The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-11


The plaza itself is a beautiful little park
containing several fountains. palm trees
and many tropical plants and flowers 1t is
surrounded by q hexagonal walk or prom
enade sixty feet wide, which Is as beauti-
fully laid as any tiled floor of Washington
vestibuie.
THE STORES OF SANTIAGO.
Let us go over there and enter the por-
tales to watch the people buying and selling.
This is one of the oldest sections of Sam
tiago and the town, you know. was more
than two centuries of age when Washington
city was born. The portales have stores
much like those of the old cities Of Spain,
and far different from the more modern
shops on the other side of the plaza. They
are merely caves in the walls, and their
floors are filled with piles of goods so ar
ranged that it is easy for the purchasers
TO handle them. Some of the merchants
have stacked up their best cloths in the
doorways or on the walks outside. There
are scores of women moving to and fro
through these portales. Many are shopping,
and the desire for a good bargain is quite
as keen here as at home. The most of the
women wear black gowns and their heads
are clad in black mantas The younger
girls drape their mantas coquettishly around
them, so that they form sort of a bonnet
about their beautiful faces. These are the
prettiest women / have so far seen in my
travels. They are tall and slender, and
many have beautiful forms. Their COM
pexions not so dark as those of the
ladies' l saw in Peru and they appear to
have more style and intelligence than the
girls farther north. But let us take a look
at the prices. We see that many of the
stores have their goods marked, and that
among the lowest the figures are 81, 81
and So a yard. Over there is a store
where the silk hats are marked $25 apiece,
and next door is shop where ladies' shoes
are selling for $40 and SIS a pair. These
prices, however, are in Chilean money,
which is worth just about third as much
as ours, so that the cost of good goods is
about the same at home. All imported
articles are higher. For instance lady
told me yesterday she paid $50 a pair for
the American shoes which she bought in
Santiago, and that imported bonnets cost
$50 apiece. At the hotel where I stop the
price of a good room is 81 and upward a
day. and this includes only two meals. 1t
Is the same in the restaurants, and in most
of the stores. Books are especially dear,
and Statesmans Year Book, which usu-
ally buy for $3.50 at home, costs me here
S10.50, or more than 81 more of our money.
] can't get a yellow backed novel in En-
ghsh for less than 81, and about the only
things that are especially cheap are the
street cars and cabs. The cab fares are
only cents of our money trip, and the
rate for an hour is So cents.
CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.
santiago is a city of churches and schools
Nearly all of the churches are Catholic. and
the priests are so many that you could
hardly throw a stone without hitting one
of them. There are schools here of different
kinds, from the University of Santiago.
which has more than one thousand students,
down to the public primary schools, which
are found all over the country, and which
are attended by more than 114,OO0 little
Chileans. This is however less than one
fifth of the children of the school age, so
that four out of every five remain at home.
I visited the National University 1t has
branches of law and medicine, as well as the
ordinary collegiate departments. No tuition
is charged. and the professors are paid by
the state. Chile is proud of her educational
system, and she is doing all she can to ex-
tend it. She spends millions of dollars upon
1t every year. There are now public schools
in all of the towns, and the larger places
have liceos, or high schools. There are
National Institute. or High School of San
ttago, has more than one thousand pupils,
and Chile has in addition All private schools
and colleges, with an average attendance of
eighteen thousand pupils. There are two
American schools here one for girls and
another for boys. The girls SCHOOL, should
say the girls college, for 1t is as good
college as you will find almost anywhere
has been in operation for years, and it has
great reputation in Chile. 1t is under the
direction of Mr.. 1. H. La Fetra, and it has
corps of eleven American girls who
act as its teachers. 1t has several
hundred students, and the daughters of
many of the best Chilean families are
among them. This school is connected with
the Methodist Episcopal Church, although
the religious instruction forms no obligatory
part of its tuition The boys school is I'M
Ger the Presbyterian Churc. of the United
States. 1t is called the Institute Inglese
and it proposes to give Chilean boys an
academic and collegiate education. 1t has
handsome buildings and grounds, and is
fairly Well attended. Santiago also has it's
normal schools and military schools. 1t has
sn agricultural college and an experimental
farm 1t has fish commission and a
weather bureau. which gives forecasts of
the weather just our bureau at Wash
ington. 1t has the cheapest telegraph sys-
, tenn have ever met with in any country.
The telegraph is owned by the government,
and you can send a ten-word message to
any part of Chile for about cents of our
money. There are now about 5000 miles of
wire IN the country and all of the large
cities can be reached by telegraph. The
postal service is good. More than sixty
million letters and newspapers are sent
through the mails every year, and the
mails are safe. Girls are employed as
postal clerks, and when register this letter
for the United States it will be Chilean
maiden who will lick the stamps and give
me the registry receipt. She will only
charge me a sum equal to three and one
half of our cents for doing so, and the post
age to the United States will be less than
you will have TO pay our postofice to send
your letters to Chile.
HIGH LIFE IN SANTIAGO.
I wish could take you into some of the
big houses of Santiago and show you how
the wealthy Chileans live. Every one here
is now talking of hard times, and am told
that many of the supposedly very wealthy
people are mortgaged to the eyes. However
that may be. they spend enormous amounts