Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-27

ana Drought down at the end OF her life as
fresh beef. In the mean time she is fed on
alfalfa and the slops from the kitchen.
Chicken coops are still more common on
populated portions of the town. your neigh
bors' cocks waken yon at daylight with re-
minders of Saint Peter"
Going to the central market, we find it is
as spacious and convenient as any in New
York or any other Northern city. The
squares of Lima are very large and this
market covers whole one, including part
OF the old convent of Conception, which
was forcibly appropriated by the Gov
eminent and the nuns elected in the year
1851, at the imminent risk Of a revolution.
The market-hous proper is bailt around
great open courtyard, with exterior shops
and an inner corridor, and is traversed
by well.paved pathways rada,ing from a
big fountain in the center. This arrange
ment forms series of small courts, and
each is appropriated to especial products.
The principal dealers have stalls, but the
mass OF vendors, who are women of lowest
degree, squat all day upon the pavement at
the edge of the galleries, or on the ground
in the open spaces, with their fruit, or fish,
or vegetables or whatever it may be, heaped
up in Hat baskets, or on mats spread be-
fore them, in small piles called montones.
Each monitor has a fixed price which
never varies, whatever the fuctuation of
the market; but the rise and fall of the
commodity is marked by the size of the
monitor, a little more or less, as the case
may be, for the same amount of money.
As do their confreres in other parts of the
world, they chatter like magpies with one
another and with their customers, perhaps
nursing their babies the while, or per-
forming other less pleasing maternal du-
ties. The children of the market, begot-
ten, born and reared on the spot, begin to
tumble and sprawl about in a very promis-
cuous manner as soon as they have gained
sufficient strength; and in due course of
time, take to the vocation of their parents,
as naturally as ducks to water Many of
these market people spend their lives here
and know no other home, eating and
sleeping on the ground.
There are four daily papers published in
Lima, besides several periodicals devoted
to society matters and general literature.
Most prominent among the latter is finely
called "El Peru Illustrado," owned and
published by Mr.. Peter Bacigalupi, who is
by all odds the most enterprising North
American it has ever been my fortune to
meet. As he is very prominent charac-
ter in Lima, and his career illustrates what
foreign brains and energy may accomplish
among these slow-going Peruvians, went
one day to interview him. So busy q man
as Mr.. Bacigalupi. flying here, there,
everywhere, attending to his dozens of
irons" that are all in the fire at once, it is
no easy matter to find him; or when
found. to pin him down to conversation.
But perseverance accomplished it, and
here is the result:
He was born In New York city in 1855,
and consequently is now 35 years old.
Though he never went to school after the
age of Is, he speaks French, Spanish, Ger
man, Italian and English equally we'll.
When thirteen years old he was employed
by the New York Equitable Life Insurance
Company in some humble capacity, where
he remained six years. Then he drifted to
California and at tine age of % married a
young lady in Oakland. Less than year
later, after a breezy tiff with his mother.
in-law. he left in haste and sailed for South
America. Landing at Callao early in
April. 1878, he had exactly four dollars left
in his pocket. and that was stolen before
night. He found employment immedi-
.ately. and before many months became the
confidential clerk of Mr.. E. D. Adams, a
prominent merchant of Lima. Mr.. Adams
was so accommodating as to die soon after
wards, leaving Mr.. Bscigalupi in charge of
the business, and within year he married
his late employers widow, Peruvian lady
who then had five children. They now
have beautiful home, and the number of
olive branches has increased TO nine
In 1884 the old place of business was de-
stroyed by fire, but nowise disheartened
Mr.. Bacigaiupi set up again in better To-
cation and since then the amount of his
sales has been something phenomenal.
He n0nIa he IT.;
States and comprise the greatest conglom-
Grafton ever collected under one roof For
instance he has large stock of books and
stationery. drugs, soaps, lamps, clocks, sill
verware, jewelry, sewing machines, type
writers, Photographic outfits, agricultural
implements; in short, almost everything
imaginable except dress goods. Sand
WICKED among these are Peruvian curios,
from mummies to ancient pots and idols
Besides his enormous trade as a forwarding
and commission merchant. whose rlmifica-
tions extend, in some shape or other, to al
most every part of South America, 1.-The
United States and Europe, he is himself a
photographer of no mean ability and his
agents are everywhere making those scenic
views that travellers delight to purchase
He has long had the Peruvian agency of
the Domestic sewing machine company
and commenced business the first day by
selling $50 machines to the President of
the Republic, who distributed them among
the poor widows of soldiers who fell during
the last war. Since then he has sold thou
sands of machines. He is also agent for
the Remington typewriter and has sold q
good many of them in Lima. He intro
duced the first telephones into Peru and
they are now in general use. He also
introduced the first amateur Photographic
,fe l., L., L.
Kodak, the Hawkeye; ScovilPs, or almost
any other.
During the late war Mr.. Bacigalupi pur-
chased two vessels, one of American make
called Young America, the other English,
named Union, and fitted them up as
men-of-war. Through their agency and by
the help of the Monitor he managed to
make another fortune in coal and picked
pork. Last year he built an opera house
on the spot where the old theater was
burned. 1t is capable of seating two thou
sand persons, and is one of the neatest,
daintest and most complete little theaters
on the continent. Its builder loves to boast
that he put it up in sixty days, employing
seventy-five workmen, and personally
experimenting the use of every inch of
$50 600 feet of lumber. Mr.. Bacigalupis
main business, however, the others being
mere outgrowths and side issues is that of
printer and photographer. In his estab.
lishment ten Gordon presses, two large
Campo presses, and a photographic press, all
moved by the only gas in Lima, are kept
constantly going. Sixty-five men and boys
are employed in the printing department.,
(six of them being Americans from San
Francisco), and Mr.. Bacigalupi is expert in
every detail of the business from typeset-
ting to lithographing. His Peru Illus
trato" has been greet hit, being the only
periodical of the kind In South America.
1t is thiriy-six page paper something the
size and shape Of Judge, but not at all in
clined to the comic. 1t is profusely and well
illustrated, published every Saturday, and
goes to every part of Peru, even to the
village of Mayo-Bauba, to reach which re-
quires thirty days journey on mule back.
To conclude. in Mr.. Bacigalupi's own
words !" In my Office may be found all the