Annie S. Peck

“ Montevideo, the capital and chief port of Uruguay, with a population approaching 400,000, is a pleasant city, a more homelike place than Buenos Aires and preferred as a residence by many, though doubtless more persons enjoy life better in the larger gayer capital. Favorably situated near the entrance, but on the Plata River, on a peninsula of high ground which shelters a good harbor on the west, while attractive beaches lie on the side towards the ocean, Montevideo is in some respects a contrast to South America’s metropolis, 100 miles distant, on the other shore. ”

“ Many South Americans have a wider knowledge of the world, greater culture and taste, and these in general are more punctilious in manners and dress than the majority of Americans. We must therefore, while preserving our own tastes and ideals, have equal respect for theirs, cultivating a catholicity, a breadth of view, quite different from the spirit common among us, that everything different is thereby inferior, that we can teach the world everything, and that we have nothing to learn. ”

“ In other quarters of the globe where labor is necessary to sustain life but where its results may be a bare existence, comfort, or luxury, man has continually struggled for improvement, braving danger and suffering, and toiling long hours for the future good of himself or his children. Thus has the world made progress.
Here in the United States we might live in comfort with the products of our broad lands only; yet we do not desire to seclude ourselves within a Chinese Wall. ”

“ Unwillingness to profit by the knowledge and experience of others, the belief that one knows everything without learning anything, is called a peculiarly American trait, though happily it is not universal. The British not only pack and handle goods in the best manner, but they are careful to send and land them in all parts of the world by the best route and with the least expense to the receiver, as the world knows. Of course we can do the same if we take the trouble. The packing department for the soldiers overseas showed the highest excellence. ”

“ A consistent foreign policy, undoubtedly to be formulated and pursued by our able Secretaries of State and Commerce, will be of great service in relation to foreign trade and for our general prosperity.
To the intelligent sympathy of the country at large and the coöperation of the Government must be added the eager purpose of the manufacturer, and the interest of young men who will make of export trade their chosen field of labor. ”

“ While for centuries Peru has been celebrated as a land of marvelous mineral riches, especially of gold and silver, nevertheless, in spite of her desert shore, her bleak table-land, and her undeveloped montaña, like California, her chief wealth is in her agriculture. ”

“ Lima, the capital of Peru, on the banks of the Rimac eight miles from the port, Callao, is a city of picturesque charm. Its population, with its suburbs 200,000, is no indication of its commercial importance or of its elegance as a social centre. One of the three cities of the world where the best Spanish is spoken, some impartial critics say that in this respect it is unrivalled in the New World. Social amenities, everywhere important, are here peculiarly requisite for agreeable and successful business relations. ”

“ Of the various products of Brazil, as in the other South American countries except Bolivia, the vegetable are the most important, with coffee far in the lead. Stock raising comes next; minerals of prodigious variety and richness are third. Manufactures, developing later, may in time largely satisfy the requirements of the inhabitants.
Agriculture
Coffee, we all know, is in value the most important crop of the country, growing over vast areas, chiefly in what we may call the northern part of South Brazil, the States on or near the edge of the tropics, São Paulo, Rio, Minas, and Espirito Santo. ”

“ The attractions of its 74 beautiful parks and plazas, its fine avenues, its magnificent Capitol and other public buildings, its beautiful opera house, almost the finest in the world, the many artistic and sumptuous residences, the excellent hotels, with many other admirable features make it a city delightsome to tourist and resident. ”

“ We would enjoy the fruits of the whole earth, not by imperialistic conquest, but through friendly acquaintance, the sharing of ideas, and the exchange of products.
Some things we produce in such abundance that we have a superfluity to barter for others things which we produce not at all or not in sufficient quantities. ”

“ The country of Chile has an extraordinary shape, very long and narrow. Unlike the other Republics of the West Coast, Chile has no trans-Andine region, as the watershed of the Andes constitutes the eastern boundary line. Thus confined between the sea and the mountain tops, while the coast line of the country is nearly 2700 miles, as far as from Labrador to Guiana, the width is scanty, mostly varying from 100 to 225 miles, though at one point in the south the western boundary of Argentina is but 26 miles from the Pacific Ocean. ”

“ Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, with a population of 1,200,000, the second city in South America and the fifth in the Western Hemisphere, is generally conceded to have the finest harbor in the world. It is also the most beautiful city in respect to natural advantages, while the improvements which have recently been carried out have made the artificial structure of the city in harmony with its picturesque surroundings. ”

“ In general we may say that the soil is extremely fertile and that the country contains wonderfully rich deposits of minerals of almost every kind. The immense store of precious metals found on this continent, some assert the greatest in any portion of the globe, was an important factor in its settlement; yet for true national prosperity the humbler coal and iron are of more value. Water power is also of material service. In these three important elements of wealth South America is not deficient, though her resources in these lines are but slightly developed. ”

“ With fine drainage facilities it is a clean healthful city, well lighted, and well served by electric tramways. Pure water is brought a distance of 30 miles. Though with fine buildings, theatres, broad, well-paved avenues (150 miles of them) , open squares, and attractive parks, the city seems quite up to date, yet somehow a trifle old fashioned, with an agreeable air of solid respectability. The hotels are comfortable, but only those facing the beaches, at a distance from the business section, are really of the first class. ”