The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-04-21

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| arc at an altitude of about 1880 feet.
| There is not IA good silver mine i'm all
| Peru at an altitude or less than 1000
! feet. The best are higher. The air
| is so thin at the lofty attitudes that
white men cannot work there. and the
| least exertion brings WEAKNESS and
| makes one pun. Two men in our party
used 20 the mountains of Colorado
| and California, We're quite out of their
| heads for day or two while were in
Hualagayoc. The weather is so cold
| up there in midsummer that one must
| wear heavy winter clothes to keep
J warm. The equator is only six de-
I grees to the north. too. The mountain
| peaks that rear themselves above the
valley of Haulagayoc are straight
| hard, ana sharp. They are SCARED and
pierced by silver mines. One the San
| Felipe has been worked for 200 years
! and is said to be the Oldest mine now
worked in the world. 1t has a tunnel
| 1,6OO feet long in the mountain, and
| hundreds of laterals and slopes. It is
! amusing to see there the Crudities Of
mining. A vast fortune has no doubt
| been thrown away by wasteful and an
| Cient mining methods.
| SCANT PAY.
notwithstanding the low price of
| silver, the mines in the upper Andes
are making money for their owners.
| The ore is very rich, and the mining
| is cheaper there than in any region on
| the western continent. The Indians do
| all the mining, under the direction of
young Peruvians, who have had good
engineering education in the United
states or France. Skilled laborers in
the mines get 80 cents a day i'm Peru
| Wan silver coin, worth about % cents
! in our money. Ignorant laborers get
what in our coinage is equivalent to 10
cents a day. Think of an American
going to Peru to be a miner with such
| facts staring him in the face! The
| Indians know nothing better and they
are satisfied. They buy their meat,
| cereals, and vegetables at the very
| lowest prices from other Indians, and
| animal skins are cheap among the
| mountains and make very durable
| clothing The Andean sheep and
| llamas furnish wool at incredibly low
| prices. and it is woven into clothes
| that last years. Thousands of families
! of six and seven each live in the min
| ing towns on and 6 cents a day.
The miners are descendants of gem
| eratiOns of miners. Many a man in the
| mines at Hualagayoc and Jacinto has
string of seven or eight ancestors,
| who worked in the same mines Just as
| he is doing now. The greater part of
| these silver miners have never been
| fifty miles from the mines. They are
| about as near dumb driven animals as
one may well imagine. They were born
| in a miners cabin, just as their fathers
! and several grandfathers We're They
| have never in all their lives had any
| idea but to work in the mines for a
mere pittance. However, they are said
| to be excellent workers in their way.
| They work in tWenty-fOur- r-hour shifts
| at heWing and peCking out ore in the
| subterranean galleries and shafts. Then
| they sleep and eat for twenty-four
| hours. We Americans in Hualagayoc
| suggested that more work might be
| accomplished and the men might live
| longer in the high attitudes by having
| elght7hOur shifts, as in all United
| states mines. You ought to have seen
| the look Of contempt for such an opin-
| ion that came to the face of the Peru
| Wan mining superintendent to whom
| we talked. He simply shrugged his
! shoulders and looked away. The fact
| is that twenty -four-hour shifts were
in vogue in mining 200 years or more
ago i'm Peru, when human life was not
| reckOned valuable and human comforts
! were undreamed of. SO it would be
| sucida. to the mining interests to
| change 50 radically the method of do
| ing business.
THRIFTY MERCHANTS,
"A surprising fact in one lofty
mountain mining town was the evident
! prosperity of some of the merchants.
! They We're the only thrifty persons
! there. How any man in the course
even Of long lifetime can even ac-
| cumulate any considerable es ate
| from sales of a cent or two at a time
! sometimes not even cent---is a prob
! lem in commercial economy that I
! don't believe any Yankee has ever
/ solved. Yet there are merchants in
! all of the ancient mining towns of
Peru that have property worth Sc 900
! or $1,000 in our money. OF course some
! o: il is inherited property. In the re-
| glon known as the Sierra, which is the
| region Of The silver mines and herds
| Of cattle and lamas on the western
| slope Of the Andes close to the back
! bone Of the mountains, the sole money
Is silver, Gold is seldom seen in Peru
outside of Lima. There is constant
bother in Peru concerning the money
used. For instance, both Bolivian and
| Peruvian silver circulate on the same
basis in the mountain towns. Forty
! miles westward, and lower down the
mountain sides, Bolivian silver is taken
only at discount. In Lima the banks
decline to handle Bolivian coin. So a
| man must look well To the character Of
! the coin in his pocket when he goes
away from home.
| Another fact at which we mar
yelled every day we We're in the noun
! tains Of Peru is the extraordinary en-
! duranCe of the human burden bearers
| the CargaderOs. They are Quichinos.
| or Indians, and, like the miners, fol-
| low in the footsteps of a long line OF
| ancestral cargaderos. While we Amer
! leans We're putting along with difficulty
| We have seen a dozen cargaderos come
| uudging Up steep hill with enormous
| loads or merchandise on their shOuI-
! ierS, Mules, donkeys and Indians do
| the iTeghting from the Andes Rail-
| road 20 the towns twenty and thirty
| miles a"ay. The strange thing about
| these human burden bearers is that
! they are far from being fairly good
! physical specimens. They are usually
about feet inches tan and weigh
| about li0 pounds. They have Thin legs.