. The Spanish-American republics . tary bands plays Eu-ropean music, waltzes, operatic pieces, and what not, while the publicsits or walks round and round the square, the men in many caseswearing tall silk hats and black coats, the women and children dressedin Parisian costumes that often have a savor of excess, as if they wereextravagant models which the good taste of the French capital hadrefused to adopt, but which the unscrupulous exporters had sent outbeyond the seas, as they send out corrosive liquors with special labels, bon pour negres. Beautiful girls abound in Santiago, and it is apl
. The Spanish-American republics . tary bands plays Eu-ropean music, waltzes, operatic pieces, and what not, while the publicsits or walks round and round the square, the men in many caseswearing tall silk hats and black coats, the women and children dressedin Parisian costumes that often have a savor of excess, as if they wereextravagant models which the good taste of the French capital hadrefused to adopt, but which the unscrupulous exporters had sent outbeyond the seas, as they send out corrosive liquors with special labels, bon pour negres. Beautiful girls abound in Santiago, and it is apleasure to sit and see them pass, and to attribute to them in fancy allthe moral and intellectual qualities which they must have in reality. This discreet inspection, how-ever, does not satisfy the youthof Santiago. Following the cus-tom prevalent in Buenos Ayres,the young men simply stand inline alonsr the promenade and^PfBI stare at the pretty girls as they -:. walk by, in a manner that seems y^e- to a stranger to be a little in-. THE ALAMEDA. 120 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN REPUBLICS. delicate. Such, it appears, is the Creole custom, which it is none ofour business to criticise. I cannot, however, help remarking the use-less existence led by the very numerous jeunesse doree of the capital,composed of young men who for the most part have spent a year ortwo in Paris, and now endeavor to continue in Santiago the life offrivolous dissipation which was all they saw of France. These youngmen have no respect for women. Their thoughts, conversation, andway of life are wholly pernicious. While examining the promenaders on the plaza, where the finelydressed ladies and gentlemen are interspersed with men wearing pon-chos and bier straw hats, and with dark-skinned women with straightblack hair and flattened, moony faces, dressed in cotton dresses andblack shawls, we note the very strong differentiation of classes. Onthe one hand, the white men, the caballeros, and on the other, thepcones, or fo
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