The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-07-05
OUR CHILEAN LETTER
More About Our South American
Friends.
SOME OF THEIR MODEL FARMS
Servants are Bonnd to Remain with their
Employers While they Owe them
Debt-0ther Peculiar Customs.

| Especial correspondence to THE HERALD. !
we iourneyed due south one hundred
miles-mOstly by ran-to visit a model ha-
cienda, for the express purpose of being
able TO tell you how the typical Chilian
farm is conducted. The estate in question
Is owned by a 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 a Chilean, it is here rem
dered Senior Don Guillermo Henrixue Fer
rerio.
Speaking of nomenclature the most COM
mon and cold blooded of our northern titles
become positively mellihous when trans
lated into this poetic language. For ex-
ample: our neighbor over the way-at
home Mr.. John James Tinker-is ad
dressed as Senior Don Juan Santiago Latin
ero. Plebeian William becomes Guillermo;
Henry, Henrique; Charles, Carlos; Ned,
Eduardo; Jim, Santiago, Peter, PEDRO;
Dick, Ricardo, and SO on TO the end of the
chapter.
On the other hand, the native cogno-
mems, when rendered in English, are often
comical if not absolutely shocking. Not
only people, but saloons, streets, factories
and workshops are named in honor of the
Savior, the Blessed Virgin, the Holy Trim
ity, and all the saints in the calendar,
There is the Crown of Thorns street, and
the street of the Body of Christ. l have
seen saloon dedicated La Madra de Dios;
another TO Santissima Trinidad (the Sacred
Trinity, and another
To THE LOVE OF JESUS.
In Chilli, as in other Spanish-Catnolic
countries, every child is named in honor of
the Saint whose anniversary comes nearest
| to the day on which she or he happens to
be born, and that is the reason why so
many girls have mems names, and vice
versa | know a number of ladies named
Guillermina, (female for WIlliam), Juanita,
(''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
bare footed errand boy was Jesus Maria
Goyenechera-and how wicked we felt
whenever obliged 10 shout his name down
the passage. Luckily for sensitive feelings,
the word is pronounced Hay sons, which
makes it seem little less like blasphemy
A former governor of the province OF
Valparaiso is named Domingo Zorro Sun
day Bull, and the belle of Copiapo was
| christened Dolores Digereis-SOrrowfu
Stomach. There are wee toddlers in the
| neighborhood who are weighted with names
longer than themselves. What would you
think of calling girl-baby
UBALDINA EDUvIEEs cIFDENTEs,
or Echeverria Isidra Yazaza Cusicanqui,
and knee high little gentleman Hipolito
Leoncico Osvaldo Zantartu, or Eduyijes
Gonzalez Lopez Luz In Spanish Ameri-
can countries the personality of women is
not lost at marriage, as among US, by being
merged entirely into that of her husband
Though she may be welded more than
once, she retains through life her own ao-
tismal and family name. For example
Should Miss Mary Jones become the
spouse of Mr.. John Smith, her cards would
henceforth be engraved Sonora Maria Jones
y Ferreiro; and her first-born son would
inevitably be named after both parents,
thus: Don Juan Maria ferreiro Jones'
When you enquire the name of a married
lady, you are as likely TO be told the name
of her fathers family as that of her hus-
band.
But to return to the model farm from
this long depression. Senior Smiths estate
comprises 500 acres, all enclosed within
one fence, and so ponderous is the latter
being ten feet high, three feet thick and
rooted like a house-that it reminds one
of the great wall of China. BY the way.
barbed wire has never been patented in
Chilli, though the government is fencing its
railways with that commodity, brought
from the United States; and if some enter
prising Yankee would come down here and
1.
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 combina-
ton with lime and sand. making them
solid. Those that are universal IN Chill
look strong enough to defy the tooth of old
Father Time for centuries, and as picture
esque as indestructible. This Of
OUR FRIEND FERREIRo Is A FAIR SAMPLE.
1t is made of mud--a cheap and common
article--which has been nodded into huge
squares aud dried in the sun. The huge
adobes were then piled into place. and
while yet moist, earthenware tlling I'M
bedded in the top-of a rusty-red color.
like that which roofs the houses. The ob-
ject OF roofing the wall is to prevent the
long continued, heavy rains of winter from
SOAKING into the bricks and reducing them
again TO mud.
Like most gentlemen farmers of Chill
Don William Henry does not live on his
country estate, out in the city, coming out
once a month or so to see how things are
going. and bringing his family for q few
weeks in summer time. But there is an
administrator de hacienda, q sub admin
istrator," several cverseers and more than
one hundred poems. Farming is carried on
in this country much as il WAS in Europe
in feudal times, or as in Ireland today.
each estate having its retainers who are
provided with tenements, for which they
pay by stipulated number of DAYS labor
every year. AS there Is hardly any middle
class in Chili-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 admin
istradors and their families reside a chanel.
a commissary depot, granaries, store
houses, wine vaults and a number of little
cottages surrounded by garden patches.
for their labor, generally 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 a Ian to whom Iney owe money. thew
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 a convenient place; and
when the days work is faithfully done.
puts a mark beside his name. AT the end
of the week the marks are counted and
each man receives his pay according to the
Ia