SANTIAGO.
There are few municipalities of sufficient size and commercial importance to entitle them to be classified as cities. Santiago, the capital, is a beautiful city of over 300,000 inhabitants, charmingly situated in the verdant valley of the Mapocho, and surrounded by rugged, snow-crowned mountains. Few cities possess so many natural advantages in situation and environments. All around loom giant peaks of the Andes, their white crests among the clouds. In the smiling valley, clothed in the green of perennial summer, is Santiago. Long, quiet streets, badly paved, are lined with handsome houses, French and Spanish in architectural design; many of them palatial in proportions. The lack of industrial life and commercial activity, and the peaceful repose of this daughter of Latin America, give to the capital of Chile more the appearance of an indolent Oriental city than the metropolis of an ambitious young Republic.
Situated in the center of a great natural amphitheater, in a beautiful fertile plain, through which flow several streams, supplied with crystal waters from melting snow in the higher ranges of the Cordilleras, Santiago, viewed from any of the many points of advantage, presents an attractive, picturesque and prepossessing appearance. In the center of the city, rising abruptly from the level plain upon which it rests, is “El Cerro Santa Lucia,” a precipitous, rocky hill, four hundred feet high, and covering at its base an area of eight acres. This wonderful natural formation, often described as a freak of nature, is one of the most remarkable of its kind in the world. The entrance to the “cerro” is through a gateway of artistic design, with approaches of fine stone columns and buttresses. The summit is reached by winding carriage roads of easy grade, which are flanked with stone walls, towers and battlements. There are also shaded walks, lined with many hued flowers, by which the hill may be ascended. From the summit one looks down upon tile roofs, flower bedecked patios, adobe walls green with moss and overrun with rose-vines, streets and avenues fringed with poplars and alamos. The Alameda, one of the finest avenues in the world, with its wide roadways, fine old trees and shaded promenades, starting at the foot of the Santa Lucia, extends for a distance of three miles, cleaving the city in halves, marking the center and focus of traffic in the metropolis. The Cathedral with its double towers and central dome, fronting upon the Plaza de Armas, in the heart of the city is a good viewpoint from which to trace and locate other objects of interest. In the near distance are the parks and the “Quinta Normal,” the government agricultural and horticultural propagating station, all robed in the gorgeous green of semi-tropical verdure and adorned with a variety of beautiful flowers that grow luxuriantly and bloom most generously in the soft, sweet air and golden sunshine of temperate Chile. This lovely picture, this charming ensemble of city and plain, hill and river, parks and gardens, this municipal mosaic with emerald green settings, crowned with a dome of turquoise blue, is framed in a wall of wonderful mountains composing a part of the Andean range.
In detail Santiago is not unlike other cities, resembling in many features some European municipalities. Being the capital it has attracted to and includes in its population the rich landowners, the aristocratic classes, political elements, literary and cultured people and the exclusive society of the country. The homes of these well-to-do, traveled and cultured people are equal in appearance, appointment, furnishing, decoration and equipment to those occupied by similar classes in older countries. The social life of the rich and seclusive classes in Santiago is composed of a pleasure loving people, with an inherent love of display. They are musical by nature, with a keen appreciation of, and an aptness for acquiring quickly a little knowledge of music, and other accomplishments, conveying the impression that they are clever, if not brilliant. They lack, however, the industry and application that lead to thoroughness, and few of them develop great talent for any art or profession. Their knowledge is more general than genuine, more superficial than special.
The life of the poor people in Santiago, the manner in which they live, their customs and habits, the misery and vice, the depravity, the disregard for law, and the low level of intelligence that prevails, form a sharp contrast to the picture presented in the homes of the rich.