The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-13
ASUNCION THE CAPITAL OF PARAGUAY 7

borhood of 12 per cent. The Agricultural bank, which was organized te help the farmers, has a capital of Sl4,500,000 in currency. and there are a number of other banks as well.
 wish I could show you this town of Asuncion. It lies here in the heart Of the continent halfway between the Carib- bean sea and the Strait of Magellan. It is about as far east from the Atlantic as the distance between New York and Cleveland. and about as far from the Pa eff1c as from New York to Detroit The country is in the great Parana basin. which at this place is only two or three hundred feet above the sea. It lies on the east bank of the river, which is here more than half mile in width. The houses skirt the river for four or five miles. and run far back into the coun- try.
 The principal buildings face the Para quay Coming up on the boat, you see the great red palace of the government, which was built by the Dictator Lopez when he and Mme. Lynch were carrying on their carnival of tyranny, bloodshed and destruction. It is now occupied by the state, war. public works and other departments little further on are the houses of Congress, which are being re- paired, and still further is the great thea tre, which Lopez started. but d'd not con- plete. It is now used as tobacco ware house by the government. all of the to- bacco passing through it for revision and grading before being exported.
 Back of these great buildings is the city proper. The houses are mostly of one stcry. Their roofs are flat. They are made of red tiles galvanized iron, but you can see this only by looking down on them from above, for the front wall of eacE house runs up a little higher than the roof, hiding it from the street. The most of the houses are built close to the sidewalk in solid blocks, forming one story wall along the streets, with here and there door or iron-barred window. You can tell where a house begins and erds by it's color It may be rose red, sky blue blood red, a bilious yellow or a jealous green. The market house is painted rose pink, the cathedral Is the color of rich Jersey cream and the palace is red. The houses of congress are lilac, while one of the newspapers is printed in a monasterylike structure of Indian red
 On the outskirts of the city there are many fine houses surrounded by gar dens. They are chiefly of Spanish archi- lecture, consisting of one-story buildings of these same bright colors. villa may be of sky blue rose pink or golden yell low but notwithstanding this it seems to harmonize with it's surroundings. We are here on the edge of the tropics, and there are all sorts of palm trees and tropical plants. One beautiful tree is the Cape Jasemine. and another Is the Para guayan cedar. There are gorgeous flow CTS everywhere and luxuriance of vege- tation such as few capitals have. The finest residence street of the city is the Avenida de Asuncion. It runs from the city about four miles into the country. being lined with fine homes all the way. It's width is nearly 120 feet and it is paved with broken stones. It leads out to the cemetery, and as I rode over it I thought of the cruel verse:
 Rattle his bones over the stones,
 He is only a pauper whom nobody owns
 This does not apply to many of the dead of Asuncion. The bones of the rich are rattled as well as those of the poor. l judge this from the cemetery It con- sists of miniature palaces made of mar be each of which has it's own vaults. It is built after the style of the Ricoleta the great cemetery of Buenos Aires.
 Leaving the cemetery I went to the market. Thls covers q whole square Y, the heart of the city. It consists of q shed of galvanized iron with a floor space of about an acre. This is filled with women who sell meat, vegetables, fruit and wares of all kinds. There are also hundreds of peddlers seated on the cob blestones outside the shed, and on a busy day the market is frequented by thou sands. The most of the buyers and sell CTS are women and in the early morning the square is covered with them. Nearly all are barearmed and bareheaded and