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

or bonnet and those who attempt to do
so are touched with long stick by the
sexton and told to take their hats or. One
of the queer sights of Lima is church
congregation. The Npeople, you know, are
all Catholics and the ceremonies are impress
sive. the costumes of the priests being re-
splendent with gold and silver braid. The
men sit by themselves and the women and
girls all wearing these black cloths on their
heads make you think of a congregation OF
nuns who are dead to the world. At their
own homes, however, they are, am told,
quite as much alive as their sex anywhere.
They are vivacious and charming and able
to hold their own in their talk with the
men. They are interested in politics, and
those of the better classes are we'll edu-
Gated, many of them speaking French
They are very fond of music and many play
on the piano, the mandolin and the guitar
exceedingly well. AS in all Spanish coun-
tries. girls are never left alone with the
men until they are married, and the court
ing is done with the whole family looking
on at the billing and cooling. They are fond
of evening parties, or tertulias, as they are
called, and are noted for their sensuous
dancing of the voluptuous waltz. AT home
they dress much like their sisters of the
rest of Chrstendom and are as fond of
gay clothes and the latest styles as our
own American girls. The women's rights
woman has, 1 am told, not yet made her
way here, though there is movement to-
ward giving women employment in places
which were formerly exclusively held by the
men. There are, for instance, women clerks
in the city postoffice, and the stamps which
I shall put on this letter will be bought of
a Peruvian girl who will bother her brains
to understand my poor Spanish when Il
ask her to weigh it and have it properly
registered.
LIMA ON HORSEBACK.
Lima on horseback is quite as interesting
as Lima afoot. There are few private
carriages here, and 1 am told that there is
not livery stable in the whole city. The
streets are paved with cobble stones and
the cabs jolt your bones that most peo-
pie prefer to ride in the street cars or on
horses The horses here have the easiest
gate of any have ever ridden. 1t is one
peculiar to Chile and Peru, a sort of a cross
between a pace and the action of a high
stepping hackney, which carries the rider
along with less jolting than that of rub
ber-tired carriage. The horses are small,
but very spirited. There comes one down
the street now. It's rider is in full riding
costume and he would not be out of place
in Hyde Park were it not for the big silver
spurs on both of his boots Notice how
magnificently the horse is appareled. The
bride is trimmed with silver and the STIR
rups are plated with the same shining white
metal. He has a heavy saddle blanket of
fur and the rens have long braided strap
attached to them which he uses now and
then as a whip. How the horse Frances as
he tickles him with the spurs, and how the
demure maidens who pass steal SLY glances
at him out of the tails of their eyes. There
he has stopped and dismounted. He is
STOPPING at the horses front feet See! He
is buckling short strap about them just
over the ankles, thus hobbling the horse.
He leaves him thus without tying and goes
on into the store. This we learn is the way
that all Peruvian horses, those in carriages
as we'll as those without, are tied There
are no hitching posts, tie rings or horse
weights in Lima, and it is a police regula-
ton that every horse left alone on the street
must be hobbled. The straps used are so
short that they can be easily carried in the
pocket, and the drivers of cars hobble their
mules by tying the lines about their front
feet.
Much of the peddling of Lima is done
upon horseback, and in many cases the
peddlers are Indian women. Nearly all of
the milk of the city is carried out in cans
tied to the two sides of a horse, upon the
back of which, with her legs straddling
the horses neck, sits bronzed-faced wom-
an, dressed in bright calico and wearing
broad-brimmed Panama hat. When the milk
woman reaches a house where she has
customer she slides down over the horses
neck and lifts one Of her cans out of the
pocket in which it is fastened and carries
it into the house. The bread wagon of Lima
is a horse with two panniers full of loaves,
and many of the vegetables are peddled by
women who ride astrde. The street cars are
drawn by horses, but where there is slight
grade an extra horse or helper is hitched
to the side Of the team. This horse is not
driven as in the United States, but ridden
by boy in saddle, who has long spurs
with which he keeps the horse up to his
work. All sorts Of things are pedded on
donkeys ridden by or boys who sit
just In front of the tails of the beasts with
their backs against the loads of goods they
are peddling There are no huckster wagons
or carts, and the drayS of the city are long
two-wheeled affairs, each pulled by three
mules abreast.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.