The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-11-03
COUNTRY LIFE IN CHILL.

COUNTRY LIFE IN CHILL.
1t Is Indeed Pleasant and Interestins
Country.
Agricultural Chill is pleasant and inter.
esting country to visit, writes Thsodore
Child. The scenery, suggesting memorie,
alternately of California, Switzerland and
northern Italy, is both grand and charming
Nothing can be seen moro majestic and inn
pressive than the main ridge Of the Andes,
with the volcanic peaks white with snow,
while occasionally toward the south some
small crater shoots up volumes Of smoke
and lava, as Villa Rica did about the time /
was at Traiguen. Nothing can be more
charming than the scenery along the Rio
Bio-Bio, whose sinuous banks the railway
follows between San Rosendo and Con
cepcion. In parts this river, the
longest and broadcast in the republic
having course of 222 miles, reminds
one of the Loire, except that it flows con-
tinuously between sloping and often wooded
hills. Like the Loire, it is full of shining
sand-banks, some of clean yellow sand,
the water varies in depth. give to the sur
face MORE Of violet and yellowish green.
As for the rustic population, and the incl
dents of life along the road, they offer
plenty'of material for the painter and food
for reflection to the student of manners
ing no house furniture, no comfort, very
elementary clothing, and only the simplest
forms of ceramic ware. What plalner
food could be found than bread, beans and
onion pie? What more natural drinking
vessel than calabash r What less complex
yestment ora than a..,, the "p ponc 1S What
of cowhide tied on with thongs? What
more refreshing and obvious combination of
food and drink than the familiar water
melon, which would seem to be the chief
and only nourishment taken by many of
the poorer Chilians? In the stations you
see whole trains loaded with watermelons.
In the towns watermelons are sold in every
shop, and piles of them are stacked in the
streets wherever there is an open air break
fast stall. On the steamers that ply be-
tween the ports of the Pacific the decks
are encountered with the inevitable melons,
and the water in the harbors is covered
with the floating rinds of empty ones. In
no other country have seen such universal
consumption of watermelons except along
the banks of the Danube, where the peas
ants are no better lodged and no better fed
than those Of Chilli. All this say not in
dispraise of the CHILEAN ''peones."'
that they are fine fellows in their way
and splendid workers, especially by the
piece. No Europeans can surpass them in
strength and endurance. Above all, no
Europeans could exist in the same condi-
tons of Authorization and habitation. In
both in the country and in the towns re-
CARELESS of hygiene or even of the most
ordinary sanitary precautions. The conse-
quence is that infant mortality is great; the
infants die like flies and those who survive
are only the strongest and the fittest. This
ignorant, though not unintelligent; the
"peones" can rarely read or write. but they
have a natural talent for imitation, and
when once they have been shown how to do
a thing they will go on doing it. Thus they
learn in a few lessons how to manage
machinery, and when they. have once
ity, it is to be feared they have but
little. They are not afraid of death them
selves, and have not much respect for the
life of others, and both men and women
alike appear to have inherited fair dose
of superstition and many queer beliefs
from their Indian ancestors, together with
when they have a headache. paste rounds
of paper on their temples. or the tip of
watermelon. If they feel anything the
matter with their eyes they will plaster
their cheeks over With. leaves. Indeed. 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 education, and there
fore. we see, not without surprise. 81
rustic townships like Traiguen, fine school
houses being built, at cost of $4,000,
before there is yet a single brick house
within the district. The policy of building
schools and promoting education ia being
actively carried on throughout Chill.
Wherever you 90 you see fine school be-
ing 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 filled
sooner than the classrooms of the former.
However, the education of the masses has
been one of the great cards of modern re-
publicanism in Europe and in the United
States, and it is therefore not astonishing
to find initiative Chilli following in the
wake, perhaps little hastily and a little
blindly.