Many of the Americans scattered down through the tropical countries are not very representative characters. Alienated from all home influences, they set up an alliance with some native woman and abandon themselves to the cheer of the _cantina_, or saloon. Many of these men perhaps would only drink moderately at home, if at all, but in these tropical climes they let down every bar to vice and pander to their baser natures. I will never forget one American railroad man whom I met in Guatemala City one morning. He had just begun his drinking and was very communicative. We were at the station and he looked around and said: “They try to keep a fellow in a perpetual state of intoxication down here. See! there is a _cantina_, and there is another, and another. You go to the Plaza and it is _cantina_ everywhere. I have been trying for two years to save enough money to get back to the States, but they won’t let me. Last month, I earned $800 (about $60 in gold) and I have only got a few dollars left.” Later in the day I saw him at the bull-ring throwing paper dollars at a crowd of boys who followed him about until the police drove them away. Soon he will join the ever-increasing band of American tramps that one finds there. Beggars are numerous in the country, but they are not all natives, nor Indians, and the American can be found among them fully as abject and degraded as any others of that class. [Illustration: A VILLAGE NEAR THE COAST.] There are only a few villages from Gualan to Puerto Barrios and they are not very populous. They looked almost like African towns with their huts made of palm and bamboo. The paths in the villages were all narrow, and grass and weed grown. There were thorns to scratch the bare feet and hooked seeds of plants that cling to the clothes—but this can be duplicated almost anywhere. The building of a hut is a simple proposition, for all the Indian has to do is to go into the forest and cut some bamboo poles and some palm leaves or banana stalks for a roof, and he has all the material necessary. A few poles are set into the ground, establishing the size, and to these, by means of vines, are attached many horizontal reeds or poles. These may be close together or several inches apart, and sometimes mortar or stones are used to fill in the wall. The same style of steep roof is always made. Sometimes the entrance is closed by a hinged door, but a piece of loosely swinging cloth answers the same purpose and does just as well. After an all-day’s journey we at last reached Puerto Barrios. The nearer we approached the coast the denser became the vegetation and the more impenetrable the forests, or jungles, which is really a more appropriate term.