In the museum of the University, in a beautiful room kept as sacred as the Holiest of Holies, is a collection of relics as precious to the people as fragments of the true cross. There are Bolivar’s clothing, his saddle, his spurs, his boots, and books, and every little memento of him that could be gathered up, including the coffin in which his remains were originally buried. There are paintings representing his past achievements on earth and his present glory in heaven, where he is surrounded by cherubim and seraphim covering his head with laurels. The most precious of all the relics is a portrait of Washington, sent to Bolivar in 1828 by George Washington Parke Custis, with this inscription: “This picture of the Liberator of North America is sent by his adopted son to him who acquired equal glory in South America.” When Guzman Blanco turned an old cathedral into a pantheon for the burial of distinguished dead, the remains of Bolivar were for a third time removed, and finally deposited in a beautiful marble tomb. Upon it is a statue of the hero, represented as standing with a military cloak around him--a noble and dignified face. On one side is a statue of “Plenty,” scattering corn from a tray; on the other a representation of “Justice.” The inscription on the monument is: SIMON BOLIVAR. Cineres hic condit; honorat grata et memor patria. 1852. There is another, an equestrian statue to Bolivar, in the centre of the city, surrounded by a park called by his name, upon which fronts “The Yellow House,” as the residence of the President is called, and several of the Federal palaces. The standard coin of the country is called by his name, and is of a value equal to the franc of France. The coins and paper-money bear his portrait as well as his name, and a pathetic attempt is made by the people to show after his death the gratitude they should have paid to the starving exile. Not far from the statue of Bolivar stands a heroic figure in bronze, with no inscription upon its pedestal but the name “Washington.” It was erected to celebrate the centenary of Bolivar’s birth, and its dedication was accompanied by a ceremony which has never been equalled in magnificence on the southern continent--a tribute to the man who “filled one world with his benefits and all worlds with his name.” There are shops and stores, hotels and streets named after Washington, and his memory is reverenced as much as at home. But this people, so instinctively republican, so patriotic and appreciative of freedom, never knew what liberty was until within the last ten years. Since then the priests have been dethroned and the schools have been made free. [Illustration: ON A BACK STREET.]