Omaha daily bee., 1898-08-28
capital Santiago, 100 miles away. without

capital, Santiago, 100 miles away, without
| extra charge
Valparaiso has a tramway system operated
\ by horse power, which might be profitably
changed to run by electricity, especially so
! IL some INSCRIPTIONS party should pursue
| the policy of Spaniard who, II the story
! of his intentions is true, has made a good
| but rather tricky speculation in the Santi-
! ago street car lines These are now run
| with horses, with very pretty girls as con-
ductors, and they pay, l am told, clear
profit of more than 5000, 900 in gold a year.
A short time ago the old charter Of the
! company ran out and the city, wishing to
| have the system changed to that Of cleo
| tricity, gave the concession to this Spanish
gentleman with the provso that he deposit
| $200, 900 in Chilian money, or about $1,000
gold as a forfeit in case he did not finish
and complete the electric system within
three years time. My informant tells me
that the Spaniard has no intention of at
tempting a change. He will run the roads
as they are now, and at the end of the three
years his profits will amount to 100000, so
that he can easily afford to lose the $4,000
forfeit The street railroads of Valparaiso
are still run with horses, and should think
that electric roads would pay both here and
in Santiago. Santiago is a city Of 250,000
people, aud the cars are we'll patronized.
They are Of the kind called double deckers,
with seats on the roof as well as below. The
rates are very cheap, being cents in this
money, or about Is cents American. The
pretty conductors wear sailor hats, and over
their dark dresses white aprons, in the
pockets of which they put their money and
tickets. There are similar conductors on the
tramways of Iquique. While riding upon the
cars there l noticed that men inspectors
often came in and counted the passengers,
in order to see that the girls were not
knocking down" fares, and | was told that
the conductresses had nicknamed these in
spectors "Judases."
American Commerce In Chill.
The foreign commerce of this country an
nually amounts to from one hundred to one
hundred and twenty-five millions of gold
dollars year. and of this our exports and
imports do not often exceed 5000, 900.
Within the last few years our trade has
been steadily increasing, and today we are
sending many different kinds of machinery,
cotton goods, lard, kerosene railroad loco
motives and small amounts OF hundreds of
other things to Chilli. Quite lot of our
agricultural machinery has been introduced.
The most of the Chilan newspapers are
now printed from American type on paper
from the United States and l see from the
trade mark that the stamps and postal
cards are made by an American banknote
company. Nearly all the -four bags OF Chill
are made from cotton manufactured in New
England. l see about here steel wind mills
which come from Chicago, and much of the
electric machinery is OF American make
found an agent OF the Westinghouse COM
pany at Iquique, and the General Electric
has its agents here. At present an Amer
lean electric plant is being put in at Punta
Arenas, the southernmost city of our hemis-
phere, and steel plates are being sent from
Pittsburg TO Valparaiso. There are now two
or three large firms here which devote
themselves to the importation and introduc-
tion OF American goods. One is that OF
Grace & Co.. which has an English branch
as we'll as its New York house, and another
is the old firm of Beeche & Co., which has
lately united with Flint, Eddy & Co. OF New
York. Beeche Co. handle nothing but
, American goods. They have their agents
and travelling statesmen all over Chilli, and
are anxious to push the sale OF American
manufactures, Both the Graces and Beecht
} Co. do big business, and the general in.
crease in our trade here is largely due tC
their efforts. l doubt, however whether the
United States can ever equal Germany oil
England in this market. We buy compar.
t atiyely little Of Chill, and without the in.
} crease in the beet sugar industry creates .