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258 FROM THE ALPS TO THE ANDES 
South America, once such a fruitful source 
of wealth, now presents a very different 
aspect. The people are divided into two 
classes: the one is immoderately rich, whilst 
the other, which is the more numerous, exists 
under the most wretched economic conditions. 
It is a truly horrible contrast: at every turn 
in the street, you meet miserably emaciated 
beggars whose pitiful plight awakens the 
deepest compassion in the beholder. Perhaps 
these poor creatures had come thither from 
Europe, in the hope of making their fortune, 
only to find themselves plunged in the most 
abject poverty. 
In South America the precautions taken to 
ensure the safety of the individual are very 
slight, and leave much to be desired in the way 
of needful reforms. Brigandage has taken 
firm root there: murders are frequent and 
often remain unpunished. When I was at 
Buenos-Aires, the Swiss Minister told me of 
two brothers being attacked in the street 
by a miscreant who killed one of them; the 
other saved himself by flight. The survivor 
afterwards presented himself at the ‘ Bureau 
of Public Safety’ to make his deposition, and 
declared therein the name of the murderer. 
He was thereupon told that the criminal could 
  
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