Page:A history of Chile.djvu/418

 376 A HISTORY OF CHILE punctual in her devotions. She keeps up the church and saves it from utter decay, for the men seldom go. With her figure closely enveloped in her black shawl or mania, which she wears hood-fashion over her head and allows to fall loosely over her dress, she goes trip- ping to church in the early morning. She carries in her hand her prayer-book and a yard of carpet, or fancy woolwork, upon which she kneels on the stone floor of the pewless cathedral. No matter what her station in life or wealth, the Chilean lady puts off her bonnet, dons the mania and kneels in the centre of the church with her worshipping sisters, however poor or despised they may be. The mania puts them upon a level, and does away with all rivalries in dress during church hours. Though the men do not often go to church, and are disposed to oppose the clergy in a political way, still the church has a firm hold upon the people of Chile. The educated Chilean has no war with the Catholic church, to him it is the divinely appointed institution ; but he is in favor of progressive Catholi- cism. If he does not go to mass himself, his wife and daughters must go, and on special occasions, such, for instance, as the procession of Corpus Christi, he will condescend to take part. If he opposes the priest in legislative halls, he yet reverences his time-honored religion, and for a Chilean to be other than Catholic would mean for him to be out of caste. Santiago is somewhat cosmopolitan, although the urban foreign population is chiefly domiciled in Val- paraiso. There is a large foreign population, some ninety or one hundred thousand altogether in the coun- try, of whom five or six thousand are English and about the same number each of Germans and French. Valparaiso is essentially an English city, so far as com- mercial interests are concerned. English is spoken