The crops of the adjoining farms do not enter into the business of the towns and villages, but are shipped to the nearest mill, railway center or seaport. In all the towns there is wealth, not extensive, but considerable, when the necessities and modes of life are taken into account. In Chile, as in other countries, there is a predisposition on the part of the country people to congregate in the towns and villages, be they great or small; in close proximity to any of the municipalities, any day in the week, one will meet all classes and conditions of rural residents on horseback, in ox carts and on foot, wending their way to town. It is another evidence of the universal desire of mankind to seek companionship and association with his fellow man, even though the contact furnishes no novelty or new sensation. Every village has a Catholic church, and the female portion of the population finds relief in the “iglesia,” from the monotony of domestic life. They attend every service, and on Sundays and feast days the scene about the village church suggests a convent, as the women all wear mantillas draped over their heads, giving them the general appearance of nuns. SANTIAGO. There are few municipalities of sufficient size and commercial importance to entitle them to be classified as cities. Santiago, the capital, is a beautiful city of over 300,000 inhabitants, charmingly situated in the verdant valley of the Mapocho, and surrounded by rugged, snow-crowned mountains. Few cities possess so many natural advantages in situation and environments. All around loom giant peaks of the Andes, their white crests among the clouds. In the smiling valley, clothed in the green of perennial summer, is Santiago. Long, quiet streets, badly paved, are lined with handsome houses, French and Spanish in architectural design; many of them palatial in proportions. The lack of industrial life and commercial activity, and the peaceful repose of this daughter of Latin America, give to the capital of Chile more the appearance of an indolent Oriental city than the metropolis of an ambitious young Republic.