The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-03-30

a MONG my many curios none IS
~ priced by me moro highly than a
4 soft. sheeny yellow scarf pin
which imprisons the lambent light as an
opal 1t was presented to me when a
child by a United States minister to
Peru and is a petrified eyeball, a num-
ny's eye found in the grave of an Inca
- Peru. These strange people possessed
a method for preserving the eyes of the
dead from decay. method which mod
eSa science fails to initiate or compre-
haRd, yet there are skeptics who declare
that the Incas before the burial of their
dead replaced the human eye with that
of squid or cuttlefish and my curio may
be nothing more than a piscine organ of
vision. But whatever it may be 1t is
beautiful and I prize it for its beauty as
well as for the fact that 1t is centuries
old and associated with the Incas.
Some of the happiest memories of my
childhood are linked with happy golden
days spent in the ''City of the Kings" as
Lima, the capital of Peru, was christened
and is sometimes called. 1t was founded
iby Pizarro on January G. 1875. an ami
versary of the manifestation of Christus
to the Magi who consequently named it
Ciudad de los Reyes, city of the kings.
The Incas. however, insisted upon calling
II Lima, In commemoration of an oracle
which once uttered it's prophecies in the
neighborhood and the shorter and more
euphonious cognomen has adhered to the
place ever since
The city has a population of about $50, :
000 and though 1t suffered under the mer-
ciless vandalism of the Chilians, its
churches, converts and monasteries are
still the finest and most costly in all
America
There is no building in the western
world more extensive than it's church Of
San francisco. which cost more than
our national CAPITOL at washington.
It's interior Is mass of bewidering
tiles celebrated all over Europe and
which though three centuries old defy
the imitation Of modern art and skill. The
city has hundred and fifty churches and
In it's cathedral, which cost $9,000,000, lie
the bones of the cruel Pizarro, while
Santo Domingo contains the body of San
ia Rosa, the only American ever canon
fzed by the Church of Rome.
The old palace erected by Pizarro, and
In which he was assassinated, is still used
rs a government building, the senate
continues to hold its sessions in the coun-
Gil chamber of the Inquistion building.
famous for its carved ceiling imported
from Spain, where 1t was made by the
monks and the chamber of deputies sits
in the College of st. Marcas, the Oldest
Institution OF learning in America, being
founded in 1851, and a fourishing acad-
emy over half century before the
Pilgrims trod the Rock at Plymouth. The
closets and wardrobes of the former body
are the riches in the walls in which the
- ,1o1 h
cred to DEATH
Peru is the paradise of the western
world, Lima is its pearl and the daugh-
ters of Lima are. next to those of Tifiis.
the most beautiful upon the face of the
globe.
They are SO handsome that their beauty
IL converted into source of revenue for
trade and photographs of the thousands
of bellies of the city are sold everywhere
and in unstinted quantities. These photo
graphs are to be found at the news
stands and in the print shops and show
windows while the walls and even the
ceilings of reception rooms. halls and
corridors are literally lined with them.
But these women. like their sisters Of
Brazil, are educated only in their fin
gers and feet They play the mandolin
and piano exquisiteiy, paint and crochet
most admirably and waltz divinely. but
she deems New York dull when she
learns there are no bull fights there,
has never heard of Chicago. and ques-
tions whether London is in France or
the States. They dress most becomingly
and with excellent taste. but they pos
sess an excessive ,childike fondness for
jewclry. In fact. from the manner in
which they load their parsons down with
bijoutry one would think that Pzarro
by no means obtained all the gold of
Peru. u y estimated that this robber