The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-24


 Roofs.
 Especial Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier.)
 Lima, Peru, March Il, 1903
 The sojourner within these gates finds it difficult to believe himself liv- ing in the latter part of the nineteenth century, So strongly do all the sur roundingss sayor of -vice-regal days. Those yice-kings of Spain left their finger marks upon everything and there is hardly a street, park, public garden, church or government building that was not named, planned or erect ed by one of them. Beginning with the great Plaza Mayor, or principal square, which covered nearly nine English acres, we find that the handsome stone fountain in its center, surnounted by fronze statue representing Fame. was built in 1853, by order of viceroy. OBeiof the earliest viceroys erected the enormous cathedral that faces one side foA this plaza, with three green, doors and a tower at each angle. For nearly three centuries it's altars were bur dened with gold and silver and jew eled articles of church service and or narnent: until few years ago. when most of itstreasures were appropriated and converted into money by a needy republican government. In its dark crypt are the stone collins of the two Pizarros-the. conqueror and his less rascally brother, Gonzalo. The enter prising tourist may go down and ex- plore the gruesome place by the dim flicker of a stallow dip; and if he is cu- riously enough inclined, by the pay ment of a moderate sum to the sacris- tan, the stone cover will be removed from the coffin and the moldering bones of the great Spaniard exposed to view. This is an experience which we are promised later, when our obliging con- stil is at liberty to accompany us; and then I shall have the pleasure of tell. ing my readers all about it. Another side of the same square is occupied by a rather mean-looking building, with small shops beneath it, which is no less than the old palace where Pizarro ruled with so high a hand during his brief day. here; and where he was as- sassinated by "the men of Chilli" who appointed themselves, the avengers of Almagros' murder Its upper part still serves as a government ''palacio" and is occupied by various officers of the new regime! The long, straight streets that diverged from this central square and run at right angles, have an ap- pearance of age and solemnity not bor- rowed from the frail structures that line them on either side. As earth quakes are momentarily expected and the city stands in the very heart of the rainless region, it's peculiarities of architecture are largely the outgrowth of local scauses. More substantial structures of brick or stone could not so we'll resist the convulsions of na- ture, and the taller and more top heavy they were, the greater would be the danger to their inmates; therefore the buildings are generally of one story only seldom more than two, and of the lightest material that can be made to hold together, One can hardly believe that the apparently massive towers and buttresses of the extensive church. es and convents are merely great wicker baskets, deceptive combinations of canes and poles, tied together with thongs, plastered over with mud, paint ed and succeed: but such is the case. Some of them, dressed in elaborate stucca, look like splendid structures of carved stone, but one smart summer shower, such as our northern cities are subject to-, would reduce them all to skeletons as bare and gastly as that of the late MT. Pizarro in his stone bed under the cathedral. As the absence of rain renders pitched roofs unneces- sary, the coverings fofs the houses are flat, often made of poles over which is spread a mating of. shredded cane, supporting g layer of ashes and dried grass, intended to absorb the dampness