The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1896-01-18
O THE ORINOCO.
Pen Pictures of venezuelan Life.

Pen Pictures OF Venezuelan Liie'
Elizabeth Bistland writes lntertaininsly
to the New York Sun of life in Venezuela
from her personal experience in that
tropical land, from white VI quote the
following extract.
.sThe Venezuelan bed in a house of the
wealthier class is merely an iron frame, a
woven wire spring, covered with a blank
ct and a sheet, and above this pillow. NO
one sleeps under, even a sheet. Even
this arrangement is found too warm on
bad nights, and n chinchora wings be-
tween door and window, IN case the heat
of the bed proves intolerable. The win
dows have no glass-only bars and heavy
batten shutters inside, left swinging open
Mt night, as in the chamber door; privacy
ia s.cured by a light cotton SCREEN, breast
high, which does not interrupt the current
of mir. The better houses give up the
lower loor to domestic offices and the ser
wants. The bedrooms all occupy the sec
ond floor, opening onto the latticrd YER
anda which surrounds tina inner court.
The vardanda is dining ROOM sitting
room, and general rendezsus for the fam
ily, The court is full of trees, changes,
pomeprantes, palms, andths like, and has
a fountain and pool in the center. Tho
~lattices and atairs to the roof are hung
thick with vines; for choice, one that COW
era itself with a flower hat looks like
white heliotrope..
The court is usually the home Of n doz-
on birds-all ,am9-a heron or two, a big,
crested pheasant like warhichi, four or
five parrots of all c%olors, a gold n black
tropion, pugnacious as a terrier and with
a voice like a fairy trumpet; a morlche'
who bathes thirty-two times a day in the
fountain and goes tripping about teasing
all tho other birds into fits, and a tailor
crow, who sews bits of string through the
~lattices and into backs of chairs. The
love of birds and of their children ia a
veritable and universal passion among
the Vcnezuelans Strangely enough the
widest bird will! grow perfectly tame in
the house and will use his cage merely for
swagger, when the parrots suggest that
he doesen't own real estate, for example.
And their wings are not clipped, either.
They sit on the backs of chairs at break
fast and eat scraps from their owners
finger.
Every one gets up at first glimpse of
day and eats fruit and hot chocolate and
arepas on the varanda. The pious elderly
women cloak and a mantilla over their
uncombed hair. The older men go their
Offices, usually on the lower floor. The
young people ride. This early ride is the
beautiful part of life on the Oiinoco.
Every one rides ind does it we'll. There
is no othor method of getting about. The
horses are descendants of the Spanish
jsnnet and nave Moorish blood. They
are cream colored or piebald. Arab as to
conformation, but large and well boned.
Their names and tails are full and waving
and their gait a most engaging amble, a
motion much resembling that of the do
nestle rocking chair; very pleasing i'll
this hot climate, and yet covering ground
rapidly. The horse can keep it up all
day with little fatigue. The bit is the
form of curb, but az the colorsd horse
hair bride with its tassels and bits of
jingling silver is always hanging loose on
the neck the cruelty is a possibility more
than a fact. The high Mexican saddles
are lined with red velvet and very ornate.
Venezuela furnishes horses to all the Car
ibbean Islands; they have no rivals in
size, temper, and quality. The smaller
sort are perfect for polo, having been
trained on that terrible bit and obedient
to the slightest word or movement.
The air on the mesas at daybrcak is
dry. fresh, and very exhilerating. Roads
there are none, md straightaway for fifty
miles is a possibility. Anywhere about
Boliver vt this hour can be seen the most
astonishing and delightful spectacle-the
rising of the herons. They sleep IN m
~reckonable numbers amid the black
waters of the Orlnoco, and when the flush
of day comes they get mp against the
link east in a whirlwind of whirlwind of
white, feathery flakes, split into long
lines in the zenith and stream away across
the zenith and stream away across the
updsr blue to inland feeding grounds.
Those glittering delicate tassels of their
plumage, which make their rising against
the rosy sky look like a tropical snow
storm, are worth considerably more than
their weight in gold. Enough OF the best
sort of feathers t o balance IN English
sovereign would fetch considerably more
| than a hundred dollars.
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