Lima should not be passed without a week's sojourn by any visitor to the west coast of South America, whether he is a professor, antiquarian, commercial traveler, or ordinary tourist. No other city in the Western Hemisphere retains in so marked a degree its medievalism, yet no other city on the west coast of South America is so advanced in modernity. Luxury rubs shoulders with poverty; there are numerous palaces and also countless hovels. The great churches, all Roman Catholic, bear testimony by their superb interiors to the lavishness of devotion. In the shop windows are displayed the silver ornaments and utensils of Cuzco and Cajamarca; next door to them are presented the baubles and gewgaws of New York and Paris.
Plazuela de la Inquisicion, Lima
The population is estimated at two hundred thousand which is probably nearly correct. The city is very compactly built and centered so that its streets teem with more life than an ordinary city of the same number of inhabitants. Although its population is but half that of Santiago, this centralization makes it appear to be a larger place. The buildings, two, three, and four stories in height, are massive, although many are built of adobe, plastered and painted over, and give the city a metropolitan appearance. In Santiago many of the merchants and well-to-do inhabitants live in the suburbs; in Lima they reside near the center of the city. During the past few years, the Peruvian capital has made great strides in civic improvement. The main streets are now paved with stone; they were formerly paved with sharp pebbles. They are kept clean, which is a great contrast to the dusty offal which formerly littered them and which in powdered form assailed the eyes and nostrils of the pedestrians every time a gust of wind arose. The equipages for the transportation of passengers are superior to those of Santiago and the street car service, although not frequent enough, is better than that of the Chilean capital. There has also been much recent building going on, the new edifices being of modern European design.
Standing in the Hotel Maury one day I was introduced to a prominent Lima business man named Arthur Field, who was born there. He kindly offered to show me the city in his automobile. I told him that I was already acquainted with Lima, having made previous visits there.
"I am so glad," said he; "most tourists go away with such a poor impression of Lima, and some go away after a short sojourn and write most uncomplimentary things about it, which hurts it. Ambassador Bryce spoke very illy of Lima, and he was only here for a few days. There is to my knowledge only one book written recently which gives a true description of the city. It was written by a namesake of yours, a man named Stephens. My wife and my friends have read it, and they all pronounce it as true."
I did not tell him that I wrote the book, but another man in the group, an American, spotted me for its author from the frontispiece in it, which has my likeness. This last-mentioned man went home that noon, and verified his suspicions by again looking at the frontispiece. That afternoon he procured his copy of the book and started to the Hotel Maury to congratulate me. On the way he got gloriously drunk, and in an inebriated condition he showed the paragraph where I mentioned the Hotel Maury to one of its proprietors. Since I had spoken poorly of the establishment in it (it had improved decidedly since I was there before) I thought the result would be a request for me to change quarters. The proprietor could speak no English and judging that the talk of the American was due to an excess of batida bitters and John de Kuyper paid no attention to the subject.
