Evening Star Newspaper, May 14, 1898, Page 17

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, MAY 14, iso8—24 PAGES. : A JAMAICA COU MIGHT BE A TRADE| | = os Ze Philippines in Exchange for the: British West Indies. COMPARISONS OF THE TWO GROUPS A Suggestion That Offers Advan- tages to Both Parties. = - THE SLANDS issust} ath’ vic ta N OHN BULL tickled to our te to win self he | a on| very tt we othere woul eople the on hi earth; for evident rea: ppeals to pride. Z tak- fr nents there and that is ,in from s. as r ould wrest rs ight of ler = T nat the Philippines session to Great elded what they m ever ha al llowed the hted w % trom human labor what ght to have wrested mother have “larded Millions of abe with t an earus r tears and bieod; | | a bar- a bar- | oriental nh would be de tropics t wood sible of cu es, and which =e of Location. f z and populat ppines; but there uld not that Unless entirely from the traditions cf tors and national usag on a ngw career hithert a world. | «ging Gown upon us all id find the Wes in the end, than | nd miles: imated, he or seven thousand to the other | and calculate the loss of time, | of transportation, et advan of the former to us will | yparent. Of course, if we me pos- | aii (whieh doub we shall, | and ought to) and these will the be but stepping stoues in the jon of forts and perts we may ulti- mately erect around the globe. But, like Hawaii, the West Indie: reckoned as part of the defensi ; on the Pacific n group. on the Atlantic the he Antilles. and no nation can just- ire of acquis! only reached down our de end at was evidently intend- of the world should to strengthen in to us w ed from the begi be our own. z P kept up for several hundred years, until; there is no longer any fun in it—for John } Bull. So, as has been said, unl some hits revenu But can we get the British West Indies in ex ge for the Philippines or straight out for cash? Let us see what islands com- ese them, and what elements sre likely to en into the trade. The British West Indies, proper, consist of the Luc group known as the Bahamas, extending from east of the Fiorida qoast to within a hundred miles or so of Santo Domiago; Jamaica, the Virgin Islands, St. Kitt Nevis, Montserrat, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Barhadoes, Grenada and the Grena . Tobago and Trinidad. By stretching a point we may—and, in fact, we must—include the Bermudas, lying off our coast, about 700 miles from New \ork only 580 from Cape Hatteras. The Bermudas. The Spaniards discovered most of these islands—all of them, in truth—and the En- glish appropriated them, as they “appro- priated” Gibraltar, sometimes with pre- tense of right, oftener without any pretext at all. One of the first of the Spanish dis- coveries to fall into English hands was the Bermudas, sighted by Bermudez, in 1527, and colonized by Sir George Somers in 1600. Johr Bull soon saw the value of this group of about 100 isles, rocks and islets, and they now constitute an import- unt link in that chain of military stations with which he has encircled the globe. It was not, however, until after the revolu- tion that he became fully aware of their importance, and ever since the year 1784, when the British soldiers arrived from day this bunch of islands, surrounded with coral reefs Bcrrow channels only, is almost if not absolutely impregnable. He woul there verty, and America, he has been industriously pole ‘with the fortifying, mining and building floating | ance on the docks. The result is that at the present | have fine harbors, XTRY HOME. the Bermudas than of surrendering Halifax or Gibraltar, and though the ’Mudians sent guapowder to General Washington 5 and thus assisted ing the rede from Bosten, thi hough their trade and existence are bound up with ours, and their feelings rise and fall with the price of onions and potatoes in the ork market. The Bermudas tary colony of Great nd no American can own a single foot of soil there—or rather rock—but we have the pleasure of supporting them. As a British guide book calmly states: “It is not alone the tourists which make them v it is the military and naval fort- or here the nation o'er whose = sun is said never to set has foothold; and perhaps Great Brit- s never before exhibited to better antage that farsighted policy which made her the mistress of the seas, and r flag in every part of the world. found these islands a con- venient dezvous of her cru arships of the North Atlan- tie suuac Cash Comes From Us. the condit: s are those of and in West I The heme country sells them a large mint of manufactured goods, but takes ly li of their pi ce in ex- They are like those of other na- uienalities in the Antilles; act ent upon us for their cash. lie those most attractive of insular para- dises, the Lesser Antilles, with their feet in the tropical waters and their heads in the clouds. St. Kitts is the most northerly of account, consisting mainly of an im- mense mountain, Mount Misery, 4,000 feet in height, with a vast belt entirely around its base of the richest sugar land in the world. Owing to its great area of cultiva- ble land St. Kitts keeps its revenues a few thousands ahead of its expenditures, and its exports exceed its imports by $400,000; but it has a debt of about $100,000, and pays its governor (here styled a commis- sioner) only $3,000. There is no good har- bor here, but in the last century the Brit- ish erected the great fortifications on Brim- stone Hill, which have been styled the “Gi- braltar of the West Indies,” though now far gone in ruin. Nevis and Montserrat are two small is- lands, south of it, raising enough sugar and limes to keep the wolf from the door, but not enough to encourage any lavish ex- penditure. Antigua is the capital of this group, known as the Leéward Islands, with revenue and expenditure each about $250,- 000, having 69,000 acres of land and a popu- lation of 37,000. Next south lies the mountainous island of Dominica, with the French island of Guudeloupe between it and Antigua. Its surface is so rugged that but 50,000 acres of its total 180,000 are cultivated at pres- ent, though its scenery rivals that of the world’s most famous countries. Coffee is raised here, as well as spices of all kinds, and the climate is very good for Americans It has a debt of about $150,000 and a re enue annually of about $120,000, which is exceeded by its annual expenses for gov- ernment and “improvements.” Both Antigua and Dominica have fine harbors, though, strange to say, not those of their principal towns. English Harbor of the former is a small but deep port, land locked, with a naval and dockyard, practi- cally abandoned, while Prince Rupert's bay of Dominica is deep and spacious, though very unhealthy and bordered by a wilder- ness. outh of Dominica lies Martinique, a rench island with at least one fine and world-famous harbor at Port Royal, three miles wide and seven miles deep, protected by Fort St. Louis, a vast but ancient struc ture. There is a fine dry dock here capa- ble of taking in vessels 360 feet long and drawing twenty-six feet, but it is owned and controlled by the French government, and our ships might have difficilty in se- curing permission ty use it at the present me. Strongly Fortified. Distant some thirty miles from the south- ern end of Martinique is the Island of St. Lucia, which is now considered the most important of the Lesser Antilles, owing to the great outlay by the British govern- meni toward making it an impregnable port of call and coaling station. The und is only twenty miles long by about alf that in breadth, yet contains within its contines many a natural wonder, as its eicano and sulphur region. Like all the Caribbees, it consists of a main mountain mass thrown up abruptly from the ocean, cots covered with with innumerable exuberant tropical vegetation. It is ex- trem, fertile, but very unhealthy, and hi the scourge of soldier and settler for nearly 300 years. Yet this is probably they would sink to the level, almost, of their original barbarism at the time of dis- ecvery, for we alone keep their noses water and hold them back from ruptey. Of course, we do not do thi disinterested motives, for their trad mcalculable value to our country; ju cause they are near and ly they pro- dvee many things we cannot rais>, 7 But, like the Bermudas, ands are an expense which few of them in any way reimbur: ne sends out a horde of office holders, whom she main it y supports there is true, large salaries, and this she h isiands pe a strategic value, like the j Bermudas, in her scheme of world encom- passing, it would not be a difficult matter to wean them away from their foster mother. Ac ‘ding to a recognized British author- ity, the little Bermuda colony is adminis- tered by a governor, who receives a salary of $15,000, with assistants who aggregate as much more. He is ad 1 by a council of six membe appointed by the crown, a legislative council, also of the crown’s ap- pointing, and a representative house of as- sembl with thirty-six members. All thi: to govern a population of less than 15,000, of whom but 1,600 are entitled to the fran- last statement of their condition the public expenditure more, by $10,000, than the revenue, and the islands are a quarter million in debt. Next south, within a thousand miles of New York, straight away, is Nassau, capi- tal of the Bahamas, once the haunt of pi- rates and blockade runners, and within a night's run of the Florida coast. The gov- ernor receives $10,000 annually, the chief justice, $5,000 and other numerous office holders in proportion; and yet it was “nip |and tuck” for the colony to keep its ex- penses of about $300,000 within the gross of There used to be some forts here—they are here still, in a dismantled condition—but Ergland no longer considers the Bahamas as defensible or profitable, nd so doubtless we cculd have them for a song—and the people there would be glad to sing i Inignd of Jamaica. Next. southwest, 1,450 miles from New York, is the large and beautiful island of Jamaica, 144 miles in length and 50 in breadth. This island, which the Spaniards discovered and colonized, and which Eng- land took from them in Cromwell's time, fs one of the most important in the An- tilles. It has mountains 7,000 feet high, and so, being within the tropics, has every variety of climate; can raise cane and to- bacco in the lowlands, coffee and cinchona on the hills, strawberries and potatoes on the mountain levels. It has the finest of valleys filled with exuberant vegetation; it has magnificent roads—700 miles of them —and a railroad running the length of the island, with glorious tropical scenery along the coast and throughout the interior. It is as well entitled as Cuba to be called the “Queen of the Antilles,” and in Ameri- can hands would be a valuable property. As it is, its expenditures latterly have far exceeded its revenues, and it has a debt of about nine million dollars. Its total ex- ports are some $10,000,000, of which one- quarter goes to Great Britain, and pretty much all the rest to us; its imports, $11,- 000,000, of whick more than one-half come from the “United Kingdom,” and the rest oe ftom the United States. Being rich, if not exactly prosperous, Jamaica has a long list of high-salaried officials, beginning with the governor at $30,000 and ending with a registrar general at $3,000—an enormous total, which it Is impossible to contemplate without mingled emotions, when we consider that the popu- lation is only 650,000, and most of that number black and colored tillers of the soil. It has good harbors, many forts, more soldiers and a famous naval and re- fitting station in historic Port Royal, with its docks, its hulks and enormous stores of coal. Many miles to the eastward and within a hundred-inile radius of Puegto Rico, are the Virgin Islands, which, though known to have gold and copper within their rocky hills, are still languishing in the depths to show an ac- home country with the bal- ‘wrong side of the ledger. They though, some which nature | enough to ficat a navy, and if nearer to penetrated by | their actual owners might prove valuable. The Lesser Antilles, no more think now of giving up Southwardly, curving from the Virgins, one island with which England would reluctantly part, since her best en- ecrs have been for years engaged in ting fortifications here that rival in strength those of Halifax and Quebec. They declare that so far as natural situa tion goes, the crest of the “ the harbor of Castries, in St. surpassed. The port they com: fend is on the west side of the island , dered one of the best in t with very deep water, and so shel- tered that the largest ships may ride here even during a hurricane without danger. these islands are of volcanic origin and have abrupt mountain walls running sheer down into the sea, and as in the case of Castries and St. Georges, Grenada, there are fiord-like fissures hundreds of feet in depth running up into the land. This of Castries is a mile in length and half a mile >. with a town at the head of it where the largest steamers can run directly up to the'wharves. But this is one of the hottest and sickliest harbors in the chain, being like that of Havana in having no outlet for the sewage and filth that drain into it from the town. The stench at times Is overpowering, and this is the main reason why Castries is not a favorite port of call With the commanders of South Atlantic eets. That it was a pestiferous hole w: known to the British engineers, nod that the government should have decided, in the face of its notorious insalubrity, to crest here the strongest fortifications south of the Bermudas, only twenty-four hours’ sail from the coast of Venezuela, speaks vol- umes for its importance as a strategical center of operations. Having done this, for good and sufficient reasons, it is incredible that the English should ever consent to abandon or exchange this island for any. thing within our sift, whatever they may be willing to do with the others, Other British Possessions, East of St. Lucia is the well-known island of Barbados, which has been an English possession for 870 years, has never been taken by foreign foe, and fs as closely bound to the mother country as one of its own counties. It is indefensible as a mili- tary possession, having no good or pro- tected harbors, but always has a regiment or two of soldiers stationed here, and a war vessel off the roadstead of Bridgetown, its capital. Of its 106,000 acres at least 100,000 are in a high state of cultivation, and support a population of 186,000, or Kingston Wharves, Jamaica. more than 1,100 to the square mile; yet its last reported revenues ran far below the outlays for government. Some of the sal- aries. paid are: Governor, $18,000, including 000 for table allowance; the chief jus- tice, $7,500; the treasurer, $5,000; bishop, $5,000, etc., so it will be seen that it is, or ought io be, highly ornate. There would be @ strong sentiment against annexation to the states, but it is doubtful if England would be at all unwilling, though she fur- nishes about half of its total of $8,000,000 imAbout & ut a hundred miles west of Bar! lies the little island of St. Vincent, with Population of 40,000, and a revenue of $150,- 000, exceeded by expenditures some $10,000 annually; yet her ruler, styled a commis- sioner, is paid $4,000 a year and her chief coe the same. Justice seems to come ‘igh in those British West Indies, but the yore are determined to have it, and pay for it. * The small island of Grenada, still furth; south, is one of the few that yields an ‘an nuel revenue ex peculiarly suitable. This might also said of little Tobago, the original inson Crusoe's ‘sland, southwest of Grote ada, which has annual revenues of $50,000, 17 ee and contrives to keep ‘within it by letting the government go to the dogs. Whence Asphaltaum: Comes, The most prosperous'of all the British islands is that of Trinidad, ‘judging by its showing in the official’ records, and it is also the most southerly lying in latitude 10 degrees north and hot ‘far from the coast of South America and the mouth of the Orinoco. It is somé 1,750 square miles in area, with a population of 206,000. That 1s, it is more than ten. times as large as Barbados, and has but.20,000 more inhabi- tants. But much of its terrftory is moun- tainous, though the cultivable soil is vast- ly productive, and the range of fruit and vegetable products is extensive. Trinidad ought to be well known to Washingtonians surely, Pecause of its cel- ebrated “Pitch ke,” from which about 100,000 tons of asphaltum are taken an- nually, mach of which finds its way hither and covers our streets and avenues. We may use yet more of it when the island belongs to Uncle Sam, and we can go down to see whence the inexhaustible supplies are drawn on our own steamers and be- neath our own flag. Trinidad brings us within hail of Paria and the coast of Vene- zuela, and thus we complete the chain that connects the two American continents and whicn, through the bravery of Admiral Dewey and his gallant tars, may yet be- Jong to us. A word as to the resources of these islands, which may yet be exploited by enterprising young Americans. There is no denying the fact that, without excep- tion, they have retrograded in the past fifty years, have grown poorer, and hence less desirable as places of residence. Once was the time when there were vast plan- tations raising sugar cane, which, convert- ed into sugar at $150 to $200 per ton and rum at $1.50 to $2 per gallon, supported in idleness a luxurious aristocracy, who lived in London and allowed their agents to man- age their estates. So it fell out, finally, after the slaves were freed, and after the competition of beet sugar brought down the prices, that most of the estates became the property of the thrifty “attorneys” who managed them for the non-resident proprietors, and finally even these sharp lawyers failed to make them pay. The sugar is just as sweet and the rum as pure s ever, but demand has fallen with sharp competition. The importation of coolies from the East Indies to supply the place of lazy negroes has not proved entirely suc- cessful, and now the proprietors are turn- ing to the raising of fruits and ‘small cul- tivations,” which promise to be very profit- able, as ‘n the experience of Jamaica and Grenada. It is in these cultivations that our young men will find their fortunes when we get the islands, and it is through the failure of the isiands to continue sources of revenue that Great Britain will consent—if she consent at all—to let them ass into the hands of a friendly power, ble of making them tributary to her tn F, A. OBER. — UNIVERSITY NOTES Howard University. The May issue of the Journal has just made its appearance. The present stalf, consisting of Peter R. Lee, editor-in-chief, ssociate Editors G. H.W. theo- orge H. De Reef and I. W. Jen- college; Bradford S. Dupee and J. N m B. O. Wilkerson and H. ) PR. Slaughter, law; Miss Mary E. Whetsell, ncrmal, and Florerce M. Dungee, prepara- tory, will be superseded, after one more is- sue of the p by a new staff, to be elected tomorrow at 8 6*clock, at a meet- iled for that purpose fh the editor's ark Hall. # per, Commencement éx¢ oceur as follows: May 18, musicdf department; May 30, Jaw department; Mity 3f, pre; department; June 1, college; May Iegical department. Aul!*will"occur at the college, with the exception, of the law school commencement, Which will probably ngregationg! Church. Young Ladies’ Jmprgyement Ciub will give a social thiseveuing in Miner Fell for the b ciation, this oc ‘being, the second event of the kind during the present school term. General admissiop. will be free and there will no doubt be a large assembly of the students, Z There was to have been a drill of the Volunteer organization, Thursday, but the rain prevented. There was, howeyer, a drill Tuesday 10g. ubject last week at the meeting of the C. E. Society was “Things My Denomi- ation Has Accomplished, h G. S. Mur- as leader. Short papers were read on following denominations: African Meth- , John Hammond; Baptist in Pp. V. Baldwin; Congregational, L. B. Moore; Hpiscopalian, X = 5 a . Professor R. B. Warder, ‘ofess aac Clerk; Meth- odist Episcopal, D. O. W. Holmes. Presi- lent Hankin concluded with an address on Unity of Effort Among the Denomina- trons.” Tonight the regular tcpic of the society will be “Our Bodies God’s Temples.” This s a temperance meeting, and a special pro- Mr. McGuire us leader, has red. The Alpha Phi Socicty will give a ban- quet the 26th instant Last Wednesday evening Professor Fair- field, dean of the college department, ten- dered a reception to the seniors and facul- ty. Nearly all of the students and the professors were present on the occasion. Mrs. Rankin was the hostess last night on the occasion of a reception to the senior college cla The in photegraphy meets Monday, Thursday and Saturday of each week, un- der the direction of Professor Warder. Columbian University. Dr. Samuel H. Greene will tomorrow de- liver the last of the Sunday afternoon lec- tures. The Alumni Association will hold its an- nval dinner the 3ist. The Library Association of Washington city held a meeting at the university last Wednesday evening at 8 o'clock. The junior law class held a banquet Thursday night. Examinations, covering nineteen subjects in all, will commence next Wednesday at the Corcoran Scientific School, and will centinue until the 28th. The Enosinian Society held closing exer- cises last evening. The program rendered was as follows; Address of welcome, J. W. Beatty, president of society; history of so- clety, Miss Metcalf; reading of “Bee,” Mr. Matson; senior farewell, Mr. Stuart; junior reply, Mr. Harlan; reading of “News,” Miss Parkinson; voem, Mr. Main; announce- Ment of medalists; prophecy, Miss Ross. Appropriate music was rendered between the various numbers. Examinations for the Fitch prize in chemistry were held May 11. Examinations were concluded Tuesday in the senior college class. Georgetown University. The final public debate of the law school debating society occurréd: last Saturday night between Messrs. W, Gilmer Dunn and David B. Perry, affirmative, and Aubrey Lanston and J. Merrick Frere, negative, on the question, “Resolved, rPhat:the railroads of the United States shd&ld be owned and controlled by the federal goverment.” The judges were Messrs. H.W, Glassie, R. E. Lee and Miles Fuller, and thegcommittee in charge of the event consisted of John M. Carr, M. Hampton Magruder and H. Anton Heitmuller. The decision‘of the judges was for the affirmative. ‘The law school faculty. lution to the effect that 4ny member of the senior or post-graduate ‘lass’ who is com- Pelled to abandon his work at the univer- sity by reason of enlistment’ will be entitled to a diploma without the necessity of a final examination, and juniors enlisting will be Promoted to the senior-ciess under the ‘same conditions. * Ixaminations at the college begin in all classes Monday. : The examination on corporations for the pos ‘graduates and seniors will occur at the ‘w school this evening. Other examina- tions will be held as follows: May 16, bills and notes; May 19, May 21, prac- tice; May 24, cBiminal law and domestic re- vethe catal f : ie catalogue of the law department for the ensuing year will soon be issued. The course of study in this department will hereafter cover three years for the bach- elor’s degree, and the arrangement of stud- ies will be shown in the new cat: a 2a as passed a reso- —_—_.>—___. a Jones—“Funny about Pratt. Aw- fully absent-minded, you" we"? Brown—“What’s he heen doing now?” Jones—“‘At the prayer Jast even- ing Elder Goode asked to lead in prayer, and before he knew what he was saying the deacon replied: ‘It isn’t my lead. I dealt ‘em.’ It was evident . that his mind was still on the little game he had-the night before.”—Boston | originally intended to reach VERUGUAS BRIDGE. workmen working under ove! DOW N T H E A horseback. ‘The cotton plants a: som, and the fields look like vast of pink and yellow roses. The men weed the plants and they are as clean as any rose garden at home. There is a cotton mill, and farther on we pass a sugar fac- tory which grinds out thousands of pounds of sugar a day. There is no better sugar land anywhere than this, and we learn in passing that it produces from two to six An Exciting Trip From Mountain Top to the Pacific. Sy ae aa vee ee sg per mat en posing yee started will keep on producing for as long PERILOUS JOURNEY ON A HAND CAR! gs," scars We mots ‘hat i'r the ate Rimac and nothing grows without irriga- tion. i iscomforts of Life in tm the Andes, Delights and Disco Now we are in the foot hills of the Andes. How bleak and bare and gray the High Altitudes. look in the early morning. There is not 4 green spot anywhere to be seen on these Vast walls, which here fa the sea. W AMID IMPOSING SCENERY | shai fina it different as we rise to the mcuntains behind. Here re of soft ee silver gray velvet where the sun c: shadows and of dazzling white (Copyright<d, 1898, by Frank G. Carpenter.) strikes fall in their faces. 5 ence o' 2 s' is the little strip alcng the 2 Special Correspondence of The Evening Sta Feet ther onan tec a at a ean LIMA, Peru, April 16, 1898. | Cropping Me AEST araGe TET ae OWN THE ANDES the velvet was sprinkled with on a hand car. Here there is nasting over the 2 small bunch of 2 higher the mo ains | oooh ES RS ener until at the level of Mount the world. on we find them covered with a Dashing through | thin coat of veget 5 ar the al- clouds to find clouds | titude of Leadville the of grass and at one point we different below you. kinds flowers at stopping ir en- Hanging to preci- | gine > butter without num- pic flying on | ber. silver mosses and flowers of all idges ove! _| colors the names of which I do not know. bridges over fright: | as 1 remark upon the vegetation, saying ful chasms, whirling | that it is still v seanty. Mr. Sherm about curves, now in! tells me that the fact that there is o the midnight dark- | Sreen at all to be geen is due to the rain on, and that other times of ness of winding tun- ther tim t {this wholc te side of the Andes nels and now where the light of day makes | bleak, dry mo: ly ste you shudder at the depths below you. j The foot which, in fact, are moun This will give you a faint idea of the | tins in thei looked us though they a a i aes | dirt a avel. t part of a trip from which I have just Ra aeot Bein ania ce laaeioe ot returned. During it I have ascended to the where only: Bits, of; soll” are £0) very top of the mountains and have come n here and there. In such Pes back again to this point; which is just six | inch of ground is cultivated. The miles from the My trip was over the | ae are ter oe lear to their RED 3 sete ops, and some of them are covers famous Oroya railroad, the most wonderful | {oP Gt sarees ally ais oan TRE piece of railroad engineering ever con-| ind so graduated that 4 man can stand on structed or planned. The road is all told | one of the lower ledges and plant only 138 miles long, but it climbs up the | the seed or weed the crops of the next st mountains of the globe. in less | ledge without stooping over. Some of the n 10) miles it ascends more than three | fields are not as big pread, and and at i highest point it is 15,665 , some on the opp te p Mountain bove where it starts at the port of | do not look as big a pocket handker ‘allao, on the Pacific ocean. At the top| chief. Some patches of corm seem almost it is still 2,00) feet below the summit of | inaccessible and remind me of the farmers Mount Meiggs. It cuts right through this | of West Virginia who are to have to peak by a tunnel which carries it to the | Plant their crops with a rij the hills o steep that they are unable to stand des to drop the corn » Indians planting and numerou other side of the Ande: to the valley of the Jau silver mining region of Yauli, ends at Oroya, an Indian ma It then descends | are , through the rich | long enough on the and finally |in the rows. We t town 12,-| Working in the fi 178 feet above the sea. It one of the] little village: most expensive roads ever built. It was | sundried bric! 0 dear in both mon nd men, Seven thous-} Sheets of corrugated iron. In mos and. lives wer is said, iost during its|the iron plates are not nailed to the hut Th manyeena tats are merely laid on the rafters and nd the first eighty-six mil of it cost $27,000,000, or over $300,000 per | Kept there by covering them with stones. mile. Between the coast and the summit | Many of the houses 4 larger than there is not an inch of down grade, and {40s kennels and quit squalid as the speed of our hand car in my journey | American and their inhabitants over it was only regulated by the pr who gathe! the stations, ar on the brake in the hands of the Indian | °f the Pe - dark-faced Indian men, who acted as conductor. On many parts of Jet me of the road the grade is over 4 per cent, and m for at such grades the track winds about and Z evidently never up the Andes, passing through cuts in the mon #phs, and one little fellow solid rock and through sixty-three tunn: howled like a Cherokee Indian when I some of which are of the fa letter | Pointed the instrument at him. S. It is of the stand auge, its The Cathedrals of the Andes. track is well laid and is in excellent condi- tio IT ha the Unij been over ed St very § I have tr: tes. Built by an American. e railroads of Mexico This road was built by an American, 2 ZS oes oo 0 eae RoC 3 Es easby Seraivian 1 Mno rts Europe which the work eee Se et ee ee ‘and. I have climbed the Himala- ‘The man who constructed it was Henry} yas and have watched the sun set om the Meiggs. Meiggs laid out the road, acted as} mountains of north China, but nowhere its engineer-in-chief, raised the money to| have I seen anything like the scenery of | build it, and, in fact, is entitled to all the | the Andes. T will not say that it is more rs : tee beautiful or more impressive than the credit of its construction. The road AIpaMthe! Roclies (or ther samninaees, mat the Cerro de Pasco silver mines, but the $27,000,000 gave out when about eighty-six miles were built and the extension is still some forty-odd miles away from these famous mountains of copper and silver. The portion of the road above where Meiggs left off was com- structed by the Peruvian corporation under what is known as the Grace contract. The ultimate intention is to extend it farther on into the Perene, a rich coffee-raising di trict, and to the head of the steam naviga tion of the Amazon at Chanchacayo. The preliminary surveys for this have already been made. The total distance from the sea to the navigable Amazon is, I am told, not more than 210 miles, but there is at present no sign of the road being soon com- pleted. It is doubtful whether the raii road now pays much more than its oper- ating expenses, and it will be long before it will give dividends in proportion to its enormous cost.. Only two passenger trains are run over it a week, and the chief freight down the mountains is ore. Climbing the Andes With an Engine. The usual trip over this road is taken on the regular passenger train, which carries the traveler up the mountains one day and brings him back the next. Through the Kindness of the American firm of Grace & Co., I was taken up on a little en- gine and had my ride down on the hand car. I thus had a wonderful oppor- tunity for studying both the railroad con- struction and the mighty mountains up which it climbs. Our special engine was called “La Favorita.”” It was composed of the engine proper and a cab walled with glass and fitted up with comfortable seats. This observation compartment was a part of the engine itself, taking the place that the ordinary engine uses for coal. Our lit- the engine burned coal oil, and it was Pe- ruvian petroleum that pulled us up the Andes. The party consisted of the Ameri- can minister, Mr. Dudley; the secretary of our legation, Mr. Neal; Mr. Sherman, the manager of the house of Grace at Lima; a Frenchman named Piper, and Mr. Pierson, an electric street railroad man from Ohio, who is out here to see whether the Lima tramways are worth buying. The engin- eer and his helper were Peruvians. We left at 7 in the morning and spent the whole day on the road, stopping to take photo- graphs at the most interesting points, and going on as fast or as slow as we wished. Lima, you know, is situated: in the valley of the Rimac river. It is right at the foot of the Andes, and our trip was up the mountains along the course of this river to its very source on the summit. At Lima it surpasses them in some respec and its On a Hand Car. wonders are its own. Here the mountains rise almost abruptly upward. You ride for miles between walls of rock, which kiss the sky thousands of feet above you. Some of the rocks take the shapes of gigantic cathedrals, very temples of the gods, their spires hidden in the clouds. Others look like vast fortifications, walls of rock to shut the nations of the west away from the riches of this great continent. There are no pretty bits of scenery such as you see in other mountains. Here all is on the grandest and most terrible scale. In our ride we climb along the sides of these walls. Now we pierce them by a tunnel high up m the air, and higher, still see another tunnel which we shall reach later on. We cross gorges in going from one tunnel into another over an iron network of a bridge which looks awfully frail as the Favorita passes over it. We pierce a wall of rock, where a river has been turned aside that it may not interfere with the road, and by a winding tunnel dash out into what is call- ed “The Infernillo” or hell. It is a slender iron bridge two miles above the sea, high up between walls of rock. Far down be- low you see waters rushing, and out of the wall we have left a great torrent of - ing water plunges. Pefore us, at the other end of the bridge, there is another w: of rock, in which there is a black hole pierced by the track, and as we look upward be- tween these walls we see as through a nar- row slit the blue sky of heaven above this Andean hell. There are a number of these hanging the Rimac is what in America would be| prigses on the route ‘stopped at- called a,-good-sized creek. It is nowhere | the Veruguas bridge, spans a navigable, and is, in fact, a stream of foaming white water from the top of the Andes to the sea. The descent is so steep that quiet Pools are nowhere to be found, and the river is a succession of waterfalls, foaming churns and rushing rapids. Dur- img the ride we could often see the river chasm 580 feet long hanging to tunnels 300 feet above the Veruguas river. This bridge was swept away some time ago and for months both passengers and freight were carried across on a cable, the little car hanging to the rope stretched from wall to wall across this frightful chasm. At above and below us at the same time, and we went up, up, climbing the sides of the | ‘me track goes up Its stecbest plone ing mountains, cheered on our way by the! zigzag route, so that at one time we count- rushing of the waters. = = SO Ave Sees Tanatig shteat Darelial be Among jugar Cane and Cotton. us. imost the whole line was blasted wok prota! jeg out of the mountain rocks. On many places ‘e first passed through sugar and) siong the line the hills are so steep that cotton plantations which fill the valley mee het 50 be: lowerel Sai sopes_over the to drill holes for the 4 i Ee others and many died Hand Car. = ‘You can imagine something of the sensa- road on a hand and more excit- can conceive. The was of the rud- est order. It was merely a platform five feet long and a little wider than t track, upon four ordinary car wheels. On the front part of the platform a strip of wood two inches tuick ard about that wide was nailed, and at the back was a seat much like that on a farm wagon The seat had a railing two inches ‘high and it was just wide enough for three. The conductor, a brown-faced Indian, sat in the middle,’ with his hand on extending down through the cente plattorm. Mr. Sherman I sat ¢ right and le! strip oa the t our dof feet braced on the sides and back of the on r life as we ru: n only me the y the brake. as we rushed ough ihe tu of ihe car jumping 1 the curves, but i 4 r de of the ugh. and the t this time sent five im regu nger train road ts fr At one for about a mile blocked the times the an angle severest the pre clinging to that I was not afraid nor heart my throat I will say perience was such that, knowing now do, I would ts journey feel the same exhilarating sense of and danger combined On the Top of the An The sensation of stand the Andes was worth hay As w? climb- lea nd up above Caszpalca the air grew colder and rarer. We rode out of a heavy rain into a dense snow storm. Soon we were in banks of snow. Now the mist and the clouds surrounded us so that we could on the top of not sce twenty feet beyond the car. We rede through the clouds and saw the storm p down the Andes be us. As the disappeared we caught a glimpse of country through which we had becn fs and shuddered the precipices F which we had gone. Mount Meiggs : Imost straight above us, and we stop- ped the engine a moment in front of the black mouth of the Galera tunnel on the very roof of the South American ¢ Behind us all the waters were flowing into the P: sean, On the opposite side of the tunn 1 of the waters find thelr way thr 1 the Amazon into the Atla The dividing of the waters i the tunnel f , and you at a certain point in t spit in both oceans with. io one side or the other for I we the the interic ° A Ww ana stopped the among some of t trip. Th> mounta ped with Over Mc t? above where we stc more than three mil wer2 on the highest Little Infernillo Bridge. world. Think of it! We were far above the height of the top of Fujiyama, the snow-capped mountain of Japan, far than th in e heav or any point top of Mount urcpe, a thousa higher than Pik>’s Peak or any mountain in Colorado, above Mt. Whit fact, far higher than any mo United Stat utside of Alaska The Terrors of § he. My voice was so weak from the the air that I could not have deg. At about ten thousand feet a Dr e the a conversation began to lag in our party. It was almost impossible to talk to one another on the outside platform of th avorita, 1 1 fo 1 myself ain end again weig my thoughts to decide whether worth the breath it | would t them. All sorts of rticns took strength to perform them. I found ots grow suddenly heavy, and I changed my step to that of n old man. At the eastern end of the Galera tunnel we stopped amid banks of snow, and Mr. Sherman and myself had up there in t exciting contest, however. very throw sent our hearts into our throats, and we had to stop and pant for breath. When we walked at all after this we had to go very slowly and in climbing up the bills we crawled. As tho day went on uncomfortable feeling from the y height and our quick jump from the sea to the tops of the mountains increased. We descended about 1,000 feet and stopped for the night at Casapalea, where there is a big silver and copper smelter owned by Backus, Johnson and Company, an_ enterprising firm which I shall describe in another letter treating of the mines of Peru. We were received here by the vice president of the company, Captain H. Guyer, an Idaho mining engineer, who made us at home and put us up for the night. Before we got to the house the Frenchman and Mr. Pierson were attacked with soroche, or the mountain sickness, a disease common to strangers in high altitudes, and later on the whole of the party were more or less affected My attack did not come until midnight. I awoke feeling as though the top of my head was rising into the air. I had a terrible pain in the tem- ples, cramps in my legs and at the same time a strong inclination to vomit. I lay on my back all night to give my lungs as full play as possible and hardly slept a wink. I managed to get up at daybreak, and although there was a coat on my tongue as thick as the fur of an Alaska seal, I drank some coffee and by keeping out of doors was sufficiently recovered to take my hand-car ride down the mountains. Mr. Sherman fared even better than I, but Secretary Neal said that between the smeil the sulphur from the smelting furnaces and the soroche he thought he was in hell, and dreamed all night that an hundred devils were dancing on his chest, while Mr. Pierson looked as thougl he had lost all his friends and said he longed for home. Captain Guyer told us that almost every one who comes up the mountains is similarly affected, and-that some fare much worse. A week or so ago Mr. Stuart, the former United States ministerto Para- guay, came up to Casapalca with his wife. Mrs. Stuart fainted before she could get from the train to the house and was ter- ribly sick all night. The minister got aléng very well till near dinner time, when he was attacked, and he was also sick for new-balling fight away It was not an