There are few municipalities of sufficient size and commercial
importance to entitle them to be classified as cities. Santiago, the
capital, is a beautiful city of over 300,000 inhabitants, charmingly
situated in the verdant valley of the Mapocho, and surrounded by
rugged, snow-crowned mountains. Few cities possess so many natural
advantages in situation and environments. All around loom giant peaks
of the Andes, their white crests among the clouds. In the smiling
valley, clothed in the green of perennial summer, is Santiago. Long,
quiet streets, badly paved, are lined with handsome houses, French and
Spanish in architectural design; many of them palatial in proportions.
The lack of industrial life and commercial activity, and the peaceful
repose of this daughter of Latin America, give to the capital of Chile
more the appearance of an indolent Oriental city than the metropolis
of an ambitious young Republic.
Situated in the center of a great natural amphitheater, in a
beautiful fertile plain, through which flow several streams, supplied
with crystal waters from melting snow in the higher ranges of the
Cordilleras, Santiago, viewed from any of the many points of advantage,
presents an attractive, picturesque and prepossessing appearance. In
the center of the city, rising abruptly from the level plain upon which
it rests, is “El Cerro Santa Lucia,” a precipitous, rocky hill, four
hundred feet high, and covering at its base an area of eight acres.
This wonderful natural formation, often described as a freak of nature,
is one of the most remarkable of its kind in the world. The entrance to
the “cerro” is through a gateway of artistic design, with approaches
of fine stone columns and buttresses. The summit is reached by winding
carriage roads of easy grade, which are flanked with stone walls,
towers and battlements. There are also shaded walks, lined with many
hued flowers, by which the hill may be ascended. From the summit one
looks down upon tile roofs, flower bedecked patios, adobe walls green
with moss and overrun with rose-vines, streets and avenues fringed
with poplars and alamos. The Alameda, one of the finest avenues in the
world, with its wide roadways, fine old trees and shaded promenades,
starting at the foot of the Santa Lucia, extends for a distance of
three miles, cleaving the city in halves, marking the center and focus
of traffic in the metropolis. The Cathedral with its double towers
and central dome, fronting upon the Plaza de Armas, in the heart of
the city is a good viewpoint from which to trace and locate other
objects of interest. In the near distance are the parks and the “Quinta
Normal,” the government agricultural and horticultural propagating
station, all robed in the gorgeous green of semi-tropical verdure and
adorned with a variety of beautiful flowers that grow luxuriantly and
bloom most generously in the soft, sweet air and golden sunshine of
temperate Chile. This lovely picture, this charming ensemble of city
and plain, hill and river, parks and gardens, this municipal mosaic
with emerald green settings, crowned with a dome of turquoise blue, is
framed in a wall of wonderful mountains composing a part of the Andean
range.
In detail Santiago is not unlike other cities, resembling in many
features some European municipalities. Being the capital it has
attracted to and includes in its population the rich landowners,
the aristocratic classes, political elements, literary and cultured
people and the exclusive society of the country. The homes of these
well-to-do, traveled and cultured people are equal in appearance,
appointment, furnishing, decoration and equipment to those occupied
by similar classes in older countries. The social life of the rich
and seclusive classes in Santiago is composed of a pleasure loving
people, with an inherent love of display. They are musical by nature,
with a keen appreciation of, and an aptness for acquiring quickly a
little knowledge of music, and other accomplishments, conveying the
impression that they are clever, if not brilliant. They lack, however,
the industry and application that lead to thoroughness, and few of them
develop great talent for any art or profession. Their knowledge is
more general than genuine, more superficial than special.
The life of the poor people in Santiago, the manner in which they live,
their customs and habits, the misery and vice, the depravity, the
disregard for law, and the low level of intelligence that prevails,
form a sharp contrast to the picture presented in the homes of the rich.