. The Spanish-American republics . ago. Indeed, far be it from me tomake any reproaches. The statement of a fact need not imply thepassing of a judgment. To return now to the shops, it may be notedas typical of Creole indolence that towards five oclock in the after-noon the shutters are put up for two hours, and at half-past eight ornine all the stores are closed; there seems to be a desire to devote aslittle time as possible to business, and as much as possible to ciga-rette-smoking, gossip, and meditation. This is not a reproach either;it simply means that the Chilian temperament is averse t
. The Spanish-American republics . ago. Indeed, far be it from me tomake any reproaches. The statement of a fact need not imply thepassing of a judgment. To return now to the shops, it may be notedas typical of Creole indolence that towards five oclock in the after-noon the shutters are put up for two hours, and at half-past eight ornine all the stores are closed; there seems to be a desire to devote aslittle time as possible to business, and as much as possible to ciga-rette-smoking, gossip, and meditation. This is not a reproach either;it simply means that the Chilian temperament is averse to earlyrising, continuous effort, or excessive energy; where these qualities URBAN AND COMMERCIAL CHILI. 107 arc needed, the foreigner is called in. Hence the cosmopolitannames on the sign-boards, the groups of unmistakable Englishmen invarious businesses, and the equally if not more numerous specimensof blond, ponderous, and highly accomplished Germans. Whereverthe Chilians are left to themselves and their own devices, there will. IN THE ARCADES, SANTIAGO. invariably be found evidences of indolence and slovenliness, althoughthey profess to be the Yankees of South America, and the most pro-gressive and civilized nation between Cape Horn and the CaribbeanSea. Take the public library of the capital, for instance, now lodgedin the old Congress Hall. This collection comprises 70,000 volumes, 108 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN REPUBLICS. in course of being catalogued—16,000 volumes for the out-door lend-ing department, already catalogued; and a very large collection ofcolonial archives and documents, some 25,000 pieces of the greatestvalue for the history of New Spain. The librarian informed me thatas many as a hundred readers a day made use of the large reading-room, but on the day of my visit there were only nine persons that may be, I could not fail to be struck by the untidy as-pect of the establishment, and particularly by the fact that both read-ers and employes are allo
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