| Show THE OF CHILE copyrighted 1898 by frank franic G carpenter santiago chile sept alth 1898 santiago gant lago is ij the capital of chile it Is almost as big as washington and in many things it compares favorably with it washington is six hours ride from our chief seaport new york santiago Is about six hours by rali rail valparaiso the chief port of chile the way to it is over the coast range of the andes and you go from one city to the other in a chair car like those which axe e on the roads between new york and washington our national capital wes lies in a basin on the banks of the po tomac santiago Is cut in two by the clver marocho and the basin in which it Is built is walled by the snowy andes on to one side and on the others by lower mountains which rise one above the ather ther from grassy plains we have our capitol hill santiago has its santa lucia a mass of rocks which the vol anac elc gods of the past have thrown up to lb all sorts of picturesque shapes these r rocks have a base of about an acre and they athey rise almost precipitously out butof of the of the city to a height at least A three fifths that of the washington monument their top is far above all the buildings and far higher than the flat buildings of new york zanta santa lucia Is perhaps the most moat won y s al darful erful hill of any city of the world it aloes slues like a great fort and on its top V there Is a theater which is as esque as any castle on the rhine the the hill are covered with eng bah ivy tall eucalyptus trees rise in terraces tarr aces out of the rocks from its toot foot 4 to its summit and with its flowers gigantic ferns beautiful grottoes and wonders of rock formation it forms a hanging banging garden as wonderful it if not so defensive as those of babylon resting ander the shadow of the andes andea above santiago nt lago santa lucia has a rant at which you can get your break fast at or give a good dinner and there e of axe cosy nooks and shady walks where s awu may spend hours hardly realizing below bouls you as the liveliest and most city of western south rica y 7 ft you will climb to the capitol dome sv aw can get a fine view of washington att te in on santa lucia that you get your V t outa outlook pok over santiago I 1 stood fekn its peak this morning and took lB Kte S of the scene below me I 1 was wag in f suk midst madat of a vast expanse of square HK teea made of terra cotta tiles out of here and there rose trees and r yi bushes thishel hes of green these ridges were the ats of the houses which are all built L X to in lip spanish anish style about patios or courts T artach artl ch form in most cases the only gar 1 of the people some of the ane dwell 1 togs have many patios and their rooms Ls tie numbered by scores from the fc you see that most of the buildings juch of one and two stories they are t close to the streets and the streets pia OBa one another almost at right an fv p US le the city being divided by the ala beda T this his is the pennsylvania ave s dinue the champs alyssee Elys see the unter T c den linden of santiago it is more atah ban twice as wide as penney pennsylvania vanta avenue in washington and it runs the 1 full length of the city almost east and rf kwest k west ret two rushing streams of moun tain water flow through stone aque ducts along it and between these are brows ifo ws of great poplar trees which tur fur an arbor of thick shade extending y from one end of santiago to the other ifft this arbor are the statues of many et chiles heroes and ut at every few feet its full length there are tone seats filled with alth people who are g atter after their promenade other SU green spots in the plain of terra cattal roofs as viewed from santa lucia are the great parks of cousino and the quinta normal or the agricultural college the hilleo race course and the new avenue which has recently been laid out along the river marocho Ma pocho the marocho itself is one of wonders it is more than feet wide and it runs through the city for a distance of about two miles throughout this length its bed has been paved with stone and its banks are massive stone walls which are now lined with shade trees but let us go down from santa lucia and take a ride through santiago on the top of one of the street cars there is no better way of seeing a city than this and the street car fares here are the cheapest of the whole world the root roof seats cost only 2 cents in silver or about one cent of our money and it is worth more than that to get the smile which the pretty girl who acts as conductor gives us as she puts our money into the right pocket of her white apron we notice that the streets are well paved with wath belgian block they are rather narrow however and the big oxcarts ox carts which form the drays and freight wagons of chile are crowded almost to the walls of the houses as we go whizzing by how big the houses are and how low many of them cover acres and very few are of more than two stories while the majority have not more than osy ong in the best parts of the city the houses have greek fronts they are all of brick plastered smooth with yellow 0 or r white stucco their doors are upheld by columns of stucco and I 1 am sure there are more corinthian columns in santiago today than in athens many of the residences are like italian palaces and homes which have cost a hundred thousand dollars and upward are many I 1 doubt whether there is a capital of its size in the world that spends so much money and you have only to look at the well dressed people on the streets and the fine turnouts which pass our tram as we ride through the alameda to see that santiago is a very rich city the same thing is noticeable in the business streets there are as fine stores here as you will find in an european capital capita 1 and the costliest cost liest of diamonds sparkle in the jewelers windows this is one of the best diamond markets and the costliest cost liest of all kinds of goods are in demand the how dhow windows are well dressed and santiago as we see on our way to the plaza de armes has several great arcades roofed with glass which cut through some of the big business blocks fr from om one side to the other the plaza where the car stops is the center of 0 the chilean capital about it are the chief business streets on one corner is the cathedral on another the postoffice post office and all around are portales or corridors filled with booths and walled at the back with wath fine stores the plaza itself is a beautiful little park containing several fountains palm trees and many tropical plants and flowers it is surrounded by a hexagonal walk or promenade sixty feet wide which is as beautifully laid as any tiled floor of a washington vestibule let us go over there and enter the portales to watch the people buying and selling this is one of the oldest section of santiago and the town you know was more than two centuries of age when washington city was born the portales have stores much like those of the old cities of spain and far different from the more modern shops on the other side of the plaza they are merely caves in the walls and their bhear floors are filled with piles of goods so arranged that it to is easy for the purchasers to handle them some of the merchants have stacked up their best cloths claths in the doorways or on the walks outside there awe are scores of women moving to and fro through these portales pot many are shopping and the desire for a good bargain is quite as keen here as at home the most of the women wear black gowns and their heads are clad in black mantas the younger girls drape their mantas coquettishly around them so that they form a sort of bonnet about their beautiful faces these are the prettiest women I 1 have so far seen in my travels they are tall and slender and many have beautiful forms their complexions completions complex ions are not so dark as those of the ladles ladies I 1 saw in peru and they appear to have dipre style and intelligence than the girls further north but let us take a look at the prices we see that many of the stores have their goods marked and that among the lowest the figures are 1 2 and 3 a yard over there to Is ft a store where the silk hats are marked 25 apiece aud and next door is in a shop where ladles ladies shoes are selling for 10 and 15 a pair these prices however are in chilean money which is worth just about one third as much as ours so that the cost of good goods is about aboud the same as at home all imported articles are higher for instance a lady told me yesterday she paid 30 a pair for the american shoes which she bought in santiago and that imported bonnets cost 50 apiece at the hotel where I 1 stop the price of a good room ts is 7 and upward a day and this includes only two meals books are especially ally dear and a States mans year book which I 1 usually buy for at home costs me here 1050 or more than 1 more of our money I 1 cant get a yellow backed novel in english for less than 2 and about the only things that are especially cheap are the street cars and cabs the cab fares are only 7 cents of our money a trip and the rate for an hour is 35 cents santiago is a city of churches and schools nearly all of the churches are catholic and the priests are so many that you could hardly throw a stone without hitting one of them there are schools here of different kinds from the university ot of santiago which has more than 1000 students atu dents down to the public primary schools which are found all over oer o er the country and which axe are attended by more than it little atle I 1 chileans Chi leans this Is 1 however less law than one fifth of the children of school age so that four out of every five remain at home I 1 visited the ithe national university ver sity it has branches of law and medicine as well as the ordinary collegiate departments no tuition to Is charged and the professors are paid by the s chile is proud of her educational system and she Is doing all she can to extend it she spends millions of dollars upon it every year there awe are now public schools in all ot of the towns and the larger places have liyeos alceo or high schools there are ten ty five of these in the country the national institute or high school of santiago has more than 1000 pupils and chile has an additional private schools and ci colleges with an average attendance of pupils there are two american schools here one for girls and another for boys the girls school I 1 should say the girls college tor for it is as good a college as you will find almost anywhere has been in operation for years and it has a great reputation in chile it is under the direct direction lion of mr I 1 H la petra pe tra and ft has a corps of eleven american girls who act as its teachers it has several hundred students and the daughters of many of the best chilean families are among them this school Is connected with the methodist episcopal church although religious instruction forms no obligatory part of ite ita ault tuition the boys school is under the presbyterian church of the united states Stat tes it lo is called the institutor in alese and it proposes to give chilean boys an am academic and colle collegiate glate education it has handsome buildings and ar rounds and Is fairly well attended santiago also has its normal schools and military schools it has an agricultural college and an experimental farm it has a fish commission and a weather bureau which gives forecasts of the weather just as an our bureau at washington it has the chea cheapest peat telegraph system I 1 have ever met with in any country the telegraph is owned by the government and you can send A ten word message to any part of chile tor for about 7 cents of our money there are now about miles of wire in the country and all of the large cities can be reached by telegraph the postal service is good more than sixty million letters and newspapers are sent through the malls every year ye ar and the mails are sate safe girls are employed as postal cl clerks erkis and when I 1 re register glater talis this leliter for the united states it will be a chilean maiden who will lick the stamps and give me the registry receipt ceist she will only charge me a sum equal to three and one half of our cents i for or donig so and the postage to the united states will be less leas than you will pay our post office to send yo your ur let letters t era to chile I 1 wish I 1 could take you into some of the big houses of santiago and show you how the wealthy chileans Chi leans live every one here is now talking of hard times and I 1 am ibold told that many of the supposedly very wealthy people are mortgaged to the eyes however that may be they spend enormous amounts of money and live like very princes I 1 have been in houses here which were furnished as expensively as some of the palaces ot of europe many of them have their billiard rooms roams and ball rooms they contain fine paintings and statues aes ues and elegant furnishings the curtains in one palace on the alameda cos cost t another house is a reproduction of the alhambra in spain and a third situated in a garden of live five acre has a series of beautiful halls ending in a moorish sli bath room with a marble pool in the center of the floor big enough to form the bath tub afan of an elephant the most of these immense houses are of one or two stories the rooms running ari patios or gardens they have ceilings which are fifteen or more teat high and they are furnished with more regard to striking effect than to bo com comfort fart much of the furniture is plated with gold cold leaf and the general style of the hangings hannings hang ings Is french there are no fireplaces nor stoves nor chimneys with which they could be connected if de sired still santiago has a temperate climate it I t is as cold here just now as aa at atlanta in the winter and I 1 am writing in my room at the hotel with my feet in a fur bag and a poncho over my shoulders the chilean gentlemen keep on their overcoats and the ladies their furs in their parlors and it is not an uncommon thing for men to wear their top coats over their dress suits when at dinner 1 the meals of a rich chilean family are different from urs ours o no one comes dawn stairs for his first firse meal this is served erred in the bed rooms and is usually baton in bed it consists of coffee and rolls without butter or o r an extra spread in the way of jam this meal is called desay uno it is hardly considered a meal ineal but I 1 am charged ten cents a day extra for flor it at my hotel breakfast or almu erzo Is taken baken at 11 or 12 welock it consists of a aup soup some flab fish and some meat with perhaps a pancake at the close this Is the breakfast you also get at the hotels As a rule wine is taken with break last and a small cup of corfee coffee after it at 7 or 8 in the evening comes dinner this is much like the breakfast only much more elaborate there arp al ways wines on the table and there axe are many courses served separately there are soup fish entrees roasts game and salads ending up with dessert the food is rather heavy as aa a rule and the oilcan Is 19 a big eater his country produces excellent food of all kinds and the temptation tempt on is to eat too I 1 much I 1 have never dined more generously ithan ith an in chile and have never visited a country where the hotels were uniformly so good but to return to the butterflies of chile for indeed the lives of many of the rich people here are almost as idle as that of the butterfly I 1 am speaking of course of the wealthy classes they rise at about 8 or later and the hours from the time they get up until breakfast are spent in walking or driving and attending to business after breakfast they take a rest and between 3 and 6 p m they are ready to receive or make calls at 6 every person of note who possesses a carriage goes to the cousino park all are dressed in their best clothes the |
