SALESMAN AND CUSTOMER 251 
America are terrible. Toilet and bathing ac 
commodations are poor, the cooking vile and 
the dishes unpalatable, while the beds are in 
tolerable. Vaults in American cemeteries are 
far preferable as residential quarters in com 
parison with some rooms I have slept in in this 
part of the world, especially in the small towns 
and villages of the interior. Conditions be 
come rapidly worse the farther away one gets 
from the larger cities, and as one penetrates 
out of the way places hammocks and your own 
food supplies are to be recommended. It 
would be almost impossible to describe the 
primitiveness which exists in this part of the' 
Western Continent away from the beaten path. 
Travel facilities are execrable. Trains are 
slow and late and accommodations decidedly 
bad. Steamers are small and stuffy and not 
safe. River boats are provided with few if 
any conveniences. Going up the Magdalena 
River in Colombia from Barranquilla to 
Bogota, a journey of about ten days, the travel 
ler formerly had to provide his own sleeping 
accommodations and this was wise, and it al