Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-04-10
Coun,rr LIfs in ChiIl.

Agricultural Chill is pleasant and inter
esting country to visit. The scenery, sug-
costing memories alternately Of California,
Switzerland, and northern Italy, is both
grand and charming. Nothing can be seen
more majestic and impressive than the
main ridge Of the Andes, with the volcanic
peaks white with snow, while occasionally
towards the south some small crater shoots
up volumes of smoke and lava As for
the rustic population, and the incidents of
life along the road, they offer plenty of
material for the painter, and food for re
Election to the student of manners Here
indeed is primitive civilization, needing no
house furniture, no comfort, very element
airy clothing and only the simplest forms
Of ceramic ware. What palmer food could
be found than bread, beans, and onion pie
What more natural drinking vessel than
calabash What less complex vestment
than the "poncho = What shoe more easily
made than bit Of cowhide tied on with
thongs What more refreshing aud obvi-
Gus combination of food and drink than the
familiar watermelon which would seem to
be the chief and only nourishment taken
by many of the poorer Chilans In no
other country have | seen such universal
consumption of watermelons except along
the banks of the Danube, where the peas
ants are no better lodged and no better fed
than those Of Chilli
In Chill the "peonesn live literally like
pigs both in the country and in the towns,
regardless of hygiene or even the most
ordinary sanitary precautions. The conse
quence is that infant mortality is great /;
the infants die like flies, and those who sur
vive are only the strongest and the littest
This rural and urban working population is
ignorant, though not unintelligent the
'peoues' can rarely read or write, but they
have a natural talent for imitation, aud
when once they have been shown how to do
thing they will go on doing it thus they
learn in a few lessons to manage agricultural
machinery, and when they have once learn
ed they do not forget As for morality, 1t
is to be feared they have but little They
are not afraid of death themselves, and
have not much respect for the life of 9th
ers, and both men and women alike appear
to have inherited fair dose of superstition
and many queer beliefs from their Indian
ancestors, together with a number of silly
remedies The women when they have a
| headache, paste rounds of paper on their
temples, or the pip of watermelon. II
they feel anything the matter with theil
eyes thev will plaster their cheeks over
"ltn lthNes. luueeut you rarely see WOUn
an who has not something stuck on her
face All these defects, all these supersti
tons, and all this neglect of the laws o.
| hygiene President Balmaceda hopes TO Grad
| icate by education, and therefore we Sc,
without surprise in rustic townships lik,
Traiguen, fine schoolhouses being built, a
a cost of $4,000, before there is yet sin
gle brick house within the district.
This policy of building schools and pro
noting education is being actively carrie,
on throughout Chill Wherever YOU go 20,
see fine schoolhouse being built. and at n
great distance from it an equally fine new
prison. and the chances are that the cell
of the latter will be filed sooner than tn
class-rooms Of the former. However, tn
education of the masses has been one o
the great cards of modern repubicanism i
Europe and in the United States. and it
therefore not astonishing to find imitatv
Chill following in the wake, perhaps littl
hastily and a little blindly -" Agricultural
chill" in Hdrper's Magazine.