When the conscripts come in from the country, rag-tag and bob-tail, in all kinds of costumes, and usually barefooted, they are sent to the garrison, where each receives a uniform made of white drilling from the United States. About every twelfth one bears across the seat of his trousers or between his shoulders the legend, “Best Massachusetts Drillings XXXX Mills.” This rather adds to the beauty of the uniform, and there is quite a strife among the volunteers to secure trousers or blouses so marked. Each is given a straw hat, a cartridge-box, a gun, and a blanket, with which they were marched to the front at the rate of five or six hundred a day, while the streets were lined with tearful women giving parting words to sons, husbands, and sweethearts. The Guatemalatacos, as the inhabitants are called, are said to be the best fighters in Central America, and were inspired with an intense admiration for Barrios, who had never shown anything but a fatherly solicitude for the welfare of the common people. He may have been cruel to his political enemies, and arbitrary in his treatment of aspiring rivals, but to the masses, the poor, he was always generous and kind. Much of his strength came from the fact that he always shared the shelter and food of the common soldier. He never took any camp equipage with him, but slept on the ground, and ate beans and tortillas (corn-cakes), which constitute the ordinary soldier’s rations. Although the hotels are clean, and have better beds and food than are found elsewhere in Spanish America, there is one peculiarity which is decidedly objectionable--the bill of fare is never changed. One gets the same dinner and the same breakfast every day. There is enough and a variety at both tables, but there is always the same amount and the same variety. First, at breakfast, there is always soup; there is an omelette, or eggs cooked as you want them; next comes cold beef or mutton left from the previous day; then beefsteak, usually with onions; then beans and fritters. For dinner, soup is first served; second, rice with curry; next, boiled beef with cabbage; then turkey or chicken; then roast beef, salad, fruit, and cheese in order. All the native food (beef, fowls, fruit, and vegetables) is cheap, but flour and other imported products are very expensive. The hotel-keepers are usually Frenchmen or Germans. You seldom find a native keeping a hotel, but if you do, avoid it. The people of Guatemala have a peculiar way of preparing their coffee for the table. Every week or so a quantity of the berry is ground and roasted, and hot water is poured upon it. The black liquid is allowed to drip through a porous jar, and when cool is bottled up and set upon the table like vinegar or Worcestershire sauce. Pots of hot water or milk, with which the coffee-drinker can dilute the cold, black syrup to such a weakness as he likes, are set before him. This plan has its advantages, but it takes a long time to become accustomed to it.