A number of towns of more or less importance are reached by the railroad. With the exception of Mazatenango, a town of about the size of Retalhuleu, and Patulul, they are all sleepy looking places where the hungry-looking dogs and buzzards are the only creatures that seem to be busy or even looking for something to do. It is a good thing for these places that these scavengers do keep busy, for they are the only health officers in commission, and they have no human assistants. The most of the dogs are not fed in order to encourage them to forage for a living, and the number of thin, cadaverous-looking dogs wandering around and searching for a chance to fill a great aching void in their interior anatomy is truly astonishing and equals Constantinople. Bernal Diaz, the historian of the conquest, says the natives used to raise a certain species of dog that never barked and was very good eating and the flesh of which was sold in the market.
[Illustration: A WATERFALL NEAR ESCUINTLA.]
At Escuintla the Occidental Railway connects with the Guatemala Central, which runs from San Jose, the principal port, to the capital. This city seems destined to be the railway centre of the country for here the Pan American railroad will cross the interoceanic line. At present it is a much less important city than formerly, when it was the headquarters of the dealers in the coffee, indigo, and the cochineal trade. Aniline dyes have taken the place of the old dyes, other towns have shared its importance as a coffee centre and the town is said to be only a ghost of its former self. It is, however, still an ideal, lazy, tropical town where the greater part of the twelve thousand inhabitants take life easy. The narrow, cobbled streets are bordered by dismal-looking adobe huts, and palms line the Avenue of San Luis which were ancient when the oldest inhabitant was a youth.
In the winter time Escuintla is a resort for the inhabitants of the capital who come here for the hot baths and a warmer climate, for the elevation is only about three hundred feet above sea level. In the summer the temperature at midday is decidedly hot and even animals seek the shade. The large-leaved plants fold up until about three o’clock, when the rain begins first with a few large drops. A torrent then follows which ceases as suddenly as it began, when a new life appears, the plants open, and the roses are again fresh and fragrant. The Indian women of Escuintla are quite attractive and will draw the attention of an American as they walk along the street balancing jars of water holding from three to five gallons on their heads. They are well developed and naturally graceful and wear many coral necklaces or bangles of small silver coins. From ten to thirty they are in their prime and at forty they are old women.