Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-03-14
Ne STAR WASHINGTON SATURDAY NARe Il 1891 s71TFs PAGES

streets Of Valparaiso and other. ports in
drunken banda singing and howling like
demons. throwing stones at unshuttered win
dows, firing shoss right and-left without any
particular target occasionally cutting shop
and burn II over the heads Of the terrified peo-
pie. Valparaiso Is mostly wooden city. with
long. narrow streets. occupying . cramped
space between the hills and the sea, and would
burn like finder, and nothing but the prompt
arrival of government troops preventedit from
being served in the riots of last July as Iquiqui
was six months later. At hast, to save further
bloodshed: the president yielded the point and
changed his cabinet third time.
THE OPPOSITION NOT SATISFIED.
But. as he had foreseen, the opposition party
were not satisfied and became more pronounced
in their hostility toward the government. until
at length, hoping to better their condition, q
over to their side, with the DISASTROUS results Of
which the telegrsphs have told you. In the
late purposeless but sanguinary conflicts sew
eral thousand men have been killed, a host Of
children orphaned and millions OF dollars
business failures innumersbie and ChiI has Lost
more than she can regain in fifty years Of pros
perity, all for no good reason except that the
spirit OF revolution Is in the Spanish blood and,
like murder, will out"
SKETCH OF PRESIDENT BArMAcEDA.
President Jose Manuel Balmaceda was in
augurated on September IS, 1856, for the con-
stitutional term Of Ave years, and consequently
his time has nearly expired Previous to the
election he had not figured much in politics
put was quiet, well-to-do citizen Of the
Eealthlest and most aristocratic capital of
Spanish America. The questionable great
ness" was not particularly OF his own seeking,
but was In a measure ''thrust upon him." His
private fortune has been completely wrecked
In this disastrous five years and he will retire
from once poor man, with fewer friends thar
when he went into it, Chill boasts that within
ner patriotic borders there are no populations
In nigh places and loves to point to the case Of
q former president who was immensely wealthy
IN private life, but through some unfortunate
speculation lost all his fortune while in Office
and being too honest to help himself from the
pubhc funds-as he might easily have done in
hundred ways undetected-gaye ND his SPLEEN
did casa and horses and carriages and at the
close OF the term retired to cheap little rented
mouse In the suburbs, where he still lives.
HIS FAMILY SENT To PLACE OF SAFETY.
President Baimaceda is not yet forty years
oid-a tall, handsome, weil-educated man, who
has travelled good deal and speaks some En-
gish, but not enough to carry on an easy con-
versat,on. His family consists Of a wife and
several pretty children, among the latter being
three nearly grown daughters, who had already
begun to pose as bellies before their flight. II
IL NOS known to q certainty where they are
gone; some nay to Europe and others assert
with equal confidence that they were sent over
the mountains to the Argentine Republic. At
any rate the president has succeeded in spirit
ing them away to some place of greater security,
while he remains to face the storm in hourly
danger OF threatened assassination. What a
SAD parting that must have been between the
narassed father and his gentle wife and daugh-
" rEAN <xf ~. n
the most womanly Of women, devoted mother
and model homekeeper.
MIXED LIFE IN SANTIAGO
Meanwhile, life in Santiago is queer mix
ture Of anxiety and social pleasure Nobody
knows what terrible things may happen at any
moment; yet, notwithstanding rumors Of war
and narrowing accounts of atrocities perpe-
trated in nearby places. the majority of these
proverbially ight-hearted, happy-go-lucky
Spanish Americana disport themselves in the
same old ways. The theaters are all well at
tended, and, as usual, the boxes are filed with
bare-headed, bare-armed, bejeweled ladies,
dressed in the height of Partisan fashion. On
New Years eve, according to long established
custom, there was q magnificent open-air con-
cert in the Quinta Normal spacious and
beautiful garden in the suburbs Of the city
assisted by several fine military bands.
The entire space, with its splendid
trees and lawns and beds of flow
ers. was hung with Chinese lanterns and ablaze
with the electric light; while its commodious
restaurant building "a second DelmonicoD and
numerous dancing psvilions were crowded
with happy people. The sweet spanish DOL
ores" and the French 'Je taime" sung by a
hundred voices, was charming; but more well
come to the ears of exiled Gringos las all Anglo
Saxons are called hereabouts), were the strains
OF ''God Save the Queen" sung at the English
club, where the young fellows made night of
it in memory of PARKWAY friends, and even the
occasional shaky voice of some ever-loyal
though inebriated Yankee, shouting "Hail
COlumbis" on his winding way through the
streets.
CLUE.
On the 4th Of January, as an expression of
popular sentiment against Balmaceda, all the
cabinet ministers were expelled from the Union
Club, the ost swell organization of its kind
in the city, by vote of to 1. On the 9Th a
decree was issued forbidding coaches and street
cars to ply after midnight, order which has
highly lncensed the society people, because
nothing begins here until nearly the time of
going home in the north. Santiago is, like
Washington, city of magnificent dis
tances," and the bareheaded bellies will be
compelled to remain at home, or walk many
. mile in their satin clippers. Police
men, mounted and on foot, patrol at all
hours; and no gathering of any kind is per-
mitted on the streets. So vigorously is the
order enforced that if three or four well-known
citizens chance to stop in a group for CONVERSE
ton, as is daily done in every community, up
steps q policeman and orders them TO disperse
In view of existing circumstances these extra
ordinary precautions may be necessary, but
are nevertheless extremely irksome to well-dis-
posed people.
who has seen tomorrow is q fayorite
Spanish proverb, particularly applicable to the
present time, for any hour may bring shot and
shell and carnage into this proud old capital.
FANNIE b NARD.