Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-06-04


club for from I'VE to ten times the
amount
The people here take more time to
their meals than we do. They take
life more easily. Almost all of the
stores close at noon for one hour to al
low tine proprietors and their clerks to
go home to breakfast, as they call IT,
You VIII seldom find a business man
in his oiiice between IL and 1, and
everything begins to shut up for the
night at p. m. At the whole Of
business Lima Is shut up as tight as
the head of drum. The stores, us
have said, have no windows. They
are more like caves in the walls than
stores, for their front doors extend the
fun width Of the store. These doors
re taken away during business hours,
and at such times Lima looks like
great bazaar. The stores are filed
with fine goods, which are piled up
in attractive shapes on the counters
and on the lloors,so that walking along
| the Mercadores or on the streets fac
ing the Plaza des Armes is like going
through an interesting museum. AT
night, however, when the fronts OF the
stores have been closed, the streets
are lined with black walls. There are
no display windows, and everything
seems Theoretically sealed. Only here
and there you see a cigar shop store
selling cooked eatables or n drug store
which is open. AS II grows dark the
| bird chge-like balconies above the
stores shut up. and the city in some of
its parts seems almost city of the
dead. 1t is far from dead, however
There is lots OF fun going on behind
| the closed windows. and the people sit
up late and delight in social enjoy
ment.
WILL THE AMERICAN GET IT?
% .I,f 40,
here In a business way are of the cleo
trical order. Lima is a city Of 100000
people, and II has a tramwav upon
which the cars are drawn by horses.
The line of tracks reaches all parts OF
the city, and the cars, although they
are irregularly run and poorly man
aged, are almost always full. l am
told that the roads are now paying, al
though ] could see that the conductors
are cheating the company right along,
and that they do nothing to increase
their custom. If this system could be
replaced by an electric line 1t would
probably pay well, and might be as
big bonanza as the Mexico City street
railways, which sold for 100000 At
present there are two or three Ameri
can parties who are figuring on the
proposition of buying the horse car
lines and extending the system from
here to Callao and Chorillos. the sea-
$4,000 people, and II is the port for
Lima. There is fiat road between
the two cities and II line connecting
thsn could be cheaply built, The
power for such roads during the most
of the year could be gotten from the
River Rimac. which flows through
Lima, and which has. 1 am told, fah
of thirty feet between that city and
these. Among the parties who are in
vestigating the matter is the South
American Power and Traction COM
pany, This company has been formed,
l am told. to build the road, and its
agent, Mr.. Robert S. Forbes, is now in
the north making the arrangements to
build. | understand that the president
Of Peru has given them a certain time
to complete their arrangements. The
parties interested are said to he Mr..
John Searles of New York, the General
Electric company of America and an
electric company of Berlin. The Ger
man company has sent an engineer out
here to investigate the situation. The
price asked for the tramway line, which
belongs to two men, is $1,000 pounds
sterling. It could probably be bought
for considerably less, and is valuable
only on accourir>of its franchise. cover
ing the streets of Lima and lasting for
number of years. Another person
who has been here looking up the street
railway proposition is Mr.. I. *. Pier
son, president of the gainesville and
Cleveland Street Railway company. He
says the receipts OF the present tram
way line could be increased 500 n day
by good management, and that large
amount could be saved by putting in
registers to prevent the conductors
from cheating. In connection with the
first company. an electric light con-
tract has been offered by the govern,
ment of $4,000. silver, for q certain
number of additional electric lights, and
a good electric lighting business, II Is
thought. can be added to that of the
car lines. At present Lima is lighted
by gas and electricity, and 1t is one of
the best lighted of the South American
cities The gas lamps are upheld by
old-fashioned iron brackets. which ex-
tend out from the walls Of the houses,
and there Is lamp about every hun
dred feet. Gas costs here about 50,
gold, thousand feet. The city has al
so about twenty-five are lights and n
number of incandescent lights of the
Thompson Houston kind.
Other cities in Peru where electricity
might be introduced are ArCquipa, in
the interior q tho southern part of .hc
country, and in the old city OF C'uzco
where the IucSs had their caIital.
Arequipa is one of TIE good business
cities OF Peru. II contains $4,000 peo>
pie. but is sim lighted by gas, and its
street cars are little affairs half as
long as ours and drawn by horses.
CuZco has 10000 people, and relies upon
gas lamps. The city of Lima pays
$4,000 q year for light. am told that
the government here protects foreign
investors, and that even in times OF
revolution foreign property is compare
lively safe. All foreign factories ana
plantations have signs up over tho
doors of their houses stating that the
property is English, French or German,
as the case may be,
A VISIT TO THE LIMA PENITEN-
TIARY.
7 will close this letter with a note on
the Lima penitentiary. l visited It yes
terday. and found II had been modelled
after the penitentinry in Philadelphia.
over the door to each workshop were
the words, "Sienoio, Obediencia, Ira
bajo," meaning silence obedience and
work. There We're 800 prisoners n few
in for murder, but most of them for
stealing and minor offenses. As far
as I could see, the prison is clean and
well kept, but ! judge some of the
punishments are very severe, for the
director told me how he had recently
had to put man under the water
spout, allowing n stream of the thick
ness of your finger to fall for some time
on a certain spot on the mans head
This was, ] think, one of the punlsh>
ments of the inqulsition. II is done
only with watch in hand, as IL con.
tlnued long enough 1t causes insanity
or death l watched the prisoners al
their meals. They are better fed than
the average Of their class outside the