Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-02-25

resting doing at noon. The mornings
and evenings, however. are pleasant and
there are mule street cars which will take
US To all paris Of the city.
But first let me say a few words about
this town of Asuncion. She is the queerest
municipal maiden on The South American
continent. She is the social, political and
industrial mistress of all things Paraguay
an. She has the government, buildings. the
colleges, the banks and chief business
houses. and still she is 50 small that she
might be hypodermicaliy injected into the
cheek Of Chicago and she would hardly
raise a pin1ple on that fair Iady's face.
ASunciDn has only about ~ nDo people. Her
buildings are almost all small They are
chiefly one-story houses. and outside the
government structures there are not two
hundred more than thirty feet high. The
Paraguayan who lives in a two-story house
struts about like king. and the owner of
q thTee-srOry block is a nabob.
Still this maiden AsunCiOn is wonderfully
beautiful Mother Nature has clothed her
In the brightest Of dresses. In her gardens
lemons and oranges grow Great palm trees
throw their shadows upon her and the am
orous waters of two mighty rivers are al
WAYS washing her feet. She is seated on
the high east bank Of the Paraguay river
just opposite the mouth Of the winding Pill
comayo. which has flowed down from the
Bolivian Andes 1.5hu miles to ger 10 her
She i just in the center Of the west border
OF Parst quay proper and in a good position
TO command the whole country of which she
IS the capital.
Bird's-Eye View of Paraguay.
I get my best idea of Paraguay by think
ing Of Illinois It lies on the South Ameri-
can continent in much the same place that
Illinois does in North America. 1t is in
the junction Of two rivers. just like Illinois
Along its west side is the great Paraguay
river. which corresponds to the Mississippi.
and on its south and southeast the ParaEa,
u, H.
quay and Parana are ravigabIe for large
river steamers. giving a broad waterway
from here to the Atlantic. similar to that of
the Mississippi to the Gulf OF Mexico.
Paraguay proDer IS Just about big as
Illinois II is $40 miles long and about
2O0 miles wide and it includes all the land
lying east of the Paraguay river. There is
a vast wilderness to the west of the stream
Paraguay. II is inhabited by Indians and
wild animals and has good forests and pas
lures. hut vet is not much explored.
Paraguay proper is not unlike Illinois in
character. II has excellent soil and great
pastures The face Of the country is roll
ing. In some places there are low noun
tains which furnish numerous streams. so
that you can hardly fence of a farm with
out including good water
The People of Paraguay
1t is in Paraguay proper that the greater
part Of the people of Paraguay live. The
country has not more than six hundred
thousand. and as I have said large ma
jority of these people are women The
Paraguayans are the offsprings of the IN
dins united to some Of the best Spanish
element that settled South America. One
Of the first cities established on the CONT
nent was this town Of Asuncion. 1t was
built seventy sN.rs before John Smith
landed at jamestown and the Spanish-In
dian babies born then were gray haired
before Boston sprang into being.
pa fc h. 10 h. %
wealth, civilization and culture of this part
OF the world. and il was not until the close
OF our civil war that il fell out Of the race. 1t
then had fight with its neighbOring re-
publics which lasted five years and killed
on almost all the men. This ruined the
country y report went forth that il was
desoiate and the bulk of the European i'm
migration since then has gone 10 the Ar
gentiHe, Uruguay and Brazil There are to-
day less than 1880 foreigners in all Para
quay j have an estimate from the sec
Rotary of state which says that there are
now mere 900 ArgeDtiDeS. 200 Italians
90 BraZiiisns and so Germans The rest
are French. Swiss. Americans and English
In addition to these and the Ge0.1GO native
whites and of the mixed breed there
are about 10000 pure Indians There Is
so much Indian blood in the whites that
II Is hard to tell where the red mans
blood ends ard that Of the Caucasian be-
gins. You see a dash of gingerbread in the
compilations of most of the people and the
language generally used is that of the
Guarani Indians. 1t is beautiful Ian
guage. more soft and meiodiOus than even
the Spanish. and is used by every one out
side the cities.
No Large Towns.
have said that Asuncion has 10000 pop
ulatfon. The average Paraguayan con-
siders il very big city. In my travels 1
have gone through some of the best set
tied parts of Paraguay and am surprised
at the fe~ness Of the people. There are a
number of villages ard some very small
cities The cities are much smaller than
the books would lead you to think The
Statesman's Year Book mentions a numDer
OF from five to twenty thousand. Those 1
nave seen have not one-third the number
claimed in the books l spent some time in
EIl1a Rtca- II Is in the interior about a
hundred miles east Of Asuncion II is put
down as having 19,ooo, but / venture that
Il cannot number 5000 souls. Villa Con-
cepcion. which is go miles north of Asun-
cion on the Paraguay river, has certainly
not 10otO people, and Villa Encarnacion.
the biggest town of south Paraguay is not
nearly so large. The small towns are com
posed OF matched huts from 10 to - feet
square The smaller cities have one or two
streets Of oue-story brick dwellings, the
walls OF which are covered with stucco.