Omaha daily bee., 1898-10-30

been built a struggling town more than
mile long and n quarter of a mile wide.
Back of it there is hill perhaps a hundred
feet high and farther awav in the rear you
can see the last of the Andes, which here
rise from 5000 TO 5000 feet above the sea-
their tops covered with snow. The city
has been cut out of the woods and as you
enter 1t you are reminded of the settlements
of our wooded frontier of the northwest
1t is just now one of the boom towns OF
this continent and its houses are scattered
along wide streets with many gaps. These
streets are a mass of black mud, through
which huge oxen drag heavy carts, pushing
them along by yokes fastened to their
horns. Here the sidewalk is of concrete,
there 1t is Of wood and a little farther on
you find ii Of mud and must balance your
self on log as you make your way over
it. Many of the houses are built of sheets
of corrugated iron, their walls wrinkled
up like a washboard, and all have roofs
Of this material. A few are painted but
nearly all are of the galvanized slaty color
of the metal as 1t comes from the factory.
None of the cheaper houses has a chimney.
The stove pipes, which stick up through the
roofs and which you see here and there
coming out through the windows with up
plenty of building space. but when you ask
the prices OF the vacant lots you find that
property is very high. What would be a
$50 shanty in America is here worth $500,
and a good business corner will sell for
several thousand dollars. Nevertheless
within few years these same lots were
given away for a revenue stamp. The
Chilian government was anxious to increase
the size OF the colony and 1t offered building
sites to all who would erect houses and pay
the scent stamp which the law provides
shall be upon every deed. That lot" said
a man to me today, as he pointed to n
corner just above the Kosmos hotel, "cost
me a postage stamp, and l hold It now at
5000" The days for such investments,
however. are past and better buildings are
going up every year. Now every inch Of
town property has a fixed value and there
are several business blocks which would not
be out OF place in an American city.
Palace of the MageIIans.
There is one residence here which would
be a mansion in the best part OF Washing
ton city II is by all odds the finest house
near the south pole. 1t has cost more than
$lO0,0 and its owner is millionaire
widow, young beautiful and accomplished.
She is the sister OF our consul here and the
daughter OF a Russian who made a large
fortune in sheep raising. She got another
fortune with her husband and she now
owns thousands of acres OF land and tens
OF thousands OF sheep. Her house is stu
ated on the plaza or public square. This
is a grass plot OF about two acres, fenced
with a wooden paling. 1t has wide path
ways running through It and a band stand
In the center. On the north side of it is
the governors house, a long brown two
story structure, with a wall of glass in the
rear. On the west is a large frame build
ing, the new barracks of the national guard,
and on the east are some stores and the
palace OF this millionaire widow. 1t is made
OF red brick covered with stucco, so in-
shed that It looks like a light brown stone.
II has two stories and mansard with
several towers ana plenty OF gingerbread
work. The artists are now decorating it.
They were imported from Buenos Ayres for
the purpose, as were also the carpenters,
the bricklayers and, in fact all OF the la