hark back to the shadowy past. In the evening one sits In the courtyard under a brilliant canopy of stars, listening to alluring Spanish Span-ish songs with guitar accompaniment accompani-ment and sometimes a sernade by the marimba players. The marimba, a musical instrument instru-ment In use among the natives before be-fore the arrival of the Spaniards, Is still popular in southern and northern Central America. In structure struc-ture It resembles an enormous xylophone, xylo-phone, but in tone it is more like the i harp. It Is played by four or eight men, who strike the keys with little lit-tle rubber-tipped hardwood sticks. Charming is the scenery throughout through-out Salvador. Lowland forests alternate al-ternate with highland plateaus; pleasant pasture lauds with rugged valleys. Instead of fences, bordering border-ing the highway are giant cacti and flowering hedges. The scarlet poin-settia poin-settia flares from Its emerald setting. set-ting. The air is laden with the perfume per-fume of jasmine, camellias, and tuberoses, here the favorite flowers. Giant ceiba trees, shading the road, harbor merry crews of chattering parrakeets. Most of the people live in the healthful uplands, the volcanic region. re-gion. San Miguel, one of the highest high-est of these volcanoes, has an altitude alti-tude of 7,000 feet. Nearly the entire en-tire country is suitable for cultivation, cultiva-tion, the soil, consisting mainly of decomposed lava, being exceedingly fertile. This, and the fact that the majority of the people are landholders, land-holders, accounts for the teeming population, the industry and contentment con-tentment to be noted everywhere. Lava Soil Is Fertile. One of the oldest of the products, long the chief export of the country, coun-try, is Indigo. This native plant (jiquilite) supplied the blue dye of the ancient inhabitants. Sugar now ranks as an important export. In the days of the Forty-niners, the greater part of the rum consumed by the California miners came from Salvador. Rice, like sugar, was brought from the Old world ; but cacao, corn and tobacco are indigenous. in-digenous. Turkeys are kept in flocks in the tobacco fields to devour de-vour the worms and insects on the tender leaves of the plants. Corn and beans are the staple articles ar-ticles of diet among the poorer classes. Corn cakes (tortillas), sturdy cousins of our hot cakes, form the plate on which the frijoles are heaped. Coffee is prepared in the form of a strong extract, a teaspoonful or two being added to a cup of hot milk. Among tropical fruits there is the delicious nispero, the fruit of the tree Achras sapota which supplies sup-plies the sap known commercially as chicle, the basis of chewing gum. A picturesque touch of the highways high-ways of Salvador is the archaic oxcart. ox-cart. Like the head-dress of the Andean Highlander, the Salvadorian ox-cart changes with the locality. Those with solid wheels hail from beyond the Lempa river, which flows in from Honduras. Bamboo sides on the cart indicate that the owner own-er lives in the lowland region; cane sides, the sugar district; hide lining, the cattle country. Gold and silver rank high among Salvador's products. Up-to-date methods meth-ods in gold mining were introduced 30 years ago, when an energetic American engineer obtained a property prop-erty of high-grade ore and installed, with British capital, a most complete com-plete equipment. Later, acquiring a large tract of low-grade ore, he agreed to permit government students stu-dents to complete their studies in mining and metallurgy at his properties. prop-erties. Thus Salvador secured without with-out expense, a modern mining school. Capital Is Attractive City. San Salvador, the capital, with 75,000 inhabitants lies Go miles inland in-land and a little over 2,000 feet above the sea. Although founded in lo25, the capital has quite a modern mod-ern air. While one-story structures predominate, there are a number of splendid government and municipal mu-nicipal buildings of reinforced concrete con-crete and several fine parks. The capital's name, San Sanvador was chosen by Alvarado, its pious founder, found-er, in commemoration of his final decisive victory over the Indians of Cuscatlan, on the eve of the festival of San Salvador. The planters spend part of each year in their town houses. To those who picture the life of all Latin American women as secluded and over-chaperoned, It may come as a ! surprise that the Salvadorian women wom-en of the educated class live much as women of the United States do ' i In the capital's two leading social' clubs wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters of members enjoy full privileges with the men. Many of these women have been educated abioad, are accomplished lln-ulsts go in for athletic sports, and'share with the men the responsibility of large country estates The upper classes are most pro-' Pessn-e, a Percentage of the",, hav.ig traveled expensively adopted foreign wavs of iv. Their adaptabilHy, energy, , ."t.sm promise much for the f(1-re f(1-re o C(lt,.y SQ by .Nature, one which could euslW suMWt double the population. |