New-York tribune., 1908-06-14

meals brought TO their rooms. a~service for which
the management waived the usual will be chargeo
for extra clause account of the saving III
dishes The comedor or dining room, which was
the bay frontage of the hotel. received the fui
benefit of the shock of the waves. while the nyng
spray continually found its way through the loose
fitting windows big pools of water on the
floor At dinner the evening of the day on Which
the norther at its height. in spite Of the tac'
that the. tablecloths were generously soaked 10
make the dishes stick. ii required an extra waiter
at each place to stop the overflow. L suggested
racks to the manager, but hes only shrugged his
shoulders and looked hurt. | have noticed that
people always very touchy the matter OF
their climatic irregularities. and Nalparasans are
particularly sensitive the subject of northers
AS for the manner in which the northers do
business in the bay. it is of those big scale
performances that need a specialist adequately to
describe and, unfortunately most of the special
lists there feel too strongly in the matter to give
| the norther a fair deal On the morning of the
! night the broke 1 looked man whose
| thirty years residence in Valparaiso L deemed
would enable him speak authoritatively on the
| subject l found him drinking huge cups of inky
black coffee. and learned that he had been UP all
night directing gang of his men in an endeaVor
| to railroad sleepers worth $4,000 that had
just been unloaded for his house upon the malecoh
These had all been lost
Was the norther a bad one?' l asked. In Ian
guage unprintable he told that it was a bad
one. Had there been much damage y And again
in language unprintable L told that there had
been a great deal of damage. Would there be
much more dam1age?" And, still in language un-
printable. he said that there would be lot more
damage. but that he didn't give rap how much,
that his sleeperS were gone. After a While,
when he had finished another pot of black coffee
he warmed up and gave really beautifully
coIored description of the way the great, green.
foam m-hecked combers came in and carried his
seepers-which of the heavy. unseasoned
'pellin" from the Gulf of Ancud and would not
foat-to the bottom of the bay, but as 1t a de-
scription that would need great deal of working
over to make it ct to appear in public, am omit
ting it here save trouble AS a general OBJ
servation, however l would say that for truly
inspired eoquence, a man who has worked in the
cold and wet half night to save property
$4,000, only it go by the board In the
morning. can give points the greatest political
spelbinder that stepped upon the rostruHl
1t is not a rare thing to larger waves at sea
than those that the northers drive into Valparaiso
Bay and certain exposed points it is not ex-
ceptional to them break upon the rocks and
dash higher in the air than against the malecon
OF that port; but nowhere else is there as 1mpor-
taat a harbor completely at the mercy OF the
seas that assai it from its unprotected side
Valparaiso is second only to San Francisco among
the Pacific Coast ports in the amount of its ship
ping and there are rarely less than hundred
large vessels in the harbor at the slackest season
The fact that practically all freight and passen-
gers are handled in lighters and launches Is re-
sponshle for the existence of large fleet of har-
Dor craft. Even at ordinary times the surface of
the bay is fairly black with boats. while in a
norther, with millions of feet of lumber and thou
sands of tons baled hay and countless boxes and
crates and other foatabes cruising about, almost
the only water to be is that which foods the
front the city. AS the great seas roll in
the effect to one watching from the shore is as
though the surface of the bay was an enormous
carpet being savagely shaken by an angry giant
The giant is working in the dim obscu1ty OFF to
seaward. and the waves. dashng to spray upon the
maecon, are the fringed edges of the carpet where
he has whipped it TO tatters.
The most spectacular part of a norther Is the
dashing OF the waves against the seawall JhlsI
structure is built of cement. armored with steel
rails and would stand unlimited banging from the
waves alone. When a ship or barge comes charg-
ing in, however, il never takes long to batter a
breach The lower end of the malecon has been
entirely destroyed in this way and is in state Of
bad repair to-day. In this section of the water
front between the Bella Vista and Baron stations.
there is a large colony of fishermen. whose houses
are built entirely of pieces of wreckage.
The height of the breaking waves on the occa-
sion of some of the bad storms is almost beyond
belief have been repeatedly told that the heavy
spray often flies hundred and fifty feet in
the air, and myself waves twice as high as
the Bella Vista railroad station. or in excess of a
hundred feet. AS the surface Of the bay is only a
few feet below the level of the malecon, large
part of each of these waves comes ashore solid
green turning the lower streets into verita-
BILE rivers. At the height of heavy storm the
waterfront is dangerous for trains and there
are several instances record of these having
been derailed with serious consequences
l mentioned the fact of having been thrown
across the seaward entrance of my hotel. FortT-
nately the main door opened to street the
opposite side of the block. The basement Office
of large importing house not so lucky. A
fatcar was jammed squarely across the stairway
leading to the door, and two of the clerks, |
unable force the bars of the windows, were |
prisoners in mud and water for twentyfOur hours.
before they could be released.
It may seem strange that shippers continue to |
as Valparaiso, until it is known that all the other
ports of Chill almost bad regards !
posure to north, and that for the trade of |
Santiago and the Aconcagua Valley there offers |
other port all Reduced to their lowest terms, |
risks and losses only mean increased insurance and
all this the pays in the end. 1t is possi-
BILE that If Valparaiso In Europe North
America it would have had breakwater and har-
Dor works before now, but this is by GER
tain. The difficulties In the way of constructing
breakwater enormous principally account
from shore there are almost as many fathoms OF
water with the soundings increasing beyond at
the same rate. How much rock would have to be
dumped into the bay to build a wall high enough |
70 stop norther have never heard estimated.