The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-07-03
La PAz WITH ILLIMANI IN THE DIS TANCE.

Of 1t towers the famed snow-capped
PEAK of Illimani, one of the three high
est of the Andes, which kisses the
morning and evening suns at an alti-
tude Of more than four miles above the
sea. Man made the walls of o.hsr
cities. God made the walls of La Paz.
The great Bolivian plateau, which
stretches away to the rorth and south
almost as level as the waters of Lake
Titicaca, abruptly drops at La Paz so
as to form here a basin. which by ac-
tual measurements is about 1000 feet
deep. In this basin the city is built and
the green precipitous slopes form it's
walls, except on one side, where the
Andes, ragged and torn, rise in ragged
grandeur in all the colors of the Colora-
do canyon.
Coming to La PaZ on the stage
from Lake Titicaca you ride for forty
i've miles across a plain, by villages
of mud huts. throu gh lille farms of
barley, guinea and potatoes. On one
side of you is the mountain wall Of the
great Sorati range, the highest of the
Andes, and you gallop on and on over
a seemingly endless plain. The team
Is one of the eight mules changed every
three hours. If you sit with the driv-
er, as did, you grow tired at last and
look in vain through the clear air for
the city. 1t is nowhere in sight At
last on the brink Of a precipice the
mules are pulled back on their
launches, the stage stops, and there
below lies La PaZ. 1t is SO far down
that you can make out only the out
lines. You see a plain covered with
terra cotta-roofed houses jumbled to-
gether along narrow streets. Here
the big white building which forms the
penitentiary, and just under you the
walled Enclosure made of white pigeon
holes in which the dead La Pazites
are slowed away at so much rent per
year until their descendants forget to
pay and the holes are wanted for the
generations to come. The stage winds
about over a road that curves in and
out in loops and figure Fights in get
ting down to the city. You see par
allel roads far below you, and at last,
having left the heights, gallop over the
the cobble-stone pavements of La PaZ.
The town you now find to be one of
hills and valleys. Its streets go up
and down, and the altitude is such
that you can walk but a very few
steps without stopping to breathe.
A PERPETUAL MASQUERADE.
~ The sights of La Paz form a per-
petual masquerade of bright colors and
curious scenes. The very houses look
as though they were intended for the
stage rather than real life. The roofs
of terra Gotta tiles look so clean in the
clear air that you can count every piece
of which they are made. The walls
of the. houses are painted In the most
delicate tints of pink, sky blue, laven-
der, yellow, cream and green. They
.N,-1.~ 10
to the street that you can see much
that goes on within. The colors on the
streets are even brighter than those
of the houses. There are in the city at
least five Indians to every white, and
these dress in the brightest reds, yell
lows, blues and greens that aniine
dyes combined with the Indian taste
for the gaudy can make. The es-
pecially bright garment is the poncho
or blanket, with a hole in the center
for the neck, which every Indian man
and boy wears.
These are usually colored in stripes
and are worn almost constantly day
and night Every Indian has also a
bright-colored knit cap with knit ear
flaps hanging down on each side of
his face, and he sometimes has in ad-
dition black felt hat. He wears pam
falcons which make one think of the
days when our girls padded their hips
ana pannlers were in vogue. His pan
falcons are cut full at the hips and the
tops of the pockets stick wide out at
each side. The legs Of the trousers
are full and from the knee down at
the back they are slit wide apart.
showing what at first seem to be wide
drawers, which flop about the ankles
Investigate them, however, and YOU
find they. are drawers made on the
diokey shirt order, or merely half leg
of white cotton sewed fast to the in
side of the legs of the trousers, in or
der that he may the easier roll up the
latter when in the wet grass or cross
ing a stream. The Indian women wear
hats, and their dresses are as gaudy
as the blankets of the men, and every
where there are other queer costumes,
as we shall see In the markets further
on.
= La Paz has about $4,000 people. It
IS the chief commercial city OF Bolivia,