Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-28
RAMBLES In LIMA.
The Senators Now Sit Where Once
Heretics We're Tortured.
CONGRESS MEETS In ST. Marks.
One Of the Novelties of the City is the
Milk Supply Trade.
COWS THRIVE ON THE HOUSE TOPS
rcoRREspoNDENcE OF THE D1srArcH. ,

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DIsPArCH.1
LIMA, PERU, Nov. 23.-The Peruvian
Senate chamber and hall OF Congress is the
old council room of the Inquisition, and in
the very place where the presiding officer
sits, an inoffensive looking little gentleman
with claw-hammer coat and hair parted in
the middle. the stern, black-gowned IDquisi-
tors used to pronounce their awful sentences
upon trembling victims.
To reach the 300-year-old building we
cross the Plaza de Bolivar, in which many
"heretics" (Which name included all who
were at variance with the reigning powers,
temporal as well as spiritually, were burned
to death, and where thousands of merely
suspected men and women have been pub
licly scourged. This plaza contains nota-
BILE statue, one of the two of three the Grill
ian army left to Lima out of the many fine
works of art that once adorned it, represent
ing Simon Bolivar, the liberator, seated on
a plunging stead in an impossible attitude,
something like the equestrian statue of Gen
eral jackson, in the United States capital.
WHERE THE CONGRESS SITS.
The National Congress holds its sessions in
the long, narrow and somewhat dim and
dingy apartment that for three centuries
was the chapel OF st. Marks University,
the very Oldest temple OF learning in the
Western World, which the Liberal" gov
ernment confscated from the church in
1860. Spectators are penned in a very mar
row gallery, high up above the heads of the
representatives., and the latter are ranged
like SO many tolerably well-behaved school
boys, all around three walls of the room, in
two rows of chairs without desks.
Near the center OF the fourth side is placed
a long table; at one end of it sits the presid-
ing officer, and at the other a tall cross is
fixed, upon which the Congressman are re-
quired to swear that they will support the
constitution. Between the crucifx and
"Senor Presidente" are number of clerks
and reporters, and among them few are
scribbling away in shorthand, as indus
triously as do their cousins in Washington.
Whenever formal speech is to be made,
the orator mounts a little platform, which
has sort of pulpit desk upon it,; but ordi-
nary debates are participated In by MEMBER
from their respective chsirs, who seldom
take the trouble to rise while speaking.
FOUNDING OF THE OLD COLLEGE.
The most interesting things about this
place pertain to the tar-away past. One
remembers that this college was founded SO
northern shores. The first steps toward it
were made by the authorities of Lima as
early as 1860, when they dispatched Tray
Tomas de San Martin (who afterwards be-
came the Bishop of Chuquisaca), in COM
pany with Pedro de la Gasca, one OF the
first Governors of Peru, over to Spain to
apply for erection of a clerical temple of
learning in the new country. The Emperor
Charles V. and his wise mother, Juana, not
only granted the desired decree but con-
ceded TO the University, which they ordered
to be established at Lima, all the preroga-
tives enjoyed by that of Salamanca. Pope
Plus V. confirmed its erection by an especial
bull, and the learned DR.. Don Casper de
Meuesis became its first rector.
Still the university, SO nobly begun, was
without suitable building or even a site
for its foundation until the year 1874, when
a piece of ground was purchased for it,
near the parish church of San Marcelo. and
hence the college derived its name ''San
Marcus" The site, however, was found to
be inconveniently distant from the center of
the city; so it was sold, another purchased
near the palace of the Inquisition and the
present building completed about 314 years
ago.
RELICS OF oLDEN TIMES.
It consists of great courtyard sur
queer frescoes are painted, supposed to
represent the arts and sciences. Doors lead
from the cloisters into the various lecture
rooms and into the great hall of the Univer-
sity, where still hang the portraits of the
most learned men of Peru's earlier days.
The first full-fedged SD. D." who was
graduated here was Don Domingo de San
Tomas, Spanish Dominican, who after
ward attained great local celebrity, whose
ugly countenance may still be seen in the
great hall. The first graduate born in Peru
was Don Juan de Balboa, professor of the
Quichua language and canon of the Lima
Cathedral.
The cultivation of literature during the
time of the viceroys, though confined by
Jealous priesthood within the narrowest pos
sible limits, made considerable progress and
was advanced by several men of learning
and ability, sprung from the noblest families
of Spain. Perhaps the most scholarly of all
the vice kings was Senior Don Antonio de
Mendoza, grandson of the Marquis de
Santillana, the renowned poet and warrior
of the Court of John IL, who claimed the
Cid as the founder of his family. But Don
Antonio died in 1851, after a very brief en-
joyment of his power, and before he had
much time to do more than lend his mighty
influence toward the establishment of this
University.
PROGRESS IN FINE ARTS.
Since Peru's independence from Spain
and the general emancipation of the minds
OF her people, poetry, painting and music
have received great attention from the
imaginative but somewhat frivolous youth
of the country. But the truth is that the
modern society of Lima is too dissipated
and artificial to afford very promising soil
for the growth of extraordinary genius in
any direction.
The benefcent institutions of Lima,
though not numerous, are certainly very
creditable. Prominent among them is the
"Sociedad de Benefcencia," which was
established in the year 1926, and has the
general guardianship and supervision of all
the public charities. 1t also has the direc-
ton Of the bull ring, the cock pit and the
lottery, from which popular amusements it
derives a considerable share of its revenue.
Private individuals frequently subscribe to
it generous sums; matrons occasionally get
up a swell 'charity ball" much as the
same thing is managed in the United States
and other parts of the world, and sometimes
the bellies and beaux OF the city givea grand
concert for its benefit, principally with the
music of mandolins and guitars, in which
they excel.
THE FEMALE MILK PEDDLER.
Here comes one of the sights of Lima, a
female milk peddler, who sits astride her
mule, with bare foot and tin can dang
ling on each side of the saddle. These
milk men" in petticoats neither toot horn
nor ring bell as do their northern broth
ers; but riding from house to house, they
stop at the door of each customer and give a
peculiar shrill little scream, which the serv-
ants instantly recognize. The quart meas
ure of this one is gourd inst as it grew