The Republican journal., 1904-08-25

habitants. Its One-storied houses of
plastered brick, originally painted in
all the colors Of the rainbow, but now
considerably softened by time and the
weather SO that the crazy commingling
of hues no longer seem to blaspheme,
are arranged as usual around a central
plaza. In the middle of the plaza is a
market for the sale of yams, mandioca
root and other simple necessaries of
Paraguayan country life. A few shops
of miscellaneous merchandise are sand
wiched between the houses, bakery,
blacksmith's forge, tinsmith's estab-
lishment, etc. The one hotel is kept
by rascally Italian, who ought to be
executed for the manner in which he
keeps" it; and the village church is
remarkable chiefly for being able to
stand up in such an advanced stage of
dilapidation and decay. Beyond the
town a few mud plastered huts struggle
off to grassy plains; and the plains
stretch away to distant hills, with an
occasional group of palms Haunting
their green plumes in the sunshine.
Cows are rambling in the streets of the
town, as we'll as in the grassy meadows,
but not an ounce of butter can be had
in Paraguari-simply because the peo-
pie are too lazy to make it. Villa
Rico, the intended terminal of the
railroad, is seventy miles beyond, at
present to be reached only by a bat
tered diligencia, which runs thereto
once a week-when not laid up for
repairs.
Among several railways projected
in this small republic, those of the
most importance-to which concessions
have already heen given-are the Para
quay and Bolivian Road, which runs
across the Chaco country to the Boliv-
ian frontier; and the Transcontinental
from Asuncion to Santos, the great
coffee-shipping port of the Brazilian
province of Sac Paulo. The conces-
sion for the former is held by an ex-
Minister of the United States to the
Argentine Republic. 1t will be great
thing-if ever completed in the dim
and distant future. Starting from
Villa Conception, it will run to Sucre,
the capital of Bolivia, distance of
nearly three thousand miles. Though
the work was inaugurated with no end
of ''fuss and feathers" in the spring of
1S9O-the first sod being turned in the
presence of a great crowd of Para
guayan notables and Chaco Indians,
augmented by all the foreigners in the
country-there are grave doubts of its
ever getting much farther. The holder
of the concession has no other guaran-
/ tee from the government than grant
of every alternate eight leagues of
comparatively worthless land along the
| line of the track-unGer certain condi-
}'tions, which are not likely to be full
filled.
| The line to Santos, if ever finished,
will bring that important port within
thirty hours of Asuncion; whereas it
now takes at least fortnight by the
| tedious trip down the rivers to the At
lantic. The actual situation of property
in Paraguay is peculiar. In the gen
eral ruin that attended the Lopez wars,
most of the public and private archives
disappeared; and after peace was sign.
ed these had to be somehow recon-
structed. Then all who made demand
in proper form received tituloa supple
porias, or special titles, which consti-
tuted authentic deeds for the owner
ship of the real estate. But the raw
/ ages of war had been so terrible that
thousands of families were wiped out
of existence, leaving no heir, and their
lands returned to the State The al
ready vast public domains were III
creased to such an extent that fully
forty-nine fiftieths of Paraguay's whole
territory became State property. This
fact was serious obstacle to the re-
suscitation of the country, because the
government had neither money moi
men wherewith to utilize it's land, and
under the new order of things indus.
try and commerce were declared free.
For years it remained an unsloved
problem-who would buy the State
lands, and where were the hands to
cultivate them? In 1885 two measures
were effected, the success of which be-
gan new era for Paraguay. The first
was the passage of a law sanctioning
the sale Of the State lands; the second
the arrangement of the debt of fifteen
years before by the English bond-hold.
ers accepting 500 leagues of land to
cancel their claims. Thus Paraguay
credit was restored and this land, hith.
erto worth nothing, became the basis
of future national prosperity. As an
immediate consequence, the Argentines
began to take an interest in Paraguay
for their own land had advanced to Sc
high value that large capital was re
quired for small investments. A
Paraguay had better and cheaper lands
to offer there was regular Oklahoma
| ruch infn thie country and tho omalI