Omaha daily bee., 1898-06-19

the distance TIL the whole horizon seems
n billowy, waving sea OF blue busted with
silver, which meets and loses Itself In a
silver blue sky. Winding in and out among
such hills, we rise TO n great desert known
at the Pampa de Islay. Here everything
is gray and dazzling white. There are hun
dreds OF huge mounds OF moving sands
which are travelling slowly hut surely over
the plain, There are tons OF bleaching
bones OF animals which have died in trying
TO cross the desert waste. and the only APP
parently living things are the mirages,
which now and then deceive the traveller
with the idea that they are cool lakes. in
verified cities or GASES OF vegetation near at
hand. At the little town OF Vitor, a mile
above the ocean, we reach the end OF the
pampa and again begin to ascend. We are
again In ragged hills and soon are travelling
among the clouds. We pass through deep
cuttings in the mountains and end the first
days travel at Arequipa, 1900 feet above
the sea.
An Expensive Railroad.
This road is said to have greater excava-
tions than any other line Of similar length.
1t is one OF the most expensive roads ever
built, having cost s44, 000, 900 for a line of
327 miles, or an average OF S135, 900 a mile.
Tn0 ROAD reaches an altltuue Ol l4,oOo lett
in crossing the Andes to the plateau of Lake
Titicaca, and here where 1t ends the al
titude is higher than the top Of Fugiyama,
the sacred snow-capped peak OF japan. 1t
has a branch line of 1872 miles going over
the plateau to within two days of Cuzco,
the famed capital Of the Incas. This rail-
road was built when Peru was rich and
when she was squandering fortunes on such
things. 1t is the work of an American en-
gineer, Meiggs, and is one Of the great en-
cheering feats OF the world. There Is talk
Of extending 1t into Bolivia, and 1t may
sometime be a part of a transcontinental
line reaching to Paraguay and the Argen-
tine. At present 1t belongs TO the Peruvian
corporation, the English syndicate which
took Peru's railroads in consideration Of re-
lieving the country of its foreign debt, but
1t is managed by an American, Mr.. Victor
Fl. McCord, who keeps 1t in almost as good
condition as any road you will find in the
United States. All of the rolling stock Is
American in pattern, though of late the
cars and engines have been made by Peru
vians in the company's shops at Arequipa.
Areauipa is the halfway station on the
road to Lake T~iticaca, and it is there that
the general offices of the road are situated.
1 visited the railroad shops and found 400
Il St Wv thEdst III Gil hllllS VI "a Noh-
struction. They make engines as good as
any used in our country, and have some
which are especially adapted to the heavy
grades of the Andes. The shops are In
charge of an American, a Mr.. Beaumont of
New Jersey, but all OF the men are Peru
VANS. Mr.. Beaumont told me that of the
l 200 hands employed in one capacity or
another on the road there were not more
than ten foreigners. 1t may interest our
railroad men to know the wages which
their kind receive down here. l give them
In American gold values and not in the sill
yer in which they are paid. Trackmen re-
ceive rs cents q day, and brakemen a SINH
lar amount. Engineers get 500 a month,
and conductors are paid from $50 to $65 a
month, according to position and length of
service. Men employed in the shops get
from rs cents and upwards per day. There
are no trades unions and the men never
strike. They work nine hours a day, and
with those who are out on the road the day
lasts without extra pay until the cars come
in.
A City of Vaults and Iron Bars.
Arequipa is the second city of Peru. 1t has
about 5000 people and is still lighted by
coal oil, though an electric lighting plant
is now being put in. The town lies in the
iitiC valley u lut 1Hlll TlNGT, WnlCn makes
an oasis of green in the midst of the desert
and gives Arequipa about fifty odd square
miles of irrigable land. Arequipa is the
commercial capital of the southern part of
the country, and a great part of the trade
OF Bolivia passes through it. Most of the
business is done by the Germans and Eng
llsh, and there is not an American house in
the city. 1t is the %neatest, prettiest and
brightest town / have yet seen in South
America. 1t is 400 odd years old, and is
battered and knocked up by the earthquakes
of the past, but as you go through it you get
the impression that the town is almost brand
new. 1t looks as though 1t had come from
a bandbox. The houses are mostly one-story
stone boxes, but their walls are painted in
the most delicate tints of blue, pink. cream.
green and gold. l posted my letters in a
postofice tinted in ashes of roses. bought
the fruit l ate for breakfast in a sky-bIue
fruit store, and cashed a draft on London
In a bank which had outer walls the color
OF gold. Another popularity of Areuuipa is
that most OF its rooms are made in the
shape of vaults. The stores are vaults ten
to hfteen feet wide and from ten to thirty
feet deep, with doors looking out upon the
streets. In many cases there is no way out
at the back, and the only light, except that
from the door, comes In through holes in
the roof. 1 ate my dinner at the hotel in
Arequipa in a vault, ! was shaved in a
vault and my sleeping room had a vaulted
roof. l went out on the roof once OF twice
to look over the city. These vaulted roofs
gave 1t the appearance of a Chinese grave
yard rather than that OF an American town.
The streets are narrow and paved with
cobbles. Down one side of each street there
Is a rushing stream of mountain water,
which carries off the sewage, and which,
as 1t gurgles through the streets at night,
makes you dream Of rain and go to the
window as soon as you awake to see IL It
really is clear or not. 1t rains only a part
OF the year in Arequipa, but when 1t does
rain 1t sometimes pours. At such times