Cathedral Street, Santiago
This view is looking west from the Plaza de Armas. The edifice with the twin towers is the cathedral; that in the immediate foreground on the right is the city hall; the building beyond it with the clock tower is the post office.
Long before the President drove up in his victoria, the buzzing of airships caused one to look up and there at a height of two thousand feet five of these mechanical birds were disporting themselves. All hats came off, and there was a great clapping of hands when Sanfuentes arrived. He drove twice around the parade ground and finally stopped in front of the grandstand. First came in review before him four companies of the military school in uniform of light blue coats with white trousers and white horsehair high hats; next came innumerable infantry companies each preceded by a brass band which stood to one side as the columns marched by. The infantry was followed by the artillery which came by at a gallop, smothering the field in a cloud of dust. This and the cavalry which followed seemed to be the most admired by the spectators, judging from the cheers which greeted them.
I wish to state that in the choice of Honorable Henry Prather Fletcher, who at the time of this writing is United States Ambassador to Mexico, he having left Chile in 1916, our government should be credited with having made such an admirable selection. He is as fine a representative of man as exists in the diplomatic service of any country. When I was in Chile in 1912, a certain gossiping old woman, the daughter of one of Chile's former presidents, knocked him to me, and I being a stranger was fool enough to believe her. At my first meeting with Mr. Fletcher in December, 1915, I at once saw what caliber of man he is, and have felt like kicking myself ever since for believing Doña Anna Swinburne de Jordan. I came to Santiago in 1915 absolutely unknown to Mr. Fletcher, and he showed me great kindness in procuring for me admission to the different ceremonies pertinent to the installation of the new President besides entertaining me at his own residence.
I met two of his secretaries to the embassy, a Mr. Martin, who seemed to be a fine clean-cut young man, and a fellow named Johnston or Johnson, I being mixed in his surname because I never took the trouble to recall it. This Johnston was the worst snob that I ever recollect to have met. While I was at the embassy in the presence of Mr. Fletcher he was extremely cordial and agreeable, and even invited me to dine with him at his club to which he was going to procure me a card. The next day Mr. Henry Alexander of Philadelphia and I were walking along Bandera Street near the Capitol when we happened accidentally to meet Johnston who was approaching us from the direction we were walking in. He was dressed in a Prince Albert and a high silk hat crowned his tall, slim figure. We greeted him but he returned our salutations with the curtest imitation of a nod possible. I met him a dozen times afterwards by accident, sometimes on the street and sometimes at the Grand Hotel where he generally dined at noon. All these times he cut me dead as if he had never seen me before. Later I had the next seat to him on the Pullman car on a train but he did not deign to recognize my presence, even though he had been most affable in his treatment of me while I was a guest of Mr. Fletcher.
Santiago, although it is a pleasant and agreeable place with a most benign climate, I am sorry to say is none too clean nor are its streets well kept up. In the Alameda there are big holes in the asphalt, and the cobblestones on the side streets are uneven and out of place. Many of the streets are not paved. There are holes in some of the sidewalks where a pedestrian is apt to sprain his ankle, and there is much refuse dirt and filth accumulated along the curbs. There are no alleys in the city so the inhabitants deposit the swill in iron pails. The garbage man comes along with his wagon every morning and stopping in front of every house rings a bell to let the inmates know of his presence so that they can bring out the pails. On the poorer lighted side streets inhabitants perform the calls of Nature on the sidewalks, in the middle of the road, and against the sides of the buildings, which besides being unsanitary causes hideous stenches. There is always a good complement of typhoid fever in the Chilean and Peruvian towns so while on my visit at the time of the presidential installation I warned my servant, O'Brien, to drink mineral water instead of that of the city supply. The latter evidently interpreted other drinks in the clause for when I came to settle my bill at the Hotel Oddo, I found that he had run up a considerable wine bill which necessitated me to dispense with his services.
The stature of the Santiaguinos is much greater than that of the inhabitants of Buenos Aires. It is in every respect equal to the North American standard. The profanum vulgus are apt to be rough, showing their independence. One observes quite a few red-haired natives, which denotes that in the course of genealogy one or more of their maternal ancestors have been chased by Irishmen. The women outnumber the men and are well formed and comely, many being beautiful. I prefer the looks of the Chilenas to those of any other women in South America. In 1912 in Santiago there were but few Germans and the number of foreigners was exceedingly small. In 1916 the city was teeming with Germans and they outnumbered all the other foreigners put together. In Valparaiso in 1915 the English and German residents of that port had a street fight. The tram company was a German syndicate and the natives, angered by the car fare rates, which they thought were excessive, sided with the English and rose against the Teutonic element. A riot followed in which some windows were broken and there was a certain local sentiment against the Germans which became so strong that it caused an exodus of a great many of them to Santiago. Also many of the crews of the interned German merchantmen left their ships and came to Santiago and other towns of the interior where they have established themselves in business, many of them having become proprietors of hotels, restaurants, and beer saloons. They have prospered and have taken out citizenship papers, preferring to remain in Chile than in their own country.