The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-04-21

on his back We heard OF some of
these men who frequently carry $50
pounds several miles up a mountain
road for about - cents. 1t is Won
derfully cheap transportation for the
man who shortcns his life and cripples
himself by his work, but it is most eX-
pensive fol Il mining company. That
is another reason why Americans can't
mine in the Andes They can't stand
such crude methods of transportation
and its all they can get down there.
LAZY PERUVIANs.
"Moncy seems TO be no object to the
Peruvians in the interior of the coun-
try. While they will work in beaten
paths as they have been brought up to
do. they will shirk any and all labor
of a new character and out of their
regular hours Of work. No appeal. no
money will induce Peruriaus to work
when not in the mood. especially when
they wish to smoke or sleep. ] have
known the natives to sleep and smoke
alternately in the shade Of tree or
building for several days at "A time, oc-
casionally eating food within arms
reach. one day, when one of our COM
j
great strapping young native the equi-
valent of several days wages Cabout 40
ccnts) to go two miles to village with
a message to an American. Do you
know. he just yawned ana said he
would go if | would wait till he had
| had his sesta. That fellow was hungry
and penniless at the time. He worked
for 10 cents a day when he was in the
mood for labor. On another occasion
we were at the end of a branch of
Henry Meigg's Andean railroad. We
wanted to get our tent, provisions and
outfit twenty miles to silver camp
There were several hundred ranchmen
in the locality and many mules and
horses. Some of the ranchmen were
very poor and ragged. but our offer of
So and then $40 for carrying our wagon
load of stuff twenty miles had no ef-
feet. If we had offered 500 it would
have been just the same. Finally, after
wait Of eleven days, during which
we daily offered money i'm vain and
made eloquent entreaties for the trans
pOrtation of our goods the superintend-
entent of the railroad happened to
come out to the town. He was a pro-
gressivC young Peruvian from Lima
and he took pity on us. He had some
pull with ragged old ranchman near
the station and he saw that the ranch
man loaded our goods in a ricllety wag-
on and hauled them ten miles over in
the country. We offered more money
u no transported the remaining ten
miles, but the old fellow was deaf
to us. BY luck We Glanced to find "A local
carsadero, who carried the stun in two
loads on his back to the mining town ten
miles further ON for about 80 cents IL II
had not been for that professional car
gadero In the settlement we'd probably
be waiting there still for TRANSPORTATION
while our good money would be ignored
once we saw SCmc inviting loaves Of
barley bread in the window of a poor
miners home. One of Us offered the
housewife more money for loaf than
her husband could earn in two DAYS in
the mines, but because she had never sold
| bread and had not the least bit of com
mercial instinct she shook her head as if
dazed at our proposition.
UTTERLY IMPROVIDENT.
"The average Peruvians are the most
| improvideht civilized people have evcl
heard Of At inns in the interior of Peru
where the hustle and vigor of foreigner,
is not often encountered, we seldom had
meals at the same hour on any two DAYS
| In week. There was no planning ahead
for them. For instance, the dinner WOul,
be anywhere from to $50 p. M No mat
ter how hungry we Americans were tht
landlord would smile and say POGO item
po.' 1t is a common thing for a Who'll,
family of Peruvians to go to a pun hgh;
and spend all the savings of a month an.
come home to an empty larder. A ranch
man may haye herds of fine cattle auG
tiocks of fine sheep, and yet there is sell
dom milk in his house or butter or meat
| on the table. a ranchman's family vii
Subsist on black coffee, fruits and SOM
and jerked beef for a week or two at q
time, because it is not in their line to
butcher cows or ChuTn
THE railroads in Peru are unlike any
thing of the kind elsewhere in the world
We Americans, especially We Calirorn-
ians, hear a good deal about Henr,
Meiggs' wonderful railroad up the Andes
No doubt it is great piece of engineer
ing, but it seems to me that the most
wonderful part of the railroad is the faci
that the Peruvians ever let any one out
side of their country make a fortune oI
achieve any result i'm Peru. The man.
aGement of the Andcan railroad is uniuuc
There are no time cards that we could
ever discover We were simply told that
the train would go north or south in the
morning or afternoon of a certain daN
and we had to wait for it. The natives
stretched themselves out on the railroad
station platform and slept until the little
train came in, with a locomotive twenty
years behind the times and cars that we
used to see in the United States along
| in war times. There is always all the de
liberation in the world about starting the
train from the station. No one cares for
time among Peruvian railroad men. Tho
engineer jokes with the loafers about the
station ana deliberately oils and looks
over the locomotive. Stops of twenty
minutes at ordinary stations are com
mon, Nearly all so-Called accommoda-
tiOn trains are run three times a week
The trains rattle along at twelve miles
an hour and will stop for the night at a
station. Then the next morning the en-
gneer will stoke M his locomotive and
the train will jOggle on again, stopping
for rest when night comes on. [ don't
believe there IS train run in the night
on Henry Meggs' railroad in Peru A
man at Lima told me that a few years
ago a locomotive ran off the track and
rolled down a thirty foot embankment
and that II was ten days before the loco
motive was put on the track. The work
men worked lcisurelE along in the day
time and quit at each niehtfalI. Mean
while traffic on that branch Of the road
was suspended"
CANDLE-MAKING IN SWEDEN.