Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-11-14

result of poison which he Is sac TO have
administered to his wife with mGtderous
intent.
VIscoUNr PAUL D'ABzAC, the French
consul general at New York, has been
threatened with death by John Gregoire,
an insane ellow-cOuntryman. The police
are looking for the madman.
THE Smell murder case, which was a
topic of absorbing interest for long time,
has again been brought before the pub
lie. This is due ts the fact that Mrs Al
bert J. Smell, daughter-in-law of the dead
millionaire, has announced her intention
of earnestly looking for the assassin or as
sassins.
Gov. HUMPHREY of Kansas, has pardon
ed VIM. Baldwin, of Atchison, convicted
Jan. IL, 1867, of the murder of his sister.
His father died and left fortune to the
widow, son and daughter. Young Bald
win was dissatisfied with his share, and
short time afterward tha sister died from
the effects of chlOroform under peculiar cir
cumstances. The conviction was on pure
ly circumstantial evidence.
Country Life in Chill.
IIarper's Magazine.
Agricultural Chill is a pleasant and in
tCltSlIIIS COullIt J W FloIJ' ilC oICuCi g,
suggesting memories alternately Of Cali
fornia, Switzerland, and northern Italy
is both grand and charming. Nothing
can be seen mere majestic and impressive
tnan the main ridge of the Andes,
with the volcanic peaks white with snow,
while occasionally toward the south some
and lava, as Villa Rica did about the time
that | was at the scenery along the Rio
Bio-Bio, whose sinuous banks the railway
follows between San Rosendo and Concep-
eton. In parts this river, the longest and
broadest in the republic, having a course
of 222 miles, reminds one of the Loire, ex-
cept that it flows continuously between
sloping and often wooded hills. Like the
Loire, it is full Of shifting sand banks,
some of clean yellow sand, others of black
volcanic sand; and these, as the water
varies in depth give to the surface a
MORE of violet and yellowish green. AS
for the rustic population, and the incl
plenty of material for the painter, and
ners. Here indeed is primitive civiliza-
tion, needing no house furniture, no COM
fort, very elementary clothing, and only
the simplest forms Of ceramic ware
What palmer food could be found than
bread, beans, and onion pie? What
more natural drinking vessel than a GALA
bash? What less complex vestment than
the "ponch0?" What shoe more easily
made than bit of cOwhide tied on with
thongs? What more refreshing and
obvious combination of food and drink
than the familiar watermelon, which
i ,,.,E, i
ishment taken by many of the ChiIiaus?
In the stations you see whole trains loaded
with watermelons In the towns water
melons are sold in every shop, and piles of
them are stacked in the streets wherever
there Is an Opeu-alr breakfast stall. On
the steamers that ply between the ports of
Pacific the decks are encumbered with the
inevitable melons, and the water in the
harbors is covered with the floating rines
of empty ones. In no other country have
seen such universal consumption of
watermelons except along the banks of the
Danube, where the peasants are no better
lodged and no better fed than those of
Chill. All this | say not in dispraise of
the Chillan "peones." On the contrary,
am convinced that they are fine fellows
in their way and splendid workers, e;peci-
ally by the piece. No Europeans can sur
pass them III strength and endurance.
Above all, no Europeans could exist in the
same conditions of alimentation and habi-
tation. In Chill the 'peones' live literal
ly like pigs, both in the country and in the
town regardless of hygiene or even the
most ordinary sanitary precautions. The
consequence in that infant mortality is
great; the infants die like flies, and those
who survive are the strongest and the fit
test This rural and urban working popU-
lation is ignorant, though not unintelli-
gent: the ''peGnes" can rarely read or
write, but that a natural talent for imita-
tion, and when once they have been shown
how to do a thing they will 90 on doing it; :;
thus they learn few lessons to manage
agricultural machinery, and when they
have once learned they do not forget As
for morality, it is to be feared that they
have but little. They are not afraid of
death themselves, ard have not much re-
spect for the life of Others and both men
and women alike appear to have inherited
a fair dose of superstition and many queer
beliefs from their Indian ancestors together
with a number of silly remedies. The
women, when they have headache, paste
rounds of paper on their temples, or the
pip of a watermelon. If they feel any
thing the matter with their eyes they will
plaster their cheeks over with leaves. In
deed. you rarely see woman who has not
something stuck on her face All these
defects. all these superstitions, and all this
neglect of the laws of hygiene President
Balmaceda hopes to eradicate by educa-
tion, and therefore, we see, not without
surprise. in rustic townships like Traigu-
en-, fine school-houses being built, at a
cost of 500, 900, before there is yet a single
brick house within the district This
policy of building schools and promoting
education is being actually carried on
throughout Chill. Wherever you go you
see fine school being built, and at no
great distance from it an equally fine new
prison. and the chances are that the cells
Of the latter will be filed sooner than the
class room of the former. However, the
education of the masses has been one of
the great cards Of modern republicanism
in Europe and in the United States, and
it Is therefore not astonishing tc find i'm
itative Chill following in the wake. per
haps a little hastily and little )lindly.
OLD VETERAN GONE.
General David Il. Mckibben Goes to a
Place of Rest