The Republican journal., 1904-08-11
fording little privacy SO far as sounds
are concerned.


are the melancholy ruins of structure
occupying an entire square, which Lo-
PEI intended for a handsome modern
opera house. But fate, in the form of
the conquering Brazilians, overlook him
too soon, and the opera house never got
beyond its first story nor acquired the
dignity of roof. The Cabildo govern
ment house, is vast, two-storied build
ing, arched corridored and many pill
Jared, containing the halls of Congress
and the offices of the President of the
Republic and his Ministers. One of the
finest modern buildings in the city is
railway station of Paraguay's only rail-
road, which runs eastward about fifty
miles to the town of Paraguari
Traces of the golden days when AS
uncion was the greatest city in this part
of the world, the stronghold of the
} esuits, and the centre of great COM
mercial business, abound in the ruins of
spacious edifces and costly churches.
Whole streets are lined with the empty
shells of what were once palatial homes,
now fearfully defaced Another sad
monument of past grandeur is the I'M
finished church and dome known as the
Pantheon de Lopez. Like the opera
house, which was intended to eclipse
that of La Scala at Milan, it is now a
huge, twenty-foot-high skeleton, with
weeds and wild flowers springing upon
it in the dust of passing years. There
is an old theatre, little used in these
days of poverty, but much handsomer
and more elegantly fitted up than one
size in the United States. 1t is lighted
entirely by electricity, there are three
tiers of boxes, and in each box an cleo
trio bell to call for refreshments. There
are spacious galleries for promenading
between the acts, and at all times dur
ing performance more people may be
seen in the galleries than in the boxes.
The cartouche around the ceiling gives
Moliere the place of honor over the
proscenium, with Gounod and Massenet
on either side, and the remaining car
touches are assigned to Lopez de Vega.
Shakespeare, Racine, Corneille, Wag-
ner, Alarcon, Hugo, Verdi. Goethe,
Beethoven, Schumann, Mozart, Calder
on, Lulli, Beaumarchais and Donizetti.
To the stranger with an artistic eye,
the most interesting quarter of this
queer capital of contradictions is its
market-place-a perpetual source of de-
light and amusement of which he never
wearies. All the peculiar types Of the
country are here congregated, especial
ly in the early morning, when the vast
open space in front is thronged with
stately, white-robed female figures,
bearing burdens on their heads, Indian
women. who come in from the interior
or paddle down the great river to sell
their produce and buy supplies queer
bamboo carts, pack-mules, oxen, don
keys, NANCY dogs, and children abso-
lutely as naked as they came into the
world. The ox-carts of Paraguay are
smaller than the prairie schooners"
of Argentina, and of different shape.
These are extremely primitive and pic
turesque, with massive wooden axles,
open wheels and wooden frames, sides
and floor of wild bamboo and roof of
hide. In front, directly over the driv-
er's head there is always an iron ring
which helps to uphold bamboo pole or
goad. The latter has rusty nail,
sharp-edged clamshell or splinter Of old
iron driven into the end of it, and is
just long enough to do effective work
about the ears of the foremost OK in
the procession of six or eight, yoked
two abreast. The market place occu-
pies an entire square--a tall structure
elevated several steps above the street,
surrounded by double row of columns
and arcades, with projecting roof of
tile, the whole painted rich, dark In
dian-red. The interior corridors are
occupied by those who cannot afford to
pay much rent, but squat in the shade
of the arches with their wares spread
out or piled up in little heaps on the
pavement. All the adjacent streets
and alleys are blocked by vendors who
are too poor to pay any rent-Guarani
squaws, negresses, half-breeds, who
crouch in the sand, each guarding a
little straw mat upon which her scanty
merchandise is displayed. There is a
series of booths between the corridors
and the interior in which miscellan-
eous notions" mostly imported from
Europe, are sold-such as cheap hand
kerchiefs and fans, buttons, knives,
hatchets, cigarettes, matches, combs
and small mirrors. The large, square,
unroofed patio, or central courtyard is
devoted to the sale of meats and fish
and filled with benches, racks and
tables. At first glance you are aston
ished to note that the buyers and sell
lers are all women-even those who
cut up dead pigs and the carcasses of
beef, or drive bullock carts to town