One must bargain with or pay an exorbitant price to these market men and women. If it is only a melon, or a dozen juicy pears, twice as much will be asked as is expected. If you shake your head when a price is given, the man or woman in charge of the stall will immediately ask, “What will you give?” On the outside of the market building dozens of women will be seen seated on the ground with a little pile of tomatoes, radishes, potatoes or melons heaped up in front of them. The housewife or servant will pass around among them making purchases and gradually filling up the basket which she carries, or hires some boy to bear for her. [Illustration: A MARKET SCENE, SANTIAGO.] The poorer Chileans are a hard working people—the most industrious of the South Americans. A walk through the sections of the city occupied by them shows much grinding poverty. Across the Mapocho penury stretches on all sides. The dwellings are low, with floors oftentimes below the street level, and the interiors show unsanitary conditions and an entire lack of the comforts of life, let alone the decencies. The improvement of such surroundings should command immediate attention from the authorities. The wages paid this class are not very large, so that they are compelled to live in comparative poverty. They drink a great deal on Sundays and holidays. Monday is a bad day to get anything done, for the peons must have a few hours to recover from the previous day’s celebration. It is a sort of a “_dias non_,” a day that is not. Holidays are greatly desired, and it takes five of them to properly celebrate the “diaz y ocho de Setiembre,” the 18th of September, the anniversary of Chilean independence. _Fiestas_ are held in every park and plaza, and all the banks and business houses close. Everybody, young and old, engages in the festivities with zeal and enthusiasm. The poor people save up their money for weeks and months in order to celebrate this occasion in the only way that seems appropriate to them—that is, by carousing. Saturday is beggars’ day, and every mendicant in the city is out with open palm. On other days only the licensed beggars appear. Some beggars even come out on horseback, for horses are remarkably cheap in Chile.