A number of public libraries have been established in various cities, at the head of which is the National Library at Santiago, which contains a valuable collection of books and manuscripts. Next to this in importance is the public library at Valparaiso. Several other cities have followed the lead of these two and established free public libraries. Museums of natural history and also of arts are maintained in Santiago.
The newspaper in Chile is as much of an institution as it is in the United States. In the cities of Valparaiso and Santiago one will find the newspapers equipped with an energetic staff of reporters, who have, what Americans would call, a good nose for news. Each one, like his American counterpart, is trying to beat his competitor, and acquire at least temporary notoriety and fame.
_El Mercurio_ is the most noted newspaper of the country, and publishes editions in Valparaiso, Santiago and Concepción. It ranks with _La Prensa_, in Buenos Aires, and the _Jornal do Comercio_, in Rio de Janeiro. In the two former cities _El Mercurio_ owns fine buildings, which are superior in their equipments to the average newspaper office in the United States. It has not only provided good quarters for its editors, reporters, printers and other employees, but has dining-rooms, private parlours, baths, bedrooms, assembly-rooms, and other features which American newspaper plants are not equipped with. In these rooms entertainments are given for the public, noted visitors to that country are entertained, and many other features of more or less public interest are provided for the people. The owner of _El Mercurio_ is Mr. Augustin Edwards, who is a member of a famous banking family of Santiago, and has occupied various official positions in the country. _El Mercurio_ was founded in Valparaiso in 1827 and in Santiago in 1900. It has long been one of the show things in Chile. The editorials in the editions are the same, but the news columns differ considerably because of local interest.
One will find the editors of these papers as well informed as the editors of the leading newspapers in the United States, and their information covers the whole world, perhaps better than the average American editor. If there is any distinguished foreigner visiting the country the reporters eagerly interview him, and the matter is displayed in headlines which are quite similar to the land of yellow journalism. In fact, in general make-up the Chilean newspapers more nearly resemble those of the United States than the journals of any other country of South America. In foreign news one will find two or three pages of cable dispatches in _El Mercurio_, much more than is printed in papers published by newspapers in cities of similar size in the United States. The _vida social_ (society column) has much news concerning _las distinguidas señoras y señoritas_. Interspersed with accounts of balls, parties, weddings, visitors, etc., will be obituaries and notices of funerals. Echoes of the get-rich-quick commercialism will be seen in the advertising space, where columns of advertisements of banks, nitrate companies and promotion companies appear. Rates of exchange, the movement of the stock market and other items of commercial interest occupy a prominent place. Sport is prominent, of which football is an integral part, having been made popular by the British residents. The entries in the horse races, together with the various riders and their weights, form a part of the racing gossip, much as in English newspapers. In fact these cosmopolitan publications provide much interesting reading for all who can read them.