The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1892-03-03
on their beauty and style. after the accept

ed fashion of Spanish America.
Here and there in the crowd one sees an
Indian face, but the native Guarani type
is more rare than the negro; and dash
ing mulattoes and negresses are common
the latter generally eXtravagantly dress
ed in the extreme of STYLE almost invari-
ably wearing white OF pale blue, those
most unsuitable colors which the race
everywhere seems to affect. Sit awhile ON
one of the benches and listen to the buzz
of conversation as the brilliant throng
files by, and you will hear as much French,
Italian, English and German spoken as
Spanish, for Montevideo is cosmopolitan
town and fully one third of its popula-
ton are foreigners; and you will readily
comprehend that the social life of the
aristocracy is very gay, that a high de-
gree of education is the rule, that money
is plenty-easily gained and freely eX-
pended in short that society here is
fully up to that of any European city of
equal size.
Just outside the plaza groups of hack
ncy-coaches stand. waiting for customers
who seldom come: we will have none of
them, for in Montevideo it is eminently
the fashion to ride in tran-cals. Street
railways @ritliron the city in every direc
ton, and in their clean though crowded
coaches one can study Uruguay life and
character to much better advantage than
when shut up 10y oneself in a private
carriage. There are fifty five miles of
tramway in Montevideo, and that every
body patroniZes them is proved by the
fact that they carry something over nine
million passengers year-a high average
for city of only l20, 900. The tariff is
from two to seven cents. according to the
length of your trip: and the spick and
span new cars, (all made in New York
are certainly safer and pleasanter than the
iolting, doubtful-springed, bug infested
hacks. There is but one drawback to
the tram cars, viz: that the Jolly drivers,
one and all, carry cows horns and foot to
one another continually, executing shrill,
prolonged trills with might and main, and
out of pure Righteousness making din
that is almost deafening.
1t does not take long in our peregrina-
tons to discover that Uruguay's capital is
city OF stucco and tiles and gorgeous
coloring, of fine shops and handsome
hn1lcaS of md
ry, of noise and Gathering hoofs-though
nobody buStles and hurries as in the
North, OF cheerful faces and good clothes
and contented people, who have no ac-
quaintance with the wolf called Poverty
that prowls about the doors of many of
their cousins on the other side of the con-
tinent. The town is laid out on the usual
chess board plan, with long broad
streets that run up one hill and down an
other, straight as lines can be drawn.
with clusters Of telegraph and telephone
wires overhead and double rows of tram
WAY lines below. Owing to its situation
ona granite promontory. almost surround
ed 10y water. Montevideo is admirably
drained. we'll ventilated and constantly
washed clean by the rains that fall - DAYS
out OF the 363. The buildings are all
flat rooted, of two on at most three sto-
lies, the materials that enter into their
composition being mostly brick and stuc-
90, tiles, marble, iron and very little tim
her
The general plan OF the private houses
is the Andalusan ycstibule, with floor of
marble and dadoes OF alabaster or blue
and white Talavera tiles: double front
door OF massive iron or carved wood. al
ways wide open by day, disclosing a tall
inner gate of open-wrought iron or steel,
through which one can plainly see the
1towely patio. elnbellshed with palms
and statuary and fragrant shrubs growing
in boxes, and often a second and even a
third patio beyond. making a charming
vista The frail-looking gate with it's
lace-like pattern, though it affords no OBJ
struction to the view. is firmly fastened
inside. and to gain admission one must
ring bell; similar to those on our doors
at home, which summons the servant to
unlock it. The facades of the better
houses are adorned with much marble and
stucco, and before every window are iron
bars-glded, perhaps, and highly oma-
mented, but nevertheless as secure as
those Of the common Jail. In Montevideo
it seems that the weather. a man is. the
more does his casa run to fanciful embel-
lishmcnt in the way Of thing and stucco.
the more deliberately lace-like is his iron
work, the thicker the gliding upon his
gate and window bars, the softer the tints
of rose and purple and blue and yellow
upon his outer walls. Many of the tene-
ment houses have their vestibules and
patios paved with the knuckle- bones of
sheep, arranged like mosaic work in fan
tastic designs; and it is stale old Joke to
tell astonished strangers that those are
human bones of people who We're killed
in the hundred years war At any rate
the effect is gruesome in the extreme. and
in walking upon them one feels as if en-
terin0 a clarne1-h OuSe