Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-10-30
A Railway Journey in South America.

A Railway Journey in South America.
1t was an agreeable surprise with which
| beheld the railway train that was wait
ing for us at Llaillai when we steamed in
from Los Andes in comparatively antiquat-
ed cars. 1t was regular American train
with locomotive and rolling stock of the
most approved model, including a fine
saloon car, called here Spooner car, from
the name of the American gentleman, Mr..
John A. Spooner, who has introduced these
blessings into Chill. entered this Spoon
er Car with establishment. What civiliz-
ed country this is, thought to myself
Saloon-ears in Europe are still rare. In
country towns In Europe you do not find
hotels with statuary in the front patio
and swimming baths in the back yard.
Even in big towns in the United States
you will look in vain for IA pretty plaza or
promenade, such as they have at Los Andes,
and, as far as my experience goes, in every
CHILEAN village. And yet here have been
living in the vague belief that Chill is a
semi barbsrous country, inhabited by
rastacoueres with blue-blac boards, who
wear gigantic diamonds and Cypress the
poor Indian. In fact | knew nothing
abou Chill beyond its geographical posi-
ton, and that, too, only approximately.
: But here | was actually In Chill. in a
saloon-car running between Santiago ard
Valparaiso. At the door are brown-faced
newsboys, with a good deal of Indian blood
In their veins, but just as noisy and enter
prising as young men in the same profess
sion in more northern attitudes. ''El
Eerrocarril, La Union, La Epoca tengo!"
they cry. "El Mercurio! Ell Heraldo!"
''Diarios, senor newspapers Buy some
papers to read on the road, sir!'
There is ringing of bells and blow
ing of whistles, and we are off. Half the
passengers are talking English, and the
others are so cosmopolitan and correct in
aspect and manners that am inclined to
wish for little local color and little
more character. One blond Englishman
is reading railway novel, another has a
bundle of illustrated papers from the old
country; third is reading to his friend a
Spanish journal, FL Heraldo which prints
its Geographic news in English. The
ladies in the car are English or American
as well as CHILEAN, and their costume
would not attract attenti N in Broadway
or Regent street, except for its good taste.
| The conductors, with their white kepis
and silk dust coats, are as cosmopolitan
and polite as the passengers. All this, es-
pecially the predominating Anglo-Saxon
element, is rather surprising to the new
conner, who has yet to learn that Valpar-
also is an English town. and who does not
remember that, commercially speaking,
| Chill has for years been mere or less an
| English prosine. At Limache we were TO
get out, our object being to visit the vine
yards known as 10 Urmeneta, situated in
| a charming valley hemmed in with brown
! hills. about twenty miles from Valparaiso.
As the Westinghouse brake grips the
wheels, and the train slows into the sta
| ton. we see bevies of ladies premenading
on the platforms, dressed In the gayest of
summer costumes and the most eoquettish
hats that Paris invented year ago.
Outside the station a score of boys and
girls on horseback inspect the new arrivals;
for in Limache, as in all CHILEAN towns,
whether they be summer resorts or
not, one of the great distractions is to ride
or walk down to the station to see the
trains come in The variety of types
is great. The olive-skinned creole;
the Aaxen-haired Anglo-Saxon; the
back-eyed Gillian maidens, with oval
faces and full puffy cheeks; the blue
eyed English girl, who chatters at one mo-
ment in the familiar tongue, and the next
moment in spanish; the swarms of little
boys and girls, happy families of ten or
fifteen young people, all correctly dressed,
well behaved, ana radiant with health ana
felcity-present a picture of singular ami
nation, and an aspect of complete ciyiliza-
ton which the European traveller contem-
plates at first sight with objectionable but
none the less real astonishment.-Fro
Agricultural Chill, " by Theodore Child,
in Harnnr's Machine for 0ctnher