Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-10-30
A Railway Journey in South America.

III WIS dn agreeable surprise with which
beheld the railway train that was wait
ing for Us at LlaiIlai when we steamed In
from Los Andes In comparatively antiQuat-
ed cars. 1t was a 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 TIE American gentleman Mr..
John A. Spooner, who has introduced these
blessings into Chill. | entered this Spoon
er car with establishment. What a civiliz-
ed country this Is, thought to myself
Saloon-cars 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 pretty plaza or
promenade, such as they have at Los Andes,
and, as tar as my experience goes, in every
Chllian village. And yet here have been
living In the vague belief that Chill is a
semi barbsrous country, inhabited by
rastacoueres with blue-black 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 ar d
Valparaiso. At the door are brown-faced
newsboys, with a good deal of Indian blood
in their veins. but just as noisy and enter
prlsing as young men IN the same profess
sion in more northern ATTITUDES. lei
Eerrocarril, La Union, La Epoca tengo!'
they cry. lei Mercurio! Ell Heraldo!'
"Dlarios, senior; newspapers! Buy some
papers to read on the road, sir!'
LII. IL
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 a little
more character. One blond Englishman
is reading railway novel, another has a
bundle OF illustrated papers from the old
country; a 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-
peciaIy the predomlnating Anqo-SaXon
clCultul, 1S ottIhl SUI Di 1olilSS W Vic How
conner, who has yet to learn that VaIpar-
also is an English town, and who does not
remember that commercially speaking,
Chill has for years been mere or less an
| English pro inc. At Limache we were to
get out, our object being to visit the vine
yards known as "Lo 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 coquettish
| hats that Paris invented-a year ago
| Outside the station score Of boys and
| girls on horseback inspect the new arrivals
for in Limache, as in all CHILEAN towns
whether they be summer resorts OF
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 oIive-skinned creole
the haxen-haired AngIo-Saxon; the
black-eyed Gillian maidens, with ova
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 OF
| fifteen young people. all correctly dressed
well behaved. and radiant with health ano
feilclIy-present picture of singular ami
nation and an aspect of complete civiliza
/ ton, which the European traveller contem.
plates at first sight with objectionable but
none the less real astonishment-Fro
agricultural Chilli" by Theodore Child,
in Harper's Magazine for October.