The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-19


titude is higher than the top Of Fugiyama,
the sacred snow-capped peak of Japan. 1t
has branch line of 122 miles long over
the plateau to within two days Of Cuzco,
the famed capital of the Incas This rail-
road was built when Peru was rich and
when she was squanderipg fortunes on such
things. 1t is the work of the American en-
gineer, Meiggs, and is one of the great en-
gineering feats of the world. There is talk
of extending it into Bolivia, and it may
some time be a part of transcontinental
line reaching to Paraguay and the Argen-
tine AT present it belongs to the Peruvian
corporation, the English syndicate which
took Peru's railroads in consideration of re-
lieving the country of It's foreign debt but
it is managed by an American, Mr.. Victor
H. McCord, who keeps it in almost as good
condition as any road you will find in the
United States. All of the rolling stock is
American iii pattern, though of late the
cars and engines have been made by Peru
VANS in the company's shops at Arequipa.
Arequipa is the halfway station on the
road to Lake Titicaca, and it is there that
the general offices of the road are situated.
I visited the railroad shops and found four
hundred Peruvians engaged in all kinds of
car construction. They make engines as
SOOu dS any uS6u III Jul COuulIy, anu nave
some which are especially adapted to the
heavy grades of the Andes The shops are
in charge of an American, Mr.. Beaumont,
of New Jersey, but all of the men are Peru
vians. Mr. Beaumont told me that of the
one thousand hands employed in one ca
pacity or another on the road there were
not more than ten foreigners. 1t may inter-
est our railroad men to know the wages
l.;
them in American gold values and not in the
silver in which they paid. 1rackmen re-
ceive rs cents a day. and brakemen a SINH
lar amount. Engineers get 500 a month,
and conductors are paid from $50 to $50 a
month, according to position and length of
service. Men employed in the shops get
from rs cents and upwards per day There
are no trades unions and the men never
strike. They work nine hours a day, and
with those who are out on the road the day
lasts without extra pay until the cars come
in.
A CITY OF VAULTS AND IRON BARS.
Arequipa is the second city of Peru. 1t
has about $1,000 people, and is still lighted
by coal oil. though an electric lighting plant
is now being put in. The town lies in the
little valley of the Chile river, which makes
and gives Arequipa about fifty odd square
miles of irrigabe land. Arequipa is the
commercial capital of the southern part of
the country, and a great part of the trading
of Bolivia passes through it. Most of the
business is done by the Germans and En-
glish, and there is not an American house
in the city. 1t is the neatest, prettiest and
brightest town l have yet seen in South
America. 1t is four hundred odd years old
and is battered and knocked up by the
earthquakes of the past, but as you go
through it you get the impression that the
town is almost brand new. 1t looks as
though it had come from a band box. The
houses are mostly one-story stone boxes,
but their walls are painted in the most
delicate tints of blue. pink, cream, green
and gold. / posted my letters in a post
office tinted in ashes of roses. / bought the
fruit l ate for breakfast in a sky-blue fruit
store and cashed a draft on London in
bank which had&0uter walls the color of
gold. Another popularity of Arequipa is
that most of its rooms are made in the
shape of vaults. The stores are vaults ten
to fifteen feet wide and from ten to thirty
feet deep, with doors looking out upon the
streets. In many cases there is way out
at the back, and the only light except that
from the door, comes in through holes in
the roof / ate my dinner at the hotel in
Arequipa in a vault, l was shaved in
vault and my sleeping room had vaulted
roof. went out on the roof once or twice
to look over the city. These vaulted roofs
gave it the appearance of Chinese grave
yard rather than that of an American town.
The streets are narrow and paved with
cobbles. Down one side of each street there
is q rushing stream of mountain water,
which carries off the sewerage, and which,
as it gurgles through the streets at night,
makes you dream of rain and go to the
window as soon you awake to see if it
really is clear or not. 1t rains only a part
of the year in Arequipa, but when it does
rain it sometimes pours. AT such times the
streets are flooded, and the water from the
roofs is carried out by little tin pipes, as
big around as a hroomstick, to just over the
middle Of the sidewalk, where it goes down
the backs Of the necks of the unwary pass
ers-by
In walking through Arequipa you might
get the idea that the city was full of bur-
glars. Every house faces the sidewalk
and every window is covered with iron bars.
The houses themselves look like fortresses
and the locks on the doors are of mann
locked doors are not for the burglars. They
are not to keep thieves out but to cage the
girls in. The windows have seats behind
the bars, but no Peruvian beau stops to
chat at these with his lady love. The bars
of iron are as thick as your finger and so
close together that the most ardent lips
could not meet between them. This seclu-
sion of the women by the Spanish people
is probably a relic of their admixture with
the Moors centuries ago. The wrapping up
of the heads in black clothes was originally
so done that only one eye showed out. 1t
was worse than the wells of Egypt or Con-
stantinople. Now the whole face is dis
played and many of the better class girls
wear hats. A Peruvian parent however,
never let's his girls go out alone upon the
street. There are no moonlight drives and
walks with lovers here, and when you call
upon your sweetheart you have to enter
tain the whole family, and if you go with
your girl to the bull fight you take mamma,
papa, auntie and old maid sissy with you.
WATCHING THE STARS IN PERU.
The most interesting thing in Arequipa,
however, is the Harvard College Observa-
tory Just about twenty years ago Uriah
H. Borden died and left 100000 to Harvard
College. with the understanding that the
money was to be used to establish an OBJ