Evening star., 1899-03-18

=
gentine and not
J-.E@SS good-sized bite for
big Brazil, but it's land is as fat as the val
ley of the Nile and its people step nigh on
the stilts of self-esteem. Most of the coun-
tries of South America are big. Brazil is
as big as all the United States without
Alaska or our new islands. The Argentine
covers more territory than all OF our coun-
try east of the Mississippi but little Uru-
quay is only about as big as Missouri and
Connecticut. 1t Is about the size of North
Dakota ard is not SO thickly populated as
Nebra ska. 1t has about as many people
Boston, ana fully one-third of these are in
the capital, Montevideo, which at present
| is considerably less than Cleveland in the
number of its inhabitants.
A Bird's-Eye View of Uruguay.
| But first let me give you bird's-eye view
of the country If you should look at Uru-
| quay from balloon you would see that it
| is gently rolling. 1t has hills more than
| 1000 feet high. The country is covered
with billowy waves, the greater part of
! which is made up of rich pastures.
1t Is we'll watered. There are rivers and
streams everywhere and still but few
swampS. The climate is such that the
grass is green all the year round. and the
cattle and sheep are fed by turning them
out to chew for themselves.
| There is not barn in the country. You
| may travel thousand miles ana not see a
hay stack or feeding trough Still there are
| f1ocks and herds everywhere, and l learn
that at least 5,O00,OO0 cattle, 13,0O0 600 sheep
and several hundred thousand horses and
mules are thus kept without much trouble
Talk about job and his cattle on a thou
sand hills! In respect to both hills and cat
| tie Job was not n 1t with Uruguay.
Big Population Possible.
The land is well adapted to support
great population. 1t has now about twelve
| to the square mile, and probably not half
this number when you take out the cities.
| l doubt whether there is a family Cor every
$40 acres. Still this soil will raise wheat
| 1t grows apples and pears for the Buenos
! Ayres market, and it has Strawberries nina
months in the year. 1t is in about the lati-
tude of Florida, but it is not as hot in the
summer, nor, as whole, Sc cold in the
winter. Its seasons are just the opposite
OF ours. When we have fall Uruguay has
spring, and when we put on our sealskins
the Uruguayan ladies use their fans AL
gust is the coolest month, and along about
January you will find it the warmest
L spoke about the land being we'll wa
| tered The streams cover 1t like the veins
OF a leaf. The veins of the human body
are not more In number than the water
ways of Uruguay. Around almost the whole
| country there is a great belt of water
| making it a very peninsula. 1t has in
| fact, between six hundred and seven hun
| d1ed miles of navigable water ways. There
| is the Atlantic on the south and southeast
200 miles. There is the muddy River
Plate, with 155 miles of coast line a little
| further over, and along the west tern bound
airy, 270 miles of the swift-fowing Uruguay
The Uruguay Is about nine miles wide at
| its mouth. and during the most of the year
steamboats, of fourteen feet go up it to
PSyandu. a big town about the middle of the
western boundary. From this point YOU get
| smaller steamers which carry you further
L md h. Oy1
! the country dividing it in two equal parts.
Is also, to some extent. navigable.
The Capital of Uruguay,
Uruguay has not many large cities If is
| like the Argentine in that the capital rules
1t and forms its social, intellectual. fnan-
| cial and industrial center. There are per-
| haps four cities which range between 10000
I and $4,000 in population and dozen smaller
| towns of from 5000 to 5000 each. These
are market towns and state capitals, but
| they all pay tribute to Montevideo.
| Montevideo calls itself the Paris of South
America. 1t is the healthiest city of the
| world and the cleanest city on the con-
| tinent. Built upon tongue of rock which
| runs out into, the muddy Rio de Ia Plata
| the streets all drain into the river and
! every rain gives the city a washing There
is water on all sides of you. If you walk
| up or down hill you are bound to come
to it. and there is. in fact. no chance for
|
| Monte-video means: 81 see the noun
| tain If you look at the root of this
| tongue Of rock you will really see the noun
| tain from which the city was named. 1t
| is called THE Cerro," but SO far from
| being a mountain it is not quite so high as
| the Washington monument. At night you
| may distinguish twenty-five miles out at
| sea the revolving light upon its tower but
| even If this were out you could tell that
| the Cerro was there. How? Why, by its
| smell. There is a great slaughter house
| on the Cerro in which 200, 600 cattle are
| killed every year, and from which during a
| land breeze a disgusting odor is waited
| over the waters. I knew was coming to
| Montevideo long before could see the city
| by this smell.
A Look at the HarbOrs.
The Bay of Montsvideo is naturally one
| of the finest In the world. It is in the
shape of a horseshoe six miles in circum-
ference. and so large that a thousand
ocsan steamers could be in 1t at one time
Hundreds of steamers formerly cast an
| chor there. This is not the case now,
although more than one thousand ships
| the Rio de la Plata are filed with mud
and for the past seventy years they have
been dropping this mud into the bay. They
/ have been filing it up at the rate of an
inch a year. and now no ship which draws
moro than fifteen feet can come in. The
result Is that the ocean STEAMERS must
anchor far out In the river and all goods
have to be brought in upon lighters. We
1 were carried to the city ON a steam ting