The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-22
TOUR OF THE CITY'S STREETS
AMONG THE BEAUx AND BELLIES OF
A GREAT SOUTH AMERICAN CITY.
The Lima Beauties and Their Curious
ment-I.ima ON Horseback.
lcopzrighted. 1Sgs. by Frank G. carpenter.l

of this hemisphere. We are in Lima, the
capital of Peru. The streets on which we
| stand were laid out more than three hun
dred years ago. Lima was a city when
| Boston was in its swadding clothes, when
| Philadelphia was baby, and all to the
| west and south of 1t an unbroken wilder
ness can show you houses here which
are two hundred years older than Chicago
| or Cincinnati, and can even introduce you
| to one of the Oldest citizens, the founder
| of the town. who, dried and picked by this
| pure Peruvian air, has for over three CEN
| turtles stayed here with his property. / re-
fer to the Spanish freebooter. Indian robber
| and butcher, Pizarro. who laid out Lima
| in 1885, He was assassinated on the spot
where the President of Peru now lives, and
his skeleton and his brains, corked up in
a bottle, are kept in a glass case in the
cathedral across the way. The skin is dried
| and it sticks to the bones. but with the
| exception of a patch which has been cut
| off here and there for relic hunters the hide
| is intact, though decidedly leathery and
worse for the wear.
Everything but money lasts long in Lima.
Where else in the world will you find city
built of mud three hundred years old?
Lima has more than one hundred thousand
people, and it is built of mud. 1t is about
six miles around it and two miles from
one side of it to the other. 1t has a net
work of narrow streets, which cross one
another at right angles. with spaces clipped
out here and there for parks or plazas.
The houses are all of one or two stories,
flush with the sidewalks, and in the bust
ness section cage-like balconies hang out
from the second stories. so that you are
shielded from the sun as you pass through
the city. Lima looks wonderfully substan-
tial, and you would imagine it to be made
of massive stone, which here and there is
wonderfully carved Some of the walls
look like marble, others initiate granite, and
the houses Of all the colors of the rainbow
line the streets like substantial walls. About
the chief square there are inclosed bal
| comics from the second story walled with
| glass, and under these are what look like
| massive stone pillars forming an arcade or
| cloister around two sides Of the square in
| front of the stores. These pillars are of
mud, the polished walls of the houses are
| made of sun-dried brick coated with plaster
| of paris, and the second stories are a COM
| bination of mud and bamboo cane Think Of
great city built Of mud and fishing poles.
| That is Lima. There are some of the finest
| churches here on the continent made of
mud. The great cathedral of Lima, which
| cost millions, is a mud structure, and could
you take a sharpened rail and shove it
against one of it's massive towers it would
go through the wall like bird cage
LIMA FROM THE HOUSETOPS.
But let us get up on the roof of our hotel
and take a birds eye view of the city be-
fore we begin to explore it. We are now in
vast field Of flat roofs, above which here
and there rise the massive towers of the
| great churches for which Lima Is noted AT
| the back of us, at the edges Of this field.
| are the bleak foothills of the Andes, gray
| and forbidding, their tops in a smoky sky
| and with white clouds rushing here and
there on their sides. On the edges of the city
we see the green crops of the valley of the
| Rimac river, and over there are the three
| bridges which cross this stream as it flows
| through Lima. Look down upon the roofs
| all about you. They are more like garden
beds than the coverings of the houses Don't
| stamp your feet or walk heavily as YOU
move about. The roof trembles under us
and with little effort we could push our
feet through The supports of many of the
| roofs are merely cane poles, on which dirt
is spread. On some mating is first put and
then a layer of earth, sand or ashes. 1t is
| supposed to never rain here, and from year s
| end to years end Lima has not a shower.
| Waterproofs are unknown and the umbrella
| members cry is never heard 1t is on this
account that these mud walls stand through
out generations, and it is, indeed, through
| lack of rain that Lima exists. A big shower
| would reduce the town to mud heap while
| a two weeks pour would wipe it out of ex-
| istence Even here, however nature some
| times varies her course. Last year the peo-
| pie were Mortified by hearing the raindrops
pattering on the roofs. The water which
fell would have hardly been called a sprinkle
in some parts of the world, but it did more
damage here than an earthquake
| CHICKENS LIVE ON THE ROOFS.
| Much of the light of the Lima houses
| comes from the roofs Each house has a
court in the center. and many of the larger
| buildings are cut up by courts around
which the rooms rum When there is a
double row of rooms the inner ones are
lighted by little dormers which extend up
through the fiat roofs, and which look like
chicken coops from where we are standing.
| 1t is difficult, in fact, to tell the dormers
from the chicken coops. There are thou
sands of chickens which are born, lay their
eggs and grow fat on the roofs of this city.
There is a hen cackling on the opposite
roof now. 1 am awakened every night by the
Growing of the ROSTERS above me, and the
noise of the early morning in the middle of
Lima makes me imagine myself in a barn
| yard. There is one asthmatic old rooster
which crows me awake regularly at a. m.
and another that sometimes makes the air
shake at night. / have not yet seen a COW
on the roofs, though I am told that some
families have their stables so located, the
cattle not being taken down until they are
ready for killing.
From such buildings you might think the
houses of Lima would be always tumbling
down, and that the city would be in constant
danger from fires. This is not the case.
The houses are almost earthquake proof.
the larger buildings often having their first
story walls from four TO six feet thick,
though those of the second story are thin.
These mud walls never take fire. The fur
niture may go up in smoke. but as soon as
the roof is ablaze ii falls In, and the mud
which covers it puts out the fire. There
| are, indeed bat few losses from fires here.
and even out in the country away from the