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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 30, 1902)
South America's Greatest Newspaper 4l-.zl tilt tulLUI II u 111 me I Argentine Republic who made, a ihiio nuitv hqvi u sum t iidii iu the United States, was not In the least Impressed with two things of which we are proudest the enterprise of our newspapers and the philanthropy of our citizens. In his own city of Buenos Ayres, says a writer in World's Work, he Is fa miliar with a newspaper philanthropy un matched In the world Is, In fact, editor-in-chief of a paper that not only has the most, magnificent newspaper building In exist ence, but also gives more to the public than any other Journal known. This man, Senor Ezcquicl P. Paz, edits La Prensa (The Press), the greatest newspaper In South America, owned by his father, Dr. J. C. P. Paz, formerly Argentine minister to France and a man who has done what no other journalist has done. In Buenos Ayres and In fact throughout the Argentine Re public, La Prensa Is not only a newspaper, but a free doctor, a free lawyer, a free li brary, a free forum, a free hall, a free museum, a free hotel for distinguished for eign visitors. The paper began as humbly as any of the ten other Spanish newspapers of Ruencs Ayres in 1S69, with J. C. P. Taz ns editor and sole owner. It ran along not un successfully until 1874. when the owner be came so Involved In the revolution of that year that he had to flee an exile to Monte video, in Paraguay. A meritorious service as ambassadcr to France, during which he nurtured his great plan, followed his re turn. Finally, seven years ago, he sent Carlos Agote, a well known engineer, to visit the great newspaper plants In the world In New York, in London, In Paris. Simultaneously Alberto de Galnza, archi tect, went to work on the building. Gainza waa to erect a magnificent building; Agote was to see that a newspaper plant Installed In it was as good as any In the world. This task he carried out by ordering Hoe presses and other American machinery, as, for ex ample, six passenger and five freight ele vators; even to ink and paper the equip ment of La Prensa has been furnlahed In the main by American firms. In 1896 the building was finished at a cost of $2,000,000 In gold. Instead of making money In the newspaper business and founding with It a hospital, a library or a college, Dr. Paz with his wealth housed his newspaper In splendid apartments In a building too vast for a newspaper alone and Instead of rent ing the rest of the building, after our fash Ion, he established In It the museum, the library, the reception chambers for foreign visiters and the other features that make La Prensa such a marvelous institution. He himself stood in the background; it was not he that was doing all this It was La Prensa. Feature of (he I".al(IIlinieiit. The paper Is an eight-page Journal with the Inside pages devoted to news and the outside pages to advertisements. The es tablishment Is at first glance an imposing gray marble structure, standing on thf finest boulevard in the city. Towering nearly 200 feet above the pavement Is a colossal figure of golden bronze, by Thie bault of Paris, representing La Prensa (The Press) holding In her hand a lantern "like your Statute of Liberty," said Senor E. P. Paz. During the Boer war a yellow light flashed from the lantern visible many miles from the city meant a Boer victory with resulting cheering from the Argen tines, who are violently pro-Boer. The statue stands on a tower Just in front of a glass roof which covers the courtyard around which the structure is built. This courtyard fills one of the Important func tions of the paper. In political crises or other times of public excitement the gates are swung wide open and into the court pour the people as many as wish, up to 2,.ri00 for a public demonstration. From tlio second-floor balcony Dr. Paz or his son addrcssos the crowd, replies to petitions and sometimes promises In succeeding issues of the paper to make the ears of the govern ment tingle, unless the legislation is adopt ed which the people demand; for politically the paper is independent. On the ground floor are the business of fices, a luxuriously furnished consulting room where the poor may get free legal ad vice, a free medical consulting room and a free museum. The chief physicians with five assistants attend iin average of 110 patients a day from noon to niiilnkiit. The museum, much like our Philadelphia Commercial museum. Is devoted to the ex hibition of Argentine products and manu factures, from a sheaf of wheat to a pair of boots; and connected therewith Is a chemical laboratory where such work Is carried on as the analyzing of soils for farmers. Any citizen may have this service free. lOilllorllll Delta. On the second floor are' the luxurious of fices of the proprietor, the editor, and the editorial writers. Instead of a corner, a worn desk, a pot of paste, an Inkwell and a nail for his hat, an editor has the use of gorgeous drawing rooms, smoking rooms, a billiard room such equipments indeed as mnke life a sort of editorial paradise. On the same floor Is a hall that serves as Saint. Paul's in London once served or the Roman forum; litre political meetings may be held, business may be transacted, In shcrt. the people of Buenos Ayres us;? the room freely. Near It is a quiet chamber that shows somewhat touchlngly that Dr. Paz has not forgotten the days when in exile he studied law at Montevideo; surrounded by well filled book Bhelves stored with legal, medi cal and engineering bonks, the poorer stu dents of the city haunt the room every day usually thirty or forty of them from 1 o'clock to 6, and from 8 to in, acquiring a professional education. On this floor, too. Is a school where Spanish Is taught. Distinguished foreigners visiting Buenos Ayres will find on the third floor the most wonderful feature of the establishment a palatial suite of apartments for their recep tion. Hacovitzn, the explorer, was enter tnlmd here in the gorgeous dining hnll, on his voyage in search of the south pole with Ctiplain Gerlache. Woolf, the natural ist, lived a fortnight here. And In the future when nny great foreigner stays for a time at Buenos Ayres. ho will find ready for him this copy of European palaces; his wife will have at her service a parlor canopied In blue silk, hung with tapestries of blue silk, made bright with candles stuck In candlesticks of Dresdi n china, and glit tering with furniture ornamented In imi tation Dresden. Other details of the apart ments almost match this, even the Salon des Fetes, a great hall where literary, char itable or scientific meetings or entertain ments may be held at the hospitable invi tation of La Presna. Among the gorgeous apartments In the building this one Is per haps the most widely known, for It Is an ac curate copy of the drawing room at Fon talnnbleau. The Idea of Dr. Paz In provid ing such apartments, namely to glorify his city by providing a luxurious habitation for visitors is something quite new In modern civic patriotism. Provision for the Sinn. On 'he top floor ar" the composing room, the reporters' room, a restaurant and a fencing salon. Fencing Is popular In Buencs Ayres, to such extent, Indeed, that It seems good to Dr. Paz to maintain a master for the benefit of his reporters, who In dulge In guarding and lunging three times a week under tutelage. Opening from the reporters' room is a restaurant, where meals are served at cost to the twenty-five reporters and the six men on the editorial staff. At 1 o'clock In the mornln?, more over, tea or coffee is served free to every body In the establishment from the printers to the edltor-lu-chlef, and If any stray urchin happens to be loitering In the "boys' exchango" In the basement, where the newsboys buy and exchange papers, no doubt be, too, gets his cheering cup. Im Prrnsa has a circulation among the S00.000 people In Buenos Ayres and through out South Amerlin of 100.000. Its price Is about 3 cents in our money. Its highest ndvci Using rates are Jl.r.O an Inch. Its treasurer's report for the first six months of this yea: showed gross receipts of H,0;t3, 005.47 In our money and expenses of about i ;.Ml.i on. Among the expense Items ap pealed $JS0. OHO Argentine (or about $ll(t.0i0 gild) for paper bought from a New York firm and $S6,3'.iO Argentine (or about $43. (ino coldl for (aide service. From the profits the magnificent establishment Is sup ported not such a heavy task as might ap pear at first blush, when one recalls that the chief spiendors of La Prensa figure simply in the. first cost; the doctors, the lawyers, the chemists give but a part of their time to the paper for small pay. Dr. Paz has Interested them In his undertak ing. The building costs no more for main tenance than one of our office buildings. "My father," said Senor E. P. Paz. "does not desire great wealth. What he hna been nblo to acquire beyond a sufficiency has gone Into j Prensa." Carpenter's Letter (Continued from Sixth Page.) coal, but many of the fields lie far In the Interior. The mines of Shantung aro within sixty miles of the sea and there are other mines further west which this road and Its extensions will open up. They will com pete with the Japanese mines and (hose at Kaiplng In North China. The Japanese mines are b lug run to their full capacity. They are now largely under the sea and It Is expensive to get the coal out. The Kal ping mines are qui.e deep and the port at tho mouth of the Pelho Is by no means so good as Klau-Chau. In the Shantung mines the coal lies near the surface. Some of the veins are large and In one mine the Chinese have been turning nut 1 .000 tons per day. So far no "MILKMAIDS' CONVENTION" AT TRINITY M. E. CHURCH, OMAHA Flashlight Photo by a Staff Artist. modern mining has been done. The coal has been dug out with picks and carried up ladders in ran hide sacks. The Hermans will bring In the best of mining machinery and with the cheap labor which la so abun dant In Shantung they cannot but make a great profit. Coal la one of the chief commodities of transpacific trade. There are a vast num ber of steamers which must be supplied and nt present coal Is brought from KtiR land and Australia ns well ns from Chln.i. Indeed, It Is said the Australian conl ftei t Is ono of the largest of the Pacific. At li same time factories are going up at Shang hal. Hong Kong and other ports, and In th" coming Industrial development an onormoin amount of fuel will he required. It may be that the coal mines of Shantung will form the foundation of a great manufacturing business run by the Hermans. The country is rich In silk of various grades and fii.i tures and weaving mills might be worked al a profit. lirrmsn Trmle. The trade of a province like Hnantung has gnat possibilities. The country contain 30.000,000 people and by the treaty Or many has practically acquired a lien on their rommerce. Today tho Shanlungese aro poor, but with the development of th provlnco they will grow rich and Ihelr de mands may keep the mills of Germany, which are at present Idle, working. I am told thnt the Shanlungese are among the best of their race. Their province Is the holy land of China. It Is noted as hav ing been tho homes of Confucius and Men clus, the greatest of Chinese philosophers, both of whom are burled In It. The country Is dotted with shrlnca ind Us people ar. noted as being religious. Pilgrimages are made to the grave of Confucius from all parts of China, and tho extension of the Herman system of railroads to Include this will bring In a big passenger revenue. In the meantime It Is doubtful whether the kaiser will be satisfied with Shantung alone. Leading Hermans of Japan and China have told mo that they expected the Herman sphere of Influence to extend as far south as the Yangtze Kinng. They have al ready established stores ami huslnpss houses at all tho ports and are mnklng a great fight for the monopoly of the Chinese trade. FRANK O. CARPENTER. On the Fence Ono of the constituents of Judge Culber son, tho father of the present senator from Texas, had wagered that he could get a definite and decided opinion from the old man, a proposition so unlikely thnt It cre ated no little excitement In the Texas town In which tho Judge, resided. It had been stipulated that the bet should be decided In front of a livery stablo, where Judge Cul berson liked to spend some of his leisure hours. A crowd collected, and as they discussed the state of the weather and the condltlou of the crops a newly sheared flock of sheep was driven by. "Judge," said the man who had made the wager, "those sheep have been sheared, haven't they?" "It looks like It, on this side," replied the Judge. Living Wild Animals Caught by the Camera r I 5... 1 YV. v-.c-' ' . "" ". .... " ' "'' ' THE ELEPHANT. At once the mightiest and most majestic of all terrestrial mammals, the elephant appeals to the Imagination more forcibly than any other living animal, not only on account of Its great sagacity and the strangeness and singularity of Its outward appearance, but also because It is such an obvious link between the world of today and the dim and distant past of Pleioceno and Miocene times. There are two existing species of ele phant, the African and the Asiatic, the lat ter, from the structure of Its molar teeth and the shape of Its skull, appearing to be very neprly related to the mammoth, which lived upon the earth In comparatively rec nt times - geologically speaking-and was un doubtedly contemporary with man In Europe during the stone age. This species is often called Ihe drome dary, but, as we have already remarked, this Is an error. The dromedary Is a swift breed of the Arabian camel. The Bactrian camel may be distinguished from Us Ara bian relative by the fact that It has two humps, is shorter in the leg and heavier, and has longer hair and stouter and harder feet. The shorter legs are distinctly ad vantagious, enabling the animal to get about with easo and safety over rocky anil hilly ground. The hordis of wild camels found in Turke stan, In the nelghbr rhood of Kashgur, are believed by Major C. S. Cumberland to bo descended from camels which esiaped when the district known as Takla Makan was buriid in a great sand storm 200 years ago. The Bactrian camel lives upon the salt and bitter plants of the steppes, which are rejected by almost all other animals. It is further able to drink brackish water from the salt lakes by which it is sur rounded. When pressed by hunger it will even eat felt blankets, hones and skins of other animals and fish. The above pictures and articles are taken from "Living Animals of the World," com plete in twenty-four parts. Parts 1 to 11 now ready at Tbe Be office. Price 10c each, by mall 15c. r -V-':-.-.V.vf-!-- t-,,V.f'K -'.V ,v ' '''2 ' THE BACTRIAN CAMEL.
