The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-22


| how compactly the city is built. and we see
| more of this during our walk. There are no
| gardens and very few back yards The
| larger houses cover a great deal of space,
as they are confined to one, or at most, two
| floors. The smaller ones are in many cases
so small that it is hard to imagine they are
houses at all. There are hundreds of little
blind alleys which are reached through
doors in the walls along the main streets,
which have cell-like rooms, not over ten
feet square. Each of these rooms is a
house, and in one such alley which / visited
to-day 1 was told that the average was
about eight people to each tenement Such
houses have back yards about six feet
square, surrounded by high walls. They
have no windows, and the light comes in
through the front and back door. None of
the houses of Lima have chimneys. The
most of the cooking is done over charcoal
fires. Even the best houses have few win
dows on the ground floor and as rule the
light comes from the interior courts or the
roof. In the two-story houses of the better
class galleries run around the courts, and
the rooms opening out into these are very
large and airy All outside windows and
doors are barred with iron, and the better
parts of the city make you think of a long
homes, which are entered through IRON
barred gates, and the doors going into what
seem to you blank walls lead into palatial
mansions, surrounding courts filed with
flowers
In the business sections the people live in
the second stories, which are divided up into
flats or apartments. There are many floors
rented out, and only the rich have large
houses. The ground floors are stores and
shops open to the street The stores have
no windows and the doors run the full
width of the store, so that the whole front
is showed back or taken away during BUSH
ness hours. The light is usually from the
front, though the larger establishments
have courts and extend long distance to
the rear Many Of the shops are more like
caves than anything else. They are cells,
separated only by thin walls, and walk
along the Mercadores is more like journey
through museum or an American depart
ment store than along the chief business
street of a city. The business streets are
from twenty to thirty feet wide, more often
the former, and the sidewalks are not over
four feet in width. Four people cannot we'll
walk abreast, and party crowds you or
the pavement. A donkey with panniers
took the right of way from me this morn
ing, l.
him go by.
LAZY MEN AND PRETTY WOMEN.
The street scenes of Lima are interesting.
Let us stop under the arcade, which runs
about the plaza, and watch the crowds.
Here are some of the best shops of the city.
They are full of fine goods, and here be-
tween and o'clock every afternoon the
people come to buy and do business. These
hours are the gayest of the day, and the
crowd is now as thick as that of lower
Broadway at noon. 1t is a far different
crowd, however. No one hurries. The men
saunter along or stand on the street and
chat with their friends. We see little knots
of men every few yards, and the messen-
gers, the merchants and clerks seem to
have time and to spare. Nearly every one
is we'll dressed. There are many plug hats
and kid gloves, and nearly every man, old
and young, carries a cane. They are very
polite They bow, smile, shake hands and
lift their hats when they meet, and bow,
smile and tip their hats when about to de-
part. They are the pink of perfection as
far as form goes, and you would imagine
them gentlemen of leisure rolling in wealth.
The truth is most of them are poor. Peru
has been playing losing game with for
tune for years. and the day of her enor-
will look closely you will see that many
coat is shiny at the seams and that many
Of the silk hats are fast losing their nap
There are, perhaps, more reduced gentle
men here than in any other city of the
world. The Chileans looted the country some
years ago and took away it's chief sources
of revenue. The Peruvians have been los
ing from that day to this. They have been
patronizing the pawnbrokers and the foreign
bond buyers until the people nationally and
individually are comparatively poor. They
are not business people, and having fall
en- do not know how to get up. The BUSH
ness of the country is, in fact, in the hands
Of foreigners, and there are not two big
Peruvian business houses in this Peruvian
capital. The young Peruvians are clerks in
the stores or the government offices, while
their fathers, as a rule, are skimping along
on the remains of their once great estates.
THE PRETTY GIRLS OF LIMA,
But we must not forget where we are. We
are In one of the main streets of Lima at
4:SO p. M, and some of the prettiest women
south of the equator are going to and fro
past us. If you could drop this street down
in an American city, how our young men
would stop and open their eyes. How their
mouths would water as they saw the lus-
cious lips all about us, and how they would
drink in the beauty of the Lima girls eyes
The young ladies of Lima! They are class
nearer perfection in beauty and form than
any girls have ever seen. They are straight
and we'll rounded, and their soft, round
beautiful faces, with their luxurious black
hair combed high UP from the foreheads,
are lighted up with eyes which fairly shine
with the souls of the owners. If you would
drop Lima down in New York the men
would think the city had been taken by
young widows or female orphans who had
just gone into mourning. All of the ladies
of Lima dress in black when they go out to
walk They do not wear bonnets, but wrap
fine shawls of black goods about their
heads, pinning them fast on their backs, so
that the face alone shows. The background
adds to their beauty, and the costume, on
the whole, is a good one. 1t saves the buy
ing of new hats and bonnets, and is easy to
put on or take off. Many a seedy waist and
frowsy head, doubt not, are hidden under
those black shawls. and the wearers are
never bothered by the question which one
of our girls asked her mother, when pre-
pairing for an evening function calling over
the banisters. Ma shall wash for high
or low-neck dress?' The Peruvian woman
needs to wash only her face for the streets.
for the rest of her person is hidden AS a.
rule, l am told, she often dispenses with
washing her face, for in Peru they say that
cold water brings fevers and that frequent