Show ffl TURBULENT CHILI How the Ruling Classes Deport Themselves SCENES IN A ROTOS HOVEL Ejerjthluj is Kzpenslve Excepting Muscle ana That Is of Very Little Account Any way COCJlCIO ChUe AUK 2Special to THE HERALD The stranger to Ibis remote re-mote corner of creation is apt to imagine that the Chilians are s semibarbarous nation na-tion wretchedly clad if clad at all with little refinement and less education super stlt ious cruel and bloodthirsty When first arrived hero aetonished ny the magnificence mag-nificence of los Kicos the wealthy class who though numerically few yet rule both church and state their splendid casas and numerous schools and places of amusement their costly living and stylish dressing and dazzling display of jewels and their graceful and generous hospitality I be jumps at the conclusion that his pre j vious impressions were absurdly and entirely j en-tirely erroneous But as time goes on and ho learns how the common people who f I make up the bulk of the population live and movo and have their being ho reluctantly comes back to his first r opinion as concerning a large majority or j Chilians There are so many conditions of existence in the land and consequently such a variety of character that one may Bay of these people with equal truth they are both highly civilized aud sunk in barbarism bar-barism profoundly educated and densely ignorant rich as Croesus and poor as Jobs oftmentioned tdrkey that they live in palaces furnished with every modern luxury lux-ury and in mud hovels with nothing but beans and raw clams for daily bread that they are the most warmhearted genial gen-ial hospitable and thoroughly delightful people in the world as well as the most treacherous revengeful and nevertobe I depeadedupon CERTAIN NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS may be clearly traced through all classes of societysuch as the quick sensational and emotional nature which makes the Chilian soldinr a terrible foe the Chilian citizen ready to lay down his life at any moment for a point of honor or the cherished cher-ished institutions of his beloved country tho Chilian lady or gentleman a most generous gen-erous and devoted friend the Chilian lover male or female ardent to an extravagant ex-travagant degree hardly conceivable by an AngloSaxon mind and inclined to jealousy jeal-ousy as sparks fly upward In Chili tho typical Rico rich man young or old dresses every day in figurative figura-tive purple and fine linen For him there is no second best attire in the way of a roughandready morning costume or business busi-ness suit for he to as no need of such being like the lillies in chat he toils not neither does he spin His clothes are always fine dainty and fashionable as an artist tailor can create them his polished hair carefully care-fully parted in the middle or brushed straight up a pompadour his immaculate shirt cuffs with conspicuously jewelled buttons extending toward his knuckles just so far by a hairs breadth his very small sharptoed highheeled shoes reflecting his beauty as in twin mirrors i his monogramembroidered handkerchief delicately scented and in his eyes a handsome hand-some diamond ring and scarfpin are no I less essential than shirt or trousers He has been taught deportment from bis cradle cra-dle tmd mastered that science to Lat L-at an early age As often as he meet you be it a dozen times a day he holds hiss his-s cane delicately in one wellgloved I hand while tipping his faultless tile with the other bows gracefully and low and L shakes you by the hand with never the slightest perceptible venation in the depth of his obeisance or the warmth of the shake unless you happen to be a man and an intimate inti-mate friend in which case HE JIAV EMBRACE AXD KISS YOU If being only a casual acquaintance you call upon htm on an errand of business or pleasure ho will hasten to inform you that everything he possesses is unreservedly yours his house himself his family his servants all are a sit dtsimsicion dc listed at yourdisposal His wite who is generally l beautiful and always well dressed will smile on you benignly through adrift of lace powder with a touch of rouge on either side the nose and assure you in soft voweled Spanish of the pleasure she feels in tnus forming your acquaintance und make you believe it too which is the c nest part or it eiiowiorogners tell us that all this tropical courtesy means little and is only skindeep But who cares to co deeper i It is delightful all the I I same mid quite deep enough to outlast the occasion We who proless to be a cultured people and are inclined to stiffen our necks with Yankee conceit when our ways are compared with those of other nations might learn from the Chilians a good many needed lessons in common politeness polite-ness For example they never enter or leave a coach street car or other publio vehicle without bowing to aU its occupants No lady or gentleman to the manner born over sat down to or arose from a table in I Chili either public or private without an inclination of the head to all present So in I shopping they bow to the merchant or his I salesmen on entering or leaving a store That sort of thing it seems to me is much mOre human between fellow travelers on lifes short journey tnan our dont care for anybody way Says one The great social question ques-tion of the day is whether for a transient acquaintance it is better to meet an Eng ishman who will be bluff and bearish toward you and make you feel like an intruder in-truder while his heart is overflowing with good will toward you or one of those more COUHTLT SOUTHERNERS who flattersyou with politeness until you are perfectly at ease while all the time he is thinking what a bother you arc1 The generality of people prefer the latter without with-out taking trouble to sound its depths Most politeness is pleasant shamming the wide world over When our truest friends bid us goodbye 11 how many of them mean it in the nil breadth of its original God be with you and when they say farewell fare-well hOlY many of them go into the details de-tails of wishing you good meals and clean beds A greeting is not likely to be more honest because less cordial any more than our good byes and farewells are more forcible because abbreviated i and meaningless Heinrick Heine remarks of his countrymen German simplicity still regards rueness as a mark of courage and honesty but a peep into our prisons would suffice to show that there are rude rascals as well as rude cowards It was long ago S decided that it was better for society to be even politely hypocritical than to be honest hon-est and rude I see no reason for distrusting distrust-ing hospitality simply because it bears tho I semblance of hospitality The Chilian adfos sounds like a mothers blessing bless-ing and quo passe ud bien is a whole benediction In the streets however the average Chilian might learn tome good behavior from Germans Englishmen En-glishmen and Yankees Hero gentlemen L consider it a proper tribute to female beauty to stare into a ladys face as long as she remains within the range of vision whether she appears to like it or not and in passing though she be an entire stranger stran-ger to address her some complimentary remark such as Rae sus inanos senorita 1 kiss your hand miss nr Your eyes are like the heavens etc When a group of gentlemen are conversing on tho narrow sidewalk and a lady approaches they sel dom think of making way for hor or at most wIll move nearer to the wall leaving her the curbstone and I have often seen ladies compelled to step down into the gut ter in order to pass around them The excuse ex-cuse for these gentlemen is that they arc cot yet accustomed to TESIALE EMANCIPATION Their real ladies are seldom seen alone on the streets aud Chilian ideas of caste for bid < hem to show much deference toward common people In Chili no place is sacred from tho fumes of tobacco except perhaps the church Gentlemen are al v e smoking whether walking or riding with or without ladles They do it in the parlor the ball room and at the table The priest in the pantheon takes a whiff between be-tween his prayers and The gay bombevos firemen while running with their engines must pause to light tile cigarrito be the emergency ever so great Though in this alleged republic all titles were long since abolished many of the old families would be glad to retain them still keep up the retinue reti-nue and state of nobility A shining example ex-ample of this was the late Countess of Torro who cave the government a yearly um for the privilege of being called a cc ountess a gratification for which she ould well afford to pay being possessed of almost fabulous wealth Her enormous wostoried brick casa was painted u bril i hunt red with white doors and window I casings Her deceased husband ordered in his will that its color should remain unchanged I I un-changed and stipulated that disobedience 011 the part of the widow would forfeit the property To the day of her death the estimable tunable countess sported a Parisian coach and four with four outriders and a pos i ilian The typical middleclass Chilian is very like his more aristocratic neighbor at least 1n outward appearance His nouse may be almost barren of furniture and the wolf may sometimes prowl dangerously near the premises but at all times his manner is precisely like that of los Kicos and his clothes as nearly a copy of theirs as circumstances cir-cumstances will permit But the Chilian 1 Rotothe acknowledged poor mania an entirely different being who never apes gentility having no style to sustain and no ambition to rise above the caste in which ho was norn HE HA3 NO RELATIONS whatever with his richer neighbor except to servo him for pay when ever occasions require and he regards the Rico as a great personage whose dignity he would light for any day The Roto wears a slouch hat always mangy from long usage dirty breeches rolled up from the bottom and a garment of indistinguishable indis-tinguishable hue which he calls a shirt If the weather is warm he perambulates peram-bulates barefooted in cold he clatters around on a pair of clumsy ologs with wooden soles an inch thickthat is if bo can afford them if not ho goes barefooted both winter and summer When chilly ho dons a heavy blanket called a poncho that has a slit in the middle through which he thrusts his head He is not a beauty thick coarse black hair hanging straight from the crown high cheek bones wide mouth and skin the color of an old shoe but ho has dazzling white teeth and small hands and feet that any Gringo might envy He has no yearnings after the unattainable and his few wants are easily supplied He desires no better palace than the oneroom adobe hut with straw roof and dirt floor His furniture consists of a rude bench or two by way of chairs a pine table or perhaps a dry goods box in lieu of it a hide in one corner upon which to sleep another rough box which serves for trunk closet cupboard and the shrine of his patron saint amatecup and a pot of charcoal upon which his wife prepares the beans and garlic Like all ignorant people ho is extremely superstitious believing in charms and amulets as powerful to drive away diseases and that the devil roams about in various guises perpetrating mischief mis-chief upon man and that saints and angels and even the blessed Virgin herself will come in person if importuned to wrestle with his satanic majesty He is slovenly slow aud patient but a man whom it would be wise to avoid when his anger is aroused He knows how to use 8 THE TERRIBLE CURVO L auu wouiu imuts uu iiiuro ui suvurmg your windpipo with than the neck of a chicken His numerous sons and daughters grow up without education and their most hopeful hope-ful outlook upon the future is to servo in the rich mans casa Happy indeed is the young rustic who can become valet or majordomo to a gentleman who will pay him the splendid salary of 6 5 or iS per month food him from the refuse of the family table and clothe him in the cast off purple The highest aim of the Roto maidenexcepting of course the more natural ambition to marry and set up a home of her ownis to beoome a cook with q salary all the from 3 to 10 per month or a ladys maid who falls heir to her mistress draggled finery In this country there is no objection to womans rightsthat is for women of the Roto classso far as the right to labor in any avenue is concerned con-cerned They are not only employed as i street car conductors but they do the street cleaning and gangs of them with short willow brooms sweep the dirt into the ditches lone before sunrise Outside the cities they keep the shops the hotels and the drinking places besides doing all the garden work They occupy the mar kets almost exclusively selling meats as well as vegetables The fobs wife will carry a basket of fruit around all day on her head peddling from door to door or will seat herself samewhere in tho sun and patiently await customers content with the profit of a few pennies between dawn und dark To buy anything of her a lengthy ncgocio is inevitable If she expects ex-pects to get 50 cents for a basket of peaches her first price will bo 2 or 3 Then she will haggle and chatter and plead and remonstrate with you and if you start away will abandon other customers to follow you until she finally splits the last straw of difference and goes back smiling at HER OWN BUSINESS ABILITY If the husband ij a ranclicro the wife or daughter must drive for him the yoke of oxen hitched by the head to a lumbering cart and sell the farm produce or woodcut wood-cut for burning The poor lavcnderas washwomen seem to have the hardest timo of it With dresses pinned high L around the waist they stand allday knee deep in the river pounding the dirt from t other peoples clothes In Chile water is never heated for washing purposes neither is soap extensively used nor fabric destroying de-stroying bleachers and tubs and wash boards are unknown The lavendera with I i a bundle of soiled clothes upon her head I seeks some favorite spot on the banks of a j running stream where is a projecting rock and there standing in water which is al i most icecold during half the year she moistens the garments one at a time and I laying them on a rock pounds the dirt OUt I of them with a club or wooden paddle I never saw whiter linen but it require j three or four days to do n washing every j piece being wet pounded and bleached over I and over again until white as snow I have watched these poor women during the win I ter months when chilly penetrating rains would drench their garments and I shivered shiv-ered in furs and flannelsstanding with bare legs in the cold stream six or seven I hours a day In Santiago and Valparaiso where a river oc public fountain is not at hand and tho people are more learned in the ways of toe wicked world the laven deras wash in shallow wooden trayskneel Ing upon the ground near their own doors and use acids which quickly rot tho clathes In Chili everything is wonderfully expensive expen-sive but muscle and that is of comparatively little value A ladys bonnet bon-net costs from 30 to S100 dress silk from I 8 to 25 the yard and the modeste will charge you from S30 to 30 for makintr it In Santiago I i paid 512 the dozen for linen handkerchiefs small size and ordinary i quality and SIS for a pair of button boots which at home would have cost about 4 UtO lam informed that n pcntlcmans suit of common clothes costs from 860 to 100 a pair of patent leather SHOES FR01I 15 TO S30 and a silk hat not less than S2o Breadstuffs Bread-stuffs are correspondingly high and far beyond 1 tho r ach of the poor Rotos But there 1 is one luxury in which the poorest Chilian woman will indulge whatever else may bo wanting and that is a stiffly starched white petticoat Thoueh her dress may be ragged her feet and head bare she would no more do without it than a Nantucket skipper would dispense with his pipe I have seen them spattering spatter-ing i around in the mud displaying beautifully beauti-fully laundried white skirts trimmed with hand embroidery or crochet lace a quarter of a yard deep adorninsr dirty brown legs that were exposed to view abovo the knee The first essentials of dress for a Roto woman young or old are a voluminous white petticoat a black mauta a cigarette and a box of muskgown shoes and other toggery being mere accessories I FANNIE B WARD |