Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-08-08
CONCEPTION IN CHILLI.
A City That is Nearly Three Hun
dred Years Old,
BUT FEW SIGNS OF AGE
1t 10 City Of Surprises Wholly Free From
Debt, but Some Things are Done - In Co.
lonial Times-Scenes in the Market HOUSE.
Other Public Institutions.

From the Stars Travelling COMMISSIONS
CoxcxrcIoS, chill, July, 1891.
THROUGH NEARLY THREE HUNDRED
L and fifty years old this quaintest of Gillian
cities shows few signs Of age. It's casas are
fine samples Of Spanish architecture, but so
monotonously alike that it is easier
for stranger to lose his bearings
here than in London. They were
punt with an eye to earthquakes, all about
twenty feet high, Of one story only, with patios
or court yards in the center. The universal
building material is sun-dried brick, which is
SO soft that it absorbs water as readily as sand,
and consequently has been plastered, in
side and out, until hard and firm as stone.
In Conception the law compels house owners
TO keep the exteriors neatly painted. The
favorite ants appear to be sky blue. pink and
yellow. but a few have INDUCED in green. gray,
heliotrope and orange. Every house is topped
with rusty red thing, deeply Embedded in
mud, which was soft when put on and when
dried holds the esrthen tiles securely. This
sort OF roofing is extremely picturesque, espe-
cially as 1t soon takes on q coating Of moss and
lichens, but is no end of trouble to keep in
order, since it must be repaired every year be-
fore the rainy season begins.
world, though living in the heart of a CITY, q
man may be in one Of these great houses.
Many Of them have no windows that look into
the street, and when the one big door is shut
and barred nobody outside can form an idea Of
what is going on within. When the kitchen
garden, back yard and front lawn, parlor, serv-
ants quarters, sleeping apartments and store
rooms, chapel, stable and pig stys are all in
closed within the same wall and under one roof
the master might be murdered dozen times q
duvv Ht~A = 4
away in his own casa and the nearest neighbors
be none the wiser.
CIrY OF SURPRISES.
Conception 10 . city of surprises. She il en-
tirely 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 SPLEEN
did churches (all Roman Catholic, but no sys-
tenn OF sewerage. Handsome carriages roll
about her streets, belonging to wealthy citi-
zens. but on their suburban estates wooden
plows are used. as primitive as those of the an
Gent Egyptians. She boasts four banking
houses and the greatest Jesuit college in South
America; maintains a costly theater and a fine
band to play evenings on the plaza, but on
"Beggars' day every Saturday, the streets
are literally swarmed with licensed mendicants,
until it seems as if half the population were out
| soliciting aims.
There goes public institution q
very important one-a bare-footed fellow fol-
lowing a half dozen slim-legged donkeys,
each beast carrying two barrels on his back.
He makes his living by selling water from
house to house at the rate of one cent per
bucket. His only competitor In the business is
another man, who perambulates the town with
one barrel full from the Bio-Bio river, loaded
on a cart which is drawn by q very small dom
key wearing a very large cowbell.
Here comes q scarcely less common "institu-
A.
him from street to street q lot of shrill-voiced
young turkeys till all are sold. Ask him the
price of one and he will probably reply, Diez
pesos cada una, senOr-"sl0a piece. sir. Turn
away and he shouts after you, II will take 81,
sir" II you still remain obdurate, he
will follow you with opportunities till he has
dropped to IS, and even to one. He has been
long time raising these birds, or rather his
wife has, at vast labor fer the Gillian '.roto."
When sold, il all the money does not go down
his throat at once in the form of chicha, he will
take the remainder home and the family will
feast like lords for two or three days till the
last penny il gone. Then his wife will 60 to
/ the market as contentedly "a before and buy
cents worth of -four, 2 cents worth of beans,
l cents worth Of potatoes and 4 cents worth
| Of fuel to supply the household for day.
The market house of Conception was fitted
up by the city authorities and occupies an en-
tire square. The producer brings or send bis
fruits, vegetables, butter and eggs, pigs, beef,
| fish, &C., and barters them off to the best ad-
| vantage without the aid Of middle men. There
countries cheating down" is the life of trade.
Take, for example, the popular article of sau-
| sage, which here sells by the vara or Spanish
yard, which measures about three-quarters OF
| an English yard. Being q foreigner you are
not likely to get it for less than so cents per
| yara, though q native II not expected to pay
| more than 20 cents for the same.
acrNEa IN THE MARKET u0ysr
The market house generally overHows, es-
pecially during fruit time, and all around the
| square the sidewalks are blocked by squatting
women, with their wares spread out on the
ground for sale. Entering the building, to the
lsft we find the butchers who cut all their meat
into long strips az il it also were to be sold by
| the yard. But it is not: they sell it by the
chunk, and guess at the weight. Sirloin, por-
| terhouse, roast-it is all one to the butcher
| into strips the whole creature must 90, to be
| chopped off in chunks, according to the needs
Close by is the clam stall. The female in
| charge has torn the CLAIMS from their shells and
strung them ON stems Of grass, a dozen on a
stem. She sells them at the rate of three
straws-thirty-six clams-for 10 cents, and
cheap enough it is. To the right are rows of
fruit merchants, mostly women. Splendid
cherries-plumR fresh and ruby red-are tied
on sticks In close bunch, SO that they resem-
BILE miniature club balls. The price is un CEN
tavo q cent? for a stick. which means about
| half a pint of cherries. There are heaps of
luscious figs, each black and shining and az
large as your fist, at 8 cents per dozen. Water
melons are stacked up by the cortland such
melons! Thirty Founders are common and
fifty Founders not unusual enough to excite
surprise. There are piles of fine potatoes, but
higher heaps Of green peppers. indicating that
| the latter are in greater demand. There are
oranges, lines, black olives, apricots, peache,
and vegetables; fowls alive and cackling; bleat
ing kids and grunting pigs; coarse boots, shoei