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The National Geographic Magazine 



NATIVE BOLIVIAN VANITY 



The prized possession of the Bolivian 

 Indian woman and her chief pride also, 

 whether she is pure Indian or chola, is 

 her petticoat. Her dowry is in this 

 garment. Like the Dutch woman of 

 tradition, she carries her wealth about 

 with her. These petticoats are of all 

 colors of the rainbow and divers other 

 hues not found therein. I first noticed 

 them at Nazarene, and remarked the 

 love of color, which must be inborn, 

 for the garments were of yellow, pur- 

 ple, violet, fiery red, crimson, scarlet, 

 subdued orange, glaring saffron, blue, 

 and green. They were very short, 

 reaching barely below the knee, and 

 no difference was observed between 

 childhood, maidenhood, matronly mid- 

 dle life, and wrinkled old age. Glanc- 

 ing from my window in Tupiza, I 

 thought it was a parade of perambulat- 

 ing balloons. 



These women have a habit which the 

 bashful traveler does not at first un- 

 derstand. When he sees one of them 

 calmly removing a petticoat he is apt 

 to turn away, but he need not do so. 

 It may be that the advancing heat of 

 the day has caused the wearer to dis- 

 card the outer skirt, but more likely it 

 is the vanity of her sex, and the desire 

 to make her sisters envious by show- 

 ing what is beneath, for each new ves- 

 ture disclosed is more brilliant than the 

 one which overlapped it. I sat in the 

 plaza at Tupiza and watched two In- 

 dian women try to make each other 

 envious. The first one removed the 

 outer petticoat, which was of purple. 

 This divestment disclosed another gar- 

 ment of blazing red, and after that 

 came a brilliant yellow. The other wo- 



"Commercial America in 1905,'' by 

 Hon. O. P. Austin, is the title of a mono- 

 graph just published by the Bureau of 

 Statistics of the Department of Com- 

 merce and Labor. It gives the commerce, 

 production, transportation, finances, area, 

 and population of each of the countries of 

 North, South, and Central America and 

 the West Indies. The total commerce of 

 America for 1905 amounted to $5,050,- 

 027,000, of which $2,806,119,000 was that 



man started with a green petticoat, and 

 gradually got down to a mixture of 

 blue and yellow. By that time I had 

 begun to fear for the consequences, and 

 made a pretense of turning my back by 

 strolling to the hotel. 



THE MEXICO OF SOUTH AMERICA 



Bolivia, in the character, variety, and 

 extent of her resources, is the Mexico 

 of South America. Her mines yielded 

 the precious metals for hundreds of 

 years. She was the casket of gems held 

 in pawn by the Spanish crown. She 

 poured the riches of prodigal mother 

 Nature into the lap of the mother 

 country. 



The present Bolivian silver produc- 

 tion, which is 8,000,000 to 9,000,000 

 ounces annually, forms a very small 

 proportion of the world's total output ; 

 but, with the building of railroads and 

 the assured decrease of transportation 

 charges, it is a safe prophecy that within 

 a few years the output will be doubled, 

 if not quadrupled. Here Mexico again 

 furnishes the illustration. 



FOREIGN INVESTMENTS IN SOUTH AMER- 

 ICA 



While the statisticians vary widely in 

 their estimates, it is reasonable to con- 

 clude, from an examination of the lead- 

 ing ones, that Great Britain has $2,000,- 

 000,000 in South American invest- 

 ments, of which $300,000,000 to $350,- 

 000,000 may be assigned the west 

 coast; Germany has from $475,000,000 

 to $500,000,000, with possibly $150,- 

 000,000 in the Pacific countries ; and 

 France, with about the same amount, 

 has west coast investments reaching 

 $100,000,000, her Chilean holdings 

 amounting to $42,000,000. 



of the United States, and the remaining 

 $2,243,908,000 contributed by the other 

 countries of North, South, and Central 

 America and the West India Islands. All 

 America exports considerably more than 

 it imports, the figures being $2,865,- 

 650,000 and $2,184,377,000. The com- 

 merce of the United States consists of 

 $1,626,984,000 exports and $1,179,135,000 

 imports. The monograph is distributed 

 on application. 



