Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-05
FARMING IN CHILE.
Labor Cheap, Soil Productive, Crops
Sure and Prices Good.
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM IN VOGUE.
American Machinery ALI Right But Repairs
Too Long in Coming.
CURIOUS FACTS IN NOMENCLATURE

tcoRREsPoNDENcE OF THE DIspATcH.]
SANTIAGO DE CHILE, June 1--WE Jour
neyed due south 100 miles-mostly by rail
to visit model hacienda, for the express
purpose of being able to tell you how the
typical Chilean farm is conducted. The
estate in question is owned by gentleman
formerly from New England, who, as his
name will show, belongs to an exceedingly
numerous and highly respectable family of
the United States-Mr. William Henry
Smith; but, being married to Chilean, it
is here rendered Senior Don Guillermo Hen
rique Ferreiro.
Speaking of nomenclature, the most COM
mon and cold-blooded of our Northern
titles become positively mellifluous when
translated into this poetic language. For
example: Our neighbor over the way-at
home Mr.. John James Tinker-is addressed
as Senor Don Juan Santiago Latinero. Pie
bian William becomes Guillermo; Henry,
Henrique; Charles, Carlos; Ned, Eduardo;
Jim, Santiago; Peter. Pedro; Dick, Ricardo,
and SO on to the end Of the chapter.
Saloons With Sacred Names.
On the other hand, the native cognomens,
when rendered IN English, are often COM
ical, if not absolutely shocking, Not only
people, but saloons, streets, factories and
workshops and named in honor of the Sa-
vior, the Blessed Virgin, the Holy Trinity,
and all the saints in the calendar There is
the Crown of Thorns street, and the street
of the Body of Christ. have seen a saloon
dedicated La Madra de Dios; another to
Santissima Trinidad (the Sacred Trinity,
and another to The Love of Jesus. In
Chile, as in other Spanish Catholic coun-
tries every child is named in honor of the
Saint whose anniversary comes nearest to
the day on which he or she happened to be
born; and that is the reason why SO many
girls have mems names, and vice versa.
1 know of number of ladies named Gull
lermina (female for William), Juanita
C'little John'), Antonio, etc; while Maria,
Isabel and other female names are equally
common among men. The name Vaca
(cow) occurs as often in Santiago as Smith
in the United States. A young lawyer of
my acquaintance, who was probably born
near Christmas Day, is called Jesus Christie
Vaca, and his beautiful sister is Benedicta
Rafaela Cow. We lived in hotel whose
barefooted errand boy was Jesus Maria
Goyenechera-and how wicked we felt
whenever obliged to shout his name down
the passage! Luckily for sensitive feelings
the word is pronounced Hay-soos, which
makes it seem little less like blasphemy.
Wives Do Not Lose Identity.
In Spanish-American countries the per-
sonality of women is not lost at marriage, as
among us, by being merged entirely in that
of her husband. Though she may be
welded more than once, she retains
through life her own baptismal and family
name. For exampIe-should Miss Mary
Jones become the spouse of Mr.. John
Smith, her cards would henceforth be en-
graved Sonora Maria Jones y Ferreiro; and
her frst-born son would inevitably be
named afte- both parents, thus, Don Juan
Maria Ferreiro y Jones. When you in
quire the name Of a married lady, you are
as likely tO~be told the name of her fathers
family as that of her husband.
But to return to the model farm. Senior
Smiths estate comprises 500 acres, all en-
closed within one fence, and so ponderous
is the latter-being 10 feet high, feet
thick, and rooted like house-that it re-
minds one of the great wall of China. By
the way, barbed wir2 has never been
patented in Chile, though the Government
is fencing its railways with that commodity,
brought from the United States, and if
some enterprising Yankee would come down
here and secure patent on it, his fortune
would be made. Rails are never used in
this country for fencing, except in the far
south where timber is plenty. Stones are
sometimes piled up into walls, but always
in combination with lime and sand making
them solid. Those that are universal in
Chile look strong enough to defy the tooth
of old Father Time for centuries, and as
picturesque as indestructible.
A Fence Made of Mud.
This of our friend Ferreiro is a fai-
sample. 1t is made of mud-a cheap and
common article-which has been nodded
into huge squares and dried in the sun.
The huge adobes were then piled into place,
and while yet moist, earthenware tiling i'm
bedded in the top-of rusty red color, like
that which roofs the houses The object of
roofing the wall is to prevent the long con-
tinued heavy rains of winter from soaking
the bricks and reducing them again to mud.
Like most gentleman farmers of Chile,
Don William Henry does not live on his
country estate, but in the city, coming out
once month or so to see how things are
going and bringing his family for few
weeks in summer time. But there is an
administrator de hacienda, a subadmin-
istrator, several overseers, and more than
100 poems. Farming is carried on in this
country much as it was in Europe in feudal
times, or as in Ireland to-day, each estate
having its retsiners who are provided with
tenements, fer (Which they pay by a stipu-
lated number of days labor every year AS
there is hardly any middle class in Chile
only the rich and the poor, the landlord and
the tenant-the haciendas are generally
very large, and.are owned by nabobs who
seldom visit them. Each has its big, ram
bling casa. wherein the administrators and
their families reside, chapel, commits
sary depot granaries, storehouses, wine
vaults and number of little cottages, sur
rounded by garden patches, where the poems
live.
Perpetual Slavery Through Debt.
The latter are paid for their labor, gen.
orally not in money, but in orders on the
supply store where, at prices optional with
the administrator, food, clothing, chicha
and rum are sold. Tenants are usually
given small credits at these stores, and are
forever in debt to their landlords. AS the
law prohibits their leaving the service of
man to whom they owe money, they are
thus kept in perpetual slavery. When the
men assemble in the morning at the tap of
the sunrise-bell, an overseer writes each
ones name in convenient place; and
when the days work is faithfully done,
puts mark beside his name. At the end
of the week the marks are counted and each
man receives his pay according to the score.
AS rule haciendados and poems get along
well enough together, and the servant will |
fight for the master to the last drop of
blood in his body.
AS in the Old World centuries ago, feudal
wars are kept up between estates, through |
so many generations that the original PROV
ocation is entirely forgotten, and sanguinary
conflicts are constantly occurring, for the |
peon of the Capulets is always more than