Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/473



EX-CAPITAL OF PARAGUAY. 443

have lent him a ready hand. But there could have been little to plunder, and the noise made about an old piano taken from the club suggests far more smoke than fire. And why should not the soldier be allowed to plunder a deserted place ? Why cut away from him half the inducement to fight ? Prize-money, all the world over, enriches mostly the non-combatant ; and the barefaced way in which it is habitually " shroffed^' has made the very word a scandal. Those who abuse the Brazilians will do well, before throw- ing the stone, to remember certain glass-houses at Hydera- bad, Sind, and the Summer Palace, China.

Passing through the market-place we find, further south, a third and a more extensive square, formed by smaller and meaner tenements. It is considerably larger than any- thing at Buenos Aires. Formerly the place '^ presented a most picturesque aspect at sunrise, several hundreds of women dressed in white being assembled to dispose of their different wares — fruits, cigars, cakes, and other comestibles.^' At present all is barren. In it is the United States Legation, which Mr. Washburn had insisted upon not transferring to Luque. The house is now the Gran Hotel de Cristo — devo- tional-sounding, but unusual. The Calle Pilcomayo hard by, on the ridge crest falling to the south, would be the finest site for a palace, and it commands a magnificent view of plain, hill, and river. The large whitewashed building to the south-west has become the Brazilian military hospital.

The population of Asuncion was made by Du Graty 48,000. Mr. Mulhall reduces the figure to one-half, in- cluding the suburbs. Mr. Mansfield lets it down to 20,000 ; and I would further diminish it to 12,000. We have now learned the ropes and mastered the peculiarity of its physiognomy. It is the true type and expression of Para- guay—of a people robbed and spoiled. The Presidential House would have paid the paving of half the town. Public