The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-04-19

IL now has great houses in London and 2 CIV York. with branches in Peru. Be- hvia and Chile. The business was es- tabiisAed by Michael F and w. R. Grace and it Is said to have resulted III very large ps oi,s. It now does al k.nds of business from the individuaI package Of goods to the rolling stocr Tor railroad, and it deals in big con- tracts involving millions of capital The eTaces nave long run 4 line of steamers rom New York to western South Amer lea and they are now taking over rns Management of the Peruvian pa ssenser hne which belongs to the government. bur go Tar has been run at a loss The firm mas, understand, capital of some thing like s1e,o5o.oo0 It is known everv- Where Tor the ability and probity of it's Officials and members and is an insti- tut,oA of which the Un..e States should be proud
 Another opportunity for American cap- iiai down here is in the esta blishmert of Sood line of American hotels along the west coast. There should be an Ameri- cen-kept hotel al Guayaquil and another at Quito in Ecuador There should be a third at Lima, a fourth at Arequipa and fHth and sixth at Valparaiso and San llaso de Chile. With the opening of the Panama canal. there is bound to be an enormous tourist travel to this part of the world, and at present the hotel ao- commodations are beyond descrintt--. abominable. I have been stopping here at one of a half dozen hotels owned bv a monopoly which charges from s to Ks day gold. My hotel is the Maurv Tts rooms are generally filled and I under stand that 1t is paying enormous divi- dends Everything is done in the slow est most grud3ing and insanitary way. The rooms are without baths and the meals are of Spanish cooking such as would not be tolerated in any first-class Amefleah hotel The monopoly knows that there Is practically no competition. and if one objects the clerk is liable to sa ythat his house does not care for American customers .il
 To show the antiquated methods of these hotels I have just paid my bill. I nave been at the Maury for II days with myself and stenographer and the hin as It lies before me is s12S Of this s2s con sists of extras. and I find that in addi- ton 10 the regular charge I have been paying 70 cents per dish for two poached esgs every morning and little rake-offs on every sort of pretense. The meals gwen me for s9 BIO a day have beer uesayuno' or coffee and bread, upon ris- Ing, and almuerzo table d'hota Iuno1, or breakfast at noon. and a table d'hote ulnner in the evening. I have pieced out the bill Of fare by buying butter and jam on the side and bringing it to the table.
 But I started to write of how tba Dill was paid. I spoke the nipht he lore to the clerk. telling him I ex- pected to leave early this morning and 10 please have the bill ready. When came to the office he had done nothing: ou. ne set two bookkeepers to work and they went through three difrerant cash books and ledgers and fipurad ana figured, making enough calc,la
 rons to nave involved the buying of a ralroad As they figured they made llelnorandums, and when they had competed the head bookkeeper took the sheets to a typewriter and in snan- ish, With one finger of one hand ,iior ed orr the items. He then took tbe .ypeWfltten copy to an old fashioned copyihg press and sponged the leaves @ @un.ii they were dripping with mois- cure lie copied the bill in the book ana handed it to me with my cbits looked over the latter and found that out or s9 belonged to some one else rms was deducted. I then knew ina sum was to pay, but it took mo quarter of an hour more before I could se' paek my change. Altogether. the Whole proceedings consumed 54 ninute. by my watch, and that for an account when would have been rendered at the Willard in Washington or inc La safe In Chicago or the Waldorf in New hork in the wink of an eye.
 There is no reason why a chain of Amerlcan hotels at good prices womb not have large custom. Tbev wyo,,Id
 
 pe patronized by foreigners and by FeruV1ans and the expenses of run hlns them would be far less than in our larger cities. There are no mar s. he.s m the world that are better than nose or Peru We have the fruits here of the tropics and temperate zones ; ana mat throughout the year.
 spent yesterday morning in going through the city market It covers q square, the chief stalls being in a great court roofed with galvanized iron and surrounded by stores. There were |, grapes, white and red There were apples. as yellow gold, peaches the color of snow and pomegranates and guaVas, chirrimoyas and tunas the lruit Of the cactus. There were oranges ana lemons and pineapples, bananas and bushels of paltas or alligator pears. ine latter cost cents or 10 cents, not withstanding I had to pay 50 cents for the one l ordered extra at the hotel for my dinner today
 And then the vegetables What would you think of string beans as long as your arm, of potatoes as val low as gold and of yuccas which have flesh like potato. but consist of roots as Dig around as a ball club and often r two feet in length. I saw roasting ears . at nearly every vegetable stand. Some or these were bright yellow and others as black as your boots I saw grains
 
 the largest of lima beans. Thes came from a corn grown here which is so Taealy you can make flour of it by 2 bounding 1t with a stone. There were many tomatoes and great heads of cauliflower and cabbage, muskmellons and watermelons and other fruits the names of which I do not know. , large part of the market is devoted to meats and game I saw lamb flesh and Kid Flesh and great cages of guinea p1gs, which taste like squab pigeons } or tender young squirrels. There were large fish stalls full of corbina and , other fine fish from the ocean and some nsh which are especially delicious when served raw with the juice of a lemon The acid seems to have the same effect on the flesh as boiling and it is even better than the raw fish of Japan. There are also many kinds of shellfish and among others little clam-lika creature called the senorita or little girl This is a clam whose flesh Is as White as snow, but which has also a morsel of meat of the color of the brightest red pepper which forms a , part of the fish. 1t tastes delicious
 In. connection with the makets of the west coast look for large fruit busi- ness to grow up in shipping Peruvian and Chilean fruits to New York and New , Orleans as soon as the canal is completed. , We are now only 1G days from the mouth , of the Mississippi river and within two weeks of New York This distance can be greatly shortened by the canal and