Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-16
In SOUTH AMERICA.
Just How the People Live and Act
Down in That Hot Country.
MEXICO AS SHE WAS AND NOW Is.
What the Portuguese and Spanish Have
Done Further South.
CHILIAN WOMEN THE MOST INDOLENT

of the interest felt in this country in regarC
to everything connected with the sister re-
publics of Mexico and South and Contra
America that a conversational article from
which statistics shall be rigidly excluded
may be opportune There are doubtless
many scores of statstically inclined person!
in Germany and other parts of Europe wht
could give the area of the city OF New Yorl
In square yards or the remaining fraction o.
yard-could, if not upset by Mr.. Porter.
late census, give all vital statistics and a res
ume OF our commerce ana manufactures
yet hardly know what the people look like
and are sublimely unconscious OF the differ.
ence between 8 o'clock tea at Mrs. Van
Netherlands on Fifth avenue and Baxter
street jollification, where the 'growler" is
rushed" and soused pigs feet and tripe
make supper to be long remembered for
Lucullus-like luxury.
OF the Mexico of to-day, with its railways,
its telegraphs, its telephones, its horse cars
and its polyglot hotels, we all know. or il
we do not it is not from want of books, a
food of which have been poured upon US.
What we want is point of comparison, and
the general idea OF life in the capital 8
and 40 years ago-before the conquest
and dismemberment of the country by the
United States and the incessant and bloody
pronunciamentos and revolutions from the
close of our war to the execution of Maxi
millian-may perhaps suggest the probable
trend of future affairs.
THE CITY OF MEXICO IN 1910.
In the first six years OF the "forties' no
other American city could compare in
gayety, or in the bravery and show OF wealth
with the City of Mexico, which was far
more important than ever Paris was to
France, or London to England. 1t was not
only the seat of government, the residence
OF foreign representatives and the largest
city; it was in many senses the only one
| There were commercial places along the
coast and some inland towns that had gone
| to sleep a couple of centuries before and
never yakened. The climate is simply per-
| fection.
A GRAND, GAY, LIVELY PEOPLE
Perfect horsemen, they caracoled throus h
the streets on their lively stations, smiled at
and kissed their hands to the ladies on the
passes, wagered heaps of doubloons upon
their favorite chicken, went from theater,
concert or opera to the ball, and in the hours
before dawn won or threw away a few thous-
ands at monte in the public gambling houses.
Well within the tropics, but on table
| land Z, 800 feet above the sea, it has the
charm and somewhat of the languor of eter-
nal spring. Below lies the 'Terra Cal
lents," from whence at early morn come,
fresh from the plucking, all the luscious
fruits of the sun-smitten plains. Above
and Immediately around rise lofty peaks
whose SUBMITS, clad in everlasting snow.
yield from their gorges ice that might sup
ply world, and to be had on any day in the
year for the cutting. Every owner of a
mine or hacienda, every prominent mer-
chant, indeed, every man of means in the
whole country had his town house and spent
at least halt the year there with his family.
The wealth of these people was enormous.
But few of the families long resident in
the country could boast of pure Castillian
descent on both sides, but in their hands and
in those having at least fair infusion of
Spanish blood lay all the wealth and power,
and both classes together were numerically,
even in the cities, not much larger in pro-
portion than the English and Eurasians of
India. Rather oddly, Iturbide was not,
strictly speaking, of the Spanish race at all.
He was Basque and, like Rosas-the most
bloody tvrant who ever set loot on American
soil, he who SO long ruled over the Argen-
tine Republicans fair-haired, fair-skinned
and blue-eyed.. But Iturbide was as much
an exception as the Corsican Bonaparte.
The ladies were gay, often, even generally,
plenty of vivacity and always ready for a
ball or bull fight, had a languorous charm
that played havoc with the masculine heart.
DOWN IN SOUTH AMERICA.
In South America there are few points
of interest, as Caracas, Bogota and Quito
lie inland high among the mountains along
the northern coast. The Isthmus of Panama
belongs to Colombia, but seems place
apart Para and Maranham have some
commercial importance, but it is not until
we have passed Cape st. Rogue that we come
first to Pernambuco, then Bahia, and at last
to Rio de Janeiro, the only great city of
Brazil.
Had not an immense immigration from
Europe flowed of late years into Brazil and
crowds of mercantile men of ali grades set
tied in her cities the number of those of
purely white blood would be small indeed.
Nor is the miserable Indian, who still roams
at will or lives in his hut, as much savage
as his ancestors were 200 years ago, princi-
pally responsible for the mixture. He has
lett his mark. but the negroes brought to
the country have marvelously increased in
numbers, and their blending with the Portu-
guese, with the Indian and with ali sorts of
shades between the two, has made most re-
markable mixture.
PORTUGUESE AND sPANIARDs.
The Portuguese at home are far less inter-
esting than the Spaniards. Run, as L have
done from Cadiz up to Lisbon and note the
difference. What artist goes to Portugal to
paint her girls? Who ever felt there the
half maddening feeling that the lovely
Spanish maiden gives when, knowing she is
perfectly safe, being always followed by
some old woman and often by her mother
also, she will smile to show a row OF pearls |
between rosebud lips, give you a glance |
from glorious eyes in which there is Just |
hint of far off sun lands will, if you are |
clever in selecting place by some pillar in |
her church. flIrt desperately with eyes, lips |
and fan while telling her beads, and on GO |
ing out touch a rose to those perfect lips and |
let it fall for you? No one.
Thus too, Notwithstanding her theaters |
and operas, her crowded streets and brilliant |
shops, native society in Rio, besides its variety |
in tint, and the creepy feeling ofhaving to take |
cafe noir girl to supper, is said to be dull;
that of the many legations and that among |
the members of the foreign mercantile class
being far more agreeable. The charm of |
Rio, where the dread vomito makes his lair |
and yearly stalks abroad in search OF vic |
tins, lies in the neIghboring mountains
where one may find cool air and health |
laden breezes, for there grim Yellow Jack |
dare never come.
DOWN IN BUENoS AYREs.
As we Journey down the coast we come
again to Spanish lands. Turning the corner
of Uruguay we find ourselves in the vast |
estuary called the Rio la Plata, or as old
time American and English merchants and
sailors have it, the ''Riyer Plate" whose