The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-30

ia Arenas, the most of the other dwellings
being one-story structures, which could be
built for from 500 to $1,000 in the United
States. Tt shows you however, that all of
the people here at the tail end of creation
are not poor. On the contrary, Punta Are
mas has more rich men, perhaps, than any
frontier town of its size in the world. 1t is
the metropolis of the great sheep industry
of southern Patagonia, and there are rich
sheep owners here who live almost as lux
uriantly as do our millionaire miners in
Denver. There are thirty-three men and
companies who each own and control from
5000 acres to 100000 acres of land. They
have their sheep by the tens of thousands
and several of them have an annual wool
clip worth more than the salary of the
President Of the United States.
THEY ARE COSMOPOLITAN.
The citizens of Punta Arenas come from
all parts of the world You hear English,
German and Spanish on every corner, and
your ears are dinned with the jargon of
the Austrian, the Italian and the Russian.
Some of the richest of the people are Rus
sian, and others are Scotchmen, who have
come from the Falkland islands to engage
in sheep farming here. There are treacher-
Gus Spaniards, smooth-tongued Argentines
and hard-looking brigands from Chile. The
lower classes are chiefly sailors and shep-
herds. and among them you may find as
many rough characters as in our mining
camps of the West. There are no licensed
gambling denS or sporting houses, but there
are plenty of saloons, managed by hard
featured young women, who sit in the door
ways during the day and smoke cigarettes
Knots of bearded men, with their trousers
in their boots, and clothes of all descrip-
tons, are to be seen on the street. There
are plenty Of Spaniards, and have several
times been warned to be careful as l go
about after nightfall, as the Spanish knife
has just now magnetic attraction Tor the
Americans body, and as most of these men
are prone to stab in the back. The order
kept is, however, very good, considering the
population. The Governor of the Magellans
lives here. He is appointed by the Presi-
dent of Chile and he rules not only the
MagelanS, but the whole of these islands
of the TERRA del Fuegan archipelago. lie
has four hundred soldiers stationed in the
city, You hear the military bands playing
at IN the morning, when they begin their
drill, and again at sunset, or at about
o. o'clock in the afternoon. The soldiers act
as the police. Each of them has a long
sword at his side, and he does not scruple
to use it in making an arrest. OF late some
Of the soldiers have been using sword-canes.
You think they have nothing but a walk
ing stick, but if you resist them they jerk
the stick apart and give you thrust under
the fifth rib with a sharp blade of steel.
L took a photograph of some of the police
men to-day in front of the Quartet, or police
station, and a moment later met the Gov
ernor coming out of the club, and, with his
permission, photographed him.
A TOWN OF CLUBS.
It seems funny to think of club down
here on the Magellans, in the home of the
guanaco the seal, the whale and the naked
aborigines! But Punta Arenas has its
clubs, where the better classes of men meet
for social good time, a game of poker and
bit of LIQUID refreshment. The club is
also the fire company, for here, as in many
of these South American cities. the fire
company is composed of the best men in
the place In Punta Arenas the club par
lors are over the engine room. They are
we'll furnished. They have two billiard ta-
bles, two poker rooms, q reading room and
last but not least q bar. The bar is to be
found in every club and in every hotel in
South America 1t is, as a rule, much pat
ronized At the German hotel where /
am living in Punta Arenas you can get
anything from a bottle of champagne to
a Manhattan cocktail, from sherry and
bitters to a glass of vermouth or a pousse
cafe. There is great deal of drinking at
the hotel. We are so far south here that
it is dark now at p. m. The guests have
no loafing place but the barroom, and
every night at about sheep farmers, mer-
chants. clerks and others drop in to get
their nip before dinner. AS dinner does
not come on until $50 they have plenty of
time to fill up before that. The favorite
method Of buying drinks is by each man in
the party throwing dice and the loser pay
ing the bill. Liquors are very high here.
This is so, notwithstanding that Punta
Arenas is a free port and no duty is charged.
Champagne costs twelve silver dollars a
bottle This last know to my sorrow, for
in q generous mood while talking sheep
with a number of farmers last night 1
ordered champagne for the crowd. The bill
was astounding.
SHEEP FARMING.
You can't tell man down here by his
clothes. One of these sheep farmers, a
young fellow Of thirty, whose income runs
into the tens of thousands year, wears
a faded $40 velveteen suit, 75-cent wool
shirt, SLOUGH hat and pair of high boots.
the neck, and to look at him you would not
think him worth cent. His sheep farm
is as big as an Ohio county, and at the
last counting his sheep numbered 10000
head. Another of the party was a young
Englishman, who was dressed in a costume
that would not have been out of place in
Hyde Park. He had swell riding boots
with a well-cut SUIT of Scotch tweed He
was only an employee at big sheep sta
ton. A third man was dressed much like
an American business man. He was the
manager of the biggest sheep ranch In
TERRA del Fuego. He had the supervision
of more than a hundred thousand sheep
and of a grazing territory of $780, 900 acres
of land.
Sheep farming has now become the great
industry Of this part Of the world. A large
part of lower Patagonia is given up to it,
and all of the available lands in the
Chilean territory of the Magellans, includ-
ing TERRA del Fuego, have been either
bought or leased. 1t will give you some
idea of the growth OF the industry when
l tell you that in 1875 just twenty years
ago, there were only lS5 sheep in all the
Magellans. Seven years later there were
40 200, and in 1892 the number had increased
to 100000. In 1895 it was estimated that
there were 1900, and now on this island