The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-11-02

well appointed, and sil the windows open,
French fashion, to the floor of the encom-
passing verandas. Though SC long de-
serted, everything about the premises is
Kept as spotlessly clean as on board a man
of-war, for the old servant who has been
In charge so many years still looks conf
IDENTITY for the return of Don Juan,'' as he
aifectionately calls his former master. The
latter, who always took this man with him
during the days when he lorded it up and
down the road, having been long ago ousted
by some changes of railway management,
has not been near Mollendo for eight years,
nor is be likely to come again. Yet every
thing IS kept UP as it he were momentarily
expected. The flower beds are beautifully
cared for the window polished every day,
and every inch of veranda and uncarpeted
moor scrubbed white as suow. Meanwhile
the carpets have faded. and moths have
rldoled the crimson haugings, and Father
Time has been whitening the hair of the
ancientservitor, but has been
UNABLE TO ABATE HIS DEVOTION
by one iot or little. In fact he has gone
daft On the subject of mis- beloved "Don
juan" and like d male Mariana in the
moated grange, is ''a-weary" because he
cometh not. His ailing wife, who cannot
bear the air of Mollendo, long since went
to live with married daughter in Are
qulpa; but even her death could not tempt
him away for day, for did not the master
leave him in charge! When the govern
ment seized the railroad while ago. and
this house among the otaer property, the
servant refused to surrender the keys, and
would have defended them with his life, if
need be. Another major domo was put in
charge, but he staid on, in spite of re-
peated discharges and lack of salary, until,
his real merit being understood, he has
come to be considered a fixture here
Nights in this deserted casa, with the
watchful lunatic rowing about and the
roar of the restless ocean sounding in
ones ears, are rather gruesome. Ghosts
OF abortive schemes and dead ambitions
seem proving around the premises, lurk-
ing IN the empty rooms and hiding behind
the moth-eaten haugings. On the parlor
walls are pictures of the Meiggs brothers,
once
TIE RAILROAD KINGS OF PERU,
both now dead. OF Henry Meiggs, the
older and more famous brother, everyb body
has heard, for Bret Harte has written
about him, Mark Twain has used him for
text, and for years he was part of the
history OF this country. Less than thirty
years ago he was partner of Ralston the
California banker. and close friend of
Senator Sharon, Flood, Mackey, O'Brien.
'-A-N
honors darsed from the days of 40. Under
some stress of temptation he committed
forgeries in San Francisco, and when the
crime was discovered, one day, he calmly
rowed out into the bay, climbed upon the
deck OF schooner, purchased her, and
sailed away In search of pastures new He
came to Peru, bringing with him much OF
his wealth and all his Irresistible energy.
These he applied to difficulties under
Sfrnfr
oyercame them. He sent back money to
California to reimburse with good interest
those who had suffered by his foreeries,
bat he never returned himself, and finally
died here, one of the richest and most in
fiuential men on the western coast.
Says recent writer on this subject;
Little more than a quarter of a century
ago, an unknown man,
FUGITIVE FROM JUSTICE.
arrived at the port of Callae and appeared
among the Spaniards, much as Nance Ca
pac, at once the Adam and the Christ of the
1ncas, appeared to the Indians two thou
sand years before. As the mysterious Ca
pac taught those early people knowledge
OF the agricultural and mechanical arts.
this unknown man taught their successors
to build railroads, and today he stands as
their ideal of Yankee enterprise and en-
cheering genius. He plunged the govern
ment of Peru into debt that viii never be
paid, but laid the foundation for a system
OF internal development that will one day
bring wealth to the great republic From
Ecuador to Patagonia, through Peru. Bo
livia and Chilli, Meggs' enterprises exten-
ded; and the result is series of railroads
at right angles with the coast, connecting
the interior of the country with the sea
ports, and giving to the mines in the noun
taias, the nitrate beds, estates, and sugar
haclendas, easy outlets to the ocean.
Nearly every port on the western side of
the continent has its little railway. from
20 to $50 miles long. Some of them reach
into the heart of the Andes, aud all are
arteries OF commerce, making profitable
possessions that would be otherwise worth
less"
FROM MoLLENDo TO VALPARAISO
the coast, for more than one thousand
miles, is panorama of desolation. a sue
cession. of bleak and barren cliffs, unre-
lieved by patch Of green On one hand
the mighty Pacific sweeps its great swells
almost around the world, as regular and
constant as the throbbing OF the human
pulse, while on the other rises the in.
penetrable Andes, in wall whose average
height is 5000 feet, some of the snow
topped peaks towering 1900 feet above
the sea. Between the ocean and the noun
talns is strip of drifting sand varying
In width from twenty to fifty miles, which
no river lrrlgates and on which rain never
falls. All the water used by the people is
taken from the ocean; that for mechanical
purposes being used in its natural state. to
the great oetriment Of the machinery. and
that Tor food being condensed into steam
and thus purged OF it's salt. There is NOT |
a well nor spring in all that distance, and
drinking water is an article of merchan
disc, ike milk or meat, costing Consumers
about seven cents per gallon.
NoTHwARD FROM MoLLENpo,
away up to Pisco, one is constantly within
sight OF the coast, and some times huggino
1t closely. The country still preserves its
desert aspect, with the single iuterrnntion
OF small but productive valley called
Canete; while the mountains of the west,
ern cordillera ill the eastern horizon. and
occasionally the snowy peaks of the great
central chain are visible. At Pisco a |
stream OF the same name comes rushing
down to the sea through valley literallv
purple with grapes. Off this valley lie the
high and rocky islands al Chincha, famous
Tor their guano deposits, which, for many
years were source of great wealth tn |
Peru. "
Beyond Pisco the bare and silent heights
again trend down to the ocean-heights
That can hardly be called mountains. as |
they are only the broken ridges of a lofty
desert plateau, undermined by the sea and
by ceaseless winds One or two
small rivers succeed in piercing this ele.
waited desert, but their beds are mere
canons, with no land on either side and no
intervals of soil fit for cultivation. The
few towns and villages stand back at the
foot of the cordilleras, from sixty to one
hundred miles inland, where streams. fed
by the Andean SHOWS, emerge from the |
mountains in perennial volume 10 be
speedily
DRUNK UP BY THE THIRSTY SANDS.
1t should be understood that while the