El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-07-04
A PAZ. Bolivia, July Al WI

A PAZ. Bolivia, July Al want tc
show you how our holy Sabbath
IL is spent in this, the city Of peace
The capital of bolivia is one Of the
most interesting OF all the South Amer
lean cities, and sunday is ats great Gay
of the week. The town lies lar PACK
from the ocean. across the highest
range Of the Andes. and on one Of the
highest plateaus OF the earIh. IN the
Gulberu hotel, where am WrlLlnBs 1 an
almost two miles and q half above the
sea and / can see from my WlnuoW Lhe
rlerDetual SHOWS of Mount Illlman1, one
Of the highest peaks OF TINS heInls-
phere. Ali about are Olner nlSh noun
fains, and wailing me in are the great
ramparts. three times as hlgn as the
washington monument, that guard the
basin in which La PaZ lies
/ have climbed the walls OF Jerusa-
lem. and tramped for miles upon the
great wall of China that separates UnaL
country from Mongolia NelIher OF
these walls is over 90 Ieet hlsn- me
walls Of La. PaZ are 80 IlmeS nlSheI;
They extend upward Tor 4oUU 4eet anu
end in a plateau that IS more IMAM
900 feet above the level Of the ocean
The plateau of Bolivia is as big as
either Virginia, Ohio or kentucky, ana
on one side Of II are mountains, some
of which are more than IOur mAeS IN
height The city lies IN a depression
in that plateau 1t is a little hollow.
away uo here on the topmost roof OF
the-Sworld- John D. O'Rear, our Amer
lean minister, says the site Of the town
is shaped like a WashbOWl whose top Is
three miles in diameter and whose SIDES
are 1900 feet deep This bowl is almost
circular except for one end where Is a
great track, out OF which the La Paz
river runs. And indeed that gives 1a-lr
idea Of the city. Its site was a depres-
sion in the bed Of the great inland sea
that once covered ms mlghty pialeeu-
Then the earth rose and the water
broke through at the crack and ran
out. leaving the dry hollow that now
holds the capital OF the Bolivian re-
public CT.
When I last visited La Paz I rode
from Lake Titicaca across the plateau
on the top Of stage drawn BY eight
mules which changed every three
hours This time came on the rail-
road. I took the train at Guaqui, on
Lake Titicaca, and within three or four
hours had crossed the high plains 1
could see no sign OF CITY until the
cars stOpped at the Alto. This is at the
edge of the basin, where the motive
power Of the train IS changed from
steam to electricity Here our engine
pulled up on the brink OF the precIplces
and there below US was this mighty
hole neppered with houses rooted with
red tiles and galvanized iron We could
see the walls of green, made BY nature,
and the patches OF CULTIVATION Gimp
ing their sides; and right in the center,
and three story houses and the churches
and the public buildings that make up
the city.
We rode down the sides OF the walls
on an electric trolley in winding curves,
our train zigZagging this way and that
Here the cars flew around a loop, ana
there they cut a great figure eight,
while further on We could see a half
dozen tracks above and below US. As we
descended the town grew larger, and
the buildings. that We're merely toy
houses when viewed from the Alto, be-
came of respectable size We could
now pick out the streets as they
climbed down the hills. and could recog-
nize the buildings about the great cen
rral plaza, where stands the national
capitol in which congress meets. We
could see the palace where the presl-
dent lives, and at its left the unfin-