The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-12

river Iney are 10 De seen carrying OIdHSSS
from the land to the boats. which are TO
take them to the markets of the south. 1t
is estimated that sixty million oranges are
thus annually shipped down the Paraguay
river to Buenos Ayres, and the loading of
this fruit is one of the great sights Of the
voyage.
As we came UP to Asuncion we saw at
every town mountains of oranges on the
shores, with hundreds Of Paraguay girls
kneeling before them and putting them in
baskets, while other hundreds were carry
ing them on to the steamers.
LOADING ORANGES.
The scene is one that you cannot have
outside this country. Stop with me at Villa
Pillar and look at it. Villa Pillar has about
1000 people. 1t is town on the east bank
of the Paraguay river a day or SOS ride
below Asuncion AS the steamer stops at
the landing we notice that every garden has
its orange trees and that such trees shade
the streets We see OK carts coming in from
the orchards creaking under their golden
loads Each cart holds about 500 oranges
piled loosely within it like so many po-
tatoes The driver directs his oxen to the
piles of oranges on the banks, backs his
cart up to them and dumps out the fruit
Just as our workmen dump dirt when re-
pairing the roads Oranges are indeed worth
little more than dirt here. That whole cart
full will sell for S., and we can buy all we
want for cents.
And still every orange is counted. Those
women on their knees are putting the irult
into the baskets. They count as they WORK
and a careful tally is kept.
The oranges are carried on board by wom-
en- who balance their loads on their heads
m
There are a hundred women at this work
now. and the ship is already so loaded with
oranges that a wire netting has been
stretched around it's outside like a fence
and the fruit piled up within. The deck is
so filled with oranges, in fact that the sail
ors are moving about boards, which have
been nailed up above it.
Stop and take a look at the girls. They
are passing to and from the bank over that
roadway of boards five hundred feet long,
which has been built upon trestles out to
the steamers. Each has a round basket
carefully poised on her head, and above
these the golden oranges rise. The girls
are dressed in white gowns, and the breeze
which sweeps up the river wraps their thin
skirts about the little forms. And still they
walk without touching their burdens, and
the shaking of the planks and the breeze
from the river do not disturb them.
GIRLS WHO SMOKE AND CHEW.
AS you look you cannot help but admire
the typical Paraguayan maiden. She is so
we'll formed and she walks like a goddess.
When young she is as plump as partridge
in autumn, and were it not for some of her
ways you might fall in love.
To an American her attractiveness is
spoiled by the use of tobacco. / have
thought until now that there was no great
err beauty destroyer than the gum chewing
Of the American girl, but the smoking of
cigars as it prevails among Paraguay women
is far worse. The Paraguay maiden smokes
like a chimney. She begins to use tobacco
when she begins to wear dresses, and even
before, for you may see naked girls of six,
| eight and ten with cigars in their mouths
L have seen scores of little girls of seven
and eight smoking cigars almost as big
around as their wrists and as to old women
it is hard to find one out in the country who
does not smoke from morning till night. L
| speak, of course, of the women of the COM
mon people. Those who are not actually
smoking have cigars between their teeth
which they chew without lighting for hours
at time Many make their own cigars,
and tobacco is so cheap here that you can
get a dozen fairly good cigars for 5 cents,
and leaf tobacco is sold for a few cents a
pound
The Paraguay girls remind we of the girls
of Japan. They look not unlike them. The
features of many Paraguayans are half
| Japanese, and their luxuriant black hair is
of the same character as you see in Japan.
In the back districts they have the same de-
lightful disregard for clothing. Very young
girls, as L have said, and often some of the
age of fourteen wear nothing whatever.
The Paraguayan women are not afraid of
strangers. They are good natured and will
laugh and joke for you just readily as the
Yum Yums of the east coast of Asia.
The Japanese women are good business
women. This is also true of the Paraguay
ans. If you would see smart women trad
crs, come and spend an hour with me in
the market OF Asuncion.
1t is situated in the heart of the city. 1t
| covers an entire square, and it looks more
like a monastery than a place for buying
and selling. It's roof extends out over
cloisters ten feet wide and under it there
is a tier of cells running about hollow
| court and forming the walls of the market
house proper
The court, the cells and the cloisters are
| filed with women. There are hundreds Of
! them, all in their bare feet and many Of
| them squatting on the bricks with their
| wares before them. Others stand behind
butcher counters and others have little Ia
| bles covered with vegetables, laces, jewelry,
| clothing or shoes.
| Stop bit and see how they sell. There
are no scales or measures. That vegetable
| woman has a stock of green peas. She has
| arranged them in piles, about pint to the
| pile, and sells by eye measure. That
| butcher woman behind her is cutting off
meat in great strips. The customers Judge
what it is worth by its size, and all meat is
| sold by the chunk.
AMONG THE BUTCHER WOMEN.
| But let us go further into the market and
| take look at the butchers. They stand in
stalls with pieces of beef on their counters
| and strips of beef hung upon hooks at the
| back. The favorite cut is q strip, and much
| of the meat seems to have been cut from
| the animal in sheets so that the people buy,
! as it were, by the yard. The usual method
! is to tear or cut the meat from the animals
/ sides and back in layers about half an inch
/ thick, one layer being cut off after another
| until the bone is reached. The sheets are
/ then hung up in the market and sliced or
/ chopped off as the customer desires Each
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