The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-03
VISIT TO THE ClTY'S MARKETS
THE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES OF
INTERIOR SOUTH AMERICA.
Frozen Potatoes, Beans Which Taste
Like Ice Cream, and Corn Which
Is Flour without Grinding.

from the Pacific ocean, across the highest
range of mountains on our hemisphere, In
the least known country of South America,
it lies in a little basin on one of the highest
plateaus of the earth. have seen the walls
of Picking, of Jerusalem and of Seoul, the
capital of Corea None of them is over fifty
feet high. La Paz has walls a thousand
feet high, and upon one side of it towers the
famed snow-capped peak of Illimani, one of
the three highest 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 other cities. God
made the walls of La Paz. The great b.
Hvian plateau, which stretches away to the
north and south almost level as the
waters of Lake Tfticaca, abruptly drops at
La Paz so as to form here a basin which,
by actual measurements, is about one thou
sand feet deep. In this basin the city is
built, and the green, precipitous slopes form
its walls, except on one side, where the
Andes, ragged and torn, rise in ragged
grandeur in all the colors of the Colorado
canyon. Coming to La Paz on the stage
from Lake Titicaca you ride for forty-five
miles across a plain, by villages of mud
huts, through little farms of barley, guinea
and potatoes. On one side of you is the
mountain wall Of the great Sorau range,
the highest of the Andes, and you gallop on
and on over seemingly endless plain. The
team is one of eight mules, changed every
three hours. If you sit with the driver, as
l did, you grow tiresN at last and look in
vain through the clear air for the city. 1t
is nowhere in sight AT last, on the brink
of precipice, the mules are pulled back
on their launches. the stage stops, and
there below you 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 togethe. along
narrow streets. Here and there is church;
at one end is 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
SIS in getting down to the city. You see
parallel roads far below you, and at last,
having left the heights, gallop over the cob
ble-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.
~ OAh
The sights of La Paz form a perpetual
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.
lavender, yellow, creams and green. They
are of one and two stories, so open to the
street that you can see much that goes on
within. Tho 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
yelloWs, blues and greens that aniline dyes
combined with the Indian taste for the
gaudy can make. The especially bright gar
ment is the poncho or blanket, with a hole
in the center for the neck which every In
dian man and boy wears. These are usually
colored in stripes and are worn almost con-
stantly 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 addition a black
felt hat. He wears pantaloons which make
one think Of the days when our girls padded
their hips and panners were in vogue His
pantaloonS 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 dickey
shirt order, or merely half leg of white
cotton sewed fast to the inside of the legs
of tho trousers; in order that he may the
easier roll up the latter when in the wet
grass or crossing a stream. The Indian
women wear hats and their dresses are as
gaudy as the blankets of the men, and
everywhere there are other queer costumes
as we shall see in the market further on.
La Paz has about sc. 200 people. 1t is the
chief commercial city of Bolivia, but it has
not street car, cab nor a dray. doubt
If it has a dozen private carriages, and as
for one and two-horse wagons these are
unknown. In going about town every one
walks, and all of the heavy traffic is car
ried on by mules, donkeys llamas or IN
dams. My trunks are carried from one
place to another on the backs of Indians
and / pay each man about eight cents a
trunk. The bread carrier of La Paz is a
donkey with skin boxes, in which the bread
is kept, swung across his back The beer
wagon Is a mule VINO mas q large case of
bottles upon each of its sides, and the fur
niture movers, whether the thing moved be
table or piano. ara Indians, who carry
the articles upon their backs, heads or
shoulders. from one house to the other.
Freight is brought into the city on mules,
llamas, donkeys and Indians. The fuel of
the city is, as l have said, llama manure
This all comes in on the backs of llamas in
bags. Coco is brought chiefly on donkeys
and Peruvian bark and rubber from the
hotter lands lower down come the same
way. I saw an odd load on mule yester-
day. 1t was limp bundle about five and
a half feet long. and perhaps eighteen
inches In diameter, thrown over the mule,
so that the ends hung down at the same
distance from the ground on each side
Beside II on another mule rode policeman
and crowd OF Indian women came wailing
behind. 1t Was the dead body Of woman
rolled up In a blanket She had been mur-
Haxnd q fauz dave before for abnuf ksn .uvfirf,