The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-06-05

is only about $3.50 of our money. Part
of the time I have paid $780, silver,
day for my room and coffee and toast
In the morning, taking my other meals
at the clubs. There are several good
clubs here, the chief of which are the
National, the Union and the Phoenix.
All have good libraries, the latest pa
pers from all parts of the world, bill
lizards and card rooms and comfortable
parlOrs. The meals cost 81, silver. or
about SO cents of our money, and for
this sum you can get a better dinner
here than you get at any American
club for from five to ten times the
amount.
The people here take more time to
their meals than we do. Almost all of
the stores close at noon for one hour
to allow the proprietors and their clerks
to go home to breakfast, as they call
| it. You will seldom find business
man in his office between II and 1, and
everything begins to shut up for the
night at p. m. AT 7 the whole Of
bushnell Lima is shut up as tight as the
head of drum. The stores, as have
said, have no windows. They are more
like caves in the walls than stores,
for their front doors extend the full
width of the store These doors are
taken away during business hours, and
at such times Lima looks like a great
bazaar
The stores are filled with fine goods,
which are piled up in attractive shapes
on the counters and on the floors, so
that walking along the Mercadores or
on the streets facing the Plaza des
Armes is like going through an inter-
esting museum. AT night, however,
when the fronts of the stores have
been closed, the streets are lined with
black walls There are no display win
| doWs, and everything seems hermeti-
cally sealed. Only here and there you
see cigar shop, store selling cooked
eatables or drug store which is OPEN
AS it grows dark the bird-cage-like
balconies above the stores shut up, and
! the city in some of it's parts seems
almost city of the dead. 1t is far
from dead, however. There is lots Of
/ fun going on behind the closed win
dows, and the people sit up late and
delight in social enjoyment.
WILL THE AMERICANS GET IT?
Some Of the best things offered here
I in business way are of the electrical
| order. Lima is a city of 100, 900 people,
/ and has tramway upon which 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 managed are almost al
| ways FULL am told that the roads
are now paying, although I 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 it would probably pay well,
and might be as big bonanza as the
Mexlca City street railways, which sold
for $7,000,00G At present there are two
or three American parties who are fig
ur1ng on the proposition of buying the
horse car lines and extending the sys-
/ tenn from here to Callao and Chorillos
the seaside resort Of Lima.
Callao has about $4,000 people, and il
is the port for Lima. There is a Hat
road between the two cities, and line
connecting them could be cheaply built
The power for such roads during most
of the year could be gotten from the
River Rimac, which flows through
Lima, and which has, am told, fall
OF thirty feet between that city AND
these. Among the parties who are in
Vestlgat1ns the matter is the South
American Power and Traction com.
pany. This company has been formed
am told, to build the road, and its
agent, Mr.. Robert S. Forbes is now il
the North making arrangements t.
build. l understand that the presiden
of Peru has given, them a certain time
to complete their arrangements. The
parties interested are said to be Mr.
: John Searles, of New York; the Gen
eral Electric Company of America ant
an electric company of Berlin. The
German company has sent an engineer
out here to investigate the situation
The price asked for the tramway line
which belongs to two men, is f65, OOt
sterling. 1t could probably be bough
for considerably less, and is valuable
only on account of it's franchise cover
ing the
STREETS OF LIMA
and lasting a number of years
Another person who has been here
looking up the street railway promo.
sition is Mr.. 1. K. Pierson. president OF
the gainesville & Cleveland Street Rail
way company. He says the receipts
of the present tramway line could be
4 increased 500 day by good manage
.ment, and that a large amount could
be saved by putting in registers tc
prevent the conductors from cheating
In connection with the first company
an electric light contract has been Of
fered by the government of 100000 sill
yer, for sertain number of additional