Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-02-18
THE GILLIAN IDEA.
They Imagine the United States
to be a Small Country.
AN ARMY OF 5000 SUFFICIENT
To overrun and Conquer the Great AmerI-
can Republic-What Mr.. Parsons has to
Say of the Treatment to American
Citizens-The English Cause It
Special to the Gazette.

SpeclaI 10 the Gazette.
KANSAS CITY. Mo. Feb. 13.-Albert Par
sons, who is connected with q Valparaiso
mercantile house o Yned by an American
firm, has just passed through this city on
his way from New York to san Francisco,
where he will take 4 steamer to Chill. Mr..
Parsons left Chill before the close of the
recent revolutions in that country, and an
interview with him develops the fact that
CHILEAN hatred to the Americans dates
farther back than the battles between the
Balmacedans and Congressionahsts. He
says he has been in Chill for the past ten
years, and during that time he has tray
eled over the whole country and been in
every city and town in the republic. His
trips were for the purpose of disposing of
certain goods and buying certain products,
and it necessarily brought him in contact
with all classes of people. During the
whole ten years he has thus been travelling
he has been subjected to iunumerable in
suits because he was an American.
The Chilians as people are fond of brag-
adocio and on several occasions Parsons had
great difficulty in keeping out of qaarrels
which were forced upon him. Once he re-
scented direct insult wherein drunken
young fellow deliberately called him id
Gringo and spat in his face Parsons at
once knocked the fellow down whereat he
was set upon by several other Chilians,
beaten to almost insensibility and then ar
rested by the police. He was taken to jail
where ne was compelled TO lie in q filthy
cell four days before ne was taken out for
trial. He was placed in prisoners box and
without being permitted to say word, was
subjected to farce of a trial and fined $50
He had no recourse and had to pay or go
back to jail. During the trial the prosecut-
ing attorney and the judge on the bench
made very insulting remarks about Ameri-
cans.
Mr.. Parsons says that the masses of the
people believe that their country is the most
powerful .on the continent, and think the
United States is a weak country of only a
few miles in extent. One army officer told
him that if Chill ever got short of cash she
would capture San Francisco and levy
tribute on California gold mines, and if the
United States made any fuss about 1t they
would send an army across to New York
and levy tribute there When asked how
big an army they would send he replied
that 2000 or 5000 men would be all that was
necessary One of the peculiar ideas held
by many Chilians, and some of them very
intelligent people, is that the United States
is long narrow strip stretching across the
continent as Chill stretches along the
Pacific coast.
They think that Mexico on one side and
Canada on the other would be only too glad
to cross the border and help subjugate the
OullGu oJdlOS II GuS1 NCLC OLl4S SAAC lilSAO
Chill would stand by them. When asked
to what he attributed the hostility of the
Chilians to Americans, Mr.. Parsons said
that he thought the whole trouble had been
brought about by British merchants. These
men have opposed the growing influence of
American merchants, and they have used
every effort to produce bad impression.
In the present trouble thus Englishmeu
have led the C.Iilians to believe that if they
go to war with the United States England
will give them material assistance.
He concluded by saying that he consid-
cred this country in such a condition that
there could be no possibility of an attack
on any of the sea coast cities of California.
The CHILEAN navy is small and not to be
compared with that of the United States.
If war was declared their navy would have
more than it could attend to right at home.
They were great fighters down there, but
at the outside they could not muster over
80, 900 men fit for army service.