Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-09
HIS HOUSE A CASTLE.
A Man Is Shut Out From the World
In His Casa at Conception.
CUSTOMS IN THE MARKET PLACE.
The Policemen Are Peculiar, but the Laws
Are Respected.
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS OF CHILE
CORRESPONDENTS OF THE D1sPATcH.1


nearly $50 years old, this quaintest of
Chilean cities shows few signs of age. Its
casas-built low and solid with an eye to
earthquakes-are fine samples of Spanish
architecture, but so monotonously alike,
except in size and color, that it is easier
for stranger to lose his bearings here than
in London. ALI are about 20 feet high, of
one-story only, built around one or more
patios, or courtyards. The universal build
ing material is sun-dried bricks, which are
SO soft they absorb water almost as readily
as sand, and consequently are plastered, in
side and out, until they become hard and
firm as stone.
In Conception the law compels house.
owners to keep the exteriors neatly painted.
The favorite tints appear to be sky blue,
pink and pale yellow; but a few indulge in
green, gray, heliotrope and orange. Every
house Is topped with earthenware tiling,
rusty red in color, deeply imbedded In mud
which was soft when put on, and when
dried holds the tiles securely. This sort of
roofing is extremely picturesque, especially
as it Immediately takes on a coating Of
moss and lichens; but it is no end of trouble
to keep in order, and must be repaired
every year before the rainy season begins
COULDN'T BURN THE TOWN.
It has one great advantage in being nom
combustible Should fire originate in the
rafters, or in the boards and sheeting that
form the ceiling to room, it would die out
of it's own accord when they were burned
away, and the heavy mud coating falling in
would effectually smother confagration.
It is odd how isolated from the world,
though living in the heart of city, a man
may be in one of these great adobe casas.
Many of them may have no windows that
look into the street, and when the one big
door is shut and barred, outsiders can form
no idea of what is going on within. When
the front lawn, back yard and kitchen gar
den, parlor, sleeping apartments, servants
quarters, store-rooms, stables, chapel, are all
enclosed within the same wall and under
one roof-the master might be murdered a
dozen times day, if that were possible, and
securely hidden away in his own house, the
nearest neighbor be none the wiser.
Conception is eminently a city of sur
prises. For example: She is entirely out
of debt, but water is peddled about the
streets on the backs of donkeys, as in early
colonial times. She has no less than nine
splendid churches Gall Roman Catholic),
but no system whatever ofsewerage. Hand
some carriages roll about the streets, be-
longing to wealthy citizens, but the wooden
plows used on their suburban estates are as
primitive as those of the ancient Egyptians,
She boasts four banking houses and the
greatest Jesuit college in South America,
maintains costly theater and fine band
to play O. nights on the plaza-but on beg
gar's Day" (every Saturday,, the streets
literally swarm with licensed mendicants,
until it seems as if half the population are
out soliciting aims
WATER AT CENT BUCKET.
There goes q "publio institution" and q
very necessary one-a bare-footed, shock
headed fellow, following half dozen Slim
legged donkeys, each donkey with two
small barrels on its back He makes his
living by selling water from house TO house
at the rate of cent per bucket. His only
competitor is another fellow, who perambu-
lates the town with one barrelful from Bio
Bio, loaded in a cart drawn by very small
mule, to which a very large COW bell is at
tached.
Here comes a scarcely less common Gin
stitution the turkey peddler. He drives
q lot of shrill-voiced young turkeys before
him on the street until all are sold. Ask him
"Diez pesos cada una, senor"-S10 apiece,
sir Turn away and he shouts after you:
81 will take 81, SIR" If you still remain
obdurate he will follow you with impor-
tunities till he has dropped to So, and even
down to 50. He has been long time rails
ing those turkeys-or rather his wife has
at great labor for Chilean "roto." When
sold, If all the money does not go down his
throat at once in the form of chicha, he will
take the remainder home to his family and
they will feast like lords for a day or two
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go to market in the morning, contentedly as
heretofore, and buy cents worth of -four,
cents worth of beans, cents worth of po-
tatoes and 4 cents worth of fuel to supply
the household for day.
NO FIXED PRICES FOB ANYTHING
, The Conception Market House was fitted
up by the authorities. 1t occupies an entire
square, and within it country produce of all
kinds is bought and sold without the aid of
"middle-men. The producer brings or
beef, pigs, fish, clans, etc., and barters
them off to the best possible advantage.
There is no fixed price for anything-oh,
mol for in this country "beating down. is
the life of trade. Take, for example, the
popular article of sausage, which here sells
BY the vera, or Spanish yard-a vera being
about three-quarters of an English yard.
Being foreigner, you are not likely to get
it for less than 90 cents, though a native is
not expected to pay more than 20 cents per
vera.
The Market House generally overfows,
especially in fruit time, SO that the sidewalks
all around the square are blocked by squat
ting women with their wares spread out on
the ground for sale. Entering the building
to the left we find the butchers, who cut all
their meat up into long strips as if they
would sell it also by the yard. But they
don't; they sell it by the chunk and guess
at the weight Porterhouse, surloin, rump-
steak, roast-it is all the same to the
butcher; into strips the whole creature
must go, to be chopped off in chunks to suit
the purchasers needs. Close by is a clam
stall The woman in charge has torn the
CLANS from their shells and strung them on
stems of grass, dozen on stem. She sells
them at the rate of three straws (36 clams)
for 10 cents-and cheap enough they are.
FRUIT, VEGETABLES AND POULTRY.
To the right are long rows of fruit mer-
chants, mostly women. Splendid cherries
plump, fresh and ruby red-are tied up on
sticks in bunch, so closely that they re-
semble miniature club-balls. The price is
un centavo Gone cent? for stick, or about
half pint of cherries. There are heaps of
ripe figs, each about the size of your fist
black, shining and luscious-5 cents per
dozen. Watermelons are piled up by the
cord-and such melons! Thirty-pounders |
and 5O-pounders not unusual. There are
fine potatoes. but the heaps of green pep |
pers are higher, indicating that the latter |
are in greater demand; apricots, peaches,
oranges, lines, black olives, cabbages; |
geese, ducks and chickens, alive and cack- |
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