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 CHILE OF 1^0- DAY 397 of from one thousand to three thousand population. There is a general store at each oficina, belonging to the company, and this, it is safe to say, realizes enor- mous profits on everything sold. It has been estimated that the workmen spend sixty per cent of their earn- ings in the store and drink and gamble with the forty per cent. The moral and material condition of the laborers is degraded rather than benefited by the very wealth which they dig from the earth, for little of it remains in the country to improve and beautify it.