The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-29
copyrighted. 1914. by Frank G. Car
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tCopyflghted, 1914, by Frank @. Car
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Temuco. Chile.
=1EMUCO is one of the live towns
of southern Chile. 1t is about
1000 miles south of Panama,
ISky situated in wooded coun-
try back from the coast.
When I first visited it. about Is years
ago, it was on the edge of the from
tier. 1t was surrounded by Indians and
is wide streets, lined with log cabins,
We're rivers of mud. The country roads
were almost impassa BILE and the
srumps still stood in the streets. To-
Cay Temueo has more than 10000 pop
ulation and it is an up-to-date South
American city. It's one-story houses of
brick and stone are covered with stuc-
CO. painted in the brightest of colors.
and they stand upon wide-streets, we'll
paved with cobbles. The streets cross
one another at right angles The town
SIS laid out in checkerboard fashion.
with large plaza in the center. The
plaza Is filled with flowers and trees
and the band plays there of sun
day.
Temuco is the chief supply point OF
an extensive farming district. The
chief crop is wheat and much of Ii is
planted and harvested with American
machinery There are many large
bfores, ana IN them l see ploWs from
Moline and windmills from Chicago
The International Harvester company
does big business al this end of the
continent Is thrashers and reapers are
to be frequently seen and much of the
machinery is moved by American en-
gfnes. At the same time the old
tramps on the heels of the new The
cxcart crowds the automobile, and
cattle yoked by their horns, toll
through the streets pulling great loads.
TIE place is a mixture of savagery and
civilization. The streets are filled with
we'll dressed men and women of a half
dozen nationalities and there are also
Indians in ponchos and Indian girls
riding astride. galloping along on their
ponies.
The Indians of Temuco are the famed
Araucanians. They have reservations
nearby, and their farms lie in blocks
surrounded by those of new settlers
from Europe and of the modern Chi
1eno. The rude homes of the Indians
are scattered over the country. l have
visited several of the reservations and
have witched them reaping their grain
with American reapers and thrashing
1t with American thrashers. ] nave
met some of the braves and a few of
the squaws, and am therefore able to
give faint moving picture of the last
of the race as 1T Is in this good year
1914.
But first let me say a word of the
Araucanians of the past. You have all
heard of the Incas, who once ruled from
Ecuador far down into Chile. They had
in their dominion Ecuador. Peru, Bolivia
and the northern part of this country.
They tried to capture the south, but
when they reached the lands of the Arau-
canians they were met by the decree,
THUS far shalt thou go and no farther"
The Araucanians kent the Incas out of
about all the land below Santiago, and
It is claimed now that they We're never
really conquered by either the Incas or
whites.
There is no race which has caused the
Spaniards SO much trouble as the Arau-
canians. For three generations they waged
a successful war against the Spanish in
vader destroying his forts and cesieg-
ing his cities They killed Pedro Valdivia,
the man who founded Santiago, and 1t
was only inch by inch that his success
sors drove them toward the south. When
they were finally overpowered by great
numbers they refused to be the slaves
and hirelings of the conquerors. They
continued the fighting, off and on, and to-
day they maintain their own identity.
They have their own farms and lead lives
apart from the descendants of the white
skinned invaders who robbed them of the
empire they once possessed. l say en-
pre- for the Araucanian possessions COM
prised the best part of the Chile of to-
day Much of it was farmed by them.
They grew crops of corn and potatoes,
and in the far north they had llamas
and alpacas which they got from the
Incas.
The Araucanians of that day were very
much like our Indians of eastern North