The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-04-26

kss@A--.4 qupa, situated loo miles back of I&,3Spl the Pacific ocean, and perhaps iG1i0 miles south of the Panama canal The town is built in an oasis, made by the Chile river in the arid Andes of this Pacific coast desert It is surrounded by ragged dry mountains. but bedded in valley of perpetual green The city is a mile and a half higher than Phila delphia, Boston or Baltimore. It Is about 76oo feet above the sea. and some of the mountains about il are four miles in height Just behind il is the great vol cano Mount MisG. which has a crater half mile in diameter and on the top of which Harvard college has established sort of an automatic meteorological sta tion which is more than three miles above Mount Weather Va. To the left of the Mist is Chachacani over 20,0oo feet high. and there are other Andean giants behind.
 Indeed there is no more beautifully located city anywhere in South Amer lea, and you will go far before you find one which is so fresh, so bright and so ouaiut. The houses of Arequipa look tlOu9n they Hdd Just 1oilf put ol sh bandhox Their walls stand close to the street. and these walls are of all col ors of the rainbow. l bought my pos tage stamps today in a building that was the color of ashes of roses. l ate my breakfast in restaurant painted sky blue, and next door was q house of rose pink This morning I visited the new market of Arequipa. It consists of great walls of Spanish architecture surrounding a court roofed by the sun. The front of the market is as yellow as gold, and it's inside as blue as the Andean skies that form a part of its roof. The sur rounding buildings are of the same bright colors. and the whole seems to fit in with the gorgeous air of southern Peru.
 But come with me into the market. This will show us something of why the city of Arequipa has been built where 1t is The wares all come from the val ley of the Chile river. in which the city is situated This valley has something like 70 square miles of cultivated land. It Is great oasis in the heart of the Andean desert, and that on the road that leads from the sea to the mountains The oasis makes Arequipa a great agrl- cultural and fruit center and also one for the raising of grain, alfalfa and ca tile and sheep. As you go through the market you see everywhere evidences of the fertility of the soil and the won derful climate. Nearly every fruit that can he raised in the United States IS sold here. There are aprieots, peaches, apples and plums and strawberries as big as walnuts There are oranges and lem ons bananas and figs and bushels of paltas or alligator pears. There are green watermelons as big around as the waist of your sweetheart, some of which have as red flesh as any that ever made darky's mouth water, and others with flesh as yellow as gold, although the seeds are jet black.
 In the vegetable quarters you find fully as great a variety. You people at home are now in the heart of midwin- ter but here on the other side of the line it is summer and they are selling new potatoes and green corn. They have bright red tomatoes, white cauli- flowers, and great quantities of cab bage. They have also the yucca, sweet potatoes and vans. Peru is the home of the potato, and l understand that our department of agriculture has recently sent men here to get new varieties.
 The valley in which Arequipa is sit uated raises great quantities of very fine barley. Ii has fields of alfalfa and pastures upon which are fed cattle and sheep. The city is the chief wool mar wet of Peru. Ii imports vast quantities of alpaca and sheep's wool from Bolivia and the Peruvian plateau, and ships 1t to Europe and the United States. These shipments amount to more than ten million pounds weight every year. and they have a value perhaps of two and a half million dollars. The leading exporting houses of the city have their agents in all parts of the Andean plateau, and the wool is bought from the Indians. and haciendados and sent to Lake Titicaca. from where it comes over the railroad to Arequipa. Some of f,,a nod in mil 1G hpr but the majority of the product is sent abroad. Nearly all of the vicuna and alpacsa wool passes through Arequipa.
 Returning to the city itself, Are quipa is quite a manufacturing center. It makes harness and saddlery, boots and shoes, and 1t has large cotton mills. It has also the railroad shops of the Southern railroad of Peru, which makes this place its headquarters. There are about 500 men employed there; they are now making their own passenger and freight cars. as well as all the repairs for the rolling stock.
 The town also manufactures choco- late. It has a flour mill and it does a great deal of exporting and importing being the center of trade for southern Peru and also for great part of Bo- livia. The Southern railway is the chief gateway to La Paz, and 1t will
 
 that go to and from Bolivia and the seacoast. It is on this account that Arequipa will probably be improved by the Panama canal The city is 10C miles from Mollendo, the chief port oi the south for this part of the world The landing is poor however. The ships have to anchor far out from the shore and the swell is worse than that ot Jaffa, which tossed Jonahs ship SC that the sailors threw him out to the whale. The Mollendo landing is ofter so rough that passengers have to be taken up by steam cranes from the boats that bring them to the port from the steamer. and goods have to be put on and off of the launches by cranes The ocean was tanner than usual when came into port, but my boat went ur and down eight or ten feet. and I had to make a flying leap, when it was on the up grade, to get to the step; that led to the custom house.
 When I visited Arequipa In 1898 II was lighted by coal oil and I do not remember that 1t had a car line. Il has now an electric light plant iron turbines run by water power and also an excellent system of tramways, whicf ( Is extending out into the country. | 1u well equipped as to teleph ones, botf local and long distance, and the tele