The Republican journal., 1903-10-29

trees and flowers. in the midst of which
fountains are set; and beautiful statu-
ary in bronze and marble-most of the
latter | regret to add, having been
stolen from Peru during a recent war.
There is splendid theatre; clubs as
fine as any in New York or London;
picture galleries, public libraries, read
ing room-in short, all the adjuncts of
modern civilization.
Spanish Americans seem to have a
! passion for erecting monuments to
dead heroes, and among the large num-
| Der in Valparaiso several are to the
memory of foreigners. One OF the
newest, set up on the site of the old
! custom house, is of Mr.. Arthur Pratt,
an Irishman, who figured conspicuous
ly in the most notable conflict between
Peru and Chill. Pratt seems to have
been endowed with an unusual heritage
of the reckless daring common to En-
erald Islanders. He was tile Lafayette
of Chill, and the people admired him so
much that now every town has statue
of him; while streets, shops, saloons,
opera houses, mines and lotteries are
named in his honor, and in this city a
fine building was demolished in order
to erect his monument in the most con-
spicuous place.
The principal streets of Valparaiso
are traversed by tramWays, and the cars
are all two-storied, ''double-deckers,
so to speak, second class passengers
| climbing up some narrow outside stairs
to seats on top, where the fare is just
| half the amount that is charged in
side. One pleasant innovation is
| that when the seats are all taken no
more passengers are admitted, nobody
being permitted to stand. However the
! clouds may pour or whatever the exl-
| gencies of the occasion, you may stand
OH the street and signal in vain if the
seating capacity is filled, for not a car
will take you on. The consequence is
| that in time of unusual crowds, such
as festival days, everybody hies him to
| the starting point and makes a rush
with all the vigor that is in him for the
empty cars as they emerge from the
stable greatly to the detriment of dig
nifty and good clothes. Another inno-
vation is the universal employment of
female conductors. The experiment of
allowing women to serve in this capac-
ity was first tried by the street car man
ayers about twenty years ago, when the
able bodied men had all gone north to
whip the Peruvians; and it proved so
successful that their retention has be-
come permanent, not only in this city,
but all over Chill wherever tramWays
are in use. AT first sight young wo-
man with bell-punch does not pro-
duce pleasant impression; but one
gets used to it in time, as to most
other novelties, and soon wonders
why the idea has not been adopted
in other countries. The petticoat-
ed conductors wear uniform, con-
sisting of a plain blue flannel dress, a
mans felt hat, and a big white apron,
with bib attached and capacious pock-
cts for holding change and tickets.
Each has small leather handbag slung
over her shoulder, in which she carries
the overflow of her pocket, lunch, hand
kerchief, perhaps surreptitious pow
der puff, and other distinctly feminine
belongings. The salary Of each female
conductor is twenty-five dollars per
month. Passengers, after paying their
fare, are given tickets of yellow paper,
which they are expected to destroy.
The conductress is charged with GER
tain number of tickets, and when she
reports again at headquarters, must re-
turn the money for all that are missing
cut of that number. or make up the de-
ficit from her own salary. This plan
naturally tends to make them attentive
to their duty, and also prevents free
riding on the part of their relatives and
favorites. Though these women are
generally young and often extremely
pretty, it should be mentioned to the
credit Of the Chilians that they are sell
dom insulted or otherwise annoyed in
the discharge of their daily and nightly
task. When they are disturbed, the
rule is to call on the nearest policeman.
The last named gentry stand at every
corner and would not hesitate to eject
a troublesome passenger, without lis
tening to his side of the story, or to
march him off to jail under suspicion
of drunkenness.
No more spacious or beautiful
harbor can be found anywhere
L