Evening star., 1898-05-07

have paid very we'll The whole of the
coast valleys are adapted to sugar rails
ing and the cane grows much more easily
here than in our states about the Gulf of
Mexico. l visited the Lura Fico estate the
other day. This was managed and built
up by Mr.. b. H. Kaufman. 1t paid large
dividends until the fall In prices of some
years ago. when the heart was cut out of
the sugar business. Many of the planta-
tions changed hands and Lura Fico Is now
owned by an English syndicate which has
tens of thousands of acres of sugar lands
fhe factory of Lura Fico made 5000 tons of
sugar last year, and 1t will make more
this. The factory alone cost sGO0,O0O, and
the improvements on the estate have foot
ed up more than million. The most of
the machinery was imported from Phila-
delphia, and the machine shops and foun-
dry are now using steel plates which they
Import from the United States. This Is SO
Notwithstanding the fact that the owners
are English. The estate uses steam plows,
harroWS and cultivatorS, and l noticed that
the plow points were made at Hartford.
The cane is hauled from the fields to the
factories by steam engines over portable
railroad, and all sorts of modern econom-
1cal machinery is employed. There are
now over sixty sugar factories the coast
region of Peru. and in the neighborhood of
20.0OD,O0O is invested in the business. The
amount produced is about 16J, GOO 600
Peruvian Indian. who receives from fifty
to eighty cents in silver a Gay, or from 25
to At cents OF our money.
Among the Poems.
1 wonder how an American tenant would
look If he were offered a place on one of
these Peruvian farms. refer more espe-
cially TO those on the smaller estates 1
went into one Of the houses on a plan
tation near here today. 1t is a sample
of thousands all through Peru. The hut
was made of canes, and you could see
out through the cracks all sides. The
floor was of dirt and the roof Of reeds, be-
Ing only needed to keep out the sun. There
was in the house but one room, about Is
feet square. In one corner a wooden plat
form about as high as your knees fur
nished the sleeping place for the heads of
the family; the children slept on the floor.
In another corner was the family cook
stove, two stones placed just wide enough
apart to allow an earthen cooking pot to
rest on them. There were no windows no
chimneys, and, with the exception of
soap box. no furniture. In this house
family of six live, and doubt not deem
themselves happy. Their chickens and
goats live with them, and all they want is
enough to eat and drink and chance to
get drunk now and then. These people
seem to have no ambition whatever. They
work hard and are perfectly satisfied.
Their employers furnish them, in addition
to their wages, one pound OF meat and two
pounds of rice daily, and they allow them
estates as keep them always in debt to
| their masters Our farmers could not work
on such raticns as these men have. They
take upon rising glass of pisco, or native
whisky, and go TO work without breakfast
! This is at about 8 o'clock in the morning.
This whisky serves them until II am
when they knock off for lunch, or for what
is here called breakfast. This usually con-
sists of a stew of goat meat and rice. At
1 O'Clock they go back to work, and at
stop for the day. When they get home
they have another stew of meat and rice
and perhaps piece or so of bread. After
dinner they sit about and talk, and at or
8 o'clock lie down in the clothes which
they have worn all day and go to sleep.
They have no education, and not one in a
hundred of them can read. Their dress
costs them almost nothing. That of the
men Is made up of pair Of cotton trous-
ers. cotton shirt, pair of leather san
dalS and a straw hat. The women wear
cotton dresses and straw hats, and in ad-
dition, have black woolen shawls for feast
days and Sundays. The men also have
what are known as ponchos. These are
the overcoats of South America. They are
| merely blankets with short slit in the
middle large enough to slip the head
through. They are worn by the better
classes, as well as the poor, and are costly
or Otherwise, according TO the purse Of the
owner.
The fine farm machinery which I have
written of as being used here is, of course,
! to be found only on the large estates. The
native Pergvians do their work in the
crudest ways. Oxen with plows of wood
tipped witt iron serve as the motive power,
| and the Indian holds the plow with one
| hand and drives with a goad, as the Pales-
| tine farmers did in the days of the Scrip
lures. FRANK G. CARPENTER