SANTIAGO. 215 



tin- latter may bo found in every province. The former sometimes make decision* far from 

 palatahle to strangers coming with the intention to become reHidents of Santiago. When they 

 bring diplomas, and possess such knowledge of the language as enables them to answer readily, 

 if they have tact t fall int<> tin- ideas and prejudices of the country, the examination is very 

 trivial. Hut it tin- par* lnuciits ut tlx-ir early manhood have been forgotten in the long years of 

 creditable service, even ten years of experience as a surgeon in her British Majesty's navy is not 

 MI l)i< im t guaranty that t IK- applicant has been regularly instructed, and he must submit to the 

 whole trial. Such a case actually occurred during our residence; and one of the very ablest 

 physicians who ever came to the capital was refused permission to practise until he should send 

 to Europe for his musty sheepskins. 



MANUFACTURES. In works of this nature Santiago does not occupy the position to which its 

 raw materials and wealth entitle it, or its necessities actually demand. Foreigners arriving 

 here have, from time to time, been granted exclusive privileges to establish within the republic 

 manufactories of cloth, cotton fabrics, sugar refining, biscuit, glass-ware, paper, and many other 

 articles of less immediate use, their privileges extending from two to ten years. Yet, to the 

 present day the extraordinary advantages thus secured to them have not been availed of, and 

 there is not one in operation. It must not be supposed that any of the applicants for patents 

 proposed to conduct operations according to plans of their own invention, for such was not the 

 case. The fact that no such machinery or method is in use in Chile has heretofore been suffi- 

 cient warrant for the government to hold out, as inducement for its introduction, special pro- 

 tection to all who are willing to embark in objects of public utility. Were there more enter- 

 prise, such a system would create oppressive monopolies in a few years. No patent office proper 

 exists. Any one who desires an exclusive right submits his plans or propositions to the Minister 

 of the Interior, by whom they are referred to a commission of three persons, whose report for or 

 against its usefulness or practicability generally decides the matter. 



In the manufacture of silver, native workmen confine their ingenuity almost exclusively to 

 ornaments for churches, an occasional mate-cup or bombilla, table-spoons, spurs, and other 

 parts of the equipments for horsemen. As their whole workshop comprises but an anvil, a 

 block of wood, a hammer, and a few bits of pointed steel, their models are neither prettily 

 formed nor delicately executed ; indeed they appear to possess little ingenuity or originality. 

 Abundantly as the mines of Atacama yield, and wealthy as are very many families, silver ware 

 for household purposes is far less common than with even the middle classes of North America. 

 Those who possess services of silver rarely exhibit them ; forks and spoons of so precious a 

 metal offering temptations that few of their servants can easily resist. As those made in the 

 country are only of the plainest and rudest description, the family desiring such luxuries, instead 

 of endeavoring to raise the standard of skill by encouraging their own countrymen, import 

 the manufactures of Paris. Two or three foreign jewellers, whose charges for everything are 

 from 200 to 300 per cent, higher than the rates they would ever have received at home, are the 

 only workers in gold. 



Though the larger number of copper utensils for domestic purposes are brought from the 

 province of Coquimbo, where the material is more abundant, they are also manufactured here 

 to some extent. Pans and kettles for boiling water, and braseros, are the most common ; each 

 being composed of a single disk of copper, cast in an earthen mould, and subsequently ham- 

 mered into the required form. If needed, handles and feet are riveted on afterwards. In order 

 that the metal may the more easily be reduced to the proper form and thickness, the cake is 

 heated from time to time over a common portable furnace. With no guides but the hands and 

 eyes, and no implements but brass anvils, and hammers with long heads, to be used when the 

 vessel becomes deep, it is not surprising that the sides of these articles should be rough and 

 unequal. The earthenware moulds which may be repeatedly used the bellows for the little 

 smelting-furnace, the hammers, in short everything is precisely as it was more than a quarter 

 of a century ago. There are four such native establishments in the city, and two others which 



