Omaha daily bee., 1898-08-28

This is, in fact, the only live country that
l have so far visited in my travels on this
continent. Colombia is slice out of the
! middle ages; Ecuador has the same
customs that it had when the Spaniards
4 owned it. 1t is priest ridden and it's people
are 300 years behind the times. The
Peruvans are further advanced, but they
have little snap in them, and, as to the
4 Bolivians, they are waiting for some other
people to come in and gobble up them
/ selves and their country. You notice the
difference the moment you step OF Chiiian
soil. 1 was delighted with Antofagasta, al
| though it is a town largely built Of cor
rugated iron and driftwood. 1t had an air
Of business about it, and the spirit of
! get-up- and-get was abroad everywhere.
When 1 asked one of the citizens whether
l could post my letters without danger OF
/ the postal officials destroying them in order
! to steal the stamps, as / had been told was
| sometimes done by the clerks of the post
offices of Bolivia, he replied: Certainly
| you can. This is Chilli" He was right.
| Chilli is land of its own kind, and for
South America it is very much up-to- date.
| 1t has it's railroads, telegraphs and tele-
phones and its people have as much patriot
| ism as we have. The Chilinos, as they
| call themselves number about 3,000,0 000
They are, like the other peoples of the
| west coast, of Spanish descent and of the
product of the union Of the Spaniards and
| the Indians, but the Spanards who came
| to Chilli were largely from the Bosque
provinces of Spain. They were the best of
| the old Spaniards and today about one
third of the population are their descend
| ants These constitute the ruling and
wealthy classes of the Chilians. The other
wo-thirds are formed of the mixture of
| Spanish and Indian blood, but the Indians in
| this case were far different from the Incas
| and other tribes further north. The In
dams of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia lack
! manhood The most of them have always
| been slaves and they are contented to re-
| main slaves today. They have no virile
qualities whatever, and the mixed breeds
| which come from them partake of the same
spirit. The chief tribe of Indians here is
the Araucanlans. They are undoubtedly
| the strongest Indians in North and South
| America. It was long before they were
subdued and they caught and put to death
: Pedro Valdevia, one OF Pizarro's lieuten-
ants, who came south to conquer them. 1t
I was with these people that the Spaniards
| united, and 1t is a question whether the
| masses of the Chilians of today get most
| of their strength from them or the Span
| lardS. Inc ArauCanlanS are Dig DOneu anu
| muscular, and their women are especially
well built, recalling the words OF the old
| saw:
"If strong be the frame of the mother
her sons shall make laws for the people"
There are still about $4,000 Of these pure
| Araucanians who have settlements OF their
own in southern Chilli. These | shall de-
scribe more fully after my travels in that
mart of the country The remainder have
been assmilated with the Spanards, and
they form to a large extent the working
people and the rank and file OF the Chilian
army The temperate climate Of Chilli has
also had an influence in making the
! Chilinos stronger than the people Of the
semi tropical lands of the north.
| Cbili-The Longest of Countries.
! Ny voyage down the coast of Chilli gave
me some idea of the enormous length of
! the country. / spent five days in coming
| by steamer from the nitrate fields to VAL
paraiso. and the German ship on which l
| shall sail within a few weeks for TERRA del
| Fuego will require nine days to reach
| Punta Arenas, on the Straits of Magellan.
| Chill is more like a long drawn-out sau-
sage or a worm than any other country OF
| the world. The only country that compares
| with 1t is Egypt, which drags its weary
| length for more than a thousand miles be-
| tween deserts along the valley of the Nile.