Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-10-11
PERUVIAN TOWNS.
sHIGH LIVING" IN THE LINE OF ALTI-
tube ONLY.
Strange Sights Among Queer People
The Loftiest Cathedral in the
World.
Especial Correspondence of the REcoRD-UNIoN.
XXXT
PuNo, Peru, August, 1890


PUNo, Peru, August, 1890.
This easternmost town of Peru is not an
attractive place, lying, as it does, more
than u, 800 feet above the level of the sea,
with no vegetation in its vicinity, a line OF
barren mountains on one side and storm
swept Lake Titicaca on the other. Yet
there is fascination about it which in
clines the traveller to Finger, however I'M
comfortable he may be, and impresses
every detail of the surroundings indelibly
upon his memory, though many more
beautiful of the constantly shifting scenes
of his long journey are forgotten. 1t is
essentially an Indian town, fully nine
tenths of its population about 5000 in all
told) being Aymaras and Quichuas. The
former tribe is most numerous but both
are well-to-do, after a comfortless fashion
of their own, generally owning their own
houses and having enough to eat-such as
it is. At any rate there are no beggars in
Puno, though many Peruvian cities that
are apparently richer, are swarming with
them.
Though so little can be raised here
wheat not at all, corn never ripening, and
bitter potatoes growing no bigger than the
end of your thumb-the great lake is an
exhaustless store-house, furnishing plenty
of fish and always covered with wild fowl
of many species. Biscatches (rabbits)
abound in the neighboring hills, and vicu-
mas are sometimes found A good many
sheep are raised in the vicinity, but the
indians eat mutton only after it has been
frozen and dried. Peas, beans, peppers
and other staples of Peruvian life, are all
brought up from the coast, as they cannot
be cultivated at this chilly altitude. They
cannot even be cooked tender at such an
elevation until they have first been dried,
like the potatoes and reduced to powder.
Such thing as an egg "hard boiled" can
not possibly be had here. Flour has fallen
good deal in price since the railway now
brings it over the mountains, but it is still
much too dear to be used by the lower
classes.
Though the nights are always cold, the
thermometer descending from fifteen TO
twenty degrees after sunset, and some.
times, even at the hight of the season they
miscall summer" touching the freezing
point, there is not house in the town
which contains any arrangement for max
ing a fire, beyond the adobe ranges for
cooking purposes. A South American
range is merely mound or shelf of sun
dried mud, extending across one side of a
kitchen, with small places followed out at
intervals, in which the Puno housewife
burns llama dung or the twigs of noun
tain shrub called tola.
The houses, with their enormously thick
walls and few windows, have an inner at
mosphere damp and cold as that of vault
In the cemetery. When the sun shines,
the people wisely stay out of doors; then,
in order to keep warm, they go to bed very
early and arise late in the morning.
Among the Weather one-tenth of the COM
munity there are many pleasant people,
mainly the families of English and Ger
man merchants and American employees of
the railway and steamship lines. Most Of
their homes, however unpreposessing out
side, are large and commodious, and con-
tain unexpected luxuries. For instance,
pianos are universal in the better
houses, though these instruments cost
ten times as much here as in
the United States, having to be i'm
ported from the other side of the world,
and until recently having to be brought up
from the sea-coast on muleback. | have
been astonished more than once on enter
ing what appeared to be poor howell,
destitute of the commonest comforts, with
earth floor, straw roof and wooden shut
tiers in lieu of glass windows, to find in
side both piano and a sewing machine.
At this altitude the dry thin air is as
hard on furniture as on human beings,
causing wood to crack and curl up as
quickly as it shrivels the skin and
wrinkles it like dried fig, making a girl
of twenty look as old as her grand mother
ought to. Bureaus, tables, etc, are bound
to split very soon; chairs lose their rungs
and fall apart in no time drawers cease to
fit, and floors and ceiled walls shrink
wide apart, leaving unsightly crevices.
Billiard balls have to be kept in oil when
not in use, and bar of polished iron may
lie out of doors indefinitely without dam
ger of rusting. The washerwoman does
not bother herself with clotheslines, nor
even does she spread the wet linen out on
the grass she merely wrings the things
and losses them down in heap, where
they speedily dry.
=
,casGS are paved in elaborate patterns with
small black and white stones brought from
Titicaca Islands; as, for example, wide
circle of jet-black stones surrounds large,
many-rayed central star made of snowy
white ones, the outer edge OF the black
circle bordered by a running vine, with
leaves and flowers made of white pebbles
set into the black ones. The effect is as
striking as it is uncommon, and the work
is durable enough to outlast century.
Before the late war with Chile there was
a famous college in Puno, where many
eminent Peruvians and Bolivians were
educated. 1t is defunct, now that the
country has become so poor, and no public
institutions are maint1ined here by the
Government beyond couple of schools
the big hospital of San Juan de Dios, and
border garrison. Considering its small
ness the town is exceptionally rich in
spacious plazas, and there are no fewer
than FIVE handsome fountains-one fol-
every thousand inhabitants. Its cathedral
which is said to be the most elevated build.
ing Of the kind in the world is really g
magnificent structure, with a particularly
handsome front. Begun in the year 1859
it was built entirely by the Indians, at the
command of the priesthood, without a cent
of pay for their labor or materials. II
fronts the main plaza with its stately foun
tain; on one side Of it is the quartz
where ragged soldiers are always lounging
and on the other is the street down which
runs stream crossed by many funny little
adobe bridges, which serves as a dividing
line between the Quichua quarter and thai
OF the Aymaras. Short, coarse grass of 8
peculiar pale-green color covers the plazs
end springs up thickly among the stones O
the cathedral steps and its wide platform
Just outside of the main door Of the church
is a tall wooden cross, bearing about it al
the implements and adiuncts of thai