The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-18
IN SANTIAGO.
THE EVERYDAY LIFE IN CHI-
 IL
South of the Equator the Almanac is Upside Down-Lost in the Weather. Especial Correspondence of the Journal

Upside Down-Lost in the Weather.
 Especial Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier.)
 Santiago de Chilli. Nov. 15, 1903.
 The tourist, coming down from the tropics, feels exhilerated by the climate of Santiago, as by draught Of old Wne. Benjamin Taylor. in his Be tween the Gates" describes it exactly for nowhere are the seasons more neighborly. Says he: 'The improprie- ty of winter lingering in the lap of spring has made 8 public scandal; but when September is on whispering terms with May, and old January masquer- ades in June clothes, and July gives all her rainbows to November, it is time to talk! The winter is in summer, and the spring is in winter. and harvest is in seed-time, and autumn is left out of the calendar altogether. The siroccos blow from the north and the cold winds from the south; and you must never sail by the almanac, or you will lose your rech- oning and get lost in the weather" But there is another side to this charm ing picture, Though the hills are as green as Ireland's all the year, and roses are perpetually in bloom, and ri- pening fruit and baby blossoms show at once on the same bush. as they do in happy human families-there is a sum mer-time of fieas and dust, (during the season of our mid-winter), and an un- comfortable spell of chilly dampness throughout the rainy months, when northern people are suffering most with heat. The seasons are transposed south of the equatorial line, you know. A former United States consul to Santi- ago wrote as follows about the summer time of this latitude: "The first day of your arrival here, when you are filling and tacking and beating up the breeze, and blowing 1t as If it were friend, and blinking at the dust that waltzes at you around corners and bears down upon you with the gait that Byron's As syrians came, you wink at it all in the light of a practical joke and VOW that you will go home tomorrow. And when you are searching from chin to slippers for that prince of jumpers, be- side which Cortez' bosom friend, Ava rado, was no leaper worth mentioning, and taking yourself all in pieces, but never catching anything, you. desire that you will leave tonight. But weeks glide by, and the breezes blow and the pulgas leap, Chow much better the Spanish name sounds than our vul- gar word f1eaD-and still you tarry, at first resigned then enchanted; and the charm deepens and deepens as time goes on." f ii
 There is downright discomfort here during the cold days of the rainy sea- son. The people have deep-seated mo- tion that fires indoors breed diseases of every sort, and except in houses built by English or American residents, there is hardly a stove, grate or fireplace to be found in all Chili. The enormously thick walls retain no end of dampness, the floors laid fiat upon the ground, without cellars beneath-are cold and clammy as tombstones; and as every casa Is built around central court into which all the rooms open, there are seldom communicating doors between the various apartments so that, what ever the weather, one must step out into the uncovered patio to go from parlor to dining room, bedroom or kitch- en. Although the prevailing diseases are pneumonia, throat and lung trou- bles, and the mortality from these causes is frightful during the wet sea- son, nothing can convince a Chilian that artificial heat will not absolutely poison the atmosphere. When he visits the home of 8 foreigner and finds the rooms comfortable and dry, he invaria- ply grumbles and requests that the door be left open so he may not suffocate- but all the same he spreads his hands and coat-tails before the cheerful blaze as if he thoroughly enjoyed it. =
 It looks odd, at a party or reception, to see ladies in bare arms and deco lette bodices, with blue noses and chat tering teeth, wrapped in shawls and fur-lined eloaks, crowding around a charcoal brasier. which emits just enough heat to make one more sensible of the deadly chills that go galloping up and down ones spinal columns; and odder still to see them at table, still wrapped in c1oaks and shawls, the ach- ing feet of each guest thrust into a fur foot-warmer, though surrounded by ev- cry luxury sexcept f1re) that wealth can buy. The foot-warmers above men, tioned are unique institutions, and as ornamental as indispensable. They are regular pockets, each just large enough to slip pair of feet into, and are made of fur or flannel, lined with llama wool. They are often richly embroi- dered, and are usually of home manu- facture, or are made by the nuns and orphans in. the asylums, who are all ex- perts in needle work. Oldest of all 1t seems to see gentlemen and ladies pre- ambulating the plazas Il mid-winter- the former with muffiers, overcoats and fur caps, the latter bare-headed, in the thinnest of slippers and with no wraps but lace or silken shawls. The manta is universally worn in church, by all classes of Chilian women, but for rid- ing, shopping and the promenade, all but the ra-fashionable still go about with heads uncovered
 Santiago is especially blessed with paseos, or public walks. Besides the incomparable Alameda already de- scribed, the great central plaza with it's environing arcades and portales and the beautiful Santa Lucia, there is the Tajanar, lying along the banks of the Mapoche, which used to be the favorite resort before the Alameda was comple- ted. It is an embankment of solid ma sorry, some three miles long, which was erected many years ago by a Spanish