Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1891-10-23
SHIPPING ORANGES IN. PARAGUAY
A Pen Picture Of South American por,
Where Women Do the Work

american
Where Women DO the Work.
The two principal ports for shippino
oranges are San"Lorenzo and San Az
tonic. We stayed at the latter, a love
ly spot on the Paraguay river with a
strand of yellow sand, banks frineed
with lilies and in the background trees
some of them forming masses of lilac
bloom. The port consists of a souara
of sand, with the cabin and flag of tba
custom house, orresguardo, and a short
wooden jetty to the right. A roughly
traced road leading into the interior
past a sort of store or tambo, and to
the left a large tent stretched over
palm poles, with lattice floor made of
bamboo.
This tent was full of oranges; on the
sand outside were other mountains of
oranges, and carts drawn by yokes of
two or four oxen, preceded by the
driver, wearing a long poncho and car
rying bamboo goad, kept groanips
and creaking down the slope, and de-
posting other golden piles along the
beach. Under the shady curtain of
trees were seated groups of men. wo-
men and children, with oranges hama
mas, mandioca, parrots, blue jays and
monkeys, which they hope to sell. but
at the same time make no effort to
offer their merchandise, preferring to
remain calm and Indifferent, sucking
mate through silver bombillas.
The steamship is moored alongside,
and long gangway of planks is laid
on high trestles from the paddle box to
the shore; then, when all is ready.
about sixty women and girls and ten
men set to work, some to carry baskets
full of oranges others to hand the bas-
kets from beside the paddle box to the
upper deck, Others to pass the baskets
on from this point to the corral or in
closure that has been built behind the
pilot house, and others still to pass
down the empty baskets The carry
ing is all done by women, who form a
procession passing continuously up and
and down the gangway, and generally
at a run.
They are Paragraphs, Guaranis and
other Indians and mulattoes of various
shades, clad in white, rose, scarlet, vel
low and other bright colored Manches-
ter cotton stuffs; all are barefooted,
and most of them are without beauty.
but gay and ready to laugh and scream
without pretext, merely for the sake of
being lively and making a noise. They
are like birds and monkeys. Hour after
hour this operation goes on. Women
and young girls alike have cigars in
their mouths in the usual Paraguayan
fashion.
The rapid movement of brightly clad
figures passing in opposite directions,
with the glare of the yellow mountains
of oranges and of the dazzling white
tent on the shore, ends by hypnotizins
one, and yet the scene is so original
that one continues to watch it in spite
of ones self. For that matter, there is
nothing else to do. The village, buried
in orange trees, is soon visited; to walk
for any distance along the river is rem
dered difficult by the overhanging
trees, and SO one remains leaning over
the rail, and watching the women and
girls toiiing, while the menahusbands,
fathers or brothefs-loaf on the shore,
smoke or play cards, according to the
custom of Paraguay, where the women
do the work while the men enjoy life.
The steamer was supposed to take
$50, 900 oranges, but there being no
means of control it is probable that, in
order to allow for loss, the shipper put
on board at least 300, 000 These
oranges, of fine flavor and aspect, are
worth one Paraguayan dollar a thou
sand at San Antonio. The women,
who carry the baskets on their heads.
are paid eighty centavos day, and the
harvest of the fruit lasts eight months,
beginning at the end of May The
freight from Paraguay to Campana,
and from Campana by schooner to La
Boca, together with the loss from pu-
trefaction and rough handling during
the journey, brings the retail price of a
good orange in Buenos Ayres to about
two cents Theodore Child in Har-
Ders.