58 



BERNHARDT, SARAH. 



BOLIVIA. 



Sarah Bernliardt has cultivated other arts 

 besides the one in which she has won celebrity. 

 After posing for a bust, in 1869, it occurred to 

 her to try her hand at modeling; and since 

 then she has produced several pieces of sculp- 

 ture which have been praised for their merit. 

 She has also painted in oils with more than an 

 amateur's skill. The subjects which she chooses 

 for her sculptures and paintings are of tenest of 

 a somber and funereal character. She is an ac- 

 complished performer upon the harp and the 

 piano. She is known as a graceful and spirited 

 writer for the press, and was at one time art 

 critic of the "Globe 1 ' newspaper. She has 

 made several ascensions in balloons, and writ- 

 ten descriptions of her aeronautic experiences. 

 A picturesque and elegant villa on the Pare 

 Monceau was built for her after her own plans 

 and draw ings. 



In the summer of 1879 Mile. Bernhardt 

 played in a series of French dramas presented 

 by the company of the Comedie Francaise in 

 London, where she was singled out from the 

 company for popular favor aid praise in a still 

 more decided way than in Paris. She exhibited 

 her plastic and pictorial creations while there, 

 and gave rehearsals in the houses of the lead- 

 ers of fashionable English society, requiring to 

 be paid at the rate of a hundred guineas for 

 each performance. The following year Bern- 

 hardt returned to London; but she was not 

 this time supported, as she had been the season 

 before, by the strength of the famous company 

 of which she was a member. At this time a 

 difficulty occurred between Mile. Bernhardt 

 and Emile Augier, the director of the Comedie 

 Francaise, in consequence of which she re- 

 signed her position and severed her connection 

 with the company. She was afterward sued 

 for breach of contract, and ordered by the civil 

 tribunal to pay one hundred thousand francs 

 damages to the company. The cause of the 

 rupture with the Comedie Francaise was her 

 want of success in the play of "L'Aventu- 

 riere," she attributing her failure to the want 

 of time for proper preparation and an insuffi- 

 cient number of rehearsals. 



A contract was signed by Sarah Bernhardt 

 with Henry Abbey, of Booth's Theatre, in New 

 York, on June 9," 1880, by which Mile. Bern- 

 hardt engaged to make the tour of the principal 

 cities of the United States, the manager agree- 

 ing to pay her one thousand dollars for each 

 performance, with a share also of the profits. 



Mile. Bernhardt arrived in New York to- 

 ward the end of October, 1880, and in the 

 second week of November commenced her en- 

 gagement in Booth's Theatre, playing through 

 the series of her most famous roles. After 

 concluding there, she gave them next in Bos- 

 ton, and then in Philadelphia, playing to very 

 large houses in each city, and winning admira- 

 tion and applause from the public, and obtain- 

 ing the highly appreciative, though sometimes 

 qualified and measured, praise of the dramatic 

 critics. 



BOLIVIA (REPLICA DK BOLIVIA). For 

 area, territorial division, population, etc., refer- 

 ence may be made to the "Annual Cyclopaedia " 

 for 1872 and 1878, and, for a retrospective view 

 of Bolivian statistics and Bolivia's relations 

 with the neighboring states, see our volume for 

 1879, 



The President of the Republic is General 

 Narciso Cumpero (June, 1880); the first Vice- 

 President is Dr. A. Arce ; and the second Vice- 

 President, Sefior Belisario Salinas. In Decem- 

 ber, 1880, the Cabinet was composed of but two 

 Ministers: Sefior J. M. Calvo, Minister of Jus- 

 tice, Public Worship, and Public Instruction, 

 and acting Minister of the Interior, and of 

 Foreign Relations; and Sefior Belisario Salinas, 

 Minister of War and acting Minister of Finance. 



The regulation strength of the army in time 

 of peace is 3,000, as follows : 8 generals. 1,012 

 subaltern officers, and 2,000 men, maintained, 

 it would appear, at an annual expenditure of 

 $2,000,000, or about two thirds of the entire 

 revenue. As stated in our article for 1879, the 

 force was raised to 20,000 men accustomed to 

 fighting and the use of arms, after the com- 

 mencement of the war with Chili. In October, 

 1880, however, the Bolivian army had, by Chi- 

 lian reports, been reduced to two battalions. 



Information concerning the Bolivian revenue 

 has always been difficult to procure from official 

 sources, and can now be obtained only through 

 indirect channels. The figures of the following 

 table, said to emanate from ex-Minister Don 

 Julio Mendez, give no signs of decreased yield 

 in the usual sources of income, and refer to the 

 period between the declaration of war and 

 December 31, 1879 that is 'to say, about ten 

 months: 



Second half-year, Indian tax $691,248 TO 



Tithes, first fruits, etc. (paid almost exclusively 



by the Indians) 252,016 00 



Coca contribution 250,000 00 



Bullion from the interior 380,000 00 



Negotiation with ' Banco Nacional " 600,000 00 



Forced loan (collected) 500,000 00 



Joco nitrate-works (saved) 50,000 00 



Southern custom-houses 60,000 00 



Total... 



$2,783,264 TO 



The war expenses, on the other hand, are re- 

 ported to have been as follows : 



Bolivian army in Peru $1.013,929 00 



Fifth division, Campero 450,000 00 



, . . $1,563,929 00 

 1,219,335 00 



Total 



Balance against the Treasury 



Total $2,783,264 70 



From this table it is apparent that the Indian 

 population, who furnish the tillers of the soil 

 and the fighting element of the country, are 

 also the chief support of the national exche- 

 quer. 



The national debt was estimated to amount 

 to $30,000,000 in June, 1879, comprising a 

 home debt of $21,500,000 contracted by the 

 Government of the republic at various periods, 

 as the forced loan of 1879 to equip the army 

 for the Chilian campaign, and a foreign debt 



