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Show rffl H1ANT1AGO, Chile.-Chllo Is & O Chilean. It Is also North C American. This mixed cx-iJ. cx-iJ. presslon unfolded on mo 11 II B"dimy. I had looked for Lntln or Spanish America, and found little ot thnt character except the language. Valparaiso, as might be expected of a great seaport, is cosmopolitan. But Santiago, in tho interior, could be Judged rightly to bo characteristic of the country. It Is fully so, n cnpltnl which Is essentially the hiart of the nation, nnd hero moro than anywhere else the Impression has been uiado on me that Chile is Chilean. A confesslou of Ignorance Is duo at the outset. I did not know that the capital was n big, tlno city of 300,000 Inhabitants, a commercial ccntro ns well as the seat of government. It Is both. Tho plan of tho town Is Spanish enough In Its regularity ot parallel and cross streets, plazas, tho broad central avenue of the Alameda, and houses which reproduce the dwellings of old Spain. But nfter puzzling over It for a whllo I discovered what Is lacking. Transplanted Spain is not dominant In tho architecture. It Is Bubducd almost al-most into insignificance. This is particularly par-ticularly so of tho churches, which, moreover, nre less numerous than in other South American cities. They havo not tho Moorish adaptation that Is so pronounced In Lima, and tlicy have little savor of ecclesiastic medievalism. medie-valism. Instead of being picturesque and half ruined, most of them arc practical, prac-tical, modern looking structures. Tho un-Spanlsh element is also seen In Santa Lucln, the crnggy hill which Is Santiago's most precious possession, and which any city may well envy It. I suppose In tho old dnys a thick-walled thick-walled fort may have crowned It, both for Us strnteglc ndvnntnges nnd because be-cause tho early Spaniards could not help placing a fort on a little hill if the church had not got ahead of the soldiers. In tho memory of recent generations Santa Lucia was only a mass of rocks until the Inspiration to transform It Into a mountaln-sldo park was felt, and the conversion into a perpendicular perpendicu-lar hanging garden of drlvcF, terraces, groves, statues, fountains and grottoes was accomplished without art being allowed entirely to deface nature. If Castlllan or Andnluslan traditions had had much lodgment In the Chilean cUaracter the most that would have come ot the splendid situation would have been a park at the foot of Santa Lucia. Tho names in Santiago might make anyone from tho States feel at home, but here he would bo deceived. The Spanish names that correspond to Brown, Jones and Smith aro not predominant, pre-dominant, and this fact might be taken as another evidence, thnt tho Spnnlsh element in the Chilean character Is lacking. This guess would bo fuulty. They aro not from Catnlauln or Andalusia, Anda-lusia, but the patronymics of tho mountain moun-tain provinces and of tho Basque region re-gion are very common. Where the newcomer from the States Is deceived Is In supposing tho many familiar names he sees and hears, which have not a traco of a foreign tongue, must be ot his own people or of his English cousins. Hearing somo of tho names, tho Inquiry nlmost always al-ways is: "l'our father must havo been American, English, Irish or Scotch?" nnd the nnswer is: "No, but I believe my father's grandfather had English ancestry." One or two generations Is not enough to account for tho names. They go a long way back. Whllo In mnny ways a visitor from tho North feels himself at homo here so far south In other .respects he finds that tho land nnd Its customs arc strangers 'to him. There Is no North American rush and push. Trade, Industry, In-dustry, official nnd social lire flow In smooth currents. Tho day does not really begin until after tho midday breakfast, nnd It ends In tlmo for n leisurely preparation prepara-tion for tho evening dinner. Tho stores open late and close early. Tho work of all classes, except tho Inborers, seems to bo compressed Into tho space of five or six hours. If I should have a quarrel with Santiago, Santi-ago, It would bo over tho climate. This Is tho winter season almost midwinter. mid-winter. And it Is cold. Yet tho orange or-ange trees In tho patios of tho dwell ings are yellow with fruit; tho slopes of Santa Lucia, it not of tho rich velvet vel-vet green of tho spring nnd summer, aro still green, nnd tho foltago nlong tho Alameda, while a little brown and thin, is not sere. At most the appenrnnco Is of early autumn. But tho cold Is a damp, penetrating pen-etrating cold Indoors, and not a crisp, invigorating cold outdoors. Few of tho houses havo chimneys, so that open fire-places aro rare. The parnlflno or oil stoves, which nro the only means of heating, aro wofully unsatisfactory. Tho trouble, tho natlvo residents say, Is thnt tho rains aro too moist. Many families get nlong without nrtlllclal heat tho wholo winter through. All tho poor peoplo do. They shiver for four months. Thero Is compensation. Though tho skies aro sombre trlsto (sad) is the Spanish word, November gray In Eng lishthe snow slopes nnd ridges of the Cordilleras of tho Andes nro visible nenrly always through tho haze. At times the sun shines on them. Then It Is Hko tho spring, nnd one It tempted to start out for a brisk hour's walk to greet tho snow, for Santiago has n snowfall only onco In ten yenrs, nnd then It Is n light one. The hour would be a long one, but the summits seem near when tho sun shines. Then have a "political situation" In Chllo most of tho time, ns they tell me. It take tho form of ministerial or cabinet crises. To rend of thoso crises n long distance dis-tance off gives the Impression thnt they are serious interruption of government govern-ment functions. Seen on the ground they are less serious. They are, In fact, nothing more than tho natural outcome of the polltlcnl system, which docs not make the chief executive the head of his party or nssuro him homo-geneous homo-geneous administration of his own during dur-ing his term of olllce. Instend, he has to govern Jointly with tho congress under the parliamentary theory carried to the extreme limit. Polltlcnl changes are frequent, nnd the cabinet has to he shifted to meet them. Henco tho ministerial or cabinet cab-inet changes. A crisis was on when I nrrlvcd. It has since been resolved hi the usual manner, nnd the administration Is proceeding pro-ceeding smoothly. The new congress was elected In March. Its life Is three yenrs, thnt being the term of deputies or representatives. The Bcnntors serve six years nnd the prcsldant Ave. Thero nre ninety-four deputies nnd thirty-two senntors. I had n chance to see tho opening ot the Chilean congress. It Is quite a dignified dig-nified function. Mounted troops from the garrison were drawn up In the Btrect, n detachment of mllltnry cadets llnwl tho cntrnnce to the congress building, nnd the state cnrrlnges, each with four horses, were In waiting. The senators nnd representntlves ns-semhlcd ns-semhlcd In the lnrgo salon where their Joint sessions nre held; tho diplomatic corps with the papal delegntes were seated nt one side, while the diplomatic gallery wns given over to spectntors, among whom were n number ot ladles. Their presenco was snld to bo nn Innovation In-novation ot recent yenrs. The acting president and tho members of the cnb-lnct cnb-lnct were seated on tho raised chair or platform. Commerce and Industry nre not In the most flourishing condition, and thnt Is why the new congress has serious problems before it. Prosperity has waned. In seeking tho causes thero Is difference of opinion. No political group cares to bo held responsible for hnrd times, and none Is nble to fix tho responsibility on Its opponents. Hints of poulnr discontent nre henrd In tho worklngmen's movement, which Is unlike nnythlng heretofore known In Chile, nnd thero nro murmurs of the clnsses nnd tho mnsscs. Tho social question Is a palpitating one. New York Globe. |