The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-10-16
BACKNrOODS OF CHILE
QUEER GOVERNMENT AUCTIONS,
WHERE LAND is SOLD IN
THOUSAND-ACRE LOTS
OPENING THEM TO SETTLERS


The Chances for Investment-
Big Farms viii Soon BE Closed
out at Mortgage Sales.
Copyrighted 1898, by Frank G. Carpenter.
CONCEPTION, Chile, Sept. 81 have
just returned from a trip through the
backWoods of Chile, a region which
travellers seldom visit and of which
many who have visited this part Of the
world would doubt the existence,
Northern Chile is a desert. For 1000
miles south Of the Peruvian frontier
there are not enough trees to furnish
switches for the public schools. rode
hundreds of miles south Of Santiago
through irrigated farms where the only
trees to be seen were those planted
along the borders Of the bitches, and
1t was only in the neighbOrhOod of Con-
cepcion that l found woods Of any size.
From here l have gone a days ride by
train TO what is known as the frontier.
] passed many vast farms cut out Of
the forest, where the stump-filled fields
reminded me of the newly settled re-
giOns of our wooded Northwest. South
Chile is covered with forest. 1t con-
tains some of the best land in the coun-
try, and it has so much rain that the
farms do not require irrigation. This
country mas DGeD a WlIueIuSSS uulIA
within recent years. Now the govern
ment is opening it up to settlement.
The railroads are being steadily eX-
tended further south and new towns
and villages are springing up along
them.
CHILEAN FRONTIER TOWN.
These frontier towns remind one Of
the new settlements of the United
States. Take Temuco, for instance,
where I spent some days last week.
1t is twelve years old, and it has 10000
people. 1t covers about as much space
as an American city Of the same size.
Its streets are wide and filled with
black mud, and its one and two-story
houses which line them are wooden.
They have ridge roofs, and many Of
them are mere shanties. Every house
has 81 flag staff, and, although the eli
mate here is about as cold as that
of Washington not d house has a oh M
Dey. The people generally believe that
fires are unhealthy, and like the Chin
csc rely upon their clothes to keep them
warm. The TemucO streets cross one
another at right angles, and in the
center of the town there is park or
plaza Of about an acre, where the
military band plays and where the peo-
pie walk about on Sunday afternoons
and stare at each other.
1t has a club, where you find the
last English, German and Chilean pa
pers. 1t has three hotels, two French
and one German, all Of which are bet
ter than the hotels Of towns Of the
same size in the states. 1t has plenty
of saloons, where raw alchOl is sold to
the poems or la bOTers and the Indians,
but fewer than an American town OF its
character where the liquors are drunk
on the spot. 1t has Catholic churches,
and already our own Methodist Epis-
cOpal people, who have done so much
for education in Chile, have estab-
lished a missionary church an school
here. The street scenes of Temuco are
different from those OF our frontier.
There are more queer costumes. There
are dark-faced Indians, Germans and
we1l-dressed Spanish Chileans. Men
with pOnchOs over their shoulders, dark
faces and the air of brigands drive the
OK carts which lumber through them
Each man carries a gOad fifteen feet
long, and directs the oxen by striking
them on this side and tht. Now and
then you see teams Of six and eight
of these beasts. The oxen are the only
draught nimals, excepting the six rag
ged horses which haul the two cabs
between the railroad station and the
hotel. 1t IS in OK carts that the thou
sands of bushels of wheat raised near
by are brought to the markets. Oxen
everywhere do the blowing, the haul
ing Of lumber, the draying and every
thing that heavy horses or mules do
with US. The method of yoking the
oxen is the same here as all over
Chile. The yoke rests on the neck just
back of the horns. 1t is tied by straps
TO the horns, and all of the pushing
or pulling of the cart or plow must
be done with the head. The yoke is
a heavy piece Of wood and so fastened
that one OK cannot move his head
without the other, and so that 1t IS
impossible to swing 1t from side to side.
The tongue Of the frontier cart is as
big as a telegraph pole 1t is a part
OF the cart itself, and as the oxen
work they have the weight Of this rest
ing on their horns. 1t seems cruel in
the extreme, and the oxen seem to me
to move painfully along, with protrud-
ing eyes, as they drag their heavy
loads.
HOW LAND IS SOLD IN CHILE.
In company with Don Augustine
Balza, the government inspector of COL
onization, I made a trip into the will
derness over the thirty kilometers of
new railroad, which is almost finished
but not yet ready for traffic. The road
IS being built by the state to open up
new lands, and it is part Of a system
ricultural Chile to the other. The road
is well built with siXty-pound English
rails and the English four feet gauge
IL Will cost, exluding the bridges,
about $4,000 gold per mile The roll
ing stock will be American, and 1t was
in a Baldwin engine and on American
hand cars that we made q part Of our
journey over the line The steel brldg-
es.-and there are two, each of which
cost more than q hundred thousand
dollars, were bought from France, al
though why America did not get the
contract l do not know, a large num-
Der of the best Of the present railroad
bridges having been imported from the
United States. The stations were built
and wide space fenced in about each
of them. There are as yet no towns
about the stations. The government
regulates such settlements. 1t lays out
the town lots, giving them at low
prices to actual settlers. The railroad
town boomer thus has no chance along
the new state lines of Chile. The other
government lands are sold in large
lots and at auctions Which are held in
different parts Of the country once or
twice a year. Just now money is scarce
here and valuable lands go very cheap.
The land is usually sold in pieces of
1900 acres, but one purchaser can buy
at each sale UP to 5000 acres, and If
he wants more he can of course, pur-
chase the additional amount through
q third party or under another name.
AT such sales a quarter of q million
acres are sold at a time The land
brings from $1.75 to $33 gold per acre,