| Show THE WONDERFUL ciry OF LA PAZ la paz bolivia june 15 1898 there is no city in the world like la paz away back from the pacific ocean across the highest range of mountains on our hemisphere in the leat least known country of south america it lies in a little basin on one of the highest plateaus of the earth I 1 have seen the walls of at peking of jerusalem and of seoul the capital of corea none of them is over fifty feet high lia la paz has wall a thousand feet high and upon one side aide of it towers the famed amed f snow capped peak of lU one of at the three highest of the andes which kisses the morning and evening suns at an altitude alfil tude of more than four miles above the sea man main made the walls of other cities cilles god made the walls of paz the great bolivian plateau which stretches away to the north and south almost as level as the waters of lake Titi caca abruptly drove drops fut att la paz so as to form farm here a basin which by actual measurements to is labout about 1000 feet deep in this basin the city Is built and the green precipitous slopes form its walls except on one side where the andes ragged and torn rise in rugged grandeur in all the colors of oc the colorado canyon coming to lia la paz on the stage from lake Titi caca you ride for forty five miles across a plain by villages of mud huts hute through little farms ot of barley quinoa and potatoes potta on one side of you is the mountain wall of the great range the highest of the andes and you gallop on and on over a seemingly bendles plain the team beam la Is one of eight mules changed every three hours if you sit with the driver as I 1 did you grow tired at last and look in vada through the dear clear air for the city it is nowhere in sight at alt last on the brink of a precipice the mules axe are pulled back on their haunches the stage stops and there thene then e below you lies la paz it is so far down that you mm can make out only the outlines You see allain covered with terra cotta rooted roofed houses house jumbled together along narrow streets stets here and there is a chuch at 0 one ne end I 1 is S t the b e big white building which forms forma the penitentiary tent iary lary and just under you the walled inclosure made of whito pigeon holes in which the dead TA la ltee are stowed away at so 90 much rent per year until their descendants forget to pay and the holes are wanted for the generations era erat ions lions to come the stage wims about a road that curves in and out in loops and figures in getting down to the city you see aee parallel roads far below you and at last having lert left the heights gallop over the bobble pavement of la paz the town you now find and to be one of hills bills and valleys its ite streets wo 90 up and down dow and the altitude to is such that you can walk but a very veory few steps without stopping to brathe the sights of la paz form a perpetual masquerade of bright colors and curious scenes the very houses look as though they were wem intended for the stage rather or than real life the roofs of terre terra cotta tiles look so clean to in the clear air that you can count every piece olf of which they are made the walls of the houses are painted in the most delicate tints of pink sky blue lavender yellow creams and green they are of one and two stories so be open to the street that you can see much that goes on within the colors on the streets are even brighter than those of the houses there are in the city at least five indians to every white and these dress in the brightest reds reda yellows blues and greens that aniline dyes combined with the indian taste for the gaudy can make the especially pec lally ally bright garment is the poncho or blanket with a hole in the center for the neck which every indian man 11 and boy wears these are usually colored in stripes and are worn almost constantly day and night every indian has hac also a bright colored knit cap with knit ear flaps hanging down on each side of his face and he sometimes has in addition a black felt hat he wears pantaloons which make one think of the days when our girls padded their hips and panniers pan were in vogue his pantaloons are cut full at the hips and the tops of the pockets stick wide out at each side the legs of the trousers are full and from the knee down at the back they are silt wide apart showing what at first seem to be wide drawers which flop about the ankles investigate them however and you find they are drawers made 0 the dickey shirt order or merely a halt air leg of white cotton sewed fast to thet the inside of the legs of the trousers in order that he may the easier roll vm the latter when in the wet grass or crossing a stream the indian women I 1 wear hats and their dresses are a aa gaudy as the blankets of the men everywhere there are other queer cos COB turnes as we shall see in the marketa further on la paz has about people it if lb the chief commercial city of bolivia but it has not a street car a cab not nor a dray I 1 doubt it if it has a dozen private carriages and as for one and two horse wagons these are unknown la going about town everyone walks ana all of the heavy traffic is carried ona on 1 by mules donkeys llamas or indiana my trunks are carried from ol 01 one ie placy 1 to another on the backs of indians ana I 1 pay each man about eight cents centa trunk the bread carrier of la pa pait is a donkey with skin boxes in ahio the bread is kept swung across alft back the beer wagon is a mule who has a large case of bottles upon of its sides aides and jhb furniture mover whether the thing moved be a tab table leov 0 a piano are indians who carry ta articles upon their backs heads shoulders from one house to the oth othwin A freight is brought into the city oa mules llamas donkeys and andl the fuel of the city is as I 1 have sal saia il ilama a ma m manure nure th this is all comes in JA in ik the backs of llamas in bags coco I 1 brought chiefly on donkeys and P peru vian alan bark and rubber frova from the ho holtti lands lower down come the same wa was I 1 saman saw an odd load on a mule yeste yesterday it was a limp bundle about five and half feet long and perhaps eight inches in diameter thrown over tal MUM mule so BO that the ends bung hun down ais the same distance from the ground each side beside it on another ther nt rode a policeman and a cro crowd d of I 1 than dlan women came walling behind was the dead body or of a woman av roll rol up in a blanket she hild had been art dered a few says days before tor for about ut 1 which she was known to have aaa and the policeman waa wa b bringing t corpse wid and the criminals criminal t to 0 ilja pat the stores of la pax are apo dmn IM some borne carry large stocks of car goods are however chiefly in the hat get germans it ano who here h as aa easm seem to have ha ve monopolized monopoli eed the I 1 all foreign gool the lacot 0 smaller stores axe are in the hands of the chalos or half breeds the offspring ot at the indians and the whites these people do the reea real business of the city most moot of their establishments are little move more than boxes or holes in the walls in a space from six to ten feet square a taJi tamo Ting loring a dressmaking or a business will be carried on there are no windows to these stores the light comes in through the dyjor door and you can look in aad see the employer and his hands bands at their work nearly every is a manufacturer as well many of the establishments are managed by women all of the fruit of the city is sold by them and I 1 doubt if there is a chicha beer saloon in la paz which has not its cholo woman wadman as proprietor etor chicha is you know the beer of the Bol bolivians iviam ians A vilt vast deal of the business of la paz Is done in the markets there is one square in the center of the caty which ds filled with stalls and in which all week long the buying and selling goes on on sundays the streets outside of this for many blocks are taken up with n inar lark feet women and everything under the tae bolivian sun to is bought and sold it is ie sunday that is the chief market day of la paz upon that day the indians deans come from miles around they buy little outside ot that they purchase in the markets and here we shall see all the characters of la paz and its life better than anything else we leave our hotel on the plaza in the washer of the city and walk past the police station down therill the hill to the point where market street crosses our way wt ait right angles the streets are filled WM buyers and sellers and we pick way in and out of three blocks of humanity before we take our tand stand in the center of a living cross of an all the hues of the rainbow made by the market people and their customers jn in front and behind us on our right and on our left the streets are filled with these curious people moving to arid ad fro in waving lines of kaleidoscopic colors such as you will see nowhere gowhe r e else in the world we talk of the or oriental i hues of cairo and calcutta la paz has a dozen different colors to bairos one and the costumes of cal cuttle cutt la would seem tame if mixed with these linese about us reds yellows blues aind greens axe are ever mixing one with alb uha other malting making new combinations every second the most del delicate leate tints very tf the andean sunsets seem to have been robbed to furnish the dresses fa for r ahe be girls there are hundreds kf f them dad in shawls of rose red and kirts of sky blue there are hundreds who wear skirts of sea green and not a afew p W with skirts as red as the dunat its awaking their skirts are propped out ath hoops aps ops and they reach only to th the e ill curve of the calf some of the aitos wear shoes of bright yellow id with h Parla parisian ian heels under the in and with high bagh tops which end in some oases in rose colored stockings wt pt more often the bare skin 0 a rose colored leg there are scores of indian wyome women A in still bri brighter dresses carrying bundles bandies on their backs in striped blankets wa lets of red blue yellow and green aj aad r there are indian men and boys ponchos conchos of the same gorgeous aue there are ladies in black with 71 black uon crepe shawls wound tightly abba their olive skinned faces with fur er mats mate and prayer books in their is they have stopped at the maron their way home from church churuti some e axe are accompanied by the men 01 their r familee dressed in high black junta black ack clorand clothes and black gloves jap biet W it J Is I 1 there ere is the hum of sw on VMS ahe chatter of gossip and awa bea the javate of bargain bargaining bar inc moves mover tn in and put with on S aad though rh there are about you you boar ae scarcely greely r alee a downward most bout aw u ari are bare ua aaa a A large number of the indians wear leather sandals which make hardly a sound as their owners pass over the streets what a lot of babies there are all about us we have to vick pick our way about carefully to keep from treading upon them some lie on the cold streets and paw at the cobbles or play with the merchandise their mothers are selling gelling some are too young to crawl and they are tied up in shawls on the baks of their mothers who go on with their business with apparent disregard of the precious freight on their theft backs there is one now peeping out of that red shawl below us its face is as brown as a berry and its little black eyes blink at us from under its it yellow knit cap the of which stand out like horns on each side ot of its face there is another baby a few months older being dandled candled on the streets by its indian father and on the other side of the street we see two little tots who are taking their meals at their mothers bare breasts most ot of the babies we see are laughing one or two are crying some are quite pretty some are homely and nearly bearb all are dirty and lousy there is one whose head is now undergoing a search at the hands of its mothers who first cracks and then eats the product ot of her chase as she catches them this business is however not confined to the heads of babies it is common to both the indians and the lower class chalos and men women and children unite in the hunt and the feast the rule being that the hunter Is entitled to all the game that he catches no matter upon whose hairy game pre serves he Is pursuing the chase in ii this connection I 1 might relate my adventures as I 1 carried my poor spanish with me from store to store in la paz in search of a fine comb but the subject is too recent and painful and I 1 desist let iet us stop for a moment and make notes upon some of the queer thin things sold all about us the goods are spread upon blankets or they lie ile flat on the cobble stone street the vegetables and grains are divided up into piles there are neither weights nor measures and almost all things are sold by the eye you pay so much for such a number of things or so much a pile the piles are exceedingly small and things are bought in small quantities marketing is done here from day to day I 1 doubt if there is a cellar in la paz and the average cooking stove would hardly be big enough for a dolls play house in america think of carrying home half dozen potatoes from markel this is in me lne size of many of the potato piles entered tor for sale here and such potatoes here is a brown faced indian girl wa who is selling some at our feet I 1 venture you never saw sueh such little potatoes before they are not bigger than marbles and she otters offers us ua eight for 5 cents what qu queer eer pa potatoes ta they are arel I 1 come are of bright violet color some are as pink as the toes of that balky baby who is playing among them and some are as black as the feet of the indian girl thohas who them for sale potatoes do not grow large at the altitude of la paz and though there are also large ones in the margets these come from the warmer lands lower down but the most moat curious of all the pota pola toom sold in la paz are those known aa chiono choon yo these are sold in large quantities and yom yog may see piles of them at every step at aft you go through the market there to te a woman who las has a large laie kotock spread out upon a blanket a ket before her tho the pato aufses are V ft white as ae bilbao bonee they tar are aim as ae hard and when you brak th you flad them em as taweik flony ry are aft 0 ater it is said they can be kept for a year without spoiling the method ot of preparation Is to soak them in water and allow them to freeze night after night until they become soft then the skins axe are rubbed oft off by upon them with the bare feet and the potatoes are thoroughly dried in the open bar aar after drying they axe are as white as snow enow and as hard as stones such potatoes form one of the chief foods of the bolivians ians they are a staple article among the indians of the andean highlands they have to be soaked for three or four days before they can be eaten and axe are often served in the form of a stew I 1 have tasted them several times all the life of the potato seems to me to have been taken out of them and I 1 find them insipid and by no means appetizing apet izing perhaps I 1 would be able to eat them it if I 1 did not so frequently see the dirty bare feet of the indians with which they are sauced in addition to the above potatoes balivia has a number of varieties which we do not have it has bitter potatoes 0 fa dirty yellow color which will grow on the highest plateau it has tubers bumbers which look like potatoes but which have an add acid taste and which must be expose exposed dl to the sun mm before cooking and others which look like dahlia roots and which taste somewhat like turnips I 1 am much mach interested also in the indian corn which I 1 find here there are many species of maize haaze here which we never see in north america bolivia has vaile varieties ties of yarn corn grown by |
