PARAGUAY. 



PARTON, SARA P. W. 



661 



merits in the course of the year. (See BRAZIL.) 

 The population is about 1,000,000. 



President, Don Salvador Zovellanos, was 

 elected December 12, 1871, for three years. 



Of the commerce, once rather extensive, 

 but paralyzed by the late war, little is at pres- 

 ent known ; the most recent statistics pub- 

 lished are those of 1862, in which year the 

 single article of mate, or Paraguay tea, was 

 exported to the amount of $1,465,808. 



There is in the republic a line of railway 

 (1863) from Asuncion to Paraguay, a distance 

 of about 45 miles. 



It is not surprising that the finances of the 

 country are in a deplorable condition after 

 such a protracted and disastrous war, as an 

 indemnity for the expenses of which Paraguay 

 agreed to pay $200,000,000 to Brazil, $35,000,- 

 000 to the Argentine Republic, and $1,000,000 

 to Uruguay, and at a time when the total rev- 

 enue of the republic does not amount to more 

 than $390,000, according to the budget for the 

 year 1871. In that year the Government 

 negotiated, with the house of Robinson, Flem- 

 ing & Co., of London, a loan of 1,000,000 at 

 80, with interest at 8 per cent., for which loan 

 it gave a guarantee of $96,900,000, in the fol- 

 lowing State lands :. plains, $28,800,000 ; moun- 

 tains, $51,300,000; and pasturage and mate 

 plantations, $16,800,000. 



The only events of importance, in the year 

 1872, were the transactions of the commission 

 to settle the question of boundaries and the 

 war indemnity (the results of which commis- 

 sion, together with the leading terms of the 

 treaty, will be found in the article "BRAZIL," 

 of the present volume), and the vigorous and 

 determined efforts made by the Government, in 

 cooperation with immigrant companies formed 

 in England and other European countries for 

 the purpose of inducing immigrants to settle in 

 the republic, in order to renovate the condition 

 of a country that has suffered so much from the 

 ambition of former tyrannical rulers. Her 

 Britannic Majesty's Emigration Commissioners 

 issued, however, a manifesto, warning all 

 British subjects against committing themselves 

 to the tender mercies of a country which the 

 commission's missionary described as situated 

 partly in the tropics, and the climate, the em- 

 ployment afforded by the staple productions, 

 the want of easy access to good markets, the 

 language, the habits and customs of the people 

 of which, render it a place by no means suit- 

 able for British laborers. All* these objections 

 were, of course, met by the opposite party ; 

 and, in October, an agent of the London firm 

 engaged in promoting immigration to Para- 

 guay, arrived in that country, with the object 

 of making preparations preliminary to the re- 

 ception of 200 English immigrants, to arrive in 

 a steamer specially chartered for the purpose. 



The agent alluded to was accompanied by 

 an engineer, commissioned to explore the 

 mountainous districts of Paraguay, supposed 

 to be rich in mineral formations. 



PARTON, Mrs. SARA PAYSON WILLIS, an 

 American author and essayist, better known 

 by her nom de plume, "Fanny Fern," born in 

 Portland, Maine, July 7, 1811 ; died in Brook- 

 lyn, N. Y., October 10, 1872. She was a 

 daughter of Nathaniel Willis, a publisher and 

 editor, first in Portland, and afterward in Bos- 

 ton. Her mother was a woman of superior 

 intellect and genius. Of her brothers, the late 

 Nathaniel P. Willis and Richard Storrs Willis 

 have attained literary eminence. Her parents 

 removed to Boston when she was a child of 

 six years. Her earlier education was obtained 

 in Boston, but she was transferred in 1827 to 

 the Hartford Female Seminary, of which Miss 

 Catherine Beecher was then principal, and her 

 eccentricities made a lasting impression on the 

 people of that city. In 1834 she married 

 Charles Eldridge, of Boston, by whose prema- 

 ture death in 1846 she was left a widow with 

 three children, and in very straitened circum- 

 stances. A subsequent marriage, about 1849, 

 with a Mr. Farrington, proved unfortunate, 

 and the parties soon separated. Out of her 

 still impoverished condition was developed 

 her ability as a writer. In 1851 she offered 

 an essay, signed " Fanny Fern," to one of the 

 literary weeklies of Boston. It was accepted 

 and acceptable, and there was an immediate 

 demand for more, under the influence of which 

 "Fanny Fern" grew rapidly into fame and 

 favor. These leaflets were gathered into a vol- 

 ume, with the title of " Fern Leaves," and had 

 a great sale, no less than 75,000 copies of the 

 book having been sold. " Little Ferns for 

 Fanny's Little Friends," her next book, sold 

 to the extent of about 33,000 copies, and a sec- 

 ond series of the " Leaves " reached an issue 

 of over 30,000. In 1854, her first novel, " Ruth 

 Hall," appeared. It was not a genial book, 

 and over its family revelations and allusions a 

 generous charity draws a veil of forgetfulness. 

 "Rose Clark," published in 1857, was a more 

 sunny work, and commanded a wider circle 

 of readers than even the unhappy notoriety 

 of its predecessor had attracted. The two 

 novels were the only ones which "Fanny 

 Fern" ever published; they provoked much 

 criticism, and were read by thousands who 

 sought, in their pages, the same grace and 

 vivacity which had been the charm of her less 

 pretentious writings. Her later works were 

 "Fresh Leaves," 1857; "Folly as it Flies," 

 1868 ; and .' The Play Day Book," 1869. Most 

 of them were republished in England, and a 

 volume, entitled "The Life and Beauties of 

 Fanny Fern," was published in London, in 

 1855. In 1854, Mr. Robert Bonner, editor of 

 the New- York Ledger, made a contract with 

 her to write an article every week for his pa- 

 per, and this contract was maintained without 

 default till within a few weeks of her death. 

 In 1856 she was married to Mr. James Parton, 

 of this city, a well-known historical writer 

 and essayist. After her marriage her pub- 

 lished writings were not voluminous, but their 



