| Show AN ENGLISH CITY IN AMERICA I rvglr5huicn Predominate in the Principal Cities of Chili I Valparaiso the port of Santiago and the principal port of the republic is quite an English city The Chilians will not be pleased to read that statement suggested a friend at my elbow Can it bo denied I ask Is not the whole aspect oftlio place English Is not the bay full ot English En-glish ships Do you not hear English spoken everywhere as soon as you get ashore Do not the public houses bear the familiar old sign boards of the Royal Oak the Queens Arms the Red Lion All the Worlds Corner Here is the suave English chemist whose speech so precise pre-cise the English bookseller three or four of them with fine hops the English doctors doc-tors by the dozen English grocers who sell bacon and pickles and stylethemselves Italian warebousemen according to the classical tradition of their guild English shopkeepers of all kinds English hotels and of course an English newspaper I What are all those tall and slender girls with blonde hair queer hats loosely fitting diASBpa a rathnr nncraceful alt iuqn ath i I LL m letic wJlk anincomparably fine quality rose and white flesh such as Reynolds Sir Joshuu I should say loved to paint are hey notjunmistakably English girls Up here on the hill do I not spy an English En-glish church All these business blocks house after house are not the firms English En-glish with an intermixture of German If you take away the English firms from Valparaiso what remains True replied my friend It is quite true I will even go further and ask what is left of Chili if you take the foreigners for-eigners away particularly the English and the Germans Good gracious I hope you arc not going to put these fearful ideas into print You alarm me What will you I r plied A stranger visiting Chili for the first time and imagining vaguely that it is some far away and delightful de-lightful Paul and Virginia countryas it truly isa country of great wealth and beauty vast in extent varied in aspect and still full of the energy and chivalry of the couquistadores is surprised to find that the descendants of the conquistadorcs are very few in number relatively to the extent of their territory and the age of their settlement He is struck above all things by the prominence and ubiquityof foreigners in the practical management and organization organiza-tion of the great business enterprises and even of the great private fortunes of the land You who are living here do not I notice the phenomenon so much as one i who has arrived freshly For instance we will suppose you come to Chili by way of the Strait of Magalhaens In Tierra del Fuego you are astonished to find a station of English missionaries who have taught the Indians to be kind to shipwrecked f mariners and not to eat them as they I formerly did i In Punta Arenas the great sheep farming farm-ing enterprises arc in the hands of Englishmen English-men Valdivia is simply a German colony the most flourishing and charming in the republic troubled only by too numerous bands of cattle lifters and brigands who also plague the English French and Swiss colonies in the old Araucanian territory Now we come to the coal coast and the first proprietors we find are the Arauco company limited London also owners of a railway at the hands of whose English managers I received kind hospitality The Lota and Coronel mines belong to Chilians the Cousino family but tho managers are all English The managers of the Cousino agricultural estates are likewise English In Talcahuano and Concepcion all the business on a largo scale is done by English or Germans The railway from Talcahuano to Santiago and Valparaiso was built by English engineers many of the higher em ployes arc English so too are a majority of the engine drivers All the state railways rail-ways be it remembered were paid for almost al-most exclusively with the money obtained from British loans Valparniso is incontestably incon-testably English In the mining districts Englishmenand English capital predominate predom-inate Theodore Child in Harpers Untciij ered Mortar Many persons arc very skilful in applying apply-ing texts of Scripture to the ordinary affair fairs of life hut few could make a more apt application of a text to a disagreeable incident than did i < u old bricklayer named Reuben Smith Beuben was engaged in laying the brick of a chimney in a house whereas it was winterthe mortar pen was placed in one of the lower rooms to keep the mortar from freezing Work was progressing finely and Reubens head was already on a level with the second floor when lie trod I on a loose board near one cud of his staging stag-ing It gave way and Reuben fell to the floor below Fortunately he was unhurt but as his feet touched the floor he lost his balance staggered backward and fell flat in the I pen of sort mortar As he scrambled out smeared from head to foot with the sticky me some one who knew his fondness for Scripture quotations quota-tions called out banteringly Well Uncle Reuben cant you apply some text of Scripture to your present condition Reuben thought au instant and replied Why yes Im like the wall that Ezekiel says was built by the false prophets How was that inquired the other Oh explained Reuben Ezekiel says I it was daubed with untempered mortar I Youths Companion |
