Omaha daily bee., 1899-01-29

Inches wide, and transfers will have TO be
made az both ends Of 10, so that altogether
the plan Of construction seems bad. There
should be one gauge from ocean 20 occat,.
so that goods can be taken from the Pa.
clnc and remain OF the cars until they are
landed on the Atlantic, and vice versa.
Across the Andes by Rail.
This railroad when completed will be one
Of the great scenic railroads Of the world.
Suppose we cross the continent by It. We
start at Valparaiso, the great seaport of
Chill, on the Pacific. 1t has 100000 people,
and its houses are as fine as those OF any
European seaport. They are built In ter
races rising one above another in the shape
OF an amphltheater around a magnificent
bay. There are green trees among them,
and the flowers bloom all the year round.
We step out of the boats onto stone
wharves, and are taken in a carriage to a
fine two-story stone station. There are
waiting rooms for first and second class
passengers, and we find a crowd in both
places. We ask for our tickets, but are told
that 1t Is yet an half hour before the train
starts and that no tickets will be sold until
fifteen minutes later. At precisely a quarter
of an hour before leaving time the agent
opens the window and gives us our tickets.
We try to check our baggage, but are told
that we must pay express rates on every
pound, and that nothing is free. We get a
receipt, however, and then cross over the
track to reach the cars. We step down to
do this, for the tracks are sunken and the
! platforms are level with the floor of the
cars.
While we wait for the train let us make
a note of the passengers. Beside me stands
a young English girl. with school books
under her arm, and there are English and
German merchants who are waiting for
the train for Santiago. There are Chilinos,
with big hats and ponchos. who have come
in from the country, and Gillian women,
who have their faces coated with powder.
They look the more CHASTITY from the black
shawls on their heads. There are young
priests in black hats and black gowns which
reach to their feet. There are Gillian mill
tary officers, in gay uniforms, and black eyed
boys, who are going to school from their
homes in the interior.
Country Scenes in the Il
A bell rings at the station before the train
starts. We skirt the harbor, pass through
the swell suburbs of Vina del Mar and then
come almost at once to the foothills Of the
Andes. We pass oxen %ploughing in the
fields, dragging wooden plows through the
burrows by a pole fastened to a yoke on their
heads. We go by great vineyards, lemon
orchards and orange groves, and now and
then stop at a village or city of fiat one
story houses. We pass over one low ridge
after another rising higher each time. until
we com. to the great valley in which San
tiago, the capital Of Chill, lies. We ride
through this all day and then strike the
caoorJ opua of tho andes with tho highest
peak on our hemisphere rising above us.
That peak is Aconcagua. 1t Is almost "a, 600
feet high, and it touches the sky further
above the sea than any peak outside the
Himalayas. Its top is covered with per-
petual snow. The Ice we see upon its sides
never melts, and the winds which blow over
Vt in their everlasting march from ocean to
ocean howl at times like the shrieks of the
! damned.
We stop over night at Los Andes, a town
in the valley of the Aconcagua river. 1t
has about 5000 people and is surrounded by
orchards of apple and peach trees with rich
irrigated gardens lying high up in the noun
tains. From here we go into the station
where we take mules or stages to go over
the mountain. The end Of the road is atou,
as high as the top Of Mount Washington,
and from there on the way is exceedingly
steep.
The country is wild in the extreme. Much
of the mountains are nothing but a desert CT
rocks and snow inhabited only by condors,
with here and there a guanaco, a sort CT a
specie Of wild llama. You cross the Puenta
del Inca, a wonderful natural bridge, near
which there are hot springs Of crystalline
water, and go out into the Valley Of Desola-
ton or Cuevas valley, where there are skele-
tons of mules and oxen which have dropped
out Of the droves which to the number OF
thousands are annually driven across the
mountains. AS you rise higher still you are
fortunate IL you do not have soroche Oh
mountain sickness, and you are glad when
you have passed the Cumbre or summit and
are on the railway which takes you down &C
Mendoza, In the Argentine.
Across the Pampas.
From Mendoza to Buenos Ayres is about
as far as from New York to Cleveland. The
cars are not uncomfortable. They are bull
somewhat after the Mann boudoir order
with a lot OF little apartments running
through the car reached by an aisle outside
Each department has four berths, two upper
and two lower; the upper berths are put UT
during the daytime and you sit facing youI
fellow passengers on the lower benches. Al
night the bedding Is brought into the cal
from the baggage coach, l suppose, and your
beds are made.
Most of the sleepers have travelling bars
on them. All kinds OF liquor are kept in
the baggage car and you can get anything
from champagne to cognac and from apolli-
naris to beer, by ordering it. There is a
little stove In the car upon which the porter
makes coffee and brings it to you in the
morning before you are out of bed. He
charges you about s cents of our money
for a cup OF coffee, a little butter and q
biscuit, which is cheap enough for the serv.
ice. The most of the meals are taken a
the stations, about thirty minutes being al
lowed for breakfast or lunch, and a violen'
ringing of a bell announcing the starting
Of the train. The sleeping ears are NOR,
plainly furnished than ours and the bed
ding Is not SO good.
In commenting upon the lack OF fine fur
niture one day an English railroad manage
told me that the companies found that /
did not pay to make extravagant cars, TO-
it was 30 difficult to keep them in order
Said he:
you would be surprised at the wantoI
damage that is done by passengers. Man!
OF these Argentines are born iconoclasts
They will write on the mirrors with thei