ACROSS THE EQUATOR WITH THE AMERICAN NAVY 



615 



republic. President Augusto B. Leguia 

 voiced what appeared to be the sentiment 

 of the nation : 



"In all our dealings with other nations 

 we have found the United States the only 

 one whose actions have not been dictated 

 by selfish interest," he said. 



There is a startling absence of cere- 

 mony, too, in spite of the gold lace and 

 •elaborate trappings in which the officials 

 of state came to pay their formal call 

 upon the officers of the fleet. This little 

 ceremonial was quite the equal in form 

 and color of those one is accustomed to 

 seeing in the European states. 



The green and gold carriages in which 

 President Leguia and the members of 

 his cabinet drove through Lima's narrow 

 streets glittered with plate-glass. A troop 

 of cavalry clattered in front of and be- 

 hind them. 



A CALL UPON THE) PERUVIAN PRESIDENT 



But when I desired to call upon the 

 President of Peru I was admitted to his 

 presence without a tenth of the delay one 

 expects to encounter in trying to enter 

 the office of a country banker. 



"I want to go to the office of President 

 Leguia," I told the Indian non-commis- 

 sioned officer in command of the half 

 dozen soldiers at the door of the palace, 

 across the great plaza from the cathedral 

 in which Pizarro's bones lie in rather 

 doubtful state, in a glass-sided casket 

 which every visitor to Lima sees. 



The non-commissioned officer waved 

 me on. I crossed the wide patio and 

 found another and was again waved on. 



Eventually I reached a secretary, who 

 spoke English and left me contemplating 

 the red Turkey carpet and gold-legged 

 chairs which are the invariable properties 

 of a state chamber in Latin America. 



Along one side, an open gallery shaded 

 the president's office. From it one could 

 look into a dusty and faded little patio, 

 in which a few discouraged bushes strug- 

 gled against the prevailing lack of water. 



"Come this way," said the secretary. 



President Leguia seems a sort of a 

 Hoover in his own country. He is a 

 slender, quick-spoken, frank-eyed man 

 who made a fortune in business before he 

 thought of entering politics. He speaks 

 English very well, too, thanks partly to 



early training and partly to the fact that 

 after he had been "revoluted" out of 

 office and exiled he made his home abroad 

 for some years. He is now engaged in 

 trying to modernize his country, and to 

 this end is engaging school teachers and 

 surgeons and administrators and engi- 

 neers from the United States. 



desire the; secret oe progress 



"I believe," said he, "that the first step 

 in progress is to need something." 



There is no more docile, biddable, 

 kindly man in the world than the Indian 

 of Peru. But he wants almost nothing 

 that he cannot produce himself. He 

 usually holds a little "tierra" which has 

 come down to him from his forefathers 

 and which had been assigned to them by 

 Inca law. 



The produce of his little garden feeds 

 his family, and the wool of a sheep or 

 two, spun into yarn and woven into cloth 

 by his wife, provides the domestic ward- 

 robe. 



A few pots are his household furnish- 

 ings, and he sleeps at night in the blanket 

 he draws around his shoulders by day. 

 There seems almost no reason why he 

 should work for money. 



"So I am trying to teach him to want 

 things," explained President Leguia. 

 "When he feels he must have a Yankee 

 alarm-clock and his wife demands a sew- 

 ing-machine, he will be willing to work 

 regularly. Then we can make some pro- 

 gress." 



MAKING BATHS POPULAR 



He illustrated his theory by a story. 

 In an up-country mining camp the Ameri- 

 can managers wished to encourage the 

 employees to bathe. They built a bath- 

 house and equipped it with hot and cold 

 water sprays, but the Indians regarded it 

 as a further evidence of the incurable 

 folly of all foreigners. 



Then the xAmericans announced that 

 those who bathed would be given tickets, 

 and these tickets could be cashed in for 

 five cents each. Soon every Indian was 

 taking his daily bath. 



"Now the Americans have reversed the 

 process," said Mr. Leguia witli a dry 

 chuckle. "The Indians have formed the 

 habit of taking a daily bath and cannot 



