The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-18

 { rich the tribute of unrequited labor. Yet the profligate city of the Three ! Kings f1ourished more gaily and luXU- ; riantly, if possible, than ever; for richer fountain of wealth had been l opened than any of the older sources, 1 in the GuanO islands scattered all 1 along the arid coast-those rocky and i forbidding haunts of seals and sea- 1 birds, which were the terror of the early mariner. For half a century they poured into the lap of Lima a more than Danaeam shower of gold. Then came darker days of cruel warfare and bitter poverty, after a sister republic l had stripped the country of everything available; and though starvation stared them in the face, the descend- ants of the naughty grandees had no idea of te dignity of labor till the Grace-Donoughmore enterprises of the present day brought the dawn of a new era of prosperity.
 Modern Lima is about ten miles in circumference, but as a large part of it's area is laid out in gardens and pub i lie squares, the whole is by no means densely populated. The old walls of the city which that energetic vice. king, La Plata. caused to be built in 1883. described an irregular oval, on the left bank of the Rimac, about three miles long by mile and half wide. They were from eighteen to twenty four feet high and twenty feet thick, and were entered by twelve gates But they were never of much use except to 1 facilitate the collection of local duties and to afford an elevated paseo, or bri- dle path. for equestrians, and were de- moished long ago. The city's present population is variously estimated be- ] tween one hundred thousand and one | hundred and twenty-five thousand. Much of the beautiful region round about was laid waste by the Chilian army during recent wars, and has not been rebuilt. The invaders were as merciless and as needlessly cruel as they were completely victorious. In the battle that decided the fate of Lima hundreds of counry villas and all the suburban villages were burned to the ground. Thus Chorillas. the Long Branch of the coast, was entirely de- stroyed. A railway leads from Choril- las to Lima, passing through the once lovely village of Miraf1oras, whose name, literally translated means See the Flowers!" The Chilians landed at Chorilas, and having reduced that town to ashes, they marched along the line of the railroad to Lima, ruthlessly destroying everything on the route. For one whole night Lima was in the hands of a mob of armed soldiers, who had broken loose from all restraint and were as bloodthirsty and unfeeling as so many Sepoys; and they were only prevented from entirely burning and sacking the city by the energy of the British minister and other members of the diplomatic corps, backed by the English and French admirals, whose war ships were in the harbor at Callao. It is said that there are fifteen hundred foreigners in Lima, and no fewer than six thousand priests The latter gentry are met at every step, in black robes and white gray cowls and shovel hats, monks of all orders and varieties of habit, and clergy of every degree. Professor Orton affirms that there are at least twenty-five different admiX- lures of blood in Lima. Be that as it may, certainly a more mixed collection of people would be hard to find. There are English, French Spaniards, North Americans, Belgians, Chinese and Me- groes, black white, yellow and all in
 termediate shades of complexion. min gled among the leather-hued native population; one need not walk half a square to hear dozen different lan- guages spoken. Being situated under the tropics and at an elevation of only five hundred and twelve feet, it might reasonably be expected that the eli mate of Lima would be too warm for comfort, but such is not the case. During the six months that answer for 1 winter on this side of the equator (from June to November), the ther- mometer ranges from fifty-seven to six ty-one degrees Fahrenheit, and is often so cold that warm woolen clothing is necessary for comfort, especially in- doors, where the thick walls retain dampness and exclude the sun. render ing the interiors much more chilly than the open street. The low temperature of the place may be partially accounted for by the close proximity of the snowy cordilleras, and also from the fact that the great Antarctic current of the Pacific sets from the southwest full on the coast. where the temperature is thrty-one debrees less than the wa- ters of the open sea one hundred miles from land. It is not positive cold that denders life in Lima unpleasant during the winter time so much as the fogs and dampness Sometimes for days to- gether the sun refuses to show his face, and a regular Scotch mist" heavy enough to form continual drizzle, makes the sidewalks slippery as ice, and so permeates the air that even the steets of ones bed feel sticky. Though visitors are often assured that "it nev- CT rains In Lima" the most partial cit izen is obliged to admit that what he calls la guara. a dense fog that forms itself into minute drops, brings all the discomfort without any of the benefit of good healthy shower.
 FANNIE E. WARD.