The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1893-08-03
A LAND OF LOTUS-EATERS.
The Lazy People of Paraguay VIII Not
Work for Money or Love.

The Lazy People of Paraguay VIII Not
| Work for Money Love.
Immediately upon awaking every
body takes the usual desayuno of
| SpaniSh-America Ga bit of bread and
something warm to drink-here gourd
of yerba mate, instead of a cup of
coffee or mug of chocolate, Us else
where's and breakfast, like dinner of
| several courses, comes on between 10:30
and noon. BY IL o'clock the heat of
the day is in full blast, and everybody
has sought the shade. Shops, which
were open before sunrise, are now
closed, and remain so for several hours,
while proprietors, clerks and custo-
mers are mapping in hammocks, or i'm
blblng gossip and yerba mate some
where in retirement. The post Office
and all other places of business are
locked; even the street cars stop run
ming and river boats tie up. Ladies, in
the privacy of home, universally dis
penSe with the double skirt, and in the
negligee of the camisole (the Para
guayan ''tea gown which much re-
the north, not often mentioned in pub
lie society, known as a chemise), enjoy
their cigars in peace and comfort. The
boy who blacks your boots must have
his siesta, as well as the priest, the
merchant, the lawyer, the gentleman
of leisure. The cook leaves her pots
and pans to take care of themselves,
market women lie down among their
yams and oranges, ox-drivers stretch
themselves in the shadow of their carts,
and donkey boys and their animals
doze together.
This happens every day Of the week.
and during the sieSta hours the wide
awake stranger, however urgent his
business or pressed he is for time,
might as well resign himself to fate
and el custumbre, for absolutely moth
ing can be done.
The fact is these people are hopeless
ly lazy. Why should they toll and
spin when nature and the mission
fathers have given them the means of
life and felicity - in the form of
oranges, mandioca, mate, tobacco and
wild cane for rum-withOut effort on
their part? SO delightful is the climate
that they require next to nothing in
the way of clothing and shelter; they
have no soaring ambition to gra atify,
and changeful fashion has not yet in
vaded this remote Acadia to any harass-
ing extent. We hear the same thing
everywhere, that only under such des-
potic rule as that of Francia and Lopez,
or the paternal system of communism
that existed in the old colonial days of
the monks and the missions, can a
Paraguayan be induced to work at all.
1t is useless to order him about,
although he utterly neglects to do that
for which he was hired; the only way
to get anything out of him is by treat
ing him as an equal, with infinite coax
ing and patience.
The Indians are even worse than the
mixed Guarani-Spanish race that COM
prises the bulk of the population; for,
having no need of money nor any
thought for the morrow, they positive
ly will not work unless driven to it by
hunger, and then only until their
their stomachs are filed On the
estandias, where oranges are the prin-
cipal product, the fruit lies rotting un-
der the trees, a foot deep-of no profit
to the owner, because he cannot get it
picked up and carried to the market
1t might be good thing if the Para
guayan government were to have all
the orange trees cut down, as that OF
Costa Rica caused the banana fields to
be destroyed, so that the people could
no longer depend upon spontaneous
growth for daily bread" but were
compelled to wake up and earn it or
starve There is a palm-oil factory in
the neighborhood of Asuncion, but it
is closed the greater part of the time
because of the difficulty of getting
palm nuts, though literally the woods
are full of them Not native will
; take the trouble to gather nuts and
bring them to the mill, unless very
much in want of meal, a new poncho,
or petticoat or other bit of gaud and
gear: and as soon as the object is at
tanned a long interval of uninterrupted
,, rest is required to make up for the ex-
ertion. ! am told that it is the same
way with the brick factory and kiln
below the city. The universal build
ing material here is kiln-dried brick,
plastered inside and out; if man de-
sires to build house there is no know
ing how long he may have to wait for
the brick, because workmen are not to
) be had. Or, rather, one should say
workwomen, for in nearly every case
women are the laborers rather than
< men.-Fanny B. Ward, in Chicago Trib'
). une.