The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-10-12
4 PERUVIAN TOWN.
''High Living" in the Line of Al
titude Only.
STRANGE SIGHTS, QUEER PEOPLE.
The Loftiest Cathedral in the World, and How
1t was Reached-A Sacred
Island

PUNo, Peru, August so, 9O.-lSpeciol
correspondence of TEE HERALD. This
easternmost town of Peru is not an attrac-
tive place, lying, as it does, more than
1850 feet above the level of the sea, with
no vegetation in its vicinity, line of bar
rem mountains on one side and storm swept
Lake Titicaca OF the other. Yet there is
fascination about it which inciines the
traveller to linger, however uncomfortable
he may be, and impresses every detail of
the surroundings indelibly upon his mem
DRY, though many more beautiful of the
constantly shifting scenes OF his long
journey are forgotten. II is essentially au
Indian town, fully nine-tenths OF its popu-
lation (about 600 all told) being Aymaras
and Quichuas. The former tribe is most
numerous, but both are well-to-do, after a
comfortless fashion of their own, generally
owning their own houses and having
enough to eat-such as it is. Al AIRY rate
there are no beggers in Puno, though
many Peruvian cities that are apparently
richer, are swarming with them.
Though so little can be raised here
wheat not at all, corn never ripening, and
bitter potatoes growing no bigger than the
end of your thumb-the great lake Is an
exhaustless storehouse, furnishing plenty
of fish and always covered with wild fowl
of many species. BiScatehss (rabbits)
abound in the re;ghboring hills, aad yicu-
mas are sometimes found. \ good many
sheep are raised in the vicinity, but the
Indians eat mutton only after II aAs ueen
frozen ana dried. Peas, beans, peppers
and other staples of Peruvian ii L IA e al
brought up from the cGast, as they cailuut
be cultivated at this chilly aIJituse. They
cannot even be cooked tender ot suen an
elevation until they have first been dried,
like the potatoes, ana reduced TO powder.
Such thing as an egg "hard bciied'' can
not possibly be had here. Flour has fallen
q good deal in price since the railway now
brings it over the mountains, bat 1t Is still
much too dear to be used by The lower
classes. Though
THE NIGHTS ARE ALWAYS COLD,
the thermometer descending from fifteen
to twenty degrees after sunset and some
times even at the height of the season they
miscall ''summer," touching the freezing
point, there is not house in the town
which contains an arrangement for making
fire, beyond the adobe ranges for cooking
purposes. A South American range is
merely mound, or shelf of sun dried mud.
6AlOuuAnB dCIOoS OnG SLUG VI d
with small places followed out at intervals
in which the Puno housewife burns llama
dung, or the twigs of mountain shrub
called tcld.
The houses, with their enormously thick
walls and few windows, have an inner at
mosphere cold and damp as that of vanlt
in the cemetery. When the sun shines
the people wisely stay out of doors; then,
in order to keep warm they go TO bed very
early and rise very late in the morning.
Among the weather. one-tenth of the com.
munity there are many pleasant people,
mainly the families of English and German
merchants and American employees Of the
railway and steamship lines. Most
OF their homes, however UMPIRE
possessing outside, are large anc
commodious, and contain unexpected luxu-
ries. For instance, pianos are universal in
she better houses, though these instru-
ments cost ten times as much here as in the
United States, having to be imported from
the other SIDE of the world and until re
Gently having to be brought up from the
sea-coast on mulebaek. l have been as,
tonished more than once on entering what
appeared to be a poor hovel destitute Of the
commonest comforts, with earth floor
straw roof and wooden shutters in lieu OF
glass windows, to find inside both a piano
and sewing machine!
At this altitude the dry thin air is as
hard on furniture as on human beings
causing wood to crack and curl up as
quickly as it shrivels the skin and wrinkles
IL like dried fig, making girl of twenty
look as old as her grandmother ought to
Bureaus, tables, etc, are bound to split
very sooE; chairs lose their rungs and fall
apart in no time; drawers cease to fit, and
floors and ceiled walls shrink wide apart
leaving uusightly crevices. Billiard balls
have to be kept in oil when not in use, anc
a bar of polished iron may lie out of doors
indefinitely without danger of rusting
The washerwoman does not bother herself
with clothes lines, nor even does she spread
her wet linen out on the grass; she merely
wrings the things and losses them down il
heap, where they speedily dry.
THE PATIos AND COURTYARD
patterns with small black and white stones
brought from Titicaca islands; as. for ex
ample, wide circle of iet-black stone,
surround large, many-rayod central stal
made of snowy-white ones, the outer edge
of the black circle bordered by a runnins
vine, with leaves and flowers made O.
white pebbles set into the black ones TIL,
effect Is as striking as it is uncommon, ant
the work is durable enough to out-lasr
century,
Before the late war with Chill there wa,
famous college in Peru where many EN-
inent Peravians and Bolivians were edu
Gated. 1t is defunct, now that the country
has become so poor. and no public institu
tons are maintained here by the govern.
ment beyond couple OF schools the biz
hospital of San Juan de Dios, and a border
garrison. Considering its smallness, tht
town Is exceptionally rich in spacious pla
zas and there are no fewer than FIVE hand
some fountains-onef for every thousand in