COUNTET SPORTS AND LIFE IN CHILE. 181 



the newspapers congratulated him on his wise deter- 

 mination, and only hoped others would follow his 

 "heroic example/^ He was, last time I heard of him, 

 living in quite a comfortable manner in Santiago. 



The Chilenos, that is, the upper classes, are an extra- 

 ordinary mixture of opposites. Captivating at first 

 acquaintance, the more you know of them the less you 

 like them. Manifesting the most intense regard for you 

 outwardly, and indulging in the most extravagant pro- 

 testations of affection, they are sly, crafty and insincere. 

 They are full of talk and braggadocio, twaddling in their 

 House of Assembly, swaggering about their glorious 

 independence, freedom from the Spanish yoke, &c., when 

 they are the most priest-beridden people in the world. 

 The Padres are the great obstacle to progress in the land ; 

 they oppose education for the masses with all their power, 

 as they know full well that as soon as the people learn good 

 from evil, the knell of their power is sounded. They are 

 eaten up by law ; everything is reducible to law. Claim a 

 mine, the chances are before you get your mine you will 

 have spent more in settling disputes than the mine is 

 worth. Numbers of mines in Chile are lying idle for this 

 very reason ; somebody^s great nucleus cousin worked that 

 mine some hundred years ago, and somebody else^s 

 cousin on the brother^ s side did too, and there you are 

 — no one must have it. Hundreds and thousands of 

 dollars have been spent on disputes concerning mines in 

 Chile, and the mines themselves never been touched yet. 

 Justice is a fiction ; it usually is in inverse ratio to the 

 complicity of the law. Circumstantial evidence in any 

 shape is not admissible in Chile, therefore a man may 

 threaten you, shoot you, cut your throat, or anything 

 else you like, but if not actually caught in the act. 



