i 
 
 
 

 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT 
 FUND GIVEN IN 1 89 1 BY 
 
 HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE 
 
DATE DUE 
 
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 lasi^fpsszii 
 
 ^ 
 
 DEC i>^rtr^g 3 
 
 PRINTED IN U.S.A. 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 
 F 2808.T95 
 
 Argentina and the Argentines; 
 
 3 1924 021 031 459 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021031459 
 
'fill 'I II I 
 
 nf '(iMins'ir'sr im ^\~my^\ si ' «(lia| f 
 
 
 
ARGENTINA 
 
 AND 
 
 THE ARGENTINES 
 
 NOTES AND IMPRESSIONS OF A 
 
 FIVE YEARS' SOJOURN IN THE ARGENTINE 
 
 REPUBLIC, 1885-90 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS A. TURNER 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 London: SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO 
 
 1892 
 
'/^ 
 
 A. 3?6 35 
 
 CORNELL 
 iUNIVERSITV 
 ,,^ LIBRARY 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 This volume pretends to be nothing more than 
 its subsidiary title indicates ; namely, a series of 
 " Notes" or sketches of Argentina and the Argen- 
 tines, made during a sojourn of nearly six years in 
 Buenos Ayres. Of the imperfections and short- 
 comings of the "Notes," no one -could be morfe 
 sensible than the writer of thern. Begun hardly 
 in earnest ; without connection, continuity, or defi- 
 nite plan ; they may be compared rather to instan- 
 taneous photographs taken at haphazard, and which 
 depict alike the natural and the ludicrous, than to 
 elaborate and carefully studied pictures. In addition 
 to other inconveniences, the writer had the misfor- 
 tune to lose, during the troublous times following 
 the Revolution of July, 1890, a large collection of 
 shorthand notes relating chiefly to the events of the 
 years 1886-87 — 3- loss which it was impossible to 
 repair, and which has compelled him to trust to his 
 memory for some of the particulars related in the 
 book ; and although pains have been taken to verify, 
 as far as was possible at this distance of time and 
 place, the particulars referred to, it is not improb- 
 able that some inaccuracies of detail may have crept 
 into the descriptions, and equally possible that the 
 "Notes" which have been perforce omitted might 
 have been found more interesting and Instructive 
 than those which are now given. 
 
 Except where it was absolutely necessary to give 
 
IV INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 figures to prove statements, dry statistics of dimen- 
 sions and quantities have been avoided. Argen- 
 tine statistics are seldom trustworthy and usually 
 over-coloured. The only figures upon which reli- 
 ance can be jjlaced are those relating to areas and 
 boundaries given in Senor Latzina's " Geografia de 
 la Rep^blica Argentina." In that work, and in 
 jNIulhall's "Handbook to the River Plate," the 
 reader may find all that he can wish to know re- 
 garding the physical features and political organi- 
 zation of the Argentine Republic. What has been 
 aimed at in the "Notes" is to supply the shading 
 to those outlines ; to clothe the dry bones with flesh 
 and colour ; to describe the people rather than the 
 land. 
 
 It would be an insignificant country indeed a 
 complete description of which — historical, economi- 
 cal, geographical — could be compressed within the 
 compass of a single volume. Some English journals 
 appear to consider Argentina so insignificant that a 
 complete description of her may be given in a few 
 flippant paragraphs, or at least squeezed into an 
 ordinary magazine article. And, notwithstanding 
 that a whole library of information, reliable and 
 fanciful, exists close at hand, the average English 
 reader knows very little about the peoples and 
 States of South America. Their histories are ex- 
 cluded from the programme of an ordinary Euro- 
 pean education, and to the majority of Europeans 
 their countries are still mere geographical expres- 
 sions. The interest we take in those far-off Re- 
 publics is almost wholly mercenary. Regarding 
 them simply as markets for our manufactures, or 
 new fields for the employment of our capital, we 
 do not even take the trouble to assure ourselves 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. V 
 
 that they are safe markets or trustworthy fields of 
 investment. " For the Briton who holds securities 
 outside the United Kingdom rarely interests himself 
 in financial, political, or social developments among 
 the peoples that have done him the honour to 
 borrow his money, until roused by actual default 
 in the payment of half-yearly interest."^ We send 
 them money and goods on the mere representations 
 of speculative promoters, or of financial houses who 
 may themselves, as recent experience has only too 
 strikingly shown, be imperfectly acquainted with, or 
 wilfully misinformed as to, the characters and re- 
 sources of the States and Governments to whom 
 they lend or sell their prestige. 
 
 Those same distant and unfamiliar States, never- 
 theless, abound with objects of interest far higher 
 than the mere capacity for yielding dividends on capi- 
 tal. To mention only two which Argentina, more 
 perhaps than any other South American Republic, 
 offers to all who are interested in the proper study 
 of mankind. In a country so peculiarly constituted 
 and with a population composed of men of all races 
 and of all degrees of civilization, from the semi- 
 savage Guarani and the wild gaucho to the boule- 
 vard lounger and the fin de Steele dandy, it is obvious 
 that the student of ethnology or political economy 
 may find a rich field for observation and study. A 
 walk through any of the streets of Argentina, a ride 
 through almost any part of her eamp, will bring him 
 into contact with representatives of numberless races 
 of men. Racial antipathies and idiosyncrasies, the 
 influence of one race over another, and the peculiar 
 social conditions of a hybrid community, may there be 
 
 1 Times. 
 
vi INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 Studied under exceptionally favourable circumstances 
 and without the necessity of travelling far from one's 
 door. The doctrines of the political economists and 
 the theories of the modern social scientists may 
 there be brought to the test of experiment, or seen 
 in actual operation under new, varying, and often 
 startling conditions. 
 
 It will be said that the author has drawn no very 
 flattering portrait of the Argentine in the following 
 " Notes." Unfortunately, the Argentine does not 
 lend himself to the making of an attractive picture 
 in any situation of life. Thrown constantly amongst 
 all classes of Argentines, from journalists to generals, 
 but more particularly amongst Government officials 
 in the federal and provincial capitals ; mingling with 
 them in work and play, living with them en f ami lie ; 
 the writer had exceptional opportunities of forming 
 a judgment of the Argentine in public and private 
 life. The native is not an admirable character. 
 His very virtues spring from him weaknesses. In 
 times of prosperity his hereditary indolence and 
 nepotism make him an easy prey to scheming 
 adventurers, and in times of pressure his disdain of 
 labour and looseness of principle lead him to all 
 manner of shabbiness and perfidy. 
 
 Whatever progress Argentina has made since the 
 date of her independence, she owes none of it to the 
 Argentine, who, but for the foreigner, would still 
 be tending his attenuated cattle and his emaciated 
 sheep in the desolate plains of the South, or enduring 
 a bare existence in the stertile regions of the North. 
 Argentina possesses neither an aristocracy nor a 
 yeomanry : the whole country is overrun by ad- 
 venturers, of whom none are less scrupulous than 
 the native. With abundant facilities for accumulat- 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. Vll 
 
 ing wealth by honest means, the Argentine prefers 
 to lose his good name rather than his cunning. " It 
 is the greatest misfortune of the Argentine, that he 
 is, or believes himself to be, born heir to vast 
 possessions. . . . He is taught to believe that 
 he is born to be a ruler in a great and mighty land, 
 to which the nations shall by-and-by play the part 
 of the sun, the moon, and the stars in Joseph's 
 dream. There is no need for him to work. He 
 has simply to sit down and contemplate the opera- 
 tions of Providence in his favour." If he would 
 only continue seated, the country would prosper in 
 spite of him. But when he attempts to justify his 
 existence by mischievous legislation, political intrigue, 
 and financial juggling, neither the country, the 
 foreigner, nor the native has any chance. In reality 
 only half civilized, the Argentine aspires to be con- 
 sidered the peer of the modern Parisian. Impatient 
 of natural progress, he attempts to leap at a single 
 bound from the barbarism of the garicko to the 
 polished refinement of the courtier. He is a copyist, 
 an imitator of all that is. showy and shallow, a 
 Frenchman without the thrift or the talent of the 
 Frenchman. Distinct nationality he has none ; if he 
 had, he would still be wearing his poncho and eat- 
 ing puchero. In politics, morality, art, science, and 
 religion he cuts but a sorry figure. From the priests 
 of Cordoba, or from foreign professors, he acquires 
 a smattering of knowledge of various kinds, a taste 
 for the subtilties of law and rhetoric, and a dislike 
 for any kind of toil. He studies engineering, and 
 his plans are unsafe unless revised by a foreigner. 
 He studies law, and frames acts which plunge the 
 country into turmoil. He studies finance, sweeps 
 the banks away, and sacks the treasuries. He 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 Studies politics, and the provincial elections are 
 carried at the sword's point. He attempts manu- 
 factures, and needs foreign brains to help him. He 
 breeds cattle by the million, and the flesh is fit only 
 for niggers' food. He studies naval warfare, and 
 his shots hit every object but those aimed at. He 
 preaches patriotism, and mortgages his country to 
 the hilt. He invites the immigrant, and robs him 
 at every turn. 
 
 There are many topics upon which the writer 
 would have liked to dwell in the " Notes," but that 
 the nature of the book forbade their introduction ; 
 such, for instance, as the use and abuse of Cedulas, 
 cdntros agricolas, or bogus colonies, ejidos, or specu- 
 lative extensions of townships, gigantic joint-stock 
 frauds, a few side-lights on the operations of the 
 constructor banks, the part played in the develop- 
 ment of the crisis by /omenta territorial concerns, 
 the Drainage scandal, the Madero Port, the clandes- 
 tine issues of rag-money and other unlawful banking 
 operations, and a score more unwholesome themes 
 obviously unfitted for a work not professing to be 
 a financial history of Argentina, but only a sketch of 
 the country and the people. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introductory Remarks. ...... iii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Start from Southampton. — Old Tubs. — Direct Route 
 to the River Plate the Best. — ^Wanted an M.C. — 
 English Frigidity Outlasts the Tropics. — From the 
 New World to the New World via the Old World. 
 — Madeira. — Divers, Beggars, and other Parasites. — 
 The Island by Moonlight. — Eighteen Days' Ocean- 
 ploughing. — The Passengers. — Daily Life on Board. — 
 First Sight of South America. — ^Arrival at Montevideo i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Dreary Approach to Buenos Ayres. — Landing in Instal- i 
 ments. — "The Wise Man Stays at Home." — Laundries/ 
 ad nauseam. — The Argentine Capital. — Recent Im-I 
 provements. — The Avenida de Mayo. — ^A Mad Project. 
 — Private Dwellings. — Altos and Bajos ; their Incon- 
 veniences and Peculiarities. — Flat-roofed Houses. — 
 The Boca. — Conventillos. — -Black Holes . . -13 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Mistaken Views of Buenos Ayres. — Its Superficial Civiliza- 
 tion no Criterion of the Condition of the People and 
 Country at Large. — Life in a Native Family. — Domestic 
 Habits and Manners of . the Argentines. — ^An Octo- 
 genarian General. — Staple Topic of Discourse. — 
 Politics the Curse of the Country. — The Press. — The 
 Frensa. — The Nacion. — General Mitre. — Foreign 
 Newspapers. — The Standard Weather-vane . . -29 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Educational Facilities. — Linguistic Advantages of Buenos 
 Ayres. — Lack of Moral Training in the Educational 
 System. — Compadres. — Behaviour towards Women in 
 Public. — Flattery Cause of Shallowness of Native 
 Character. — Precocity of Argentine Boys. — Temper- 
 ance amongst Natives. — British " Dead-beats " . -39 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Argentine Police. — Semi-military Gendarmerie. — The Force 
 Hated and Despised.— Retaliation of the Populace for 
 Past Cruelties. — The Vijilante an Animated Nine- 
 pin.— A Free Fight.— Muscle and Pluck versus Cold 
 Steel and Numbers. — An Inhuman Custom. — Pilfering 
 from the Quick and the Dead. — Recent Changes in 
 the Force. — Results thereof 47 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Anglo- Argentine Society. — Anglo-Porteiios. — British Institu- 
 tions in the Plate. — The English Literary Society. — 
 Argentine Legal System. — More Law than Justice. — 
 Stamped Paper ad absurdum. — Counsel's Opinion 
 Gratis. — The Species Abogado. — Matriculation of Mer- 
 chants. — Vexations and Impediments ... 58 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Concessions and Concession-hunters. — Revival of the Times 
 of John Law. — The Great Vaca Lechera. — Modus 
 operandi of Securing a Concession. — Palm-grease and 
 Palms. — An Espediente. — The Government Assessor. — 
 A Model Argentine Official. — To Obtain an Object, 
 Pander. — A Juicio Verbal. — A Journey into the In- 
 terior. — A Provincial Municipality. — His Worship the 
 Intendente. — The Waiting Time the Hardest Time of 
 All. — Depositing the Guarantee. — The Government 
 Scrivener. — The Executive. — Hieroglyphs Galore. — 
 Golden Dreams . . . . . . -67 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Terrible Infantile Mortality in Buenos Ayres. — Facts and 
 Figures. — Argentine Babies won't Thrive on the 
 Bottle. — Amas de Leche.- — The Baby's Host of 
 Enemies. — The Athens of South America Built on a 
 Cesspool. — Comparative Statistics of Infectio-con- 
 tagious Diseases. — Illegitimacy. — Its Causes. — Morti- 
 natality. — Faiseuses d'anges. — Parteras and their 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI 
 
 Signboards.— An Idyll in Paint.— Domestic Servants 
 Hard to Capture. — Chinos. — Extravagance of the 
 Argentines in the Matter of Domestics.— All Sorts and 
 Conditions of HireHngs. — The Demon Butcher's Boy. 
 — The Sort of Thing British Housekeepers have to 
 Put up with. — Hawkers and Hawking. — Temper- 
 destroying Customs 8g 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Argentine Women. — Portrait of an Argentine Girl — Silver- 
 tongued Sirens. — A Good Voice Rare. — Virtue of the 
 Argentinas Irreproachable. — Venus' Gifts to the 
 Argentinas. — M. Marcoy's Description of Spanish- 
 American Women. — Married Ladies and their 
 Manners. — Argentine Men. — Born Dandies. — Imitators 
 of all that is Showy. — Patriotism and Amor Propio 
 Ruin the Country. — The Argentine's Disdain of Labour. 
 — Dominant Characteristic of the Race. — Old Children. 
 — Buenos Ayres in Advance of London. — Luxury and 
 Extravagance. — Everything Borrowed or Stolen from 
 the Foreigner. — A Happy-go-lucky People. — The 
 Gambling Instinct. — Mar del Plata. — A Model Mayor io6 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Marriage Amongst the Argentines. — The Native Race 
 Dwindling. — Table of Marriages. — The Argentine not 
 a Marrying Man. — The Country Swamped by Italians. 
 — The Native's Patent of Existence. — The Coming 
 Race of Argentines. — Mental Capacity of the Italian 
 Settlers very Low. — Petty Trade of the Country in 
 the Hands of the Italians. — British Influence in the 
 Argentine. — One Law for the Native and Another for 
 the Foreigner . . . . . . . .119 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The Professions. — Politics by Far the Best-paying. — The 
 Law.- — Journalism. — Argentine Doctors. — " Camp " 
 Leeches and Butchers. — Professional Etiquette ad 
 absiirdum. — The Despachante de Aduana. — A Lucrative 
 Profession. — The Argentine Auctioneer. — His Hyper- 
 bole and Superlatives. — Two Advertisements. — A 
 
Xll TABLE OK CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Modern Scadder.— A Suburban Remate.—T\i& Granja 
 Nacional. — The Tricks of the Rematador. — The 
 Tasador, or Valuer.— An "Oriental" Tasador a.nd. his 
 Career.— The " Camp " Schoolmaster.— Poor Devil.— 
 Argentines great Smokers. — Annual Consumption of 
 Tobacco and Cigars. — Smoking in Public Ofifices. — 
 "Cigars for the Directors." — "No Business without 
 Smoke." — Cigarettes and Pumpkin are Loadstones to 
 the Settler 127 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Argentine Champ Elysees. — "Vanity Fair. — Palermo 
 by Night. — The Recoleta. — The Suburbs of Buenos 
 Ayres. — Adrogud. — The Tigre. — A Dismal Swamp. — 
 First Visit to the Tigre ; we Walk from the Station 
 and Wade back. — The Fruit Islands of the Tigre. — 
 " Old Scott." — A Modern Crusoe. — Life in the Suburbs. 
 — General Features of a Pueblo. — Pleasures of a Moon- 
 light Ride. — "Camp-folk"; their extraordinary Power 
 of Vision. — The Campesino. — An Adventure with the 
 gauchos oi ihs. QSidsio ...... 141 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 La Plata, Capital of the Province of Buenos Ayres. — An 
 Enchanted City. — The Provincial Tribunals. — The 
 Ministry of Public Works, etc. — The Lights of La 
 Plata. — Cost and Raison d^itre of the Capital of the 
 Province. — Jealousy between Federals and Provin- 
 cials. — La Plata a huge Joke. — Attempts to Coerce 
 Population. — Exotic Conditions of Existence. — 
 Majority of the Population Foreigners. — The Moths 
 and the Candles. — The La Plata Port. — Compulsory 
 Patronage 164 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Argentine Railways. — The Great Southern. — One Common 
 Terminus for the Rosario, Pacific, Ensenada, Central 
 Argentine, Northern, and Western Railways. — Gold 
 Tariffs. — No Third Class. — Rate of Travelling. — • 
 Goods Traiific. — An Artful Dodge. — Native Manage- 
 ment. — Actual Condition of Some of the Permanent 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Ways — Humours of Railway Travelling. — The Frag- 
 rant Camp. — "Bad for the Coo." — Beguilements 
 on the Ensenada. — The Lottery Ticket Seller. — The 
 Vendor of "Blue-books." — The Demon Fiddle- 
 Scraper. — The Novelty Man. — While a Train 
 Fetches Wind we Take a Stroll on the Line and 
 Pluck Wayside Flowers. — Buenos Ayres the City of 
 Tramways. — Comparison of British and Argentine 
 Tramway Traffic. — "Camp" Trams. — Low Cost of 
 Motive Power — Bone-shakers. — Human Flies. — If in 
 a Hurry, Eschew the Trams. — How the Law Treats 
 Conductors and Drivers. — Pleasant Suburban Rides . 171 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Argentine Army. — Aliens Liable to be Pressed. — The 
 Argentine Soldier. — An Army of Pigmies. — Dingy 
 Uniforms. — Effects of Drill. — The Soldier's Life a 
 Dog's Life. — Cruelty of the Officers. — Fighting Qualities 
 of the Soldier. — His only Guerdon. — Martial Music ; 
 Noise, not Melody. — Camp Followers ; their Abodes 
 and Ways. — The Lowest of God's Creatures. — The 
 Theatres of Buenos Ayres. — Two Payments before 
 One can See a Play. — Amusements of Buenos Ayres. 
 — Pelota. — Club de Gyjnnasia y Esgrima. — Holidays a 
 Nuisance. — Enervating Climatic Influences. — National 
 Fetes. — Popular Enthusiasm. — Fireworks while the 
 Sun Shines. — The Races. — Diversions in the Camp. — 
 The Pulperia. — Gaucho Races. — Carnival in Buenos 
 Ayres. — Stupid Tomfoolery. — A Scrimmage with the 
 Mummers. — A Fatal Incident. — Pomitos . . .188 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Hotels of Buenos Ayres. — Better Hotels in the Pro- 
 vinces than in the Capital. — The Provence. — The 
 Grand. — The Paix. — The Frascati and the Roma. — 
 Casas Amuebladas, or Lodging-Houses. — The Deux 
 Monies. — Necessary Sanitary Precautions. — Disinfec- 
 tants Galore. — Restaurants of Buenos Ayres. — The 
 Georges Mercier. — The Bodega. — Waiters and their 
 Humours. — Pensionistas. — Two Hours in a Pension. — 
 The Humours of the Feeding Man.— How we Gorge 
 
XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 in Buenos Ayres. — Queer Names. — The Bolsa. — The 
 Standard will Make you Famous. — ^Babel not in it 
 with the Bolsa. — Pandemonium .... 205 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Physical Features of Argentina. — The North Wind and 
 Suicide. — The Province of Buenos Ayres. — Climate. — 
 Storms and Droughts. — The Fampero. — Its Terrible 
 Power. — Effects of a Pampero on Land ; in the 
 Camp. — The Markets of Buenos Ayres. — Humours 
 of the Crowd. — To learn Spanish, go to the Market- 
 place. — Hyper-independence of Stall-keepers. — Bags 
 of Mystery. — Queserias. — Only one Kind of Fish in 
 the Country. — A Neglected Industry . . .220 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Argentine Politics. — A Cancer in the National Organism. 
 — The Constitution Shaped from Many Models. — 
 Government of the Provinces. — The Chambers. — The 
 Executive. — Political Freedom a Myth. — Provincial 
 and Federal Antagonism. — How the System AVorks. — 
 Political Sects. — Literary Legislators. — Manufacture 
 of Official Documents. — 3,700 of my Signatures 
 Embalmed. — Present Political Aspect of the Country. 
 — Rise and Progress of the Union Civica. — The 
 National Autonomist Party. — The Great Ufiicato. — 
 Mission of the Press. — Apathy and Cowardice of the 
 Masses. — The Dawn of Political Emancipation. — The 
 Champion of the Cause. — How he is Treated. — Effects 
 of the First Public Indignation Meeting. — Overthrow 
 of the Ministry. — A Sop to Cerberus. — The Loan. — 
 Resignation of Dr. Uriburu and Appointment of a 
 Successor. — Government apparently Stronger than 
 Ever. — Defection in the Military Ranks. — Inception 
 of the July Revolution ...... 233 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Civic Union after the Fall of Celman. — The Rosario 
 Convention. — The Presidential Elections. — The Vice- 
 Presidency a Stumbling-block. — Adoption of the 
 Formula, Mitre-Irigoyen. — Seeds of Dissension. — The 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Native's Hunger for Notoriety. — Too Many Cooks 
 Spoil the Broth. — La Politica a Bauble. — Sample of 
 a Political Meeting. — Disorderly Schoolboys. — Thin 
 End of the Wedge. — Dignity before all Things. — Com- 
 motion in the Provinces. — ^A Rupture Inevitable. — 
 The Fat in the Fire.— The Split.— Actual Political 
 Outlook in Argentina. — Assured Triumph of the 
 Roquistas. — Retrospect of the Pellegrini Interregnum. 
 — Confusion Worse Confounded. — Starvation amongst 
 the Masses. — The Salvation Army to the Rescue. — 
 A Cowardly Government. — Jails Filled with Petty 
 Thieves while Public Robbers Lord it o'er AH.— The 
 State Banks Swept Away. — Worse than the Worst 
 , Days of Caiman. — Apostasy of the Government. — 
 Future Prospects 253 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Notes on the Financial Crisis. — Political Complications. — 
 Argentina's Enormous Borrowings. — The Ever-watchful 
 Times. — Blowing of the Bubble. — The State Paper- 
 hanger. — Dr. Pacheco. — Rufino Varela. — Mushroom 
 Banks of Issue. — The Free Banking Law, the Rock 
 upon which Argentina made Shipwreck. — Devices for 
 Evading the Law. — The Banco Buenos Ayres. — Effects 
 of the Creation of Paper-mills. — Guaranteed Paper 
 by the Square League. — First Impressions of Paper 
 Money. — The Men with the Muck-rake.— Fortune 
 within the Reach of All. — The Paris Exhibition as a 
 Factor in the Development of the Crisis. — Results of 
 a Costly Propaganda. — Inflation of the Balloon. — The 
 First Prick in the Bubble. — National Bank Shares. — ■ 
 Dispersion of the Gold Reserves. — Effects of the 
 Heresy. — Celman only a Tool. — Protean Roca. — 
 Character of Juarez Celman. — A Crisis of Progress . 275 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The Meek Races of South America. — The Argentines In- 
 dividually and Collectively. — Disquieting Intelligence. 
 — Key to the Mystery. — The Revolution Bungled. — 
 Want of Unity amongst the Insurgents, Cause of Failure. 
 — Who was to Blame ? — The Populace Revolts against 
 
XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 , the Revolters. — Surrender without a Struggle. — 
 Behaviour of the Squadron.— Argentines Excellent 
 Shots.— The Native's Method of Fighting.— The Union 
 Civica Bows its Head.— A Secret Understanding with 
 the Enemy.— End of the Farce ; the Curtain Rises on 
 the Drama.— Victory of the People.— Popular Frenzy. 
 — Ya sefuk el Burro.— K Well-behaved Crowd.— Gain 
 and Loss of the Revolution.— Dr. Lopez.— The Twelve 
 Labours of Hercules ^9" 
 
 CHAPTER XXIL 
 
 The Ruined Spendthrift. — An Iniquitous Scheme of 
 Taxation. — Presidential Confessions. — One Thousand 
 Millions of Dollars Gone in Luxuries and Pleasure.- — 
 How Great Thieves are Punished in Argentina. — 
 Two "Object Lessons." — Sale of the Buenos Ayres 
 Western Railway. — Unlawful Disposal of the Proceeds. 
 — Descuentos. — Good Business. — The National Bank. 
 — Its History without a Parallel. — Report of the 
 Directors. — Scandalous Disclosures. — A Fair Specimen 
 of Argentine Administration. — National Bank Shares. 
 — Se Clavaron, los Ingkses. — Balance-Sheet of the 
 Bank. — Shareholders like Frightened Sheep. — What is 
 the Argentine ? — A Turn-coat Minister . . .318 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Conclusions. — The Argentine Crisis Unique. — The Indus- 
 trial Classes the Scapegoats. — The Argentine's Hallu- 
 cination. — Patriotism a mere Term. — The Tide of 
 Immigration will never Turn till there is a European 
 Administration. — Let the Argentine Go Back to the 
 Plains. — Proposed Panaceas. — International Interven- 
 tion. — An Impossible Solution. — Real Remedies . 340 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 A. Proclamation of the Revolutionary Junta . 353 
 
 B. Biographical Notices — 
 
 General Mitre. Dr. Irigoyen. President Pellegrini 359 
 
 C. Glossary of Spanish Words and Phrases . . 366 
 
ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES 
 
 NOTES AND IMPKESSTONS OF A FIVE YEARS' 
 
 SOJOURN IN THE ARGENTINE 
 
 REPUBLIC, 1885-90. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Start from Southampton. — Old Tubs. — Direct Route to 
 the River Plate the best. — Wanted an M.C. — English 
 Frigidity outlasts the Tropics. — From the New World to 
 the New World via the Old World. — Madeira.— Divers, 
 Beggars, and other Parasites. — The Island by Moonlight. 
 — Eighteen Days' Ocean-ploughing. — The Passengers. — 
 Daily Life on Board.— First Sight of South America. — 
 Arrival at Montevideo. 
 
 " The better the day, the better the deed," saith the 
 homely saw ; and of a surety no better day could 
 have been desired than Sunday, August i6th, 1885. 
 The early autumn sun, veiled by that golden haze 
 which usually betokens fine weather, was just gild- 
 ing hill and tree-top, and scattering the mists of 
 night as, filled with the excitement of an approach- 
 ing departure, I sprang from my bed, and lifting the 
 blind anxiously scanned the sky for the promise 
 of the day. Through the beautiful valley of the 
 Thames from Richmond westward the river wound 
 its sinuous course, looking in the rising sunlight 
 
2 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 like a band of gold winding snakelike amongst the 
 sombre foliage and the verdant meadows. 
 
 On such a day my brother and I were to begin 
 our voyage over a third part of the globe ; from 
 such a scene, soft and homely, we were to tear our- 
 selves away for years. Yet with our natural regret 
 was mingled much of that quiet peaceful joy with 
 which an English landscape seen on a fine morning 
 often inspires the susceptible heart. 
 
 "Well," I exclaimed, as my brother joined me at 
 the window, " if one were disposed to believe in 
 such things, he might regard such a morning as this 
 as a most auspicious omen." 
 
 " Yes," assented my brother ; "but thanks to our 
 superior enlightenment, an omen is not regarded 
 in these days of scientific research as an article of 
 faith, unless indeed it happen to be preceded by a 
 • zc,' and then it becomes a gallant thing to swear 
 
 by-" 
 
 We had looked forward to this day with mixed feel- 
 ings through more than a month of busy preparation. 
 The approaching voyage was to do great things for 
 me — a confirmed dyspeptic. It was to compensate 
 for much anxiety which my friends had suffered on 
 account of the state of my health ; to restore the 
 colour to my cheeks and renew my energies. So 
 that, after our last adieus were said and each familiar 
 object lingeringly and lovingly parted from, and we 
 were fairly on our way, the pleasurable excitement 
 of expectant novelty already began to act like a 
 charm on our spirits. 
 
 At Southampton our specially chartered carriages 
 were, with much asthmatic puffing from the little 
 
DIRECT ROUTE THE BEST. 3 
 
 pilot engine which took them in tow, run alongside 
 the ship which was to be our home for the best part 
 of the next month ; and our luggage being at length 
 safely hauled aboard and stowed away in hold or 
 cabin, time offered for the usual curious inspection 
 of new quarters. The English steamers that ply 
 between Europe and South America are much below 
 the average North American " liner," both for speed 
 and comfort. Some of them, indeed, are veritable 
 " old tubs." But their commanders are, without 
 exception, so far as our observation extends, men 
 of long experience and renowed courtesy — very dif- 
 ferent men from the surly and sometimes incom- 
 petent skippers one meets on the German vessels. 
 
 We had chosen the direct route to the River 
 Plate on account of its immunity from the discom- 
 forts and restrictions of quarantine. Where there 
 is no special purpose to be served, it is best to avoid 
 the Brazilian ports on the outward journey ; for the 
 Latin races of South America have such amazingly 
 queer notions about quarantine ; imposing it, for 
 example, on a whole ship upon grounds so frivolous 
 and unreasonable as the breaking of a sailor's collar- 
 bone. {A fact.) 
 
 Some delay in the final shipment of provender 
 and stores detained us nearly five hours beyond 
 the advertised time of departure ; but at length the 
 Hevelius cast off her moorings and followed the lead 
 of a snorting tug which, after conducting us into the 
 deep waters of the Channel, presently shipped her 
 tow-line and abandoned us to our fate. It was now 
 6.30 p.m., and though the dinner-bell had long since 
 rung, we remained on deck watching the twilight 
 
4 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 shadows deepen over the west, and straining our 
 eyes with affectionate eagerness to catch the last 
 ghmpses of the dim white cliffs and receding coast- 
 line of England : and the last sound borne across 
 the peaceful waters was the tintinabulation of the 
 Sabbath bells. In the gloaming we passed the 
 Needles, looming grim and spectral against the sky ; 
 and then the stars brightened and the yellow moon 
 rose over the widening sea. 
 
 The next two or three days were occupied chiefly 
 in the usual ice-breaking approaches between the 
 passengers whom chance had thrown together. It 
 is, we think, to be regretted that to the easy duties 
 of the chief steward cannot be added the office of 
 Master of the Ceremonies ; so that he might be 
 privileged to introduce passengers to each other — 
 at least by name. It would be the saving of much 
 awkwardness and many ludicrous mistakes, and not 
 only add considerably to the sociability of the com- 
 pany, but perhaps lead to the formation of more 
 friendships than is now possible. It is a strikingly 
 peculiar circumstance that English travellers to and 
 from South America, more than anywhere else that 
 we have travelled, maintain their characteristic reserve 
 to the verge even of incivility. Indeed, we have 
 known in not a few cases the ice of their taciturnity 
 not only outlast the heat of the tropics, but endure 
 beyond the Land of Fire. 
 
 Amongst our company was a Canadian gentleman 
 who had journeyed without a break from Manitoba 
 to New York ; thence to Liverpool, whence, arriv- 
 ing only the night prior to our departure from 
 Southampton, he had joined us at the last moment 
 
MADEIRA, ITS BEAUTIES AND BEGGARS. 5 
 
 and was now bound for Argentina. It seems 
 anomalous and reflects small credit on the boasted 
 enterprise of our American cousins, that at the 
 present time the quickest route from one distant 
 part of the New World to another should be via 
 the Old World ; yet such is the case. 
 
 On Friday, the fifth day of our voyage, we sighted 
 Madeira, which was the only port of call between 
 England and the Plate. 
 
 Madeira is a veritable poet's dreamland ; a beau- 
 tiful, sleepy isle of the sea, with a clime of the sunny 
 south that year in year out varies little, and where 
 rain falls but seldom. Its luxuriant vegetation is 
 nourished by the dew-laden clouds, which by day 
 hover over the heights, and by night descend to 
 cover the earth with their fertilising moisture. From 
 the anchorage in the Bay of Funchal the island 
 presents a most enchanting view, its appearance 
 resembling that of a vast vineyard spread out before 
 the rising sun and sloping steeply from the pebbly 
 beach to the cloud-capt hills. The sombre aspect 
 of the foliage is relieved by the vivid freshness of 
 the buildings which, with their white, yellow, or 
 light-blue walls, red roofs and green shutters, peep 
 out with fantastic irregularity from amidst the banana, 
 the palm and the vine. 
 
 Our heaving-to was the signal for a whole fleet of 
 boats to put off from the shore, manned by that 
 motley crowd of human parasites which never fails 
 to make its appearance on the arrival of a ship at 
 any foreign port, and which seems to subsist by 
 badgering and black-mailing in one way or another 
 the ship, the baggage, and the passengers. Itinerant 
 
6 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 vendors of island fruits, basket and straw-work ; 
 swart boatmen in every variety of costume and of 
 every shade of ugliness, with eyes, mustaches and 
 daggers of equal ferocity ; swaggering customs 
 officers in uniforms of white, black and gold ; fierce- 
 looking sailors ; boat-loads of boy divers, whose 
 orange-coloured bodies — nude save for the merest 
 flimsy of a covering — eyes like sloes and hair like 
 matted hemp, offered a striking contrast in the 
 dazzling sunlight to the blue waters of the bay ; 
 snorting tugs, lumbering coal-barges and light 
 skiffs ; — surrounded, hailed and grappled us as soon 
 as we had dropped anchor. 
 
 The antics of the divers were most amusing. 
 Their agility and dexterity in diving for silver coins, 
 artfully thrown edgewise so as to baffle the eye in 
 following their zig-zag course through the water, 
 are astonishing. Occasionally the chase grows ex- 
 citing as two or three of the lads are seen struggling 
 at a depth which makes their yellow bodies look 
 green to obtain possession of a shilling. And then 
 a perfect babel of acclamation greets the winner as, 
 cleaving the water like a fish, he rises to the surface 
 and triumphantly exhibits the captive coin. We 
 counted between thirty and forty of these boys ; and 
 amongst them they must have accumulated a very 
 respectable pile of silver. 
 
 After the customary preliminaries we were per- 
 mitted to go ashore, and presently landed amidst a 
 motley throng of beggars and idlers who tailed 
 after us up the narrow, irregular and precipitous 
 streets, whither we roved in search of further 
 novelties. The steepy ways, paved with smooth 
 
THE STAPLE INDUSTRY OF MADEIRA. 7 
 
 grey pebbles laid edgewise and wrought into all 
 manner of mosaic devices, are by no means easy 
 to walk on. The constant traffic of the log-sledges 
 (the only kind of vehicle we saw) has worn them 
 as smooth as glass ; so that it is difficult to secure 
 a foothold. It is pleasant to observe the skill with 
 which these logs are shot down the hills and guided 
 round corners by drivers armed with long poles. 
 
 The staple industry of the island would seem to 
 be begging. The visitor is quite bewildered by the 
 numbers of mendicants of all ages and of all degrees 
 of wretchedness. Let the artist who is in want of 
 a lean, ill-favoured model of human dilapidation, go 
 to Madeira. He will find no lack of choice. The 
 whining impudence of the beggars is appalling. 
 They have a trick of springing out upon you from 
 unsuspected corners and in lonely byways, and a 
 power of conjuring into existence in places to all 
 seeming void of life some awful human wreck, 
 which, like the hired babies of the London street- 
 singers, they use as a lever to stir your charitable 
 emotions. Begging must be a flourishing profes- 
 sion in Madeira, judging by the number of its 
 votaries. 
 
 We inspected the Government buildings, such as 
 they are — great barns of places, full of long, dark 
 passages and dreary corridors, along which our 
 footsteps echoed dismally. There is an air of sad 
 depression about them, as though they mourned 
 over the memories of long-past greatness and glory. 
 We were glad to be quit of their gloomy precincts 
 and hastened into the genial sunshine. 
 
 We visited several vineyards and the convent, as 
 
O ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 well as a few of the beautiful quintas ; but we shall 
 not dwell upon what has been so well described 
 elsewhere. 
 
 We had also time to visit the quaint market and 
 admire the shrivelled hags, with skins like turtles, 
 squatting on their hams under the shade of enor- 
 mous hats, vending fruits and flowers, birds, animals 
 and basketware ; and then we returned to the ship 
 laden with the spoils of the vineyard and the market, 
 and charmed with our day's diversion. 
 
 If by day, Madeira, with its beautiful bay, its 
 cloud-crowned hills, picturesque houses, and gor- 
 geous vegetation, affords a splendid view ; by night, 
 in the witching glamour of the moonlight, its 
 appearance is surpassingly lovely. On the night 
 of which we write the smooth waters of the bay lay 
 like a vast mirror, darkened by the huge, deep- 
 sinking shadows of the vessels riding at anchor. 
 As daylight faded into night, lamps were hung out 
 in stem and stern, or danced from point to point 
 of the floating craft ; and the stars shone with a 
 brilliancy quite new to us. Our own ship was sur- 
 rounded by coal barges ; and the hoarse shouts of 
 the haulers and sailors, their grimed and torch-lit 
 features ; the tiny booths on deck, illumined by 
 flickering lanterns and tended by lean and gaunt 
 islanders ; the hum of voices, and the ring of merry 
 laughter on ship and shore ; the distant wash of the 
 surf, the rolling of the winches, the strains of music 
 now and then heard amidst the din ; the lofty 
 Currol in the background, dotted with twinkling 
 yellow lights and full of weird shadows and silvered 
 crags : all combined to form a scene as animated 
 
THE LIFE ON BOARD. 
 
 and bewitching as we could ever wish to behold. 
 It was long past midnight when we retired to rest ; 
 but by early morning the whole scene had vanished 
 like a beautiful dream. 
 
 VIEW OF THE GRAND CURROL, MADEJRA. 
 
 And now our good ship girded up her engines 
 for a long spell of ocean-ploughing ; for we were 
 to touch land no more for eighteen days. 
 
 Of the daily life on board during that long, 
 
lO ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 weary spell a detailed account would be tedious 
 to both reader and writer of these " Notes." The 
 events of one day on board ship are so like those 
 of another, that were it not for the moderate excite- 
 ment of betting on the daily " run," one would be 
 apt to lose count of time altogether. I do not 
 think, generally speaking, that the ablest President 
 of the Silent Club that ever lived could have 
 brought together a duller set of twenty-five human 
 beings than we were. We were a mixed crowd, 
 that is certain. Some of us were Argentines by 
 adoption ; had made money ; been home for a 
 holiday ; found that our money didn't deify us 
 there as it does in a republic ; been belittled and 
 snubbed ; and were now going back, resolved upon 
 making up for it in the land of cattle and paper 
 money. Others of us who, like myself, were look- 
 ing- forward to the Silver Land as to a literal Land 
 of Promise, were not likely to be taken warmly to 
 the bosoms of the old colonists, who, having been 
 snubbed by the people at home , were resolved to 
 be revenged by snubbing everybody from home 
 who had neither wealth, position, nor title to com- 
 mand their adulation, nor experience in cattle, skins, 
 or crops to rouse their bucolic sympathies. We 
 were like oil and water, and never mixed except under 
 the persuasive influence of some spirituous amalgam. 
 However, despite this element of discomfort, we 
 contrived to kill time without ourselves dying of 
 ennui. What with "bull," cards, chess, draughts, 
 drinking, eating, smoking, flirting, music, reading, 
 and sleeping, there was no lack of amusement. 
 Some of us pretended to study ; but that was, I 
 
FIRST GLIMPSES OF THE MAINLAND. I I 
 
 suspect, only a polite fiction to hide real laziness ; 
 for when you get on board of an old tub whose 
 masts have a greater liking for the horizontal than 
 the perpendicular, and are for ever trying to de- 
 scribe the perfect arc, you don't feel like studying 
 much else but how to lie still in your bunk without 
 tying yourself to the curtain-rail, or walk a chalked 
 line at an angle of forty-five degrees, or convey a 
 bit of meat to your mouth without prodding your 
 eye out with the fork. 
 
 On the afternoon of the 9th September, we first 
 caught sight of the coast of South America, strips 
 of low-lying land appearing far off to the west. And 
 now, too, the sea began rapidly to change in ap- 
 pearance, the vivid blue of the Atlantic giving 
 place to the muddy hue of the River Plate. Num- 
 bers of gulls and Cape pigeons screamed and 
 sported in our wake. Signs of restlessness mani- 
 fested themselves amongst the passengers. The 
 daily social groups were broken up, games aban- 
 doned, and discarded clothes taken out and 
 brushed. The officers looked smarter and sprucer, 
 and the sailors were all busy polishing, painting, and 
 scouring every visible part of the ship. In the 
 early hours of the following morning we became 
 dreamily conscious, by the stoppage of the engines 
 and the clattering of the anchor-chains, that we 
 were at last arrived in the Rio de la Plata ; and 
 upon going up on deck some hours later, our eyes 
 were delighted with a fine view of the glistening 
 domes, cupolas, and spires of Montevideo, and we 
 saw that we were anchored amidst a perfect forest 
 of masts and shipping of all flags. Though not 
 
12 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 yet seven o'clock, magnificent bouquets of camellias 
 and Neapolitan violets adorned the saloon tables ; 
 and the indescribable bustle of strangers hurriedly 
 coming and going, shouting and gesticulating, was 
 already begun. Hatches were open, winches rolling, 
 and stevedores hard at- work discharging the cargo 
 into lighters, long before the majority of the pas- 
 
 t -^ 1 ■ St- i - J^ 
 
 
 'SL^.JA 
 
 PLAZA INDEPENDENCIA, MONTEVIDEO. 
 
 sengers had left their cabins. After breakfast there 
 was a general rush for hats, boots, and walking- 
 sticks, and willing parties were quickly organized 
 for trips ashore. As, however, Montevideo in its 
 general features closely resembles its more im- 
 portant and less sleepy neighbour on the opposite 
 side of the river, we shall not pause here to describe 
 it, but hasten on to Buenos Ayres. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Dreary Approach to Buenos Ayres. — Landing in Instalments. — 
 " The wise man stays at home." — Laundries ad nauseam. — 
 The Argentine Capital. — Recent Improvements. — The 
 Avenida de Mayo. — A Mad Project. — Private Dwellings. — 
 Altos and Bajos ; their Inconveniences and Peculiarities. — 
 Flat- roofed Houses. — The Boca. — Convetitillos. — Black Holes. 
 
 Nothing is more likely to produce unfavourable 
 impressions of a place than a cheerless and dis- 
 agreeable approach to it. Anything more intensely 
 disagreeable than the last short stage of the voyage 
 to Buenos Ayres can scarcely be imagined. The 
 discomforts of this part of the journey are bad 
 enough in the fairest of weather and best of seasons 
 of the year, but they are intensified tenfold by wet, 
 cold, and gloomy wintry weather such as we now 
 experienced. The river is full of shallows and sand 
 and mud-banks, and its navigation is extremely 
 difficult and even dangerous for vessels of deep 
 draught, which were then, and in most cases even 
 now are, compelled to anchor at a distance of from 
 ten to twenty miles from the point of disembark- 
 ation. Between this anchorage in the outer Roads 
 and the Passenger Mole there were two and (in 
 certain states of the tide) even three transhipments 
 of person and baggage before terra firma was 
 reached. First the traveller was lowered from the 
 
14 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 ship on to a wretched little tender, which carried 
 him a few miles nearer land ; then from the tender 
 he was transferred to a small boat, or ballenera, 
 which, if there was sufficient water, would take him 
 to the mole stairs, or, if not, would carry him as far 
 as the water reached, and then the rest of the 
 journey ashore would be performed, either on the 
 shoulders of an uncouth Italian, or in a heavy, 
 springless cart, with wheels eight to nine feet in 
 diameter. Happily the worst of these discomforts 
 have now disappeared, owing to the partial com- 
 pletion of the Madero Port. Even the old Pas- 
 senger Mole, which had withstood the ravages of 
 many fierce storms, and for which we have often felt 
 some affection, has been swept away. 
 
 By the time, therefore, that the traveller arrived 
 at the jetty, after braving the cold and sickness, and 
 the tossing, changing, and crowding of a two to four 
 hours' journey from the ship to the shore, he had a 
 right to hope and expect that all vexatious annoy- 
 ances incident to the landing were at an end. 
 Nothing more erroneous, however. Hungry, cold, 
 and nerveless though he might be, there was still 
 the examination of the baggage to be seen to. 
 Owing to the highly intelligent manner in which 
 our personal effects were brought ashore — some in 
 one boat, some in another — and the confusion arising 
 from everybody's rushing to seize upon their be- 
 longings the moment each boatload arrived, and also 
 to the capricious favouritism of the customs officials, 
 some three or four hours were tediously consumed 
 in this simple operation, during which interval I was 
 too dispirited to take notice of our novel surround- 
 
COLD COMFORT. 
 
 15 
 
 ings. Indeed, when at last we escaped from the 
 aduana and made our way to the nearest refresh- 
 
 ment bar, I was in that state of mind in which the 
 predominant feeling is a miserable doubt as to 
 
1 6 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 whether, after all, life were worth the living ; or, at 
 least, as to whether it were not true, as Emerson 
 says, that " the wise man stays at home." 
 
 One of the first things that strike the attention of 
 the stranger so soon as he finds leisure and inclina- 
 tion to look around him, is the curious and not very 
 wholesome manner in which the open-air laundries 
 are conducted right in front of the town. If he 
 happen to land at a time when the tide is low, he 
 will see that the shallow and stony river-bed lies 
 exposed for a long way out, and that the receding 
 tide has left all along the river bank innumerable 
 puddles of yellow water. These puddles are utilised 
 as a sort of natural washtubs by the scores of Italian 
 women, children, and men who gain a living at this 
 unsavoury business. We have watched them work- 
 ing at the puddles till the water in them has attained 
 the consistency a-id colour of lentil soup. Needless 
 to say that linen submitL^i to this process, though 
 well enough bleached by the sun and dried by the 
 air, is never free from a disagreeable odour of the 
 river into which all the refuse of the town flows. It 
 is not a particularly ornamental or sweet- smelling 
 exhibition ; and, happily for the comfort, health, and 
 reputation of Buenos Ayres, it is fast disappearing 
 before the advancing port-works. 
 
 The capital of the Argentine Republic has during 
 the last four or five years undergone so many 
 changes and improvements, has grown to such an 
 extent, and increased in wealth and population to 
 such a degree, that the descriptions of it which we 
 find in gazetteers, encyclopaedias, and other works 
 of even modern date, no longer give any adequate 
 
EMBELLISHMENT OF THE CAPITAL. 1 7 
 
 idea of what is, in spite of its many drawbacks, a 
 magnificent city. Even recent articles which have 
 appeared in some of the magazines give but a hasty 
 bird's-eye view of it. 
 
 Whatever evils may have resulted from four years 
 of maladministration by the Government of Juarez 
 Cdlman, it cannot be said that the embellishment 
 of the city was neglected ; for during no prior 
 administration has its growth been marked by such 
 extensive improvements as are now left to testify 
 alike to the vaulting ambition, lavish prodigality, 
 and unsound policy of the late Government. The 
 public buildings, the public parks, paseos and plazas, 
 all bear witness to the reckless extravagance and 
 nefarious jobbery which were so signally character- 
 istic of the presidential era of Juarez. However, 
 the city has gained in one way, and there is some- 
 thing to show for the money so lavishly squandered. 
 The public offices have ^'^anged for the better in 
 appearance and comfort ; the former dismal masses 
 of brick and plaster have been or are being re- 
 placed by buildings of less massive proportions but 
 equal solidity and much more elegant aspect. The 
 squares, promenades, and parks are laid out with a 
 taste, and maintained with a care, not inferior to 
 that bestowed upon our own Kensington Gardens. 
 With the completion of the Madero Port and the 
 removal of the unsightly old custom-house, the 
 city will possess a river frontage as fine as any in 
 Hamburg. Already the Paseo de Julio, formerly 
 the riverside resort of the vilest characters, and 
 crowded with Xovf fondas, dram-shops, queer shows, 
 and common lodging-houses, or conventillos, is 
 
 c 
 
1 8 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 being transformed into a wide, well-lighted boule- 
 vard, paved with wood from the new Government 
 House to the Recoleta ; while between the road- 
 way and the fast-growing port the paseo, or pro- 
 menade, has been newly decorated with statues, 
 kiosks, fountains, etc. The Plaza Constitution, in 
 which is situated the terminus of the Buenos Ayres 
 Great Southern Railway, was fi\ie years ago a 
 wilderness of mud, the scene of many shocking 
 murders, where the cautious citizen never ventured 
 after nightfall ; it is now one of the largest and 
 prettiest of the many plazas, although sadly dis- 
 figured by a huge and hideous pile ycleped the 
 " Grotto," a monumental record of edile imbecility 
 and corruption which cost a hundred thousand 
 dollars, yet which has never, we believe, been used, 
 and is now condemned as unsafe. In addition, 
 many other squares have been more or less taste- 
 fully embellished ; miles of streets have been repaved 
 with granite setts and properly levelled ; the Recoleta 
 — that charming resort of the gay and festive 
 throngs on Sundays — has been beautified ; the roads 
 to Palermo Park widened, levelled, and macada- 
 mised ; the park itself illumined by electricity and 
 adorned with drives, walks, plants, trees, and 
 animals. 
 
 But perhaps the public work of the greatest 
 magnitude of which, next to the famous drainage 
 works, Buenos Ayres may be most justly proud, is 
 the celebrated Avenida de Mayo, a work designed 
 when Juarez Celman was at the zenith of his power, 
 and when money was so plentiful that its farmers 
 hardly knew what to do with the superabundance or 
 
THE BOULEVARD DREAM. 
 
 19 
 
 how best to divert some of it their way. It was 
 proposed to construct this boulevard on a plan as 
 insensate, as costly, as ruinous as was ever " evolved 
 out of the inner consciousness" of a Roman emperor 
 or a Russian czar. For months the papers were 
 full of the scheme. The opposition to it was im- 
 mense, but the commissions to be made out of 
 
 PLAZA LAVALLE, SHOWING MUNICITAL BUILDINGS. 
 
 contracts, sub-contracts, and sub-sub-contracts were 
 too splendid, too tempting, for those who had the 
 casting vote ; and so the mad project was voted 
 carried. We call it a mad scheme. Let the reader 
 judge for himself whether a more quixotic design 
 could be elaborated by the veriest madman. The 
 streets of Buenos Ayres are almost all of uniform 
 width — or, we should say, narrowness — and the build- 
 
20 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 ings are blocked out into squares of about 140 
 yards. The city is centrally divided by a street 
 some miles in length, called the Calle Rivadavia. 
 This street forms the backbone of the town, from 
 which all the other streets branch right and left, like 
 spinal vertebrae. One hundred and forty yards away 
 there is a parallel street, called the Calle Victoria, 
 equally long and equally narrow. Both streets con- 
 verge on to the Plaza Victoria, the principal square 
 of the city, in which are situated the Government 
 Houses, the cathedral, the archbishop's palace, and 
 other important public buildings. The value of pro- 
 perty throughout the length of these two principal 
 streets is naturally greater than in any other part of the 
 capital. Both thoroughfares are most inconveniently 
 close, and the congestion of traffic, at all times great, 
 is often intolerable. Any practical scheme, having 
 fordts object the relief of traffic by the widening of 
 either or both of these streets, would, therefore, 
 appeal to most people as a project worthy of loyal 
 support. But instead of carrying out the proposed 
 boulevard on this plan, it is resolved to cut the 
 middle two-thirds out of all the blocks of valuable 
 buildings lying between the Calles Rivadavia and 
 Victoria, leaving on each side throughout the entire 
 length of the Avenida an ugly parallelogram; which, 
 being intersected at every 140th yard on either side 
 by short cuts, enormously increases the dangers of 
 traffic, and makes the boulevard itself look about as 
 misproportioned and ugly as an overgrown Dutch 
 garden. The present result of this quixotic scheme 
 is that posterity inherits a municipal debt of millions 
 of dollars paid away as compensation for expropri- 
 
THE MOUNTAIN GOES TO MAHOMET. 2 1 
 
 ated properties, in razing them to the ground, in 
 constructing the avenue, and in fat commissions. 
 Churches, houses, markets have been razed, and the 
 Plaza Victoria has been disfigured through the lop- 
 ping off of the best part of that ancient and not 
 unsightly pile, the Cabildo. 
 
 But this is not the only enormity which was 
 committed in connection with this insane scheme. 
 In order to accommodate the level of the Plaza 
 
 PLAZA. VICTORIA, SHOWING CATHEDRAL. 
 
 Victoria to that of the new boulevard, the whole 
 square was lowered, and the granite paving, which 
 had only recently been put down, and was in good 
 condition, and likely to last for years, was taken up 
 and replaced by one of wood. But notwithstanding 
 the enormous amount which has been expended on 
 this ambitious scheme, not a single square is as yet 
 complete, and only one or two blocks are paved, 
 and these present an appearance similar to that of 
 a skeleton house which has been deserted by the 
 
2 2 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 builders through lack of funds. And in this con- 
 dition no doubt it will remain for years to come ; 
 for it will be long before the Argentines will be able 
 to realize their boulevard dream. 
 
 It is easy to see how such schemes are projected. 
 An Argentine visits Paris ; sees some of Hauss- 
 mann's magnificent and strategical boulevards, and 
 forthwith is fired with a desire to see his native 
 city embellished in a similar manner. His influence 
 is powerful, and his visionary design fascinates the 
 imaginations of his countrymen, who, if nothing 
 else, are good imitators. I verily believe that the 
 Argentines would be the people to carry out Jules 
 Verne's ideal journey to the moon ; and if no moun- 
 tain could be found in their flat country big enough 
 to hold the cannon, they would first make the 
 mountain. 
 
 But while so much has been attempted in the 
 way of improving the character and appearance of 
 the public buildings, little can be said in favour 
 of the progress which has been made in private 
 dwellings. The enormous and iniquitous speculation 
 in land which the Celman administration fostered 
 and battened on, drove the price of building plots 
 up to a fabulous height. At the same time the 
 demand for house accommodation during that period 
 was so great, owing to the large immigration lured 
 from all parts of the world by the exaggerated re- 
 ports of the wealth and prosperity of the country, 
 that rents were doubled, trebled, and even quad- 
 rupled in the course of a couple of years. It was 
 a golden age for the rapacious jerry-builder and the 
 grasping landlord ; and neither of them omitted to 
 
PLEASANT DWELLING-PLACES. 23 
 
 make the very utmost of their opportunity. Whole 
 streets— miles — of dismal-looking tenements, held to- 
 gether more by the natural cohesion of particles and 
 the support derived from each other than by the 
 quality of the materials employed in their structure, 
 testify to the vast wealth accumulated by the former ; 
 while the cupidity of the latter is shown in the 
 cunning with which two houses were built on the 
 space ordinarily allotted to one. Altos, or upper- 
 storey houses, prior to the Caiman era were rather 
 the exception than the rule ; but in the major por- 
 tion of the dwellings erected during that period the 
 altos were the rule rather than the exception. 
 For discomfort, inconvenience, oppressiveness, and 
 general wretchedness, commend me to these bari-ack- 
 like blocks of brick and stucco. Privacy is next to ' 
 impossible. Those who live in the altos are able 
 to overlook those who live in the bajos, and see 
 everything that it is least desirable should be seen 
 — what their neighbours have for dinner, how they 
 treat each other, where they sleep, where they dine, 
 what sort of furniture they have — in fact, nothing 
 is hidden from prying eyes. Every word spoken 
 above a whisper can be plainly heard. Those who 
 live in the bajos, though they cannot see, can hear 
 all that goes on above them. Many of these dwell- 
 ings are neither water-proof, draught-tight, nor 
 tenable, except during summer time, when one can 
 put up with a few fissures in the walls, cracks 
 in the roof, and splits in the doors. Yet for such 
 miserable habitations of six, seven, or eight rooms, 
 as much as from seventy to a hundred and fifty 
 dollars per month rental is demanded and paid — 
 
24 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 more than would be paid for a decent house in a 
 London suburb in a twelvemonth. 
 
 Even the single-storied, flat-roofed houses, though 
 by far the most solid and tenable, are anything but 
 comfortable and convenient. To lodgers especially 
 their inconveniences are numerous and troublesome. 
 In order to reach the comedor from the sala, or the 
 lavatory from the bedroom, it is necessary to go 
 through the patio, which, in wet or cold weather, or 
 in the darkness, is intensely disagreeable. Patios 
 are certainly ornamental and pretty, and without 
 them a flat-roofed dwelling would be nothing ; but 
 their disadvantages can be realized only by those 
 who have lived in English houses and known what 
 it is to be free from such discomforts. For gentle- 
 men who can "rough it," it is a small matter ; but 
 for a lady it is by no means pleasant to be obliged 
 to indue herself with a mackintosh or a cloak, or take 
 an umbrella, in order to get from her sitting-room 
 to the dining-room ; or else go to table via other 
 people's bedrooms — of the two evils often not the 
 least. 
 
 But these remarks apply chiefly to the houses 
 built during ^he last four or five years, particularly 
 in the outskirts of the city. It would be absurd to 
 assume that all improvement had been confined 
 to the public buildings. A very large number of the 
 unsightly old houses with grass-grown roofs and 
 weed-sprouting walls which formerly disfigured 
 many of the best streets have been pulled down and 
 replaced by sumptuous and palatial residences as 
 fine as any that can be found in Spain. A like 
 change has taken place in many of the principal 
 
THE CITY OF EXTREMES. 25 
 
 shops, which, from mere shanties, have during the 
 ferment of unexampled but short-lived prosperity 
 developed into magnificent locdles, illumined by elec- 
 tricity and resplendent with mirrors, plate-glass, and 
 gilding. Yet still there may be seen in some of 
 the most fashionable thoroughfares — like the Calle 
 Rivadavia, Florida, Lavalle, or Maypu — a stately 
 edifice, with tesselated courtyard, noble portico, 
 marble corridors and balustrades, decorated with 
 palms, ferns, orange and lemon trees, sub-tropical 
 flowers, fountains and stained-glass windows ; and 
 alongside, depending from the party-wall like some 
 odious parasite, a wretched hovel where cows are 
 kept. Such incongruities are of so frequent 
 occurrence, however, that the eye soon ceases to 
 be offended by them. But I must say that they 
 always appealed to my mind as being peculiarly 
 typical of the genius of the country — here burst into 
 precocious grandeur, there cramped by the rude 
 barbarism with which it struggles. We have nothing 
 like it at home, nor in any part of Europe that I 
 have seen. In all great cities it seems meet and 
 right to us that the wealthy should dwell in neigh- 
 bourhoods or quartiers widely separated from those 
 of the humbler classes ; but in Buenos Ayres we 
 find all classes jumbled together, although there is 
 no place in the world where caste is more severely 
 observed or the golden calf more abjectly wor- 
 shipped. 
 
 In all parts of the city, but more especially in the 
 vicinity of the Boca — the foulest, vilest purlieu of 
 the capital — there exist innumerable conventillos, or 
 common lodging-houses. In which human beings hive 
 
26 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 like bees, or, rather, swarm like rats. Some of these 
 dreadful rookeries contain as many as 1 50 to 200 
 apartments, all of course occupied exclusively by the 
 lower orders. Most of those in the Boca are built of 
 wood, and many of them are erected on piles driven 
 into a green and foetid soil, above which they are 
 raised sufficiently to protect them from the occasional 
 inundations to which the district is subject. In some 
 cases they can be reached only along narrow plank 
 
 ON THE RIACIIUELO 
 
 footways, also supported on piles and extending the 
 whole length of what are thus the strangest-looking 
 streets in the world. The buildino;s are shockinglv 
 insanitarv ; and this, added to the disgusting habits 
 of their inmates, make them veritable foci of disease 
 and infection. We have seen not a few surrounded 
 by stagnant pools teeming with noxious insect life, 
 and hard by a foul ditch where frogs and mosquitos 
 merrily sang and bred. In the near vicinity were 
 the lawless slums of the sea-going fraternity, the 
 
THE FRAGRANT BOCA. 
 
 27 
 
 haunts of desperate characters, and the happy 
 hunting-grounds of the numberless filthy curs that 
 infest the district. The air was poisoned by the 
 stinks from the factories, mills, and wharves ; the 
 effluvia from the pools znd pantanos, and the stench 
 from putrefying carcases and vegetable matter left 
 on the waste and apparently ownerless grounds 
 
 SCENE IN THE BOCA. 
 
 round about. The ear was deafened by the hiss 
 and creak and rattle of machinery and trains and 
 lumbering vehicles ; the hooting of tram-horns ; the 
 shrill whistle of the police ; the hum of myriads of 
 insects ; the murmur of voices ; the incessant bark- 
 ing of dogs ; and above all the peculiar metallic, 
 ear-splitting chirp of the tree-frogs — like the squeak- 
 ing of a thousand ungreased cart-wheels. Such, 
 
25 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 with its forest of masts and its polluted river, was 
 the Boca and its neighbourhood. Some improve- 
 ments have taken place in the environs of the new- 
 docks, but the conventillos with their lovely surround- 
 ings still remain, blots on what is pompously called 
 the " Modern Athens," and hotbeds of epidemics 
 and crime. 
 
 Although in most of these conventillos there is a 
 common kitchen, all or nearly all the little cooking 
 the occupants need is done on braziers in the open 
 air. It is not pleasant at any time to be near one 
 of these human hives, but least of all during cooking 
 or meal times ; for then the sights and smells of 
 them are such as none but the most resolute student 
 of humanity would care to face. The common yard, 
 or pdtio, which usually bisects the sty is at these 
 hours alive with dirty slatterns of all ages, half-naked 
 or wholly nude brats, unkempt girls, and unwashed 
 men and boys, whose figures may be descried flitting 
 to and fro amidst the smoke from the scores of 
 braziers. 
 
 But perhaps the worst feature of a conventillo is 
 that which may often be seen in town where space 
 is valuable. In one little room hardly big enough 
 to accommodate four persons in comfort we have 
 seen twenty-five or thirty Italians, or " Naps," 
 herded together after the manner of Chinese 
 labourers. The apartment was arranged like a 
 pawnbroker's store-room, fitted all round and in the 
 middle with broad shelves, on which at night those 
 creatures slept and exhaled their garlic and bad 
 vino, the rest of their time being passed in the 
 streets, ihefonda, or on the quays. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Mistaken Views of Buenos Ayres. — Its Superficial Civilization no 
 Criterion of the Condition of the People and Country at 
 Large. — Life in a Native Family. — Domestic Habits and 
 Manners of the Argentines. — An Octogenarian General. — 
 Staple Topic of Discourse, Politics — the Curse of the Country. 
 — The Press. — The Frensa. — The Nacion. — General Mitre. 
 — Foreign Newspapers. — The Standard Weather-vane. 
 
 There are many otherwise well-informed persons, 
 we believe, who still entertain the antiquated notion 
 that the Argentine Republic is a wild and lawless 
 region, of vast territorial extent, sparsely populated, 
 and mainly the resort of desperate characters, ready 
 at any moment to break out into political revolt ; 
 where murder is rife, and life and property ill pro- 
 tected. And as for Buenos Ayres, they regard it 
 as a kind of modern Alsatia, the dustbin of the 
 Old World. We have on several occasions been 
 greatly amused by observing evidences of this asser- 
 tion which have been afforded by some of our 
 own countrymen, who have come to the country so 
 thoroughly imbued with these silly notions that the 
 outfits they have brought with them have been better 
 suited to the necessities of the Australian bush or 
 the Canadian backwoods than to the requirements 
 of the life they were likely to experience in Argen- 
 tina. Where they should have brought dress suits 
 
 29 
 
30 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 and dancing shoes, they came provided with a 
 whole defensive arsenal and a supply of coarse 
 apparel such as even a " Nap " would disdain. To 
 all who harbour such notions a walk through the 
 main streets of the capital would be an astonishing 
 awakening. On all sides — in the dress and elegance 
 of the people ; in the costly garniture of the shops ; 
 in the sumptuous decoration and imposing style 
 of the buildings ; in the showy equipages and the 
 lavish display of all the insignia of wealth ; and per- 
 haps, above all, in the conspicuous absence of that 
 element of haggard want and starved gentility which 
 is so sadly distinctive a feature of an European 
 crowd ;^ in all these signs would be found abundant 
 evidence of an advanced civilization and a refine- 
 ment and taste equal in many respects to those of 
 a first-rate European city. While the novelty of 
 such surroundings enthrals the senses, one is con- 
 tent to observe and enjoy, and does not pause to 
 consider whence so much luxury and apparent pros- 
 perity derive their support. It is only after long 
 observation and searching inquiry that one comes 
 to the conclusion that all this magnificence and 
 obvious well-being in a non-manufacturing country, 
 where imports vastly exceed exports, and where 
 production of all kinds is rather checked than 
 fostered by the mistaken policy of a greedy ad- 
 ministration, must be supported mainly by borrowed 
 gold. It is only after long observation, too, that 
 one is enabled to see that the apparent civilization 
 of the capital of the Republic bears no relation to 
 
 1 Written of a time prior to the crisis and before the advent of 
 shelters and soup kitchens. 
 
OUR FIRST HOME IN ARGENTINA. 3 1 
 
 the real condition of the country and the people at 
 large. Half an hour's ride by train transports us 
 into the wildness and barbarism of the plains. The 
 capitals — federal and provincial — are advanced and 
 civilized, not by the native, but by the foreigner, 
 who, in all the chief cities of the Republic, out- 
 numbers the Argentine proper. 
 
 Friends of ours, with mistaken kindness, but with 
 a laudable zeal for our instruction, had secured for 
 us lodgings in the house of a native family of good 
 standing but reduced circumstances, where, as nothing 
 but Spanish was spoken, it was hoped that we 
 should soon pick up the language. The house 
 was a large and commodious one, situated in the 
 Calle Suipacha, and close by what were then the 
 Foreign Office and the official residence of the 
 President ; so that we were often enlivened by the 
 passing of troops and the strains of martial music. 
 Like all the best houses, it was a flat-roofed, double- 
 fronted building of three pdtios, and comprised about 
 fourteen lofty, barn-like apartments, besides the 
 inferior offices. One great objection to these houses 
 is that, with the exception of those facing the street, 
 none of the rooms are provided with windows, but 
 only glazed doors, which enclose the inmate as in a 
 rabbit-hutch. All the expense and care are lavished 
 on the sala, which is furnished with everything 
 for show, and nothing for comfort. The chairs, 
 couches, and ottomans, excepting on festive occasions, 
 are kept enveloped in white dimity or brown hol- 
 land shrouds, which give them a frigid appearance, 
 • calculated to chill the warmest sociability. The 
 retiring-rooms are cheerless and bare. The kitchens. 
 
32 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 usually of the size of cupboards, and almost always 
 adjoining the letrina, are dirty and neglected. Only 
 in the most modern better-class houses can such a 
 thing as a fireplace be found. The natives prefer 
 to sit shivering at table in overcoats and mufflers, 
 or else warm the room and vitiate the atmosphere 
 with the noxious fumes from kerosene stoves. But 
 then, where out of England are cosiness and com- 
 fort understood ? 
 
 Of the domestic habits of the Argentines,, their 
 manners at table, en famille, in public, it is impos- 
 sible to give an attractive description. Their man- 
 ners at table are ultra- Bohemian. They read the 
 papers, shout vehemently at each other, sprawl their 
 limbs under and over the table, half swallow their 
 knives, spit with true Yankee freedom on the car- 
 peted floor, gesticulate and bend across the table in 
 the heat of argument, smoke cigarettes between the 
 courses, and even while a course of which some of 
 them do not partake is serving — a soothing habit 
 which stimulates expectoration and provokes dis- 
 cussion — use the same knife and fork for every 
 course — fish, entrde, or joint ; in a word, the studied 
 deportment of the street is, in the house, exchanged 
 for the coarse manners of the tap-room. And lest 
 it should be thought that this is an exaggerated 
 description, inapplicable to good society, we hasten 
 to assure the reader that the house in which these 
 observations were made was the residence of 
 
 General A s, an octogenarian warrior who had 
 
 served through all the wars of the Independence, 
 and whose portrait may be seen in any photo- 
 grapher's window in Buenos Ayres. The company 
 
THE LIFE AND SOUL OF THE' QOMMNY. 33 
 
 was always numerous, and consisted principally .of 
 lawyers, journalists, arid Government employes. 
 Moreover, there was a constant stream of visitors 
 — officers of the army and navy, provincial senators, 
 and others. Yet the manners were such as ate 
 here described. Any one unaccustomed to the 
 natives' habit of shouting at each other would think 
 they were quarrelling ; but their good temper sur- 
 vives the bitterest political table-talk, and a good 
 joke will turn wrangling into hilarity. For General 
 A — — I shall always retain a lively admiration. 
 Though his tall and once commanding figure was 
 bent beneath the load of his eighty years, and his 
 hearing was defective, he was the life and soul of 
 the company. His trenchant wit, his lively sallies, 
 and the thrilling narratives of the battles he was 
 constantly fighting over again, kept, the table in a 
 perpetual state of excitement and amusement. 
 
 Although forbidden subjects are discussed by both 
 sexes with zest and freedom, the staple topic of 
 conversation is politics. Everybody talks politics — 
 great and small, rich and poor, young and old. 
 Even the children talk politics, and discuss the 
 merits and demerits of this, that, or the other states- 
 man with parrot-like freedom of opinion and sound- 
 ness of judgment. Politics is the curse of the 
 country. There is no profession or calling free 
 from the taint. If you go to consult a lawyer, you 
 find that he is at a political meeting, or that he 
 cannot see you because he is engaged with his 
 coreligionarios. A medical man will leave or neglect 
 his patient to attend a political reunion. The more 
 eminent the lawyer or the doctor, the more likely 
 
 D 
 
34 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 he is to be plunged in the vortices of political 
 intrigue. His profession is a pastime ; the serious 
 business of life is plotting for political power, or, 
 failing this, speculating in land or on the Bolsa. 
 But of the true science and real ends of political 
 economy the Argentines have crude and false con- 
 ceptions. Their politics is a system of puerile 
 personalities and oratorical vapourings. Rhetorical 
 bombast and sterile eloquence take the place of 
 sound reasoning and practical policy. The haran- 
 gues of the Senate and the debates of the Deputies 
 consist for the most part of praise or abuse of men, 
 not measures. They supply the press with "copy" 
 and the clubs with political pabulum — of a kind — 
 and they swell the statute-book with legislative 
 enactments, which are either forgotten or misused. 
 "In their speculations on politics they are not 
 reasoners, but fanciers ; their opinions, even when 
 sincere, are not produced according to the ordinary 
 law of intellectual births, by induction or inference, 
 but are equivocally generated by the heat of fervid 
 tempers out of the overflowing of tumid imagina- 
 tions." The chaotic condition into which the finan- 
 ces of the country have been brought ; the heinous 
 mismanagement and misappropriation of the national 
 resources ; the iniquitous taxation of the working 
 classes and speedy enrichment of all able to force 
 themselves into political favour ; the scandalous 
 bartering of political influence ; and the almost 
 absolute impunity from impeachment for colossal 
 political crimes; — attest the political status of the 
 Argentines. 
 
 The press reflects in great measure the character 
 
THE ARGENTINE PRESS. 35 
 
 of the parliament, being much addicted to person- 
 aUties and factiousness. By far the best and most 
 enlightened Argentine journal is the Prensa, which 
 is moderate in its views, well informed, ably con- 
 ducted, and devoted to the dissemination of sound 
 political doctrines. It attacks measures rather than 
 men, and is neither vehemently acrimonious like the 
 Nacion, nor fickle and inane like the Standard. Its 
 first object is always the country and the country's 
 good. I am not acquainted with any newspaper 
 anywhere in the world which devotes so large a 
 share of its space and attention to chronicling the 
 progress of the nation. Every fortnight it issues 
 a review — political, financial, commercial, social — 
 which is sent all over the globe, and is the source 
 of inspiration of many of the articles which appear 
 in the European journals. I have before me as I 
 write the Prensa s last annual Revista, which con- 
 sists of no less than thirty-six closely printed demy 
 pages of statistical and retrospective information 
 relating to the whole Republic for the past year. 
 It gives a digest of all the laws passed ; sketches 
 with clearness and at length the important political 
 events of the year ; tabulates the imports and ex- 
 ports, the growth of the population, and, in fact, 
 records everything relating to the moral and material 
 progress of the country. 
 
 The other leading Argentine journal — La Nacion 
 — has perhaps the largest circulation of any daily 
 paper published in the Republic. It is a fearless 
 and courageous journal, and during the whole period 
 of the Caiman administration never for a moment 
 ceased to wage fierce war against the policy and 
 
36 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 corruption of the dominant party. Indeed, to its 
 daring impeachment of dishonest ministers, and its 
 bold exposures of the tremendous scandals which 
 agitated and alarmed the whole country during the 
 latter part of that administration, and to its stirring 
 appeals to the better feelings of the hijos del pais. 
 
 GENERAL BARTOLOME MITRE. 
 
 may be attributed in no small degree the overthrow 
 of a powerful but odious autonomy. The Nacion 
 is the chief organ of the Mitrista party, and its 
 power and popularity have increased considerably 
 since the July Revolution. Its editors may be 
 reckoned amongst the foremost journalists of the 
 South American continent. General Mitre its 
 
THE WEATHER-COCK STANDARD. 37 
 
 founder and chief proprietor, is the Argentine 
 Macaulay. Historian, poet, essayist, distinguished 
 orator, successful statesman, and famous warrior, 
 he has all the qualities of a sound legislator and 
 popular national leader, and deservedly occupies the 
 highest niche in the temple of Argentina's modern 
 great men. , 
 
 There is a numerous tribe of foreign journals — 
 English, German, French, Italian, Spanish. One 
 authority states that there is no city of equal size 
 in the world where so many foreign newspapers are 
 printed. Without being able to endorse this asser- 
 tion, I must admit that the number is prodigious. 
 At the same time, I do not think any Anglo- 
 foreign community in any part of the world could 
 be worse represented journalistically than the 
 important English community of Buenos Ayres. 
 There are three papers printed in English — the 
 Standard, the Herald, and the Southern Cross. 
 The two former are dailies ; the latter is the 
 weekly organ of the Irish Catholics, and circulates 
 chiefly amongst Irish estancieros. The Herald is 
 a harmless journal, without creed or opinions, and 
 exists by cribbing and translating from the native 
 papers for the benefit of those who do not read 
 Spanish. As for the Standard, a feebler and 
 more vacillating journal never circulated amongst 
 English readers. Occasionally, indeed, it publishes 
 a good article, which is, however, either cooked up 
 from the native papers, or "communicated" by an 
 unpaid contributor. It is to be found on most 
 English breakfast tables for the sake chiefly of what 
 is called the " Editor's Table," a collection of stale 
 
38 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 jokes, drivel, and scandal, which, in the absence of 
 anything better, is thought smart. Send the editor 
 a bottle of a new brand of whisky, and you will 
 have next day in the "Editor's Table" a fulsome 
 notice in true Hibernian style, setting forth the 
 virtues and charms of the new spirit. Insert an 
 advertisement, and the paper places all its rhetorical 
 armoury at your service. I do not remember a 
 single copy of the Standard in which some absurd 
 typographical, orthographical, or other error, or in 
 which an apology for some previous mistake, did 
 not appear. Indolently edited ; lacking enterprise ; 
 "got up" by third-rate German workmen; — it is 
 the weakest thing in journalism that I have ever 
 seen. Yet this same paper is often quoted by the 
 dignified journals of Fleet Street and Shoe Lane as 
 an authority on Argentine affairs. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Educational Facilities. — Linguistic Advantages of Buenos Ayres. 
 — Lack of Moral Training in the Educational System. — 
 Compadres. — Behaviour towards Women in Public. — Flattery 
 Cause of Shallowness of Native Character. — Precocity of 
 Argentine Boys. — Temperance amongst Natives. — British 
 " Dead-beats." 
 
 The educational facilities within the reach of the 
 youth of both sexes and all classes are exceptionally 
 good. The normal schools are in many respects 
 superior to British Board schools, with their 
 dreary surroundings and needless severity. No 
 pains or expense are spared to secure the best text- 
 books, the best instruments, and the best instructors. 
 The school-houses are amongst the finest of the 
 public buildings, and are bright, attractive, and 
 perfect in every respect but one — their sanitation is 
 shockingly defective, and schools have frequently to 
 be closed on account of outbreaks of typhoid, or 
 other dangerous epidemic. It is one of the contri- 
 butory causes of the terrible infantile mortality, to 
 which more detailed reference will presently be 
 made. 
 
 A child educated up to a certain age in such a 
 cosmopolitan city as Buenos Ayres has an advantage 
 which, if properly used, should be of considerable 
 benefit to him in after life ; and that is, the simul- 
 
 39 
 
40 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 taneous acquirement, almost without effort, of two or 
 three modern languages. A child of English parent- 
 age, for example, goes to the English High School, 
 or to the Scotch School, or to Mr. Spilsbury's 
 excellent establishment at Flores, and learns Spanish 
 and English as a matter of course, and French and 
 German with but slight extra exertion. The oppor- 
 tunities, which exist in Buenos Ayres for practising 
 nearly all the languages of Europe are so numerous 
 that, while it is no accomplishment to be able to 
 speak three languages, it is a distinct reproach not 
 to know more than one's own. It is strange to find, 
 however, that those who make the least use of this 
 advantage are precisely those who should be the 
 first to perceive its benefits ; viz., the English and 
 the natives. It is seldom that one meets an Argen- 
 tine who can speak English well, although taught it 
 in the schools, or an Englishman who has thoroughly 
 mastered Spanish and French. 
 
 The leading university of Argentina is that of 
 Cordoba, under the dominion of the priests ; but in 
 the College and University of Buenos Ayres, both 
 very old and very respectable institutions, the Argen- 
 tine youth has the means of acquiring a good educa- 
 tion and of preparing for a public career, or for 
 either of the learned professions. Unfortunately 
 for the well-being of the country, however, the 
 system of education excludes morality. While 
 undue prominence is given to some material studies, 
 especially the intricacies and subtleties of national 
 law and national political economy, the youth's 
 moral training is almost entirely neglected. He is 
 taught everything except the sacredness of a pro- 
 
TRAINED IN TIIIC STREETS. 
 
 41 
 
 mise, the value of time, and the responsibihties of 
 members of society. And then, too, his immanent 
 frivoHty, his love for the streets, the billiard saloons, 
 the betting shops, the coiifitcrias, the theatres, and 
 even the graver vices, counteract the effects of the 
 best schooling, and the young men become anything 
 but studious and refined. At almost any hour of 
 the day, not excepting Sundays, one may go into 
 either ot the immense and o-orsfeous billiard saloons. 
 
 EIiUCATIOXAL DKl'AR T.MENT, PROVINCE OF liUENOS AYRES. 
 
 of which there are far too many in the capital, and be 
 pretty sure to find it well filled with men of all ages, 
 from the lad of twelve to the old man of seventy. 
 Go at night, and you will find it crowded to suffoca- 
 tion. Stroll down the Calles Florida, Peru, and 
 Victoria any fine evening, and you will see groups 
 of young men and old at every street corner, in 
 every doorway, lining the walls, blocking the path, 
 obstructing the view ; ]auo;hin"-, iokino;, and coinpad- 
 reando to the top of their bent. Undersized, in- 
 
42 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 significant, effeminate dandies they are for the most 
 part, their highest ambition being to outshine 
 each other in these nocturnal promenades. Their 
 behaviour towards ladies is such as would not be 
 tolerated elsewhere. If it be true that the civiliza- 
 tion and culture of a nation are best shown by the 
 manner in which women are publicly treated, then 
 the Argentines should be placed far back amongst 
 the savages. It is true that the native ladies do 
 not greatly resent the very impertinent and personal 
 remarks which are freely and audibly passed upon 
 their dress, their figures, their carriage, their looks, 
 as they saunter through the files of Argentina's 
 golden youth. But we have seen some of these same 
 unlicked cubs severely handled by an exasperated 
 Englishman or an irate German. Nothing is sacred 
 to these young Goths. No lady dare walk out alone 
 after dusk, and hardly in the daytime. Even if 
 she have a baby in arms or an attendant, she is 
 frequently pertinaciously followed, annoyed, and 
 insulted. 
 
 The same levity characterizes the young Argen- 
 tines in all their sports and pastimes, and even in 
 the modicum of religion they profess. With the 
 exception of politics and the stronger passions, they 
 can take nothing au serieux. The extreme super- 
 ficiality and overweening vanity of the native cha- 
 racter are due in great measure to a common habit 
 of flattering or overpraising each other. It is a 
 tendency peculiar to young countries, and is here 
 carried to an extravagant excess. No Argentine 
 can do anything meritorious without being adulated 
 to a degree that would be repugnant to English 
 
EXTRAVAGANT PANEGYRIC. 43 
 
 ideas of manhood. If a man makes a telling speech 
 (no difficult matter with an excitable people of fervid 
 imagination), his friends go frantic with enthusiasm, 
 rush forward to embrace him before the audience, 
 and load him with a greater number of adulatory 
 adjectives than I could ever remember. If a young 
 man writes a passable treatise in order to win his 
 spurs as a lawyer or a mddico, his relatives, friends, ac- 
 quaintances, even the press and the public are ready 
 to fall into admiring ecstasies and exalt his talents 
 into genius of the first order. The treatise appears 
 in all the glory of print, is commented on — seldom 
 unfavourably, — and the author becomes the hero of 
 the hour. If a surgeon performs a skilful operation, 
 or the physician an accidental cure, the gratitude of 
 the patient and all his friends is poured into the 
 columns of the newspapers in a gushing torrent of 
 eulogy. If a man finds a lost article of value and 
 restores it to its rightful owner, the journals im- 
 mediately publish a panegyric on his honesty, and 
 hold him up to the admiration of the public as a 
 model for all men. It might perhaps strike a cynical 
 observer that where such a mere act of common 
 honesty is thus ostentatiously paraded, common 
 honesty must be an uncommon virtue. Thus the 
 native's conceit and egotism are abnormally de- 
 veloped. His self-confidence is usually so boundless 
 that an Argentine seldom hesitates to embark on 
 projects of the greatest magnitude and variety, and 
 is always " equally ready to manage a bank or 
 command an ironclad, to propound a law or edit a 
 newspaper," to write a book or head an army. 
 
 The precocity of Argentine boys almost passes 
 
44 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 belief. One of the first things that the stranger 
 notices as he sets foot on Argentine soil are 
 children of tender years smoking cigarettes, and 
 strutting about looking for all the world like men 
 seen through the wrong end of a telescope. Youth 
 and impudence seem to be the only qualifications 
 necessary to the office-seeker. All the inferior officers 
 of the army and navy are mere lads. Important 
 posts in the public service are filled by beardless 
 youths. We are acquainted with several provincial 
 mayors under thirty, and ministers under twenty-five. 
 Again and again have we seen in the confiterias boys 
 of eight or ten, whose feet as they sat on the chairs 
 swung a long way off the floor, drinking spirits, 
 smoking cigarettes, chaffing their elders, discussing 
 the points of the favourite and his chances in the 
 forthcoming races, retailing the gossip of the betting 
 shops, commanding the waiters, and generally con- 
 ducting themselves with all the savoir vivre of their 
 seniors in years if not in worldly wisdom. The fact 
 is, that the early home training which most Argentine 
 boys receive spoils their characters. The length of 
 tether allowed them in the family economy would, I 
 fancy, shock any sober-minded 'En^xsh. paierfamilias. 
 Almost before they are out of the nursery, they are 
 permitted and encouraged to rule the servants, 
 domineer over their sisters, " cheek " their parents, 
 and control everybody but themselves. When they 
 are a little older, they are allowed to come and go 
 almost as they list, and do pretty much as they 
 please — beat the streets, frequent the confiterias, and 
 haunt the dens of vice. With such training it is not 
 to be wondered at that they should grow up frivolous, 
 
TEMPERANCE OF THE NATIVES. 45 
 
 and early acquire that love of dissipation which 
 enervates and prematurely ages so many of them. 
 Yet it is upon youths thus trained that the future of 
 the country mainly depends. From their ranks will 
 be drawn the future statesmen, lawyers, and legis- 
 lators of the Republic. It is not surprising that the 
 country should offer golden opportunities to the 
 energetic and provident foreigner. 
 
 In fairness to the Argentines, however, it must 
 be admitted that, with all their fondness for the 
 confiterias, billiard saloons, etc., and despite the 
 enormous consumption of wine and other intoxicants, 
 they are remarkably free from the vice of drunken- 
 ness. During the whole time of our residence in the 
 country, I never saw a dozen Argentines the worse 
 for drink. From this category must, however, be 
 excepted those fearful beings who are always to be 
 seen hanging about the drQary ptilperias of the camp 
 and cmnp-iowns, and who seem to divide their whole 
 existence between the saddle and the despacho de 
 bebidas ; getting drunk at one pulperia and then 
 riding away to the next, at which they arrive 
 sufficiently sobered to repeat the exploit. I have 
 frequently seen one of these uncouth creatures so 
 drunk as to be unable to stand, yet when lifted on 
 to his horse's back was able to retain his seat and 
 ride away in safety, even while the fumes of intoxi- 
 cation caused him to sway in his saddle like a sapling 
 in a high wind. 
 
 But whilst amongst the Argentines themselves 
 intemperance is comparatively rare, the Italians, the 
 Irish, and the English have achieved an unenviable 
 distinction for hard tippling. The English, indeed, 
 
46 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 have constantly before them an example of whom 
 they have great reason to feel proud ! Between 
 sherry-drinking and fee-taking, consular activity and 
 consular benevolence find little scope and less time 
 for the expansion of which they are capable, and of 
 which they stand so much in need. 
 
 The temptations to drinking are so numerous and 
 irresistible that the wonder is, not that so many 
 British subjects are addicted to the vice, but that 
 any are free from it. You can transact no business 
 without the inseparable accompaniments of smoking 
 and tippling. You can travel no journey, take part 
 . in no sport, without the ever-present adjunct of the 
 bottle. It is melancholy to see the numbers of 
 British "dead-beats" — stranded wrecks from the 
 dram-shops — loafing about the quays and docks 
 and riverside resorts amongst a vagabond crowd 
 of "beach-combers" of all nationalities. No doubt 
 climatic influences and the general wretchedness of 
 life's surroundings have a good deal to do with the 
 prevalence of this evil amongst "Britishers." There 
 is not much hope for a man if the curse once takes 
 hold of him in the Argentine. He will not readily 
 find a hand stretched out in Christian friendliness 
 to hold him back from the abyss, but he will find 
 plenty ready to give him a shove or a kick towards 
 the brink. Boon companions do not, it is true, 
 desert him until the last vestiges of respectability 
 have disappeared ; but then he is suffered to go 
 his headlong pace to ruin and degradation, and 
 finally end his career, as so many have done, in 
 the unsympathetic wards of the British Hospital, or 
 the gloomy precincts of the manicomio. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Argentine Police. — Semi-military Gendarmerie. — The Force Hated 
 and Despised. — Retaliation of the Populace for Past Cruelties. 
 — The Vijilante an Animated Ninepin. — A Free Fight. — 
 Muscle and Pluck versus Cold Steel and Numbers. — An 
 Inhuman Custom. —Pilfering from the Quick and the Dead. 
 — Recent Changes in the Force. — Results Thereof. 
 
 A MORE inefficient and oppressive constabulary- 
 system than that extant in the Argentine capital 
 during our residence there it would be difficult to 
 imagine. An almost complete subversion of the 
 principles that control — or ought to control — a civil 
 guard, and a usurpation of several purely military 
 attributes, caused the police force of Buenos Ayres 
 to be regarded by all but the criminal classes as a 
 terrorizing incubus ; while its constant failure to 
 detect and bring to justice the perpetrators of great 
 crimes, brought upon it the obloquy of the press 
 and the hatred of the people. For a long time 
 La Nacion, and that hornet amongst Argentine 
 journals, El Diario, attacked and derided the sys- 
 tem, and exposed its flagrant sins of commission and 
 omission. Not a day passed on which denunciations 
 more or less terrible did not appear in the columns 
 of the press. The Nacion, grave and severe, pub- 
 lished casos concretos that often made one's flesh 
 creep to read. The Diario, sarcastic and mocking. 
 
48 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 scarcely ever issued an edition that did not contain 
 accounts of crimes committed under the very eyes 
 of the police, but of which the autores no ftieron 
 habidos. The terror of the innocent, the laughing- 
 stock of the guilty, la policia became a synonym for 
 inhumanity and ineptitude. It was not that the 
 force had to contend against extraordinary difficul- 
 ties in order to maintain the peace, and guard the 
 lives, property, and morals of the populace; for,' 
 during the years of which I write — years of peace 
 and plenty, when there was an abundance of every- 
 thing for everybody, when labour abounded and 
 labourers were scarce, and when food was so plen- 
 tiful and cheap that a family could for the present 
 price of a single meal procure supplies sufficient 
 for a whole week — crime was less prevalent than 
 during any prior quinquennium since the days of 
 Rosas. Where poverty and want are so conspicu- 
 ously absent, it is reasonable to suppose that motives 
 for crimes other than those of the passions will be 
 not less conspicuously absent. The police might 
 therefore be said to have had comparatively " an 
 easy time of it." Yet by its flagitious abuse of 
 power, its cruelty and incapacity, the force succeeded 
 in winning for itself the abhorrence of the people 
 and the odium of the press. This odium and abhor- 
 rence culminated upon the installation of the Revo- 
 lution of July, 1890, when the police took up arms 
 against the people in their righteous struggle with a 
 Government which had trampled on their liberties 
 and ruined the country. During that short but san- 
 guinary reign of terror, the July Insurrection, the 
 entire force was withdrawn from the town, which 
 
POPULAR VENGEANCE. 49 
 
 was left completely at the mercy of roving bands of 
 roughs, who, under pretext of joining the revolu- 
 tionary movement, contrived to obtain possession of 
 arms, which they immediately proceeded to use for 
 the intimidation of the women and children left in 
 charge of the houses they attempted to force and 
 plunder. Private residents were compelled to arm 
 and form themselves into vigilance committees and 
 nocturnal patrols, in order to protect the lives and 
 property of those dependent upon them. The police 
 had declared itself against the populace, and ranged 
 itself on the side of their oppressors. But the 
 moment for retaliation had come, and, with the 
 customary injustice of an infuriated people, ven- 
 geance was wreaked indiscriminately, and individuals 
 were sacrificed for the sins of the order to which 
 they belonged. Wherever a policeman showed him- 
 self, there would be unseen foes ready to shoot him 
 down like a mad dog. From the roof of a house 
 in the Calle Lavalle, where, concealed by the stone 
 copings, I and one or two friends watched the course 
 of the insurrection, we saw half a dozen vijilantes 
 barbarously murdered — some openly stabbed, others 
 shot by invisible enemies. One instance of a re- 
 markable escape I shall never forget — that of an 
 intrepid sergeant, who, armed with despatches from 
 the head-quarters of the Government troops to the 
 chief of police then stationed at the Departamento 
 Central de Policia, as he tore along the street at 
 the highest speed at which he could urge his horse, 
 was shot at by scores of hidden insurgents, and yet 
 not once hit. 
 
 The man who had been mainly instrumental in 
 
 E 
 
50 ARGEXTIXA AND THE ARGEXTIXES. 
 
 bringing the force into such general disrepute and 
 
 aversion was its chief, Colonel C , a man 
 
 whom the press and the populace seldom lost an 
 occasion of maligning, lampooning, and insulting. 
 W^hen the news was spread abroad that the chief 
 of police had been killed, or at least mortally 
 wounded, the reioicing amongst the revolutionists 
 was general and boisterous. 
 
 But the vengeance of the people showed itself in 
 another way. Exposed as the city was to the de- 
 
 POLICE HEAtinUARTERS, I't 
 BL'EXOS AYKEi. 
 
 predations of an armed rabble, civilians, even sup- 
 posing that they had had the inclination, had enough 
 to do to protect themselves and their families, with- 
 out interfering in order to protect the property of the 
 authorities who had deserted them in the hour of 
 need. The conn'sarias were left wholly unprotected, 
 and the lawless hordes from the Boca and the river- 
 side did not omit to loot as many of them as thev 
 were able to break open. The furniture was smashed 
 and thrown into the street, the books, papers, and 
 records were torn into shreds, the walls defaced, 
 
ANIMATED NINEPINS. 5 I 
 
 and, in a word, everything that was destructible 
 was destroyed. 
 
 Individually, no doubt, the members of the con- 
 stabulary suffered beyond their deserts ; for they 
 were not answerable for the odious system of sur- 
 veillance instituted by the superior powers. The 
 policeman's lot was indeed not a happy one. 
 Hated, despised, and feared by civilians, it could 
 not be wondered at if, when chance threw an 
 offender into his clutches, he should often exceed 
 the little brief authority with which his uniform 
 invested him. While one seldom felt anything but 
 contempt for comisarios, and their servile, mate- 
 sucking, cigarette-smoking official subordinates, the 
 ill-paid, under-fed vijilante seemed often deserving 
 of pity. He is a poor, under-sized, insignificant 
 creature. Placed beside a member of the City 
 police, he would look like an animated ninepin. 
 He is not seldom drawn from the criminal ranks. 
 His intelligence and cruelty are on a par. The 
 law arms him with a machete, and he does not 
 scruple to use his blade on the slightest provocation, 
 especially on unarmed individuals rash enough to 
 resist him. Volumes might be filled with a mere 
 recapitulation of the acts of cruelty perpetrated by 
 the police of Buenos Ayres during the last adminis- 
 tration ; and they would form as sensational a col- 
 lection of horrors as anything that Gaboriau, or 
 Lecocque, or Sue, or any of those recherchd person- 
 ages ever produced. But I shall confine myself to 
 recording one or two instances which actually came 
 under my own observation. 
 
 Most people look with a kind of amused compla- 
 
52 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 cency on our sailors and their foibles. They know 
 in a vague sort of way that Jack's habits and 
 appetites when ashore are the reverse of refined — 
 are such, indeed, that politeness draws a veil of 
 silence over them. But if ever I felt proud of being 
 an Englishman, it was on an occasion when, nearly 
 five years ago, I witnessed in a street of Buenos 
 Ayres a scene as ludicrous, as spirited, and as 
 illustrative of the innate antipathies of the Latin 
 and the Saxon races as anything I ever saw. A 
 party of four Jack tars had come ashore for a spree, 
 and had pretty well filled themselves up with the 
 vile compounds sold as spirits in the sailors' haunts 
 of Buenos Ayres. Jack, when in liquor, is some- 
 times a boisterous and unruly animal, and gives 
 considerable trouble to the authorities, and no end 
 of annoyance to those who may happen to be in 
 his neighbourhood whilst under the influence of 
 drink. One of the party in question had roused the 
 ire of a vijilante and the wrath of a mayoral, be- 
 cause, when ordered to dismount from a tram-car, 
 he, with true British obstinacy, had persisted in 
 hanging on to the foot-board, at the risk of his own 
 neck, and to the terror and annoyance of other pas- 
 sengers. The car was stopped, a policeman called, 
 and Jack was roughly ejected from his dangerous 
 perch into the road. That was enough for Jack. 
 Fuddled though he was, he was not too drunk to 
 feel the indignity inflicted upon him. So he picked 
 himself up, set his teeth, and "went for" the con- 
 ductor and the vijilante. U nfortunately for him and 
 his companions, he was not familiar with the ways 
 of the Argentine police. Although he had stretched 
 
A FREE FIGHT. 53 
 
 the constable full length on the ground with a regular 
 British " one from the shoulder," the latter contrived 
 to blow his terrible whistle — always a fatal act to 
 any unlucky person who meditates an escape from 
 the clutches of la aiitoridad. The signal was 
 speedily answered by no less than nine other viji- 
 lantes from the neighbouring esqidnas. Jack saw 
 he was " in for it " ; but his blood was up, and he 
 did not care a rap. His "pals" had not deserted 
 him. On the contrary, they were as ready and 
 as eager for a fight as he. A general scrimmage 
 immediately commenced. Ten policemen with 
 drawn swords — slashing out at random, but always 
 making for the face — attacked four unarmed, half- 
 drunk British sailors. But it was fine to see what 
 pluck and muscle thus handicapped could do against 
 brutal ferocity and cold steel ! Imagine the scene ! 
 A narrow street, imperfectly lighted by a neighbour- 
 ing gas-lamp, Jack with his coat off and his back to 
 the wall, prepared, as he kept defiantly shouting, to 
 
 "fight the whole pack of sooty- faced varmints ! " 
 
 dodging the wild thrusts and lunges of the machetes, 
 and planting his blows with irresistible force on the 
 heads, chests, and arms of his assailants, who were 
 no more able to withstand his sledge-hammer strokes 
 than the skittles are able to withstand the well-aimed 
 ball. Despite their machetes, the ten armed viji- 
 lantes got as sound a thrashing from four fuddled 
 English sailors as the delighted spectators could 
 have wished to witness. Had it not been for that 
 unlucky whistle, no doubt Jack would have got 
 away a complete victor, without any more to do. 
 But the officials came riding up, and Jack was soon 
 
54 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 overpowered, marched off to the nearest comisariar 
 and introduced for the night to the calabozo, or com- 
 mon cell. While on the way to the station, while 
 defenceless in the power of his noble captors, then 
 it was that the savage instincts of the outraged 
 autoridad showed themselves. If Jack would not 
 move fast enough, or if he betrayed the slightest sign 
 of resistance, or uttered a word of remonstrance, out 
 came the machete, and Jack got a flat-bladed blow, 
 a prick, or a cut — always on the face or the head. 
 
 Not long after the foregoing occurrence, I wit- 
 nessed an accident at the corners of the Calles 25 
 de Mayo and Cuyo. A man hanging on to the 
 fore part of the foot-board of a tram-car fell, or was 
 pushed off. The wheels of the car went over his 
 legs and crushed them horribly. The vijilante who 
 was on duty at the corner, according to the custom 
 of the police in those days, immediately rushed 
 forward, drew his machete, blew his whistle, and 
 mounted guard over the poor wretch lying there In 
 the roadway with his life-blood ebbing fast away. 
 By the laws of those days (now mercifully repealed) 
 no one was allowed to touch the victim of an 
 accident until the divisional police surgeon had 
 viewed the body, given Instructions, and prepared 
 a report. But the divisional police surgeon was 
 not always easy to be found. As often as not he 
 would be playing billiards, and refuse to come until 
 his game was finished. It was so in this case. By 
 the time the officer arrived, the Ill-starred victim of 
 accident and inhumanity had bled to death. With 
 a light, scoffing laugh the body was conveyed to the 
 comisaria, searched, and, after the customary for- 
 
MY SERVANT JOINS THE FORCE. 55 
 
 malities, handed over to the friends or relatives who 
 claimed it, — minus the contents of the pockets. 
 
 On another occasion a personal acquaintance — an 
 Englishman occupying a good position in Anglo- 
 Argentine society — whilst coming out of an estab- 
 lishment, accompanied by several of his friends, fell 
 dead on the doorstep. Instantly the police pounced 
 on the body, bore it off to the comisaria, rifled 
 it, made a memorandum of the articles found upon 
 it, and after much formality delivered it to the 
 friends of the deceased, together with the clothes, 
 papers, and everything except money and jewellery. 
 It was many months, and only after pacific means 
 had been repeatedly tried in vain, and recourse was 
 had to threats from the Consulate, before all the 
 contents of the pockets were given up. 
 
 At this moment the police of Buenos Ayres have 
 in their possession several articles which were taken 
 from an employe of mine who had the misfortune 
 to fall into their clutches. Their receipt for the 
 things — for they give one, strange to say — I held 
 for a long time, and made frequent applications for 
 my property, until at last my patience was exhausted, 
 and, knowing what the force was, I gave the matter 
 up in disgust, believing my time to be of greater 
 value than the detained articles. My servant, how- 
 ever, became enamoured of the force during his 
 incarceration ; for the next 'time I saw him he was 
 a mounted vijilante ! 
 
 We lodged at one time at the house of an English 
 family in the Calle de las Artes. There was a 
 gentleman residing at the same place upon whose 
 sad fate I have often speculated. He was a young 
 
56 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 man of education and attainments much superior to 
 his position, which was that of reader for one of 
 the newspapers. He was extremely delicate, and 
 subject to frequent and severe haemorrhages. Some- 
 where in the States it appeared he had left years 
 before a mother and an only sister. He wrote to 
 them occasionally, though he never, so far as we 
 knew, received any replies ; and no one was taken 
 so deeply into his confidence as to be told any 
 particulars concerning his relatives. Indeed, we 
 had reason afterwards to suspect that even his real 
 name was unknown to us. To the senora he con- 
 fided only this much : that he did not wish his 
 friends to know of his sufferings, or what he was 
 doing ; that in case " anything happened to him," 
 there would be found in his trunks sufficient means 
 to defray the cost of a funeral, and whatever was 
 left the senora was to be good enough to accept 
 as a slight recompense for all her kindness to him. 
 There came a day on which the young man's place 
 at table was vacated for ever. The senora went 
 to what she called the "counsel," who informed her 
 that as the deceased had left no clue to his identity, 
 and had even taken pains to conceal it, he, the 
 consul, could do nothing for her. He advised her 
 to communicate with the police ; and the good 
 woman, with an imbecility from which her forty-five 
 years' residence in the country should have saved 
 her, did as she was recommended. The police 
 immediately sent a vijilante, with his eternal machete, 
 to mount guard .over the body in the private house 
 of a respectable English family. All the belongings 
 of the deceased were seized and carried away. 
 There were many articles of value amongst them, 
 
EFFECTS OF RECENT CHANGES. $7 
 
 but nothing was ever again heard of them, and the 
 body was consigned to a pauper's grave. 
 
 Since the Revolution of July, 1890, the Policia 
 of Buenos Ayres is said to have undergone con- 
 siderable modification and improvement under the 
 supervision of its new chief. Colonel Donovan. 
 But the efforts of the new Hiberno- Argentine chief 
 of police would seem to have signally failed, judging 
 from the following statements copied from a recent 
 issue of the Prensa : — 
 
 " Innumerable are the robberies committed by the conductors 
 of merchandise consigned to the commercial houses of this city. 
 In broad daylight, and in the sight of everybody, carmen carry 
 out their nefarious operations of robbing part of the contents of 
 packages of merchandise entrusted to them for delivery, depositing 
 the proceeds of their audacious thefts in sundry places contiguous 
 to the docks. Hogsheads of wine, cases of goods, bags of rice, 
 sugar, etc., are broken open in the public streets, and considerable 
 portions of their contents abstracted. Not a day passes but what 
 in the Calle Independencia, from the Pase'o Col6n to Bolivar, 
 anybody may witness the proceedings of these daring robbers." 
 
 " In the Boca del Riachuelo the robberies which daily take 
 place are of even greater magnitude. A well-known grain ex- 
 porter only yesterday told us that not a single day goes by with- 
 out the discovery of extensive robberies of grain. The bags of 
 this commodity, which are filled at the Central Produce Market, 
 or elsewhere, upon being lowered into the ship's holds from the 
 lighters, are found to be correct as to the number of bags, but 
 not as to their contents ; for it is frequently discovered that as 
 muc/i as one-half of the contents of each bag has been extracted. 
 It is assumed that the robbery is effected while the grain is in 
 course of transit from the depot to the ships." 
 
 What sort of police force can that be where such 
 daring robberies can be perpetrated with impunity 
 in broad daylight, in the public streets and under 
 the very noses of the vijilantes ? 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Anglo-Argentine Society. — Anglo-Portenos. — British Institutions 
 in the Plate. — The English Literary Society. — Argentine 
 Legal System. — More Law than Justice. — Stamped Paper 
 ad absurdum. — Counsel's Opinion gratis. — The Species 
 Abogado. — Matriculation of Merchants. — Vexations and 
 Impediments. 
 
 It is hardly to be expected that a society whose 
 surroundings are unlovely in the extreme, — sordid, 
 sensual, and unintellectual, — should be distinguished 
 for its culture and tone. In a place where there is 
 neither art, nor science, nor amusement, nor intel- 
 lectual emulation of any kind ; where every man 
 is absorbed, body and soul, in the race for wealth ; 
 where any surname may be an alias and hide a 
 mystery ; where there is not even scenery to cheer 
 and elevate the mind ; where, in a word, gross 
 materialism and the coarsest egoism trample out 
 refinement and breed all manner of uncharitable- 
 ness ; — it is a mere truism to assert that it is im- 
 possible to live in such a place without imbibing in 
 a greater or lesser degree the peculiar characteristics 
 of those surroundings. Such, however, are the 
 environments of British society in Buenos Ayres, 
 Rosario, and other parts of the Republic. By com- 
 parison with the genial communities of the colonies, 
 
 the English colony In Argentina suffers sadly. 
 
 58 
 
BRITISH SOCIETY IN THE PLATE. 59 
 
 There is no fellowship, no amenity. In the capital 
 British society is composed for the most part of 
 well-dressed, indifferently educated, unsociable 
 people, who have acquired the pettiness of the 
 Argentines without their redeeming brilliancy, — 
 people to whom introductions are unwelcome, unless 
 backed up by wealth or rank or interest ; who 
 regard every new-comer as a sort of interloper ; who 
 are divided into more cliques and "sets" than there 
 are clans in Scotland ; who are obsequious to an 
 honourable, who truckle to a lord, and are positively 
 rude to a plain mister, — gossiping, unlovable people 
 who go to church to hatch scandal, and slander 
 everybody, from the pastor to the consul. 
 
 With Anglo-Portenos, as children born in Buenos 
 Ayres of English parentage are called, the case is 
 even worse. They acquire the weaknesses, but 
 seldom the abilities of both races. They have 
 neither the physique, energy, nor moral and intel- 
 lectual qualities of their British forebears, nor the 
 wit and vivacity of the Argentines amongst whom 
 they are reared. For this degeneration — for dis- 
 tinct degeneration it is acknowledged to be — many 
 reasons are assignable. The climate has much, 
 the system of education has more, and the constant 
 companionship of the Argentine youth has perhaps 
 most to do with it. European residents who can 
 afford it send their children to Europe to be 
 trained, not so much because they obtain a better 
 education, but because they escape during the best 
 years of their lives contaminating moral and ener- 
 vating physical influences. 
 
 The English have established a few healthy insti- 
 
6o ARGENTINA AND TITE ARGENTINES. 
 
 tutions in Buenos Ayres — cricket, football, rowing, 
 polo, a dramatic and musical society, a literary 
 society and a club. But each and all have the 
 same failing — lack of good fellowship. The en- 
 deavour is to make them as much as possible 
 exclusive for the exclusives. The English Literary 
 Society is as dull and lifeless an institution as any 
 old-fogey club anywhere. Day after day, and year 
 after year, one meets there the same people, with 
 the same cold, unapproachable manners ; and an 
 acquaintance seldom gets beyond the nodding stage. 
 Its committee is for ever squabbling. Its enter- 
 tainments are as insipid as those of a working- 
 men's club in an obscure provincial town. Its 
 reference library, if only less antiquated and dusty, 
 would be really useful, and its circulating library 
 excellent if disencumbered of half its stock of 
 pirated novels and lumber. Nevertheless it is 
 far and away the best English institution in the 
 Plate. The reading-rooms are well supplied with 
 current literature and news ; and if the society were 
 not so insufferably dull, it would be worthy of its 
 founders. One always felt grateful and kindly 
 towards the Literary Society. It was a quiet 
 retreat where one could always be sure of enjoying 
 an undisturbed siesta on a sultry afternoon, or of 
 securing a warm refuge from the cold or a com- 
 fortable shelter from the storm. 
 
 Any one who has much to do with commercial, 
 financial, or official business in the Argentine soon 
 discovers — not seldom to his cost — that there is, as 
 we once heard a distinguished Argentine publicly 
 assert, "more law than justice in this country." 
 
STAMPED PAPER. 6 1 
 
 The legal meshes thrown round nearly every de- 
 scription of business are as intricate "and vexatious 
 as the Russian spy system. The " Codigo de 
 Procedimientos " is almost as perplexing as the 
 currency question itself. There are clauses in it 
 which no two lawyers will interpret alike. 
 
 The great evil of the system is that everything, 
 no matter how trivial, unimportant, or irrelevant, 
 must be written on stamped paper. We have 
 seen espedientes and testamentarias which, if printed, 
 would equal in bulk huge quartos. The State gains 
 a considerable addition to its revenue through the 
 wretched sprawling penmanship of the scribes and 
 scribblers in the thousands of escribanias and 
 lawyers' estudios throughout the country. One 
 often finds stamped sheets of any denomination — -50 
 cents, %\ to $10, or more — without a single word 
 written upon them, but only a line drawn across 
 them from corner to corner to inutilizar them. No 
 one can sell a horse or cart, or transfer any property, 
 or build a stable, without previously recording the 
 transaction on stamped paper, and registering it at 
 the respective public office. Each time a horse 
 changes ownership — 25 cents. A vicious brute 
 that nobody can keep will soon devour his worth 
 in stamps. 
 
 Escribanos charge just what they like, and there 
 is no taxing of costs. Our experience was : the 
 worse the work, the higher the charge. But what 
 seems paradoxical is that abogados (counsel) charge 
 nothing for consultations, — at least, I never heard 
 of a charge being made; and I certainly never paid 
 one, although I have had occasion to consult some 
 
62 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 of the most celebrated lawyers of Buenos Ayres. 
 There is another good point about abogados ; they 
 don't allow professional etiquette to interfere with 
 their own or their clients' interests, which is more 
 than can be said for British lawyers. We can go 
 to one man and get his opinion on our case, and 
 then go right off to half a dozen others and get 
 theirs, and there will be nothing to pay and no 
 professional jealousy. There are hundreds of 
 abogados in Buenos Ayres, but not many competent 
 lawyers. There is not one that understands joint- 
 stock company law, joint-stock enterprise being a 
 new exotic, germinated mushroom-like out of hot- 
 beds of political corruption and fostered for corrupt 
 political purposes. Abogados are addressed as 
 " Dr." ; but one may feel quite safe in addressing 
 any well-attired Argentine gentleman as " Dr." ; for 
 if he is not a lawyer, he is almost sure to be a 
 medico. 
 
 The abogado is a curious study. We used to rack 
 our minds to discover how they all made a living. 
 Was law the daily food of the community, that so 
 many lawyers flourished in their midst ? That 
 could not be either, for there were many, very 
 many, whom, go when one would, one never saw 
 at work. They go to their studios about mid- 
 day, and we look for them in vain after 3 p.m. 
 In the meantime, should we call in upon them, we 
 find them reading the papers, smoking, or char- 
 lando ; their clerks, if they have any, asleep in the 
 outer office ; and an indescribably somnolent air 
 about the whole place. How they lived was there- 
 fore to us a mystery. I suppose, however, most of 
 
FAT FEES. 63 
 
 them get hold of a testamentaria, and batten on 
 the dead. Some of them only want one testa- 
 mentaria during their whole professional career, so 
 splendid are the honorariums attached to this class 
 of business. I have before me the report of a 
 testamentaria case, the lawyer's honorarium in which 
 is fixed at $180,000 currency (worth then about 
 ^16,000). Poor heirs ! After the stamps and 
 other expenses too ! No wonder there are free 
 consultations ! 
 
 All legal proceedings being reduced to written 
 statements, there is no trial by jury, no examination 
 or cross-examination by counsel, no brow-beating, 
 no forensic eloquence. Judgments are elaborated in 
 the quiet sanctity of the study, after the written 
 evidence has been sifted, compared, and connected, 
 and given to the world in the form of extensive and 
 exhaustive treatises. A man may grow old and 
 grey while these literary masterpieces are in process 
 of elaboration. It is a method of delivering judg- 
 ment which must commend itself to all believers in 
 Bacon's axiom, being more likely to be exact, well- 
 balanced, and matured than a viva-voce judgment. 
 A great deal must depend upon the judge's skill 
 in composition. 
 
 Although you may trade without being registered 
 or inscribed in the commercial register, the law only 
 affords you partial protection. Unless your books 
 are rubricated by the commercial tribunal, they 
 are not acceptable in evidence. In any action at 
 law a guilty person, whose books have been rubri- 
 cated, will have more chance of winning a case 
 against an innocent person whose books have not 
 
64 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 gone through that formaHty, than the latter has 
 against the former. But although the full benefits 
 of the law are only for those who have complied with 
 every petty legal formality, every impediment is 
 thrust in the way of your obtaining such protection. 
 According to the Commercial Code, it is the simplest 
 thing in the world to "matriculate" as a commerci- 
 ante, but in actual practice it will be found the most 
 tortuous and troublesome. The following is an 
 actual case in illustration. 
 
 Two gentlemen started in business as merchants, 
 and being desirous of complying with the require- 
 ments of the law and the code, had their partnership 
 deed properly drawn up by an escribano and pre- 
 sented at the respective court for registration. All 
 the fees were paid (the code says there are no 
 fees payable for matriculation, but that is a fiction), 
 the applicants were told to leave their documents 
 and call again another day. It was a simple thing 
 that was required — only the signature of the judge 
 of commerce to be appended to the note of inscrip- 
 tion, prepared in the secretaria. But without that 
 signature the gentlemen were not a razon social, and 
 if they carried on their business did so running cer- 
 tain risks and incurring certain liabilities which 
 might or might not be enforced. Before that signa- 
 ture could be obtained the papers would have to 
 pass through the hands of a number of under-strap- 
 pers, who would all have a word to say or write 
 about them. On the appointed day our friends 
 returned to find the documents had not been 
 "despatched," and to be told that the pressure of 
 business had been so great, etc., etc. Still one might 
 
SNAGS AND SAWYERS. 65 
 
 just then, at least, see the clerks and officials smok- 
 ing or making cigarettes, gossiping, sucking mat^, 
 and reading the newspapers in various parts of the 
 offices ; while, as for any signs of business, one 
 could have found more in a newly-sown turnip field. 
 The gentlemen were told to come again, manana or 
 pasado manana, when the papers would be ready sin 
 falta. Trustingly they did so, but of course only to 
 find their papers still undespatched and to be told 
 some other ingenious little fiction. This game was 
 kept up for a long time, until at last the limit of our 
 friends' patience was reached, and from mild remon- 
 strance they passed to sharp words. Thereupon 
 the chief of the under-strappers came forward, and 
 with that oleaginous courtesy which is so character- 
 istic of Argentine officials, promised that the papers 
 should be despatched en el acto ; and if they would 
 have the goodness to " pass " again on the morrow, 
 they would find them all ready. Needless to say 
 the papers were not forthcoming on the morrow ; 
 instead, the gentlemen were met with the intelligence 
 that they had been mislaid, and could not be found. 
 What was to be done now ? It was purely an acci- 
 dental and surely a temporary loss. At any moment 
 they might turn up. It was not worth while, there- 
 fore, to go and pay a large sum to the lawyer for 
 fresh copies. They had better wait and trust to the 
 sympathetic assurances of the secretaria that diligent 
 search should again be made for the missing papers, 
 and the needful immediately done to them. Whether 
 the search was ever made or not, it boots not to 
 inquire. It is even doubtful if the papers were ever 
 lost as asserted. They probably still remain in the 
 
 F 
 
66 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 secretaria, and there, so far as the owners are con- 
 cerned, they will remain for ever. The only thing 
 that could have made them move was not done. 
 Had the applicants in the first instance, when 
 presenting the documents, slipped a ten, twenty, 
 or fifty dollar bill between the leaves, allowing just a 
 corner to remain exposed to view, they would have 
 been despatched the next day. They, however, 
 quixotically argued that, having paid the lawyer and 
 satisfied the revenue, they had no right to be further 
 fleeced, especially as the code said very distinctly 
 that no fees were payable for matriculation. This 
 is a true history, and is but a solitary instance of the 
 trammels thrown round Argentine legal proceedings. 
 But if any one wants to know all the ins and 
 outs, all the chicanery and humbug of which the 
 Argentine legal system is capable — at least, so far 
 as official business is concerned — let him go through 
 all the tramites in connection with a concession, 
 applying for it, feeing for it, capturing it, and carry- 
 ing it out. In the course of such proceedings he 
 will get a deeper insight into the frailty of Argentine 
 human nature than he might otherwise obtain in 
 a lifetime. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Concessions and Concession Hunters. — Revival of the Days of 
 John Law. — The Great Vaca Lechera. — Modus Operandi 
 of Securing a Concession. — Palm-Grease and Palras. — An 
 Espediente. — The Government Assessor. — A Model Argen- 
 tine Official. — To Obtain an Object, Pander. — A Juicio Ver- 
 bal. — A Journey into the Interior. — A Provincial Munici- 
 pality. — His Worship the Intendente. — The Waiting Time 
 the Hardest Time of All. — Depositing the Guarantee. — The 
 Government Scrivener. — The Executive. — Hieroglyphs Gal- 
 ore. — Golden Dreams. 
 
 Most uninitiated persons look upon concession- 
 aires as lucky mortals, to be envied and emulated, 
 fortunate individuals upon whom the wayward god- 
 dess has thrust wealth, for which they toil not, neither 
 do they spin. Doubtless such favoured beings are 
 not so rare as the dodo. Here and there there 
 may be one, but he is, be assured, a rara avis. 
 Those who grant concessions, those who buy con- 
 cessions, those who exploit concessions, are far more 
 likely to make money than those who, perhaps after 
 years of scheming, and toadying, and waiting, and 
 sore-heartedness, have arrived at the proud distinc- 
 tion of owning concessions. 
 
 Every one remembers that time when all the 
 inhabitants of Argentina appeared to have gone 
 stark mad with the concession fever ; when every 
 
 man in the Republic, from the President down to 
 
 67 
 
68 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 the merest junior clerk, traded in concessions. 
 The nation was a great vaca lechera with a thou- 
 sand teats, which thousands struggled and fought 
 obscenely to suck. Everybody knows how the 
 madness spread, even to Threadneedle Street and 
 Bishopsgate Street ; how every'body burnt their 
 fingers, and some burnt their hands off". Ah ! what 
 a delirious time that was, when every morning 
 paper brought us the glowing details of the crazy 
 schemes presented to Congress the previous day ! 
 A railway here, a port there, a mushroom town in 
 this place, a vast colony in some remote and desert 
 spot, a centra agricola in another distant wilderness, 
 an Atlantis in some untamed region under the 
 equator. Tramways hundreds of miles in length, 
 with sleeping, dining, refrigerating, and goods cars. 
 Railways lost amid the trackless Pampas, or the fast- 
 nesses of the Andes. A canal devious as the high- 
 ways of Venice. A Roman road across the Sahara. 
 Schemes colossal, daring, chimerical everywhere. 
 Not a statesman, nor a governor, nor a lawyer, nor 
 a doctor, nor the wife, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, or 
 cousin of any of those persons, who had or could 
 procure, by means fair or unfair, influence with the 
 Executive, but was ready to barter it away to any 
 one whatsoever who could hatch some new project 
 and pay fat bribes. A mere list of the schemes, sane 
 and otherwise, hatched during that period, with the 
 briefest comment on their pretensions, would fill a 
 volume. 
 
 The modus operandi of obtaining a concession in 
 those days was very simple. Anybody could get a 
 concession, a washerwoman or a scavenger, provjded 
 
EASY PRELIMINARIES. 69 
 
 always he or she had unlimited command of palm- 
 grease. It was perfectly useless to attempt to get 
 one without that. The number of palms one would 
 find outstretched for greasing in a day's march, 
 through, say, the marble halls of La Plata, was as 
 countless as the show of hands in a vast crowd. 
 You wanted a concession ? Very well ; what should 
 it be ? A railway ? Yes ; that was the best and 
 most promising thing to venture upon. All right. 
 Get a map of the country well up to date ; look for 
 a region untraversed by the iron road ; pick out 
 your route, creating a few towns en passant ; "tip " 
 some Government Johnny a few dollars to find out 
 secretly, from the Public Works Department, if any 
 concession has been applied for on the ground you 
 propose to cover ; and, when all is found to be plain 
 sailing, get some stamped paper and sit down and 
 concoct your solicitud to the Minister of Public 
 Works. Here your literary abilities may have free 
 play, and your imagination unlimited scope. You 
 give a glowing description of the country to be 
 traversed by your railway, expatiating on the won- 
 drous fertility of Argentine soil, as compared with 
 all other soils in the world, and picturing the glori- 
 ous future that awaits that beautiful region when 
 your railway shall have brought millions of settlers 
 and hundreds of new towns and colonies and indus- 
 tries, and all else that makes the land a living land. 
 Then you point out what must be abundantly mani- 
 fest to the most illustrious Minister — the incalculable 
 benefit which the country, the Government, the 
 people, the future shareholders, cannot fail to reap 
 from your railway. You throw in a few common- 
 
JO ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 places and worn-out statistics about the revolution- 
 izing effects of the iron rails transmuted into gold, 
 etc., and you grow eloquent again as you delicately 
 hint at the credit, honour, renown, which cannot fail 
 to accrue to H.E. as the instrument through whom 
 your brilliant project shall have become un fait ac- 
 compli. Then in your best style you point out that 
 it is the bounden duty of the State to foster such 
 promising enterprises as yours by according to it 
 the support of the Treasury in the form of a guaran- 
 tee, thus assuring it from the possibility of the ruin 
 which might otherwise fall upon it through the failure 
 of an ignorant public to recognise its extraordinary 
 merits and patronize it according to its deserts. 
 
 Having concluded to your entire satisfaction your 
 solicitud, and having duly felt your vanity and pride 
 as the author of what you at least regard as a 
 literary masterpiece raised to a degree that makes 
 you an insufferable nuisance to everybody around 
 you, whether bitten by the mania or not, you proceed 
 forthwith to campear a foster-father to patrocinar 
 your scheme in Congress. With this object in view 
 you hunt up the list of your friends and acquaint- 
 ance, and find out somebody who has access to 
 somebody else who has the entrde to the sala of the 
 minister. If you are very well known, or, which is 
 the same thing, if it is very well known that there 
 is plenty of backshish on hand, this should be a very 
 easy matter to arrange, especially as the principals 
 are seldom if ever seen, and everything is conducted 
 through intermediaries and cats'-paws. 
 
 Your go-between will probably make what a 
 certain Belgian gentleman calls " soundations," with 
 
MACHINERY OF OFFICIALISM AND THE LAW. 7 1 
 
 a view to cautiously feeling the pulse of the states- 
 man whose services you are anxious to secure. This 
 personage intimates the "consideration" for which 
 he is willing to render such services ; the agent adds 
 his own, and you learn that it will cost you so much 
 to get your concession. Perfectly conforme, the 
 machinery of officialism and the law is set in motion. 
 Your solicihid is lodged at the respective secretaria, 
 where it remains until your agent has had an under- 
 standing with the booking-clerk, whereupon it comes 
 on for discussion, is apoyado by your patrdn and 
 his friends, and passes in due course to the Com- 
 missioners of Public Works. Here it is at the 
 mercy of, say, the oficial mayor (chief clerk), whom 
 your agent has perhaps overlooked in his calcula- 
 tions. You must give it another jog ; then it passes 
 to the Government Engineers' Department, and 
 remains d su informe, until a notification reaches 
 it, sub rosa, that the report must be hurried up, must 
 be favourable, and must be adjusted to fit in with 
 the laws and regulations which govern this class of 
 business. The Department will lose no time in 
 acting on this hint, will suggest a number of modi- 
 fications to the minor details of the scheme, and 
 will send it back to the Comision with its report, 
 all on stamped paper and profusely signed. Backed 
 by the Engineers' Department, /aj/rc^wzf^a^i? by your 
 " friend at court," your scheme has so far floated 
 safely along a turbulent stream. But a hitch occurs 
 at this point. A mere trifle : only the guarantee. 
 Your patron's influence is not strong enough to force 
 that condition through unexpected opposition ; and 
 it is not every Congressman will do what a certain 
 
72 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES, 
 
 old parliamentary fighting-cock is said to have done 
 — challenge every opponent to mortal combat ! \ ou 
 can do without that. Backshish is the only ammuni- 
 tion required in your case. AA'ithout a guarantee, 
 you know ver}- well that your concession is not 
 worth a tinker's curse to you or anybody else. \ ou 
 know better than to go home and offer to European 
 
 capitalists or promoters an u 
 
 no-uaranteed concession 
 
 • — to be yourself badgered about from pillar to post, 
 
 GOVERNMENT EX'^.INEERS DEPARTMENT, 
 PROVINXE OF EUENOS AYRtS. 
 
 and to have your concession turned inside out and 
 jjicked to pieces ; to have this point quibbled o^■er 
 and that flaw detected, its validity questioned and 
 its worth belittled wherever you took it. You know 
 that as charity covereth a multitude of sins, so a 
 guarantee closeth up all the gaps in a concession 
 EverA" sacrifice must therefore be made in order to 
 get vour scheme o-uaranteed. \'erv reluctantlv vou 
 must "shell out" to an extent }'ou never dreamed 
 of Of course you can temporize : gi^■e so much 
 
THE GREAT MAN MOUNTAIN. 73 
 
 and promise the rest, and make your promises con- 
 tingent upon the uhimate success of your scheme. 
 Thereupon you sign all sorts of documents and 
 enter into all manner of engagements. And as you 
 behold the mass of papers which compose your 
 espediente — reports, replies, maps, plans, tracings, 
 statements, estimates, etc. — and the quantity of 
 stamps used up in connection with your project, 
 you feel your importance grow upon you as it does 
 upon a young ambassador possessed of his first 
 state secrets. This slight hitch being satisfactorily 
 smoothed over, your solicihid proceeds merrily on 
 its course. There should be no further difficulty in 
 the way until it reaches that great man, the asesor 
 de gobierno. A mighty personage is the assessor. 
 He is supposed to be a walking repositary of all 
 the laws of the country. His functions are vast, 
 his power for weal or woe terrible. He is the dis- 
 penser of destiny to poor applicants for concessions. 
 As a rule he is as inaccessible as an ancient oracle. 
 But he is to be cornered if you work in the right way. 
 It may take months to do it, and you would not 
 think of obtruding yourself upon his privacy without 
 taking some one with you of whom you knew he 
 stood in awe — his father-in-law, or mother-in-law, 
 for instance. We once cornered the great man, after 
 four months' pursuit, by such means. We were 
 presented to him in his studio, a magnificent apart- 
 ment, furnished like one of Maple's show-rooms, 
 where we found a handsome man in a dressing-gown 
 curled up on a couch, reading Nana and sucking 
 maU. On a table lay undespatched espedientes by 
 the hundred, some of them by the assessor's own 
 
74 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 confession five, six, twelve, eighteen months old, 
 all waiting on his greatness's caprice. Think of the 
 poor interesados running up and down from Buenos 
 Ayres to La Plata, from office to office, from this 
 official to that, week after week, month after month, 
 and always receiving the same stereotyped reply to 
 their inquiries about their asuntos, " esid al informe 
 del senor asesor ! " — it awaits the assessor's report. 
 A most affable person with a most unfortunate name 
 was that assessor ; formerly a herd-boy in the 
 camp, until he went the way of all Argentines and 
 inked his fingers. He was smart enough to discover 
 a little secret that the Government, the lawyers, 
 and everybody else had forgotten ; namely, that the 
 concession of an important English corporation was 
 just drawing to its term, and unless it were renewed 
 all the rich properties of that corporation were 
 liable to expropriation. We believe this little dis- 
 covery cost the corporation referred to a large sum, 
 runnin^j into six figures. The Government to reward 
 such zeal promptly made the discoverer assessor — a 
 man with as little legal knowledge as an obscure 
 editor usually possesses, a man who in a single 
 night gambled away lands, house, furniture, undrawn 
 salary, and I know not what besides. 
 
 Your agent, your patron, the engineers' depart- 
 ment, the minister, the minister's secretary, and the 
 secretary's secretary, individually and collectively, 
 could not move this mountain. Your espediente 
 stuck fast. No entreaty, no moral persuasive, could 
 drag it out of that official pantano. But the matter 
 was serious. If your concession were delayed for 
 twelve months the "boom" would have passed, and 
 
AN AGREEABLE RUSE. 75 
 
 it would not be worth the paper it was written 
 upon. Something must be done. A happy thought 
 strikes you. Why not " get at " the dreaded assessor 
 through his vices? It is publicly notorious that 
 
 night after night he is to be found at the Club, 
 
 gambling. Why not go there and gamble too ? 
 You do so, and the ruse is so far successful that 
 you succeed in obtaining an introduction. The rest 
 is easy. At the cost of a little dinner, at which 
 you invite a few common friends and a fascinating 
 Delilah, and by allowing his greatness to win from 
 you what you would otherwise have been willing 
 to pay in backshish, you see the end of your trouble 
 and get your espediente despatched. 
 
 It may be thought that I have drawn upon my 
 imagination for these details respecting the assessor. 
 They are literally true, and derived from that best 
 of all sources, actual personal experience. 
 
 But although your scheme has battled its way 
 through the departmental jungle and successfully 
 surmounted this last Hill Difficulty, you are not 
 yet a full-blown concessionaire. The assessor has 
 not done with you yet. There are several points 
 in your solicitiid too knotty for him ; or, in the 
 due discharge of his official functions, he feels it 
 incumbent upon him to create certain objections to 
 some of the conditions proposed by you. So he 
 sends it back to the minister with his dictdmen, the 
 result of which is that you are summoned to take 
 part in a farcical comedy called a juicio verbal, or 
 conference between the assessor, the minister, and 
 yourself for the purpose of exchanging ideas on the 
 moot points raised by the former. As you have by 
 
76 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 this time learned what sort of person the assessor is, 
 you take the precaution of being in La Plata hours 
 before the time fixed for the conference, and you 
 "stand" the father-in-law a dinner, or promise him 
 some shares in your railway, to go down with you 
 and get his son-in-law out of bed in time. Such 
 energetic measures could hardly fail of success, and, 
 accordingly, the interview comes off — in the sala of 
 the minister. A lot of palaver takes place, — con- 
 sisting for the most part of the exchange of personal 
 reminiscences, anecdotes and opinions between the 
 assessor and the minister, your part being limited 
 chiefly to laughing at the proper moment, deferring 
 to everything that is said, and doing whatever the 
 occasion seems to suggest in order to further your 
 own interests by humouring the whims of your 
 august interlocutors. 
 
 You come away from the conference with a glad 
 heart, for, excepting one or two little points which 
 do not yet disquiet you, the assessor's mole-hills 
 have been levelled. You are assured that the rest 
 is a mere matter of form, and that, as soon as the 
 trifling differences which still remain open have 
 been arranged, the contrato de coiicesion — that goal 
 upon which your eyes have so long and anxiously 
 been fixed — can be escjnturado. It appears, how- 
 ever, that the municipality of some obscure partido 
 possesses certain rights upon which your railway 
 would encroach, and as municipalities are autonomic 
 bodies who can do almost everything without refer- 
 ence to Government, your espediente must be sent 
 to that corporation for its views on the points at 
 issue. To put the matter in another and more 
 
A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. ']'] 
 
 correct light, the assessor is a friend of the intendente 
 of that remote district ; and as we all like to put a 
 commission in the way of a friend when occasion 
 offers, the present seems arj opportunity of con- 
 ferring a favour at the expense of somebody else 
 which should not be missed. Some forgotten sta- 
 tute, rotting in the mildew of age, establishes a 
 right of the existence of which the municipality is, 
 in all probability, the last to be aware. But for the 
 assessor's lynx eye, the statute would probably never 
 have been unearthed. But there it is, and it must 
 be respected. In order to hasten matters, however, 
 you ask and obtain permission to take the espediente 
 yourself, so as to run no risk of its loss during 
 transmission. Then you post off to that far-away 
 partido, where perhaps wild men and cattle alone 
 disturb the stillness of the desert. After a day or 
 two's training, you arrive (as likely as not fourteen 
 or fifteen hours behind time), weary and travel- 
 stained, maybe, indeed, so begrimed with dust from 
 the crown of your head to the sole of your foot — 
 dust in your hair, dust in your eyes, dust in your 
 ears, your mouth, your nose, in the pores of your 
 skin, and wherever else dust can find a lodgment 
 — that, whereas you could swear you started from 
 town a white man, others could swear that you 
 certainly arrived a black man. You put up at the 
 only hotel the "town" affords, usually a sleepy, 
 ill-ventilated, unsanitary place, with barn-like rooms, 
 uncarpeted floors, the barest necessaries in the way 
 of furniture, cold cheerlessness in the staring plaster 
 walls, and offensive odours of garlic and letrinas 
 wherever you go. Your arrival is an event the 
 
78 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 fame whereof travelleth through all the region round 
 about. Your business is on everybody's lips. The 
 rustics come to stare at you. The unwashed, un- 
 kempt children, with their fingers in their mouths, 
 hang around the glass door of your room as if it 
 were the window of a peep-show. You are a being 
 from another world ; a something strange, the like 
 of which has never before been seen in that desert 
 spot. 
 
 After the night's rest of which you stand so much 
 in need, and which not even your voracious and 
 uninvited bed-fellows can disturb, you make elabo- 
 rate preparations for waiting upon the officials at 
 the municipalidad. The policia has had notice of 
 your coming. The swart and fierce-looking viji- 
 lantes, of whom you cannot with certainty say 
 whether they are soldiers, civilians, or policemen, 
 Indians, whites, or half-breeds, so like to each and 
 all do they seem, are gathered together round the 
 municipal building, and eye you grimly as you 
 approach, as though you were an attacking force 
 meditating a raid on the " town hall." Of this 
 building you form anything but a pleasing opinion. 
 The exterior has nothing to distinguish it from the 
 poorest private dwelling in the place, except a few 
 dingy notice-boards and a dirty escudo over the 
 entrance, with perhaps a bare flag-pole on the 
 roof The interior is as dark and cheerless as a 
 metropolitan police-court. You intimate your wish 
 to see the intendente, and are informed that he is 
 engaged, but that if you will have the goodness to 
 be seated for a little while he will be at your service. 
 While you are cooling your heels in an outer office, 
 
HIS WORSHIP THE MAYOR. 79 
 
 amusing yourself by speculating upon the mysteries 
 and miseries of the camp police, and marvelling that 
 any human beings should be found willing to lead 
 such a monotonous and sleepy existence so far away 
 from the world, you observe sturdy men with faces 
 bronzed and beards rusted by exposure to the sun 
 and air, passing to and fro and in and out, appar- 
 ently taking stock of you, perhaps calculating the 
 depths of your pockets, and you hear the sound of 
 voices and muffled laughter from the interior office. 
 Of course, the intendente has been apprised by tele- 
 gram of your visit and its object ; for, if there is one 
 good thing in the Argentine, it is that the telegraph 
 reaches the wildest as well as the most populous 
 localities. You think, perhaps, the officials are 
 discussing how they shall meet you and what line 
 of conduct they shall adopt in regard to the conces- 
 sions you require from them. Or perchance they 
 are arming themselves against you by reading up 
 that rediscovered statute which is to bring them such 
 a windfall. One after the other the strange men 
 depart, and at last you are ushered into the mayor's 
 sanctum. 
 
 "El Senor Intendente," you presume, bowing to 
 the elder of the two persons you see. 
 
 "No, Senor," he replies; "AM estd" indicating a 
 short, dark, and very young man seated at a desk. 
 The short, dark, and very young man rises, motions 
 you to a seat, and immediately resumes the impor- 
 tant task your entrance has interrupted. At last, 
 however, his honour condescends to discuss your 
 business ; and then you learn a thing or two which 
 astonishes you. You learn that in many respects 
 
8o ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 the Government is inferior to the municipaHty. 
 That you had done very wrong in going to the 
 Government for your concession without first coming 
 to the municipaHty. There it was ; in the organic 
 municipal law, the Government renounced every 
 right it ever had over municipal corporations, who 
 were now their own masters and could defy the 
 executive, the assessor, and anybody else to dictate 
 terms to them. Probably your railway would only 
 pass through two or three.' hundred yards of the 
 partido of which this intendencia was the head ; 
 but that did not alter the matter at all. The inten- 
 dente hints, perhaps, that a concession has been 
 promised to somebody else for a tramway over the 
 same route that would be traversed by your line, 
 and naturally any interference on the part of out- 
 siders is resented. You mildly point out that you 
 have been well advised on the matters of which his 
 worship speaks ; that by the general railway laws of 
 the country, private interests and the rights of cor- 
 porations are, with certain limitations, subservient 
 to that grand and much-abused thing, " utilidad 
 publica." And you further intimate that it was 
 hardly likely that a project like yours should have 
 passed unchallenged through so many competent 
 hands, such as', for instance, those of the Minister 
 of Public Works and the Assessor, or be supported 
 by such a well-known statesman as your patron, if 
 there had been any such departure from constitu- 
 tional law as his honour insinuated. The question, 
 in your humble opinion, resolved itself merely into 
 the finding of a modus vivendi whereby the interests 
 of the municipality should be identified with those 
 
DISCOMFITURE OF THE MAYOR. 61 
 
 of your project. At any rate, although you fully 
 concurred in the general justice of his honour's 
 contentions as consonant with all precedent and 
 procedure, you still trusted that a way out of the 
 difficulty might be found, agreeable to all parties. 
 His honour, however, replies most dogmatically 
 that it is useless to argue the point, that you are 
 wasting your time, as in no case could any infrac- 
 tion of the organic municipal law be countenanced 
 in the interests of concession hunters. However, 
 he will be glad to see the espediente and read what 
 it is that the assessor and the Government have had 
 the presumption to propose. Proudly you unroll 
 the bulky pile of documents, and exhibit all its 
 telling signatures in the most effective manner. 
 Plainly discomfited by such an imposing array of 
 great names and such a display of influence, his 
 honour requests that you will be good enough to 
 leave the espediente for the examination of himself 
 and his colleagues ; and with an intimation that you 
 shall be promptly communicated with, you are 
 loftily dismissed. 
 
 Two or three days pass, — in enforced idleness on 
 your part, of absolute supineness on the part of the 
 municipality. You endeavour to kill time by scour- 
 ing the neighbouring camps on the best horse you 
 can hire. Then, becoming impatient, you make 
 inquiries at the iminicipalidad and learn that the in- 
 tendente has gone to a pelota match at an adjacent 
 pueblo, and is not expected back for a day or two. 
 You post off" to that town, and find your short, 
 dark, and very young friend in jersey and trousers, 
 deep in the game of reds against blues. In the 
 
 G 
 
82 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 most casual manner possible you run across him and 
 accost him. After the healthy excitement of his 
 ball playing he is most gracious, and informs you 
 that your asimto cannot be considered before a 
 certain day, probably the periodical meeting day of 
 the " town council." Nothing for it, therefore, but 
 to wait. The day comes, as all days come. And 
 you anxiously wait until the very last hour at which 
 you think it is possible official business can be trans- 
 acted, and as you receive no notification, you pro- 
 ceed to hunt up his honour, —at his private house 
 this time. After a good deal of waiting, while the 
 mayor's digestion is soothing itself for the interview, 
 you are seen, and told that the council have taken 
 the matter into consideration and decided that, in 
 view of certain arrangements of a private nature, 
 which, from communications received, they had 
 been led to infer would be made between you and 
 himself as their representative, no opposition what- 
 ever would be offered to the scheme, which would 
 be supported as it stood ; a proviso being added, 
 however, that in case it should be found that the 
 council had misunderstood the nature of the arrange- 
 ments alluded to, certain conditions and restrictions 
 would have to be submitted for the consideration 
 of the public works department. These conditions 
 are that your line, instead of going this way, shall 
 go that — an alteration which will benefit the coun- 
 cil by augmenting the value of certain lands owned 
 by them, and compel you to a considerable out- 
 lay in building a new bridge, or widening an ex- 
 isting one. Needless to say, the "arrangements" 
 so delicately hinted at are promptly concluded to 
 
OUT OF THE OFFICIAL FRYING-PAN. 83 
 
 the satisfaction of all parties ; and the corresponding 
 dda having been labrada, you make as speedy 
 an escape from the place as the train will let you, 
 carrying away with you an exalted notion of official 
 purity. You lose no time in redepositing your espe- 
 diente at the secretaria of the ministry of public 
 works, and await further intelligence from your 
 agent, who again takes up the matter. 
 
 Although several important formalities remain to 
 be gone through, you may reckon that you have 
 now got out of the official frying-pan, only, however, 
 to fall into the legal fire. 
 
 Having evacuated the last vista — ^that is, replied 
 to the observations of the municipality — your espe- 
 diente goes to the Government escribano, whose 
 duty it is to draft the contract of concession. And 
 now comes another outlay — the deposit of a certain 
 percentage of the estimated value of your railway 
 in guarantee of your bond-fides. In the case of a 
 guaranteed concession the deposit amounts to two 
 per cent, of the approximated value. This sum you 
 may perhaps, by special favour, if you have suffi- 
 cient influence, be allowed to deposit in the form of 
 Cedulas, — a very great favour when it is considered 
 that during the whole time of the construction of 
 your railway and until the deposit is returned, the 
 interest thereon is not lost to you as it would be 
 in the case of a cash deposit. The Cedulas being, 
 moreover, accepted at their nominal value, you of 
 course buy the cheapest series in the market — 
 another considerable saving. The operation of 
 depositing the guarantee will take up at least a day, 
 for various reasons. First, you cannot get the 
 
84 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 Provincial Bank to accept the Cedulas without the 
 production of an authoritative order signed by the 
 minister or some one high in office ; and when, 
 after dodging about the Government offices ior 
 hours, and danehno- after this, that, or the other 
 official, you obtain the order, you find that the Bank 
 will take the Cedulas, but is not willing to give a 
 receipt for them, it being, you are told, contrary to 
 custom to give one for such deposits. Then you go 
 
 PROVI^XIAL BANK OF BUKNOS AVRE-;, l.A PLATA, 
 
 and hunt up some one who knows the President of 
 the Bank, to make strong representations to him on 
 the matter : and finally, after waiting a few more 
 hours danQ-linoj around other offices and other offi- 
 cials, you succeed in getting a formal acknowledg- 
 ment of the deposit of the guarantee. But by 
 this time the day has waned, all the public offices 
 are closed and all the clerks are cjone home to 
 Buenos Ayres (for they will not live in La Plata if 
 they can help it), and as you have no desire to be 
 buried alive even for one night in that enchanted 
 
THE GOVERNMENT SCRIVENER. 85 
 
 city on the plain, you also return to town, and come 
 back on the morrow to have the necessary under- 
 standing with, and superintend the work of, the 
 escribano mayor de gobierno. This is an official 
 with whom you find it essential to exercise the 
 greatest amount of caution ; for if there is the 
 slightest possibility of committing an error, or omit- 
 ting or expressing with insufficient clearness a clause 
 or a condition in your concession, this is the person 
 who will do it. He must be liberally fee'd, and his 
 clerk bribed with no niggardly hand, in order to 
 interest them in the business on hand ; and then you 
 must be intensely on the alert to detect any sins of 
 commission or omission, and must revise, and weigh, 
 and check every word they write, — nay ! follow 
 every stroke of their pens, and go over and over 
 again through all the mass of papers composing 
 your espediente, in order to be perfectly sure that 
 nothing of the least importance has escaped your 
 vigilance. For the interests at stake are so great. 
 One flaw, and your concession may be worthless. 
 If the contract is a long one, yours and the escri- 
 bano s task will be one of some days, and one which, 
 if you have any knowledge of the laws of the 
 country, you dare not entrust to any agent. You 
 spare no expense ; you suffer every hardship and 
 deprivation ; and concentrate all the powers of your 
 mind on overcoming the natural apathy of a paid 
 public official. You strive all you know to im- 
 ppnerse, — to win to yourself, body and soul, for the 
 time being, one of the least careful of the servants 
 of the Government. He must breakfast with you, 
 dine with you, sleep with you if need be ; but his 
 
86 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 interest must not be allowed to flag nor his mind to 
 wander from the business in hand. And by the 
 time you have got through this formidable task, and 
 the contract of concession is ready — beautifully 
 written, in the fine crytographic characters so dear 
 to the Argentine legal profession, on ragged-edged 
 stamped paper, by itself worth thousands of dollars 
 — you will find that your weight Is a few pounds 
 less than when you began it. But there it is, not 
 finished, but ready for the finishing stroke — the 
 signature of the Executive. 
 
 You are perhaps not very clear as to who or what 
 is the Executive in connection with your concession. 
 It is a big word, and you like to use it as often as 
 you can find occasion to do so. It has an import- 
 ant sound, and reflects its importance on the user. 
 You may have to wait a long time for the signature 
 of the Executive. Half of it you have got already, 
 but not the better half You have the signature of 
 the Minister of Public Works ; what you lack is the 
 signature of the Governor of the Province. The 
 two signatures are the Executive — majestic word ! 
 More running up and down ; more dusty train 
 journeys to and from Buenos Ayres and La Plata ; 
 more days and weeks of weary, useless waiting ; 
 more inquiries and reiterations and stereotyped 
 replies. More good money gone in bad cigars and 
 worse drinks. More wondering whether anybody 
 can have put a little stone in the path that the 
 Governor comes not, or if he comes signs every- 
 thing but your concession. But all things end in 
 his world, and so does your long vigil ; and the 
 Executive has at last signed the contract. 
 
THE FINISHING STROKE. 87 
 
 But you are not yet free. Your concession, or 
 rather an official copy of it — for the original is 
 archived — must be taken to the tribunals in order 
 that the signature of the Government escribano may 
 be attested, and the document itself be prettily 
 bound together with a narrow strip of light-blue 
 ribbon, the ends of which are made fast by a gor- 
 geous seal with a picture of the national arms and 
 the glorious sunrise of Argentine Independence 
 stamped thereon, and bearing, moreover, the super- 
 scription of the Supreme Court of Justice and the 
 hieroglyph of the Chief Judge. And after that, 
 with the utmost care, lest you should damage the 
 great seal, you must carry your concession to the 
 Foreign Office, at which for a small fee you obtain 
 a certificate of the authenticity of the preceding 
 autograph ; but this time you must be satisfied with 
 a plain rubber-stamp picture of the glorious rising 
 sun, etc., and you get a still more illegible autograph 
 of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Then you take 
 the concession, with all its seals and its ragged- 
 edged stamped paper, and its blue ribbon, and 
 pictures, and scrawls, and hieroglyphics, to H.B.M. 
 Consul, who for five shillings attests the genuineness 
 of the last hieroglyph ; and there, at last ! you are a 
 fully fledged concessionaire ! Wealth and distinc- 
 tion, and all the good things that come in their train, 
 are within your grasp. Dazzling visions fill your 
 mind — of estates, power, honours ; the homage of 
 the crowd, the admiration and envy of all your 
 relations, friends, and acquaintances. You dream of 
 the good you will do, of the friends you will make 
 happy, the gifts you will bestow, the charities you 
 
88 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 will support. And as you wander in your fool's 
 paradise, you make preparations for your voyage to 
 Europe to float your concession and realize your 
 golden dreams ; for, with certain reservations, you 
 have allowed details of your scheme to precede you, 
 so that upon your arrival you may be assured of a 
 reception befitting the dignity and importance of a 
 concessionaire. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Terrible Infantile Mortality of Buenos Ayres. — Facts and Figures. 
 — Argentine Babies won't Thrive on the Bottle. — Amas de 
 Leche. — The Baby's Host of Enemies.— The Athens of South 
 America Built on a Cesspool. — Comparative Statistics of 
 Infectio-Contagious Diseases. — Illegitimacy. — Its Causes. — 
 Morti-natality. — Faiseiises d'anges. — Parteras and their Sign- 
 boards. — An Idyll in Paint. — Domestic Servants Hard to 
 Capture. — Chinos. — Extravagance of the Argentines in the 
 Matter of Domestics. — All Sorts and Conditions of Hirelings. 
 — The Demon Butcher's Boy. — The Sort of Thing British 
 Housekeepers have to put up with. — Hawkers and Hawking. 
 — Temper-destroying Customs. 
 
 Allusion has already been made to the terrible 
 infantile mortality of Buenos Ayres. The demo- 
 graphic statistics for the year 1890 disclose some 
 rather startling facts in connection with this question, 
 which " is one of transcendent importance to the 
 country." From the returns referred to, published 
 on the first of January of this year (1891), I abstract 
 the following particulars with regard to the capital : — 
 
 " Demography is a study of paramount importance for all 
 countries, but more especially for cities like Buenos Ayres, where 
 the population is so largely composed of foreigners ; where the 
 marriages and intermarriages between the many races there repre- 
 sented produce degrees of fecundity as varied as are the com- 
 binations of nationality amongst the contracting parties; and 
 where the fruits of all unions are exposed to so ?nany dangers that 
 the probability of their ever arriving at maturity is very small. 
 
90 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 " From statistics compiled for the purposes of this Report, it 
 appears that on the ist January, 1891, the population of Buenos 
 Ayres was 550,000 — 244,076 Argentines, 305,924 foreigners. 
 These figures show an increase of about 20,000 over those for the 
 corresponding period of last year (1889). The total increase in 
 the population since the date of the last census (September, 1887) 
 is estimated at 116,625 — 21,737 through the excess of births over 
 deaths, and 94,888 through excess of immigration over emigra- 
 tion. 
 
 "The total number of deaths amongst the Argentine community 
 during 1890 was 10,074, of which 66-'] per cent, mere of children 
 under five years of age. Amongst the foreigners the total number 
 of deaths during the same period was 6,475, of which only 606, or 
 'g^Jier cent, were of infants under five years. The following table 
 illustrates this remarkable difference : — 
 
 
 Argentines. 
 
 Foreigners. 
 
 
 M. 
 
 F. 
 
 Total. 
 
 M. 
 
 F. Total. 
 
 Up to I month . . . 
 From I to 6 months . . 
 From 6 months to i year 
 From I to 5 years . . 
 
 655 
 
 887 
 
 669 
 
 1,378 
 
 513 
 
 751 
 
 541 
 
 1,327 
 
 1,168 
 1,638 
 1,210 
 2,705 
 
 2 
 16 
 
 43 
 246 
 
 I 
 
 15 
 
 39 
 
 244 
 
 3 
 31 
 
 82 
 490 
 
 These figures are, however, very misleading. 
 According to the returns it would appear that, for 
 every 667 deaths of Argentine children under five 
 years during 1890, there was less than one death 
 amongst children of foreign parentage ; and that, 
 whilst 1,168 Argentine infants under one month 
 died during 1890, only 3 deaths of foreign infants 
 of the same age occurred. But these statements 
 require explanation. It will be noted that the 
 native element represents only 44'38 per cent, of 
 the total population of Buenos Ayres, while the 
 foreign element is 5 5 '62 per cent. — an excess of 
 
THE NATIVES SHINING VIRTUE. 9 1 
 
 1 1 '24 in favour of the latter. Of the total foreign 
 population more than 50 per cent, is Italian. Those 
 dens, the conventillos, are inhabited chiefly by 
 Italians ; and it is amongst the Italians that dirt, 
 neglect, carelessness, and ignorance of the proper 
 methods of rearing children mostly prevail. It is, 
 besides, a well-known fact amongst all classes, that 
 it is next to impossible to rear an infant by artificial 
 feeding. No one who really values a child's life 
 ever attempts to bring it up "on the bottle." Even 
 the infants of the foundling hospitals are either put 
 out to be wet-nursed or are wet-nursed on the 
 premises. The natives, moreover, are most extras, 
 vagant in their employment of wet-nurses, many 
 families carrying this fashionable extravagance to 
 such an absurd pitch as to employ two amas de leche 
 for each baby — one for the day and another for the 
 night. In every way the Argentines are lavish in 
 their care of their young, parental affection being 
 one of their shining virtues. Furthermore, the 
 indigenous race is less susceptible to the vicissitudes 
 of its native climate and soil than the settler who is 
 not thoroughly acclimatised. As a class the Argen- 
 tines are better off than the majority of foreigners, 
 who may very often be found dwelling amidst 
 squalid surroundings, and living on the refuse of the 
 markets. The figures in the returns, which record 
 such a phenomenal difference in the death-rate of 
 Argentine and foreign infants under five years, 
 convey therefore a most erroneous impression. All 
 children born in the country are regarded by law as 
 Argentines, and as such they are registered. In 
 the total death returns of children must therefore be 
 
92 ARGENTIXA AND THE ARGEXTIXES. 
 
 included no inconsiderable portion of the children 
 of Italian and other foreign parentage born in the 
 country ; whilst the 606 deaths of foreign children 
 in the returns refer to the children of immigrants. 
 The report says further : — 
 
 " It is of the utmost urgency for the future welfare of the country 
 that the causes of the great mortahty amongst infants should be 
 sought for and checked. The rigorous application of the prin- 
 ciples of hygiene would undoubtedly diminish the present high 
 rate of mortality ; for it cannot be denied that the main factors in 
 the production of such rate are the anti-hygienic surroundings 
 amidst which children are for the most part compelled to live, 
 the violent and sudden changes of temperature to which the 
 climate of Buenos Ayres, more perhaps than any other climate in 
 the world, is so peculiarly liable, the cold and humid atmosphere, 
 and the lack of proper care. 
 
 "In the decade 1875-84, in a total of 67,224 deaths registered, 
 17,112, or 2S'67 per cent, were of infants under one year. The 
 mortality of infants under twelve months is thus nearly double 
 that of London, and more than double that of Paris, the respective 
 proportions per thousand inhabitants being: Buenos Ayres, 7 "8; 
 London, 4^2 ; Paris, 3'8." 
 
 The diseases most fatal to infant life in Buenos 
 Ayres are the following : gastro-enteritis, which 
 carries off annually nearly double the number of 
 victims to any other disease ; meningitis, pneumonia, 
 enteritis, tetanus, bronchitis, bronco-pneumonia, 
 smallpox, and diphtheria. In addition, a very 
 large mortality, especially amongst infants under 
 twelve months, is due to a cause thinly veiled under 
 the heading of "congenital debility." On the other 
 hand, the diseases least fatal to infant life are phthisis 
 and consumption. The following table shows the 
 number of deaths of infants under two years from 
 the diseases named during the last three years : — 
 
THE BABIES ENEMIES. 
 
 93 
 
 Gastro-enteritis .... 
 
 Meningitis 
 
 Pneumonia 
 
 Enteritis 
 
 Tetanus 
 
 Bronchitis 
 
 Bronco-pneumonia . . . 
 
 Smallpox 
 
 Diphtheria 
 
 " Congenital debility " . . 
 Phthisis and consumption 
 
 TO 1 YEAR. 
 
 I TO 2 YEARS. 
 
 1 888. 
 
 1S89. 
 
 1890. 
 
 1888. 
 
 1889. 
 
 1890. 
 
 3°4 
 
 569 
 
 477 
 
 121 
 
 325 
 
 163 
 
 285 
 
 .314 
 
 320 
 
 145 
 
 172 
 
 155 
 
 257 
 
 257 
 
 239 
 
 179 
 
 276 
 
 165 
 
 241 
 
 298 
 
 224 
 
 88 
 
 188 
 
 90 
 
 246 
 
 .399 
 
 340 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 189 
 
 244 
 
 272 
 
 64 
 
 III 
 
 81 
 
 14s 
 
 170 
 
 252 
 
 66 
 
 147 
 
 112 
 
 124 
 
 34 
 
 345 
 
 89 
 
 39 
 
 259 
 
 102 
 
 56 
 
 104 
 
 237 
 
 176 
 
 180 
 
 382 
 
 523 
 
 468 
 
 3 
 
 II 
 
 7 
 
 55 
 
 78 
 
 67 
 
 20 
 
 68 
 
 28 
 
 Total. 
 
 2,159 
 
 i>39i 
 i>375 
 1,129 
 988 
 961 
 892 
 890 
 
 855 
 
 1,394 
 
 .•Ji6 
 
 The following remarks with regard to the preva- 
 lence of diphtheria by an eminent Anglo-Argentine 
 Tnddico are worthy of reproduction in this place. 
 He says : " Diphtheria is essentially a disease en- 
 demic to humid localities. Unpaved or ill-paved 
 streets in which, after rain has fallen, the water 
 forms into pools and is allowed to stagnate until its 
 surface becomes coated with vegetable life ; pdtios 
 without paving on an impenetrable and non-porous 
 soil like that of Buenos Ayres, where the water 
 soaks the surface but does not penetrate below it ; 
 such streets and pdtios form perfect little campitos 
 in the centre of the town, and necessarily spread 
 humidity and engender conditions most favourable 
 to the development of diphtheritic germs." 
 
 And again : '^ As vehicles for the propagation of 
 diphtheria, schools and velorios must be placed in the 
 front rank." 
 
 And: "The isolation of a patient suffering from 
 diphtheria is a most necessary measure ; yet here it 
 
94 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 is the precaution least of all observed. In ninety- 
 four conventillos in which victims died from this 
 disease, in not a single instance was isolation 
 observed ; in seventy- seven half-conventillos the 
 sufferers were isolated in only twelve cases ; in three 
 boarding-houses it was neglected, and 4n forty-nine 
 private houses in only eighteen cases was it 
 observed." 
 
 Elsewhere the same authority has published some 
 grave denunciations against the manner in which 
 the so-called sanitary works were allowed to be 
 carried on, and the great infantile mortality attribut- 
 able to this cause. Buenos Ayres is built on a vast 
 cesspool ; and its imporous soil retains all the 
 deleterious fecal matter which has been accumulating 
 for generations. When a street is newly paved, or 
 the flagstones are for any purpose removed, the 
 smells which arise from the uncovered earth are 
 frequently so overpowering that the passers-by have 
 to hold their noses. "In 1870, when half the streets 
 of Buenos Ayres were cut up by the water works 
 and tramway engineers, the mortality and sickness 
 were frightful." It has been said of Boulogne that 
 it is a place of — 
 
 " Four-and-twenty stinks, as many smells ; " 
 
 but the figures might very wel^ be multiplied ad 
 libitinn and appropriated to Buenos Ayres, where 
 every hole has its own effluvium, every corner, 
 every opening their own sweet odours. What a 
 healthy place it is may be seen from the following 
 table, quoted from the report under examination, 
 showing the prevalence of infectio-contagious dis- 
 
ILLEGITIMACY IN ARGENTINA. 
 
 95 
 
 eases as compared with some of the principal 
 European cities. The figures are adjusted in each 
 case to 10,000 inhabitants : — 
 
 City. 
 
 Small- 
 pox. 
 
 Measles. 
 
 Scar- 
 latina. 
 
 Typhoid. 
 
 Diph- 
 theria. 
 
 Phthisis. 
 
 Buenos Ayres 
 
 4,S-.S 
 
 i-S 
 
 °-s 
 
 I2"2 
 
 19-9 
 
 22'9 
 
 London. . . 
 
 o'o 
 
 S'3 
 
 I -8 
 
 I '4 
 
 4-7 
 
 17-8 
 
 Paris . . . 
 
 0-6 
 
 S'4 
 
 07 
 
 4"4 
 
 7-5 
 
 477 
 
 Berlin . . . 
 
 o"o 
 
 I'2 
 
 !•.=; 
 
 2-3 
 
 iS'3 
 
 31-5 
 
 Vienna . . . 
 
 O'l 
 
 4'4 
 
 17 
 
 i'3 
 
 6-2 
 
 53'o 
 
 St. Petersburg 
 
 0-3 
 
 4-5 
 
 6-1 
 
 8-5 
 
 4'i 
 
 47'4 
 
 Brussels . . 
 
 O'O 
 
 2"0 
 
 O'O 
 
 2'0 
 
 2 '3 
 
 32-4 
 
 Another point upon which the report touches is 
 the progressive increase of illegitimacy during the 
 last three years. I again quote from the returns 
 for 1 890 : — 
 
 " The returns of births for 1890 show the number of illegitimate 
 children born during that year to be equal to 130 per mil. of the 
 population; in 1889 the proportion was 126 per mil. ; in 1888, 
 124 per mil.; and in 1887, 123 per mil. The increase of ille- 
 gitimacy, besides being progressive and completely irrespective of 
 the increase in the total population, has been more marked in 
 1890 than in any previous year." 
 
 The cause of this progressive increase is not far 
 to seek. It is a striking illustration of the practical 
 working of the new Civil Marriage Law. By this 
 vexatious measure persons desirous of contracting 
 matrimony must first enter into a solemn engage- 
 ment, or public promise of marriage, the names, 
 nationalities, callings, and ages of the contracting 
 parties being published day by day in the news- 
 papers. Each party must produce all manner of 
 
96 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 documents in attestation of his or her origin — 
 certificate of birth, or of baptism ; and must give 
 many inconvenient particulars with regard to their 
 parents. All this presents little or no insurmount- 
 able difficulty to natives, or to any one born on the 
 spot ; but to foreigners, very few of whom have the 
 required particulars at hand, and cannot marry until 
 they have procured them from Europe or elsewhere 
 — often a matter of impossibility — the annoyance 
 and delay are so great that many prefer to live 
 together unsanctified by the matrimonial rite rather 
 than submit to the indignities and vexations im- 
 posed by the Civil Marriage Law. The increase 
 in illegitimacy is a signal but natural result of a 
 measure which may be very well for France, or for 
 any city where the native element predominates, but 
 is totally unfitted for a place like Buenos Ayres, 
 whose population is formed of representatives from 
 all the countries of the world. The compiler of the 
 returns from \\'hich I have quoted, however, makes 
 no allusion whatever to this cause of the increase of 
 illegitimacy ; probably because illegitimacy is not a 
 very serious matter in such a hybrid settlement, 
 where the laws are nearly as favourable to illegitimate 
 as to legitimate heirs. But the returns point their 
 own moral. Comparing Buenos Ayres with other 
 cities in this respect, the proportion of illegitimacy is 
 stated as follows : — 
 
 Buenos Ayres. 
 
 . 41-8 per mille. 
 
 London . 
 
 • 3o'2 
 
 Paris 
 
 • 27-3 
 
 Berlin . 
 
 • 31-8 „ 
 
 Vienna . 
 
 • 33-8 „ 
 
 Brussels . 
 
 • 28-0 
 
FAISEUSES DANGES. 
 
 97 
 
 There is one other point in connection with the 
 demography of Buenos Ayres which deserves special 
 notice — the number of stillborn children, which is 
 annually higher in the Argentine than in any other 
 country. In regard to this matter the report has 
 the following : — 
 
 "During 1890 the number of stillborn children reached a total 
 of 1,315 — 768 males, 547 females. This represents 5^4 per cent, 
 of the total births for the year. In 1889 the proportion was 5 '6 
 per cent, and in 1888, 5-5 per cent. The important part which 
 midwives — of whom there are such large numbers in Buenos 
 Ayres not properly qualified — play in this matter has been widely 
 recognised; and sinister remarks with regard to the supineness 
 of the authorities have frequently appeared in the columns of the 
 press. But the note of alarm which has been so often sounded 
 by the journals has hitherto been disregarded, and the number 
 of victims wilfully or accidentally done to death every year from 
 the cause mentioned continues to be very great. Compared with 
 other nations in this respect BuenoS Ayres again appears to 
 occupy the most unfavourable position, as may be seen by the 
 following figures : — 
 
 Italy . 
 
 2-8 
 
 per cent 
 
 Germany . 
 
 3'9 
 
 jj 
 
 Norway 
 
 ys 
 
 )j 
 
 Roumania 
 
 1-6 
 
 »j 
 
 Sweden . 
 
 31 
 
 jj 
 
 Austria 
 
 2 '4 
 
 jj 
 
 France 
 
 4'S 
 
 )) 
 
 Belgium . 
 
 4'4 
 
 )» 
 
 Denmark . 
 
 3-6 
 
 »» 
 
 Holland . 
 
 S'l 
 
 )) 
 
 Prussia . 
 
 4'i 
 
 J) 
 
 Switzerland 
 
 4-2 
 
 )) 
 
 Buenos Ayres . 
 
 • S'4 
 
 J) 
 
 It is true that the authorities some years ago 
 were frightened into taking strong measures to 
 
 H 
 
98 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 check the morti-natality then prevalent all over the 
 country. Parteras — -faiseuses cCanges as the French 
 ironically term them — were prohibited from taking 
 as boarders "embarrassed" women, whose offspring 
 were either done to death or carried to the found- 
 ling hospitals. But the evil appears to be again on 
 the increase, owing chiefly to the supineness of local 
 authorities. No supervision of any kind is exercised 
 over midwives' "boarding-houses," notwithstanding 
 the prevalence of other abominable practices. Surely 
 an anomaly all this, in a country which spends large 
 sums annually in attracting population ! 
 
 Mentioning midwives brings to mind recollections 
 of the innumerable grotesque sign-boards which one 
 sees in all parts of the city over the doors or windows 
 1 of the houses inhabited by theparieras. Like many 
 another public exhibition in Buenos Ayres, these 
 sign-boards afford an indication of the strange want 
 of delicacy amongst the people, some of them being 
 so staringly coarse that the foreigner unaccustomed 
 to such things is often put to the blush. They beat 
 anything in Larwood and Hotten's " History of 
 Sign-boards " for uncouthness. I remember one 
 sign in particular, which we used to pass day after 
 day in the Calle Suipacha. It was the trade mark 
 
 of the Senora Rosa de , and represented, in 
 
 colours the most glaring, and with a copiousness of 
 detail and a suggestiveness worthy of better things, 
 a tall and graceful lady dressed in black, with a 
 very pink face, black eyes and brown hair, and a 
 countenance beaming with philanthropic benevolence 
 towards the species, in the act of bending graciously 
 towards a pink cherub which appeared to be making 
 
NATIVE DOMESTICS. 99 
 
 Strenuous efforts to extricate itself from the soft 
 petals of a full-blown rose, set amidst a profusion of 
 leaves of the most vivid green on a yellow ground. 
 The infant wore an enchanting smile, and appeared 
 to be holding out its arms to the benign matron in 
 black, in a supplicating manner quite natural to a 
 new-born babe ; and there was about the whole 
 scene an idyllic charm which could not fail to attract 
 the most matter-of-fact. This sign, however, was 
 delicacy itself compared with many others to be 
 seen in some of the streets of the city, but which do 
 not bear description here. 
 
 We never were able to understand why it was ' 
 that only natives could get and keep good servants. 
 They pay them less and treat them worse than 
 most foreigners — at least, than English people do. 
 Yet the natives are seldom subjected to the incon- 
 veniences which the latter, especially, have to put 
 up with in the matter of domestics. Good servants 
 are, of course, difficult to obtain, even at home ; but 
 in Buenos Ayres, where they are better paid and 
 have more liberty, they rarely stay long with you. 
 Even when you bring them from England " on 
 agreement," they soon discover that the agreement 
 is not really binding ; and as soon as they have 
 learned a little about the customs of the country, 
 off they go, either to get married, or to "better 
 themselves." The natives have not this trouble. | 
 Very many of their dependents are unpaid chinos 
 — slaves in all but the name. These chinos are 
 interesting little people. They have a comical ugli- 
 ness about them which strikes one in the same 
 way that the ugliness of the pug-dog does. They 
 
lOO ARGENTINA AXD THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 have small bodies, enormous heads and flat features, 
 tawny skins and wiry black hair, which sticks up 
 all over their heads like a chimney-sweep's brush. 
 In General A.'s household there were no less than 
 five of these chinos, and we soon found it advisable 
 to avoid their neighbourhood, on account of sundry 
 parasites, which quickly manifested a decided pre- 
 ference for the clean white flesh of an Englishman. 
 In some native families with whom we were 
 acquainted, there were at least as many servants as 
 members of the family, from the ama de leche down 
 to the kitchen scrub ; and it must be confessed that 
 the servants of the natives are devoted to their 
 masters, body and soul, and will lie for them, steal 
 for them, do anything for them ; while to anybody 
 not an intimate of the family their behaviour is rude 
 and boorish. The dependent who is best paid and 
 most considerately treated is the ama de leche. The 
 Argentines take a pride in dressing her up, and 
 decking her in smart ribbons and lace. Like the 
 French bonne, when she goes out, as she often does, 
 with the master and mistress, she is expected to 
 wear a white cap with long streamers and white 
 muslin aprons trimmed with lace. But these are 
 the only tokens of servitude she has to show. If 
 she is successful in rearing her charge she is loaded 
 with presents of clothing and money, and comes to 
 be looked upon as a friend of the family, and is 
 treated accordingly. Most amas are married women ; 
 but the liberal pay, the many perquisites, and the 
 kind treatment they meet with, are temptations 
 which many a poor foreign girl finds it impossible 
 to resist. In the case of married women, it pays 
 
THE DEMON OF THE DAWN. lOI 
 
 them better to go out nursing other people's children, 
 and earn from $70 to $80 per month, besides their 
 keep, and often the additional advantage of a lodg- 
 ing for their husbands, than it does to stay at home 
 and take care of their own infants. And this adds 
 one more to the already formidable list of dangers 
 to which infant life is exposed ; for the amds child 
 is usually put out to be nursed by women of lower 
 class than the mother — Italian or Neapolitan women 
 — who are only too glad to farm any number at 
 $20 the month, and rarely fail to nurse the poor 
 innocents to death. 
 
 Waiters, porters (changadores), the baker's man, 
 the mozo from the almacen, or stores, the gentleman 
 of strong individuality and very decided views who 
 brings your coals or coke to the door, but cannot 
 be persuaded or coerced into bringing them within 
 doors without extra payment — all this sort of depen- 
 dents are queer folk in Buenos Ayres. The poorer 
 the individual, and the humbler his calling, the 
 brighter glows the spark of republican independence 
 in his bosom. We always had a lively regard for 
 that demon of the dawn — the butcher's boy. The 
 " rows " we have had with him, and the pitched 
 battles we have witnessed between him and the 
 servants defy description. He used often to rouse 
 us from our slumbers at the untimely hour of 4 a.m., 
 perhaps after we had lain awake for hours, tormented 
 by the heat and the insects, and had just sunk 
 into a heavy doze — only to be startled out of our 
 well-earned sleep by this fiend of flesh and blood 
 bang, bang, banging at the door, till the whole 
 household — nay, the whole street — was aroused by 
 
I02 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 his infernal din. Then we would have to lie and 
 listen to the choice language of the boy and the maid. 
 Once he proved too much for us; our patience gave 
 way, and we rushed down to the door, got hold of 
 the nasty greasy shoulders of the blood-stained imp, 
 and shook him till he roared for mercy. And then 
 we sent a deputation to the carnicero to relate our 
 little grievance, and demand redress. And what 
 should you think the carnicero said, almost with 
 tears in his eyes? — "Ah, yes, that boy! He knew 
 what a terror he was to many of his customers. 
 But what could /^e do ? If he discharged him, who 
 could he find to take his place ? And it was use- 
 less to talk to him, because he would only laugh in 
 his face. But he was ready to pledge his word that 
 he would do his best to prevent further annoyance 
 if the patron would have the goodness to overlook 
 this one little offence " ; and with this the deputa- 
 tion was fain to be content, and as it left the shop, 
 lo ! there was that sly young imp peeping round 
 the corner, taking it all in, grinning, and making 
 faces at everybody. For a little while after that 
 things went smoothly; but "the cussedness of the 
 crittur" soon showed itself in other ways, for now 
 he seldom put in an appearance with the day's 
 orders until close upon the breakfast hour (10.30 a.m. 
 with us). His excuse was either that he had for- 
 gotten to deliver the meat or had omitted to bring 
 it, and had had to go back to the shop for it — a dis- 
 tance of a mile and a half But as this interfered 
 with his own pursuits and plans, he gradually worked 
 back to the small hours of the morning, and the 
 whole thing was repeated. We thought we would 
 
TROUBLES OF HOUSEKEEPERS. IO3 
 
 be equal with him, and one day took the knocker 
 off the door ; but this only made matters worse ; 
 for the poor door got kicked and thumped and 
 shaken in a way that bade fair to bring it down 
 about our ears. Then we frightened the incorrigible 
 young fiend so that for days afterwards he would 
 not get off his horse, but threw the basket with 
 the meat on to the doorstep, and there leaving it 
 rode away for his life ; and usually, when the maid 
 opened the door, she found the meat half gnawed 
 away by stray cats or dogs. But Nemesis overtook 
 that boy at last ; one morning his horse fell, and was 
 injured so that it had to be shot, while the boy was 
 laid up for some time with a broken limb. 
 
 This trifling experience shows the sort of thing 
 that people who go in for housekeeping in Buenos'\ 
 Ayres have to put up with — English people in par- 
 ticular being victimised more than any others by 
 chapmen and hawkers, under an exaggerated mis- 
 conception which seems to prevail everywhere of 
 the reputed wealth of the English. ''Ah, Senora ! 
 Usted es rica y yo soy pobre, imi.y pobre /" (Ah, 
 ma'am ! you are rich and I am poor, very poor !) one 
 hears from all this sort of people. As some persons 
 believe there are no poor Jews, so in Buenos Ayres 
 nobody believes that English people can be poor, 
 and everybody acts up to this belief All the trades- 
 people's assistants are nearly, if not quite, as trouble- 
 some as the butcher's boy. The man who brings 
 your wine refuses to carry it to the bin unless you 
 previously agree to pay him a dollar ; and the char- 
 bonnier stipulates a sum for which he is willing to 
 take your charcoal to the cellar. In one house 
 
I04 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 where we lived, the senora made a contract with the 
 dustman to carry away the refuse from the back of 
 the premises for so much the month, and his breakfast 
 thrown in ; and this worthy municipal servant seldom 
 failed to grumble at the quality of the food given 
 him, and rarely omitted to ask if there was not 
 some wine, or something else by way of luxury. 
 But, of course, the good lady used to think it was 
 worth something to get the dust taken through the 
 patios by the scavenger, because everybody is sup- 
 posed to put it outside the street door ready for the 
 morning collection — a savoury and wholesome cus- 
 tom, as may be readily imagined. One may wrangle 
 and jangle morning, noon, and night, ruin one's 
 digestion and spoil one's temper, if one resents the 
 exactions and combats the petty annoyances to 
 which one is subjected by this class of people. In 
 the markets, in the stores, in the tienaas, at the 
 door, everything bought must be haggled for ; and 
 the snarling, and " cheek," and personalities which 
 are freely exchanged in the course of these trans- 
 actions is quite wonderful. You can buy almost 
 anything at the door, if you like. Hawkers go 
 about all day with baskets of live poultry, to which 
 they never think of giving bite or sup ; and on a 
 hot day you may see the poor things — turkeys, 
 fowls, and ducks — with drooping heads, lack-lustre 
 eyes, and mouths agape with thirst. Another 
 carries fish strung up at the ends of long poles ; 
 another brings eggs and sausages and black- pud- 
 dings, another meat, another fruit and vegetables, 
 another iron and tin-ware, another lace and hosiery, 
 and another clothing. The packmen carry most 
 
TEMPER-TRYING CUSTOMS. IO5 
 
 astonishing loads, and are exceedingly deft in display- 
 ing their wares. And as in Italy so it is in Buenos 
 Ayres, where almost all the hawkers are Italians, 
 everything is made a matter of bargaining and chaf- 
 fering. It would be an insult to the chapman toj 
 pay him what he first demands for an article. His 
 ability to cheat you into a bad bargain after all 
 would be thrown away. When one gets used to 
 this mode of dealing, it is usually found that the 
 real price of an article is about one-fourth or one- 
 fifth of the amount first asked for it ; and to avoid 
 being cheated right and left, one must have a good 
 stock of Spanish expletives at command, and be 
 prepared to withstand a lot of pantomime and abuse. 
 But it requires a deal of philosophy to preserve the 
 smoothness of one's temper. Constant dropping 
 wears away a stone, and constant haggling wears 
 away good temper, and the interruptions to domestic 
 harmony from these things are so numerous and 
 harassing that life at times is a perfect misery. To 
 come back to the civilities of English tradespeople is 
 like coming home to a cheerful family circle after a 
 tormenting day in the city. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Argentine Women. — Portrait of an Argentine Girl. — Silver-tongued 
 Sirens — A Good Voice Rare. — Virtue of the Argentinas irre- 
 proachable. — Venus' Gifts to the Argentinas — M. Marcoy's 
 Description of Spanish- American Women. — Married Ladies 
 and their Manners. — Argentine Men. — Born Dandies. — 
 Imitators of all that is Showy. — Patriotism and Amor Propio 
 Ruin the Country. — The Argentine's Disdain of Labour. 
 — Dominant Characteristic of the Race. — Old Children. — 
 Buenos Ayres in Advance of London. — Luxury and Extrava- 
 gance. — Everything Borrowed or Stolen from the Foreigner. 
 — A Happy-go-Lucky People. — The Gambling Instinct. — 
 Mar del Plata. — A Model Mayor. 
 
 Buenos Ayres is celebrated for its beautiful women. 
 Before marriage, between the ages of fifteen and 
 seventeen, many of them are indeed beautiful, and 
 need an inspired pencil to do justice to their abun- 
 dant charms. Here is a word-picture drawn by a 
 "vanished hand" long ago, and which experience 
 has not led us to consider too highly coloured : — • 
 
 " Imagine a brunette of fifteen or sixteen devel- 
 oped to a precocious maturity. An erect figure of 
 medium height, but splendidly proportioned, with a 
 bust that would make Lytton's flat-chested English 
 women green with envy. A proud and graceful 
 carriage. A face perfectly oval, with a complexion 
 spotless, but with a slight tinge of Creole blood, that 
 imparts to the cheeks a hue like that of the damask 
 
 io6 
 
vox HUMANA ARGENTINA. 107 
 
 rose. Eyes large, dark, and lustrous, fringed by- 
 long silken lashes and over-arched by brows which, 
 with the ' night of her hair,' make the white fore- 
 head look like alabaster. Small and delicately 
 chiselled nostrils that dilate nervously at every 
 inspiration. Teeth so white and regular that to 
 catch a glimpse of them through the arch of a smile 
 is to wonder at nature's perfection. And the only 
 fault of the beautiful face — the full red lips and the 
 sensuous lines that surround them, symbols of a 
 passionate and voluptuous nature. Imagine this 
 face set in a frame of soft black hair and surmounted 
 by a white hat of the most coquettish fashion on 
 which repose real flowers and live fire-flies ; and that 
 lithesome figure attired in a dress of some soft tex- 
 ture and delicate tint, and of a fashion known only 
 to the Worths of Paris and Madrid, with a sparkle 
 here and there of a diamond, or a shy glimmer of 
 dull gold ; and imagine the whole being instinct with 
 the grace and vivacity of youth ; and you have a 
 portrait of an Argentine girl." 
 
 But for all these charms her beauty is not of that 
 kind which moves one's higher nature. It is too 
 sensuous. It dazzles the eye and captivates the 
 senses, but does not appeal to the soul as does the 
 refined and ethereal beauty of an English maiden. 
 As some one cynically observes : " They are fine 
 animals." And then that greatest charm of woman 
 after personal beauty — the voice. Argentine women 
 have voices in which there is neither sweetness nor 
 music, — harsh, dissonant, and shrill. You can easily 
 fancy — perhaps you have experienced — the revulsion 
 of feeling which comes over you when in a crowded 
 
Io8 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 room — at a concert, or a ball, or in church — you 
 have been enraptured by a bewitching figure, abound- 
 ing with every symmetrical grace, and the owner 
 suddenly turns and reveals a face, homely, plain, or 
 positively ugly. The same feeling comes over one 
 when first he beholds an Argentine beauty and 
 hears the tones of her voice. 
 
 It is just the same with the men, many of whom 
 have voices to which it is almost painful to listen. 
 There is something about the climate which is ad- 
 verse to the development of the voice, and by which 
 every one is more or less affected. A rich and 
 manly voice is rare, and a sweet-toned female voice 
 is rarer still. Fancy how ludicrous it must be when 
 one confronts a burly senator who ought to have 
 the lungs of a stentor, but who, when he opens his 
 mouth, produces the squeaky tones of senility, or the 
 wheezing, husky notes of an asthmatic ! 
 
 For the rest, Argentine girls are lively, playful, 
 and mischievous as kittens, and very fond of gaiety. 
 They are passionately addicted to music ; and the 
 acme of their ambition is the attainment of three 
 things — the piano, French, and a string of lovers ; 
 in the pursuit of which objects they are ardent and 
 clever. In the matter of virtue they are above 
 reproach, for the simple reason that they are for 
 ever under the eye of an ugly or an ancient duenna. 
 Take away the duenna and they are on fire immedi- 
 ately. But they, are never out of leading-strings 
 from the cradle to the marriage-bed ; so that their 
 virtue is exposed to few temptations. 
 
 As for the married ladies, it is seldom that they 
 preserve even a ripened form of their youthful 
 
STANDARD OF A FINE WOMAN. 1 09 
 
 beauty. A natural tendency to corpulence is en- 
 couraged by indolent habits, and by an excessive 
 fondness for the flesh-pots. They take little or no 
 exercise, and will not walk three squares if there 
 is a handy conveyance. After dejeuner they sleep, 
 and after dinner sit in the sala and gossip for 
 hours at a stretch ; or perhaps on a fine evening 
 ride as far as Calle Florida, and stroll indolently up 
 and down the fashionable promenade for an hour 
 or so, and then ride back again. With such habits 
 it would be strange indeed if they should grow 
 otherwise than portly and heavy. But the standard 
 test of a fine woman in Argentina is her weight ; 
 and, judged by this, there are a great many very 
 fine specimens. Many develop hirsute appendages 
 which are the envy of beardless youth. The man- 
 ners of the matrons are, generally speaking, abrupt 
 and unpolished. Those who have travelled, or who 
 come into contact with the better-class foreigners, ac- 
 quire a superficial veneer oi ton; but even then their 
 manners are aggressively haughty. In public espe- 
 cially one observes the signs of ill-breeding every- 
 where. On the narrow footpaths of the city, on 
 which it is just possible to walk two abreast, you 
 see big and showily dressed women elbowing every- 
 body out of the way, and never budging an inch. 
 What politeness concedes as a courtesy is exacted 
 as a right. Any day one may see richly attired 
 females request gentlemen to vacate their seats on 
 a crowded car, and plump themselves down in them 
 without a word of thanks, or even the look of 
 gratitude which common civility demands. Large 
 enough to fill the space allotted to two individuals 
 
no ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 of ordinary size, they squeeze their huge persons, 
 regardless of everybody's convenience or comfort, 
 into bits of seats barely capacious enough for chil- 
 dren. However, gentlemen are growing wiser now 
 — or ruder, which you please — -and decline to sur- 
 render their rights to thankless vulgarity. 
 
 As mothers, the women err on the side of kind- 
 ness, and indulge their children to a degree that 
 does them both quite as much harm as good. They 
 are zealous in the performance of their religious 
 duties, devoted to works of charity, and mindful of 
 the claims of kinship. The religion of the country 
 is practically kept alive only by the women ; for the 
 men tacitly disavow all religion, and if they go to 
 church at all, do so to ogle the girls and disport 
 themselves, and not for devotional purposes. The 
 reverence which the oleaginous and podgy fathers 
 inspire in young and beautiful women is incompre- 
 hensible to everybody except themselves. 
 
 I came across, the other day, the following 
 paragraph relating to portena women, and repro- 
 duce it for the sake of its amusing hyperbole. I 
 fancy it must have been penned by an Anglo- 
 Portefio, for it smacks strongly of his style : "It 
 is said that when Venus was dispensing her gifts 
 amongst her sisters, she gave prominence in grace 
 and elegance to the Spanish woman ; in liveliness 
 and savoir /aire to the French woman ; to the 
 Italian perfection of form and feature; to the 
 English woman a complexion clear as the morning, 
 and so on, — some special gift to the women of every 
 race upon earth ; but that she forgot the portena 
 altogether, till being reminded of her neglect, she 
 
WINGLESS ANGELS. I 1 1 
 
 took from each woman of every race a fragment of 
 the special perfection of each one of them and be- 
 stowed it upon the portena, thus creating a race of 
 women unequalled in the variety of their charms in 
 any country under the sun." What a pity she for- 
 got the voice ! 
 
 But, for satirical humour, commend me to the 
 following description of the women of Spanish- 
 America, written by an amusing French traveller, 
 M. Paul Marcoy : " The women of Arequipa, 
 whose personal portraiture has been rather neg- 
 lected by travellers, are, for the most part, dis- 
 tinguished by that happy roundness of form so 
 favourable to beauty. In this respect they preserve 
 a just medium between the ampler majesty of the 
 Chilians and the impassioned graces of the women 
 of Lima. Though but of middling stature, they 
 carry themselves well ; their shoulders are finely 
 formed, their feet small, their movements distin- 
 guished by that rhythmic balancing of the hips which 
 the Spaniards call meneo, from the verb menear, and 
 which the French rem^ler translates with sufficient 
 point. If to these charms we add that of their in- 
 telligent and lively looks, features delicate but ir- 
 regular, black eyes whose glances are like winged 
 arrows ; their vermilion lips, from which repartees 
 and sparkling sallies, seasoned with a grain of 
 Andalusian salt, are poured out like apples and 
 raisins from the Horn of Plenty ; the reader may 
 form some idea, perhaps, of these charming 
 creatures." It should be observed that the verb 
 menear signifies to waddle, and meneo, " a wriggling 
 or waddling motion of the body." Fancy a waddle 
 
1 I 2 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 or wriggle being described as "a rhythmic balancing 
 of the hips," and " roundness of form " for corpu- 
 lence often quite ponderous ! 
 
 Male Argentines are, generally speaking, hand- 
 some-featured, under-sized, and effeminate. In man- 
 ners and dress they affect French fashions, and do 
 it indifferently well. An unmarried Argentine is 
 a born dandy. He announces his presence by a 
 hundred perfumes ; and his symmetrical moustaches, 
 twisted to invisible points ; his immaculate linen, 
 his jewelled fob, his rings and studs, his gold-headed 
 malacca, his patent-leather boots or shoes tapered to 
 an agonising point, his flowered vest and gorgeous 
 cravat, show that his chief care in life is the adorn- 
 ment of his exquisite person. He is clever, witty, 
 and showy, — all sparkling facets, but eminently 
 superficial. As a companion he is lively, affable, 
 and unreliable. He is a clever linguist, for talk is 
 with him an inherent gift ; and to embromar and 
 charlar come as natural and necessary to him as his 
 daily food. He is proud, but not haughty ; into- 
 lerant of dulness, and impatient of virtue. Origin- 
 ality he utterly lacks, but, in compensation, his 
 imitative faculties are abnormally developed. From 
 the Constitution down to the fashion of a necktie, 
 everything about him is a copy of some foreign pro- 
 duction ; and French and English styles are in turn 
 the rage. As he grows to ripe manhood his char- 
 acter loses much of the attractiveness and liberality of 
 youth, and becomes subtle, suspicious, and crooked. 
 At home we speak of Machiavelism. In Buenos 
 Ayres we use the synonym Argentinism, and mean to 
 express by the term everything that is devious and 
 
THE NATIVE A DRONE. 
 
 113 
 
 plausible, cunning and over-reaching. To keep a 
 promise, or be punctual at an appointment, to keep 
 to the point in a discussion, to "hug the fact," to 
 divest speech of unmeaning bombast and florid 
 nonsense, to call a spade a spade, and not something 
 else that sounds more magnificent, are things most 
 difficult to the Argentine. If you mix much with 
 Argentines, you will hear a vast amount of verbiage 
 talked about patriotism and amor propio ; but, 
 believe me, these virtues are rare. With glowing 
 words of patriotism on his lips, and dignity in his 
 mien, the cunning eyes of the official look eagerly 
 for the bank bill betwixt the leaves. 
 
 You will not easily find an Argentine who is 
 fond of work or who does not mind soiling his 
 fingers with anything but ink. The natives stick 
 to the professions, and leave to the poorer immi- 
 grant the hewing of wood and the drawing of water. 
 Had Argentine labour been essential to the building 
 of a railway, the construction of a bridge, or the 
 making of a high-road, there would not to-day be 
 a mile of railroad in the country, nor a nobler bridge 
 than one of planks and piles, and the highways 
 would be little better than quagmires, — as they 
 are now where foreign influence does not extend. 
 It is true, the country is only just emerging from 
 the pastoral stage of its progress ; and while every 
 allowance should be made for a country in course of 
 transition from a primitive state of existence, yet 
 when the people, impatient of the slow methods of 
 nature, attempt to overleap long periods of time and 
 prematurely attain a position for which other nations 
 have been content or compelled to wait centuries, 
 
 I 
 
114 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 they cut a most ridiculous figure in the eyes of the 
 world ; and when their harlequinade leads to re- 
 sults that shake to their foundations the pillars of 
 international credit, the ridiculous at once becomes 
 the sublime. In the few years of exotic progress 
 preceding the fall of Juarez Caiman and the reigning 
 crisis, Argentina posed before the eyes of Europe 
 like a bespangled and glittering harlequin. We 
 heard of her skipping here, there, and everywhere, 
 tapping with her magic wand the coffers of the 
 great banking institutions of the Old World, luring 
 gold and immigrants from England, from France, 
 from Germany, from Italy, Spain, and Belgium by 
 the million. The treasures of the temples of art 
 and priceless blood-stock sailed across the Atlantic 
 to the shores of Argentina, whose citizens aspired 
 to outshine the silver kings of the northern con- 
 tinent. The dominant characteristic of the Argen- 
 tine race is magnificent precocity. Of this manifold 
 signs exist on all hands. The simplicity and inno- 
 cence of youth are rare. The children have an air 
 of age and wisdom. At ten or twelve the boys 
 have already eaten of the forbidden fruit. At 
 twelve or thirteen the maidens are marriageable. 
 In the life of the cities one beholds abundant evi- 
 dences of the vaulting ambition of the race, — in 
 the numerous and superbly ordered studs ; in the 
 magnificent restaurants and caf^s, rivalling in the 
 splendour of their decorations the Tivoli and the 
 First Avenue ; in the glittering bazaars, filled with 
 the treasures of ceramic art and the productions of 
 famed goldsmiths. In the Calles Florida, Artes, 
 Corrientes, Victoria, and Peru, arches of gas throw 
 
THE EXOTICS OF BUENOS AYRES. II5 
 
 a lurid glare over everything, and make the narrow 
 streets as bright and dazzling as a fair at the Albert 
 Hall or Olympia. In Buenos Ayres you find scientific 
 appliances which even London does not yet possess. 
 The electric call system, about which there was 
 lately so much excitement, has been for some years 
 in operation in the Argentine capital, which has also 
 several postal advantages for which the capital of 
 the world has long agitated in vain. Newspapers 
 are carried all over the Republic at the very nominal 
 frankage of half a cent for each fifty grammes (at 
 present worth less than one-fourteenth of a penny). 
 Elaborate and well-appointed systems for ensuring 
 the delivery of correspondence addressed to the 
 thousands of foreigners whose whereabouts it is 
 impossible ever to ascertain are amongst the best 
 features of the department. 
 
 There is no doubt that these and all other modern 
 advantages which the young Republic enjoys she 
 owes wholly to the foreigner, — indeed, to the latter 
 alone is attributable all the progress that the country 
 has ever made or ever will make. Its youth is 
 educated by foreign professors and from translations 
 of foreign text-books. Its clothing is of foreign 
 manufacture. The furniture and trappings of the 
 houses are mostly of foreign origin. Its codes are 
 only compilations from those of other countries. 
 Whatever part of the country one may be in, one 
 sees that the native is a consumer of everything and 
 a producer of nothing, that he is neither an artisan 
 nor an artist, and that the only tools he uses are the 
 sword, the pen, and his wits. Yet he aspires to a 
 lot higher than that once proudly enjoyed by the 
 
Il6 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 chosen people of Israel. The Argentines say to the 
 world at large : Send us your sons of toil to till 
 the land and make our railways, and we will be unto 
 them legislators and rulers, task-masters and tax- 
 gatherers, but not fellow-labourers. " Each immi- 
 grant that arrives in the country," said ex-President 
 Caiman in one of his speeches delivered at a time 
 when immigrants were coming to the country by 
 hundreds of thousands,- " is worth so much gold to 
 the State " ; and truly, so convinced were he and his 
 ministers of the truth of this utterance that they did 
 not scruple to make enormous drafts upon the pro- 
 spective gold-mine conjured up by the imagination 
 of the President ; and having lured the immigrant 
 from his native land and packed him off to distant 
 regions from which there was no return, proceeded 
 to screw out of him an ever-increasing percentage 
 of the fruits of his toil, — debasing his wages and 
 raising the prices of food, raiment, and shelter far 
 beyond the reach of his slender means, whilst they 
 themselves in the city of cupolas and boulevards fed 
 sumptuously and went clothed in purple and fine 
 linen, built themselves palaces and dashed hither 
 and thither in gorgeous equipages procured at great 
 cost from Paris and London. This in the cities, 
 but in the camp the Argentine "pins his faith to 
 the bovine tail," and is a herdsman and a farmer. 
 Yet even here he is too indolent to make the most 
 of opportunities, but leaves everything confidingly 
 to providence and the wonderful soil, and will sit 
 still and see his sheep perish by thousands from the 
 rot rather than bestir himself to modernise his 
 methods of caring for them. 
 
THE GAMBLING INSTINCT. II7 
 
 Yet it must be confessed that a merrier, happier 
 people than the Argentines does not exist. So long 
 as things go smoothly and money is forthcoming, no 
 matter how or whence, their liberality is unbounded. 
 They are naturally thriftless and disdainful of petty 
 charges ; easy to deal with, having no notion of the 
 difference between price and value, and paying what- 
 ever may be asked for a thing that strikes their 
 fancy. They hate worry and bother of any kind, 
 and are most ingenious in devising expedients for 
 putting off the day of reckoning in all the transac- 
 tions of life. Maiiana, pasado manana, la semana 
 que viene, en estos dias, se arreglard (To-morrow ; 
 the day after to-morrow ; next week ; in these days, 
 it will be settled) are stereotyped phrases in all 
 business relations. They will settle everything in 
 time, but meanwhile will tax their utmost ingenuity 
 to indefinitely defer the settlement. 
 
 The gambling instinct is strong within them ; and 
 the form it takes is often as frivolous as it is reckless. 
 I have often travelled on the train with provincial 
 senators or deputies, and been amused while mar- 
 velling at the feverish zest with which richly dressed 
 and pompous-looking men have staked large sums, 
 land, houses, cattle, on such a childish form of play 
 as cutting the cards for the highest number of 
 spots. At Mar del Plata, the fashionable seaside 
 resort, there are a number of dark and suspicious- 
 looking shanties abutting on the sands, in which 
 during the " season " enormous sums are nightly 
 lost and won at roulette, rouge-et-noir, vingt-et-un, 
 etc., and which exist solely at the caprice of the 
 mayor of the locality, who, himself a notorious 
 
Il8 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 gambler, is, besides, a ruthless extortioner. Let 
 but the owners of any of the shanties fail to satisfy 
 the blackmail levied by his honour, and his honour 
 instantly withdraws his indulgence, and prosecutes 
 them with the utmost rigour. The local newspaper 
 has been several times suspended, its offices wrecked, 
 and its plant destroyed or confiscated for daring to 
 whisper a word against this obnoxious autocrat. A 
 simple instance this of the high-handed proceedings 
 of local magnates, who are invested with anything 
 but a little brief authority, and are answerable only to 
 a Government which is ever too supine to interfere. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Marriage amongst the Argentines.— The Native Race Dwindling. 
 — Table of Marriages. — The Argentine not a Marrying Man. 
 — The Country Swamped by Italians. — The Native's Patent 
 of Existence. — The Coming Race of Argentines. — Mental 
 Capacity of the Italian Settlers very Low. — Petty Trade of 
 the Country in the Hands of the Italians. — British Influence 
 in the Argentine. — One Law for the Native and Another for 
 the Foreigner. 
 
 It has been shown by the demographic statistics 
 from which we have already quoted that the native 
 population of the capital, notwithstanding the large 
 increment which it annually receives from the birth 
 of children of foreign parentage, is numerically 
 considerably below that of the resident foreign 
 community. Further figures from the same returns 
 show that the native race is dwindling, is feeble, 
 and has a short average duration of life. Its youth 
 is vicious, it marries late, and does not increase and 
 multiply to anything like the same extent as the 
 Italian section of the community. The returns for 
 1890 state : — " Marriages among the Argentines 
 are diminishing. In 1888 the number of marriages 
 celebrated amongst Argentines (that is to say, 
 marriages in which both the contracting parties 
 were Argentines) was 952 ; in 1889 the number 
 was only 738, and in 1890 only 736." The follow- 
 ing table shows conclusively what is perhaps a 
 
I20 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 happy augury for the future of the country ; namely, 
 the extent to which the native race is being ab- 
 sorbed by foreigners : — 
 
 
 
 
 Nationality of the ^^ 
 
 ife. 
 
 
 Nationality of the 
 
 cj 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ?^ 
 
 Husband. 
 
 _c 
 
 5 
 
 'Tn 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 S '2 Totals. 
 
 
 Sc 
 
 a 
 
 ci 
 
 U 
 
 c 
 
 5 
 
 o-J ! 
 
 
 <! 
 
 
 U-. 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Argentine . . . 
 
 736 
 
 74 
 
 5° 
 
 25 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 34 
 
 930 
 
 Italian .... 
 
 504 
 
 1,829 
 
 »3 
 
 51 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 67 
 
 2.537 
 
 Spanish .... 
 
 174 
 
 29 
 
 816 
 
 38 
 
 5 I 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 1,082 
 
 French . . . 
 
 51 
 
 17 
 
 20 
 
 322 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 430 
 
 English . . . 
 
 23 
 
 
 I 
 
 8 
 
 89 
 
 2 
 
 7 13° 
 
 German .... 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 53 
 
 10 91 
 
 Other Nationality 
 
 137 
 
 31 
 
 19 
 
 28 
 475 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 113 341 
 
 Totals . . 
 
 1,638 
 
 1,982 
 
 995 
 
 116 
 
 70 
 
 265 5.541 
 
 From the figures in the preceding table we learn : 
 — that of the 1,638 female Argentines who married 
 in 1890, more than 55 per cent, married foreigners ; 
 that while 1,638 female Argentines entered the 
 wedded state, only 930 male Argentines followed 
 their example ; that for these 930 male Argentines 
 no less than 4,611 male foreigners married; that 
 the native population of the capital being, as else- 
 where shown, 244,000, and the total number of 
 Argentines, male and female, who married during 
 1890 being 1,832 — 736 co-national, 1,096 of mixed 
 nationality — the proportion of Argentine marriages 
 to population is only 7*5 per mille, of which pro- 
 portion more than half corresponds to marriages 
 between an Argentine and a foreigner, the propor- 
 
NATIVE RACE DEBILE. 121 
 
 tion of marriages between Argentines pure and 
 simple being only 3 per mille, whereas the propor- 
 tion amongst the foreign community is I2'i2 per 
 mille ; that while 1,096 female Argentines married 
 foreigners, only 194 male Argentines followed suit, 
 which would seem to prove that the Argentine is 
 distinctly not a marrying man. To quote again 
 from the returns for 1 890 : — 
 
 " During 1890, 5,541 marriages were celebrated in Buenos 
 Ayres. The increase over the total for the preceding year is 
 considerable, amounting to no less than 1,382, and due to the 
 notable falling off in the total number of marriages during 1889 
 amongst the foreign residents owing to the reforms and restric- 
 tions introduced by the new Civil Marriage Law. The total for 
 1 888 was 4,489. The proportion of marriages to population 
 during 1890 was io'5 per mille. In England the proportion is 
 1 5 "I per mille. The marriages amongst the Argentines represent 
 only 1 3 '2 per cent, of the total for the year; those amongst foreign 
 compatriots no less than 56'4 per cent. ; those between male 
 foreigners and female Argentines, i6'3 per cent. ; those between 
 male Argentines and female foreigners, only 3^5 per cent. ; and 
 those amongst foreigners of different nationalities, io'6 per cent. 
 As usual, the greatest number corresponds to the Italians, the 
 number for i8go representing one-third of the total for the year." 
 
 The conclusion to which the foregoing figures 
 point is that the Argentine race is destined to early 
 extinction if the present condition of things continue. 
 The demographic statistics for the capital prove 
 that there are already more foreigners than natives, 
 and that the foreigners not only increase and mul- 
 tiply amongst themselves to a far greater extent 
 than the natives, but also absorb the major portion 
 of natives who enter the wedded state. In the 
 province of Buenos Ayres, which is the largest and 
 
122 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 most important in every respect of the whole four- 
 teen provinces of the Federation, the total popula- 
 tion on the 1st January, 1891, was returned as 
 731,602, the total being made up as follows ; viz. : — 
 
 Argentines .... 
 
 . 476,678 
 
 Italians ..... 
 
 121,841 
 
 Spaniards .... 
 
 • 65,717 
 
 French ..... 
 
 • 32-598 
 
 English . . ... 
 
 9,411 
 
 Germans .... 
 
 3,126 
 
 Other nationalities 
 
 22,231 
 
 
 731,602 
 
 In this total there is a nominal surplus of 
 Argentines over foreigners, the proportions being : 
 — Argentines 65 per cent., foreigners 35 per cent., 
 but a close examination of the detailed statistics 
 discloses the fact that the percentage of so-called 
 Argentines is composed to a very large extent of 
 Argentines only by the accident of birth, and adults 
 who have become naturalised subjects. If we deduct 
 these two important elements from the percentage, 
 the surplus in favour of the natives entirely disap- 
 pears, and is replaced by a very marked minority. 
 
 Only approximate statistics are obtainable for the 
 rest of the fourteen provinces ; but the same reason- 
 ing and calculations may be safely applied to the 
 whole Republic as to its capital and chief province, 
 and for this reason, — namely, that by far the largest 
 number of agricultural colonies are established in 
 the northern provinces and those of the littoral, 
 notably Entre Rios and Santa Fe, and to these 
 colonies the majority of immigrants is sent. I 
 
ABSORPTION OF THE NATIVES. 1 23 
 
 have no doubt that if the actual figures were pro- 
 curable it would be found that the proportion of real 
 natives in the total population is less in those 
 provinces than in that of Buenos Ayres. If it were 
 not for the action of the law, which makes all 
 children born in the country Argentines, the very 
 name of Argentine would at no distant period be 
 lost. But while this law may tend to perpetuate 
 the name, it cannot perpetuate the race. It may 
 be said that the country is already virtually in the 
 hands of foreigners, amongst whom the Italian 
 element everywhere predominates. To such an 
 extent, indeed, is the country swamped by Italians, 
 that the national language and trade have become 
 sensibly affected by them. But although there is 
 such an immense number of foreigners in the land, 
 they are widely scattered over the vast territory of 
 the Republic, and their settlement on the soil is 
 of too recent date to have affected to any measur- 
 able extent the character of the native race which, 
 numerically the weaker and less prolific, is able as 
 yet to superimpose upon the whole hybrid popula- 
 tion its own language, laws, and customs. But such 
 a condition of things cannot last long. Every event 
 in their history shows the Argentines to be a plastic 
 race, with no originality, no endurance, and little 
 vigour, dependent for everything, except the coarsest 
 food and raiment, upon foreign energy, enterprise, 
 and capital. The native's safeguard or patent of 
 existence is the extremely unstable one of the con- 
 flicting interests of the different races of settlers now 
 domiciled on national territory, and, in one way or 
 another, obtaining possession of the soil. Every 
 
124 ARGEXTIXA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 exiled race preserves for one or two generations its 
 peculiar national characteristics ; but by-and-by, as 
 its descendants come to discover that practically 
 their interests, aspirations, and wants are identical, 
 they inevitably tend towards homogeneity. For 
 want of another or a better name, the uprising race 
 may bear the name of Argentines ; but there will 
 be as little resemblance between the Argentines of 
 that time and those of to-day as there is between 
 the modern American and the Pilgrim Fathers, 
 I do not think, as some appear to do, that the 
 country will ever become an Italian colony ; for 
 although in point of numbers the Italians occupy 
 the strongest position, the average mental capacity 
 of the Italian, Neapolitan, and Lombardian settlers 
 in Argentina is very low indeed, and they will need 
 generations of educating and intermarriage ere they 
 can hope to reach the intellectual level of the hardier 
 European settlers. The ordinary Italian, or " Nap," 
 will eat anything that we should throw to the pigs, 
 and do work that an English navvy would consider 
 degrading. A hunch of bread, a piece of garlic, and 
 a few half-rotten peaches or oranges, often form the 
 mid-day repast of Italians who earn very good 
 money as street porters. At the same time the 
 better-class Italian is numerous. All the petty trade 
 of the country is in his hands. T\i^fondas, alma- 
 cenes, confiterias, and many other businesses are 
 almost exclusively carried on by these lean and ill- 
 favoured sons of Italy. In the Chambers, in the 
 Legislatures, both national and provincial, Italian 
 names occur with great frequency, while you never 
 meet with an English and rarely with a German name. 
 
ARGENTINA S EVIL GENII. I 25 
 
 It would be an interesting study to ascertain 
 what amount of influence is exercised over the 
 native race by the respective races which com- 
 prise the hybrid population. British influence in 
 the Argentine has been much over-stated. Socially 
 and morally the tendency of what influence there is 
 has been distinctly not to elevate but to demoralise 
 the native character by the introduction of a per- 
 nicious system of bribery and jobbery. In the 
 Bankers Magazine for March, 1891, it was well 
 stated that — 
 
 " If Argentines have sinned, they have not been the only 
 sinners. European financiers have been their evil genii all 
 through the drama. Posing as the pioneers of progress, but 
 seeking solely their own interests, they have engulfed in a common 
 ruin both borrower and lender, and themselves into the bargain. 
 Without their assistance, Argentina would not have gained her 
 present unenviable notoriety. Her development might have been 
 much slower, but it would have proceeded on more solid lines. 
 As it is, public confidence, not alone in Argentina, but in other 
 legitimate enterprises, has received a rude shock, from which it 
 will not readily recover. Faith in great names and long-estab- 
 lished reputation has been shattered, and this is a loss almost as 
 great as that of actual coin. One fact stands out prominently in 
 this financial debauch. Argentines simply obeyed the behests of 
 their supposed mentors. They were tempted and they fell. 
 Their vices and their cupidity were pandered to beyond the point 
 of resistance ; and it is but just to add that even honest and 
 thoughtful men in the Republic became dazzled with this sudden 
 apparent prosperity, and believed that it was real and enduring. 
 Argentines, quick to comprehend, soon learnt all the tricks of 
 financial jobbery. With their usual imitative faculty and love of 
 intrigue, in a short time they became masters in the art of foisting 
 doubtful ventures on the foreign public, and yet in these they 
 were readily abetted by European financiers." 
 
 By the superior excellence of their native manu- 
 
126 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 factures, by their wealth, by the fame of their great 
 men, by the prestige which their commercial supre- 
 macy gives them, the British, it is true, exercise a 
 negative influence in Argentina. There is not a 
 lawyer, senator, or deputy but quotes more or 
 less aptly from Macaulay, Burke, Hampden, and 
 other great statesmen of the past and the present. 
 But individually the "Britisher" is not regarded 
 with any high degree of favour by the native. His 
 narrow and insular prejudices, his exclusiveness, his 
 eccentricities, his inadaptability to the native's ways 
 of life, his ill-concealed contempt for the customs, 
 habits, manners, and even language of the native, 
 all contribute to keep him estranged from the latter. 
 The table of marriages already quoted proves the 
 rarity with which the two races commingle. Per- 
 sonally the Englishman is sometimes admired, 
 but certainly not beloved. There is one law for 
 the native, and another, and very distinct one, for 
 the foreigner ; the police authorities gloat over any 
 Englishman who may have the misfortune to fall 
 into their clutches ; and while they would perhaps 
 treat another foreigner with comparative leniency, 
 the Englishman is treated with the utmost rigour. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 The Professions. — Politics by far the Best Paying. — The Law.— 
 Journalism. — Argentine Doctors. — " Camp " Leeches and 
 Butchers. — Professional Etiquette ad absurdum. — The Des- 
 pachante de Aduana. — A Lucrative Profession. — The Argentine 
 Auctioneer. — His Hyperbole and Superlatives. — Two Ad- 
 vertisements.— A Modern Scadder. — A Suburban Remate. — 
 The Granja Nacional. — The Tricks of the Rematador. — The 
 Tasador^oxNsXxi&x. — An "Oriental" Tasador axA his Career. 
 — The " Camp " Schoolmaster. — Poor Devil ! — Argentines 
 great Smokers. — Annual Consumption of Tobacco and 
 Cigars. — Smoking in Public Offices. — " Cigars for the 
 Directors." — No Business without Smoke. — Cigarettes and 
 Pumpkin are Loadstones to the Settler. 
 
 I HAVE said that the Argentines stick to the pro- 
 fessions ; and by far the most lucrative profession 
 in the country is that of politics ; for not only are 
 parliament men better paid for their services in the 
 Argentine than — according to a recently published 
 table of statistics — in any other country in the world 
 where such services are remunerated, but the little 
 commissions and perquisites that drop in the way 
 make It worth the eager and often indecent scramble 
 for place. Whether public interests are better 
 served for payment than they would be if our own 
 system prevailed is not a matter for discussion here. 
 The next best profession is that of the law. From 
 the judges, the abogados, the escribanos, the pro- 
 curadores (attorneys), down to the scriveners' clerks, 
 
128 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 the number of persons connected with the legal 
 profession in Buenos Ayres can hardly be less than 
 3 per cent, of the entire population. 
 
 After the gentlemen of the long robe rank the 
 gentlemen of the press, a warm-hearted, hot-headed, 
 essentially Bohemian set, endowed with vigorous 
 and apparently inexhaustible imaginations, upon 
 which in their journals large drafts are daily made, 
 and blessed with remarkable talents for factious 
 invective. 
 
 Next come the army and navy, of which more in 
 their place ; and then the medicine men, an emi- 
 nently respectable crowd. There are a great many 
 foreign doctors in the capital, English, French, 
 German, Italian, most of whom have served as ships' 
 surgeons, and do not rank much above mediocrity. 
 Some of the native midicos are very clever, and if 
 only they were a little more conscientious and a little 
 less addicted to politics, speculation, and gambling, 
 would be above censure. Every medical practitioner 
 in Buenos Ayres (and perhaps everywhere else) has 
 his fad — a specific or a mannerism ; and you need 
 be half a doctor yourself, when you have occasion 
 to consult one of them, in order to keep him from 
 wandering off into some pleasant and congenial 
 dreamland of theory. As for camp doctors, they 
 are a brutal set of leeches and butchers, who use the 
 scalpel with remorseless freedom ; it is hardly an 
 exaggeration to say that for a splinter in the toe 
 they will have the leg off. There are a few clever 
 surgeons in the capital, but of good physicians 
 hardly any ; and many people go to Europe to 
 consult abler men. The fact is, however, that the 
 
PROFESSIONAL ETIQUETTE. 1 29 
 
 concentration necessary to the achievement of 
 eminence in the laborious profession of medicine is 
 irksome in the extreme to the Hvely indole of the 
 native. He allows his time and attention to be dis- 
 tracted by too many more attractive pursuits, such 
 as speculating in land, or on the Bolsa, politics, and 
 pleasure ; and the climate is one of the worst in the 
 world for the purposes of study. A subject which 
 ought to claim the paramount attention of the 
 Argentine medical faculty — the preservation of infant 
 life — receives but a modicum of notice, as the figures 
 quoted in a previous chapter show. Rarely indeed 
 in Buenos Ayres do you find a doctor who has even 
 common human sympathy with a suffering infant. 
 Such callousness and indifference are conceivable 
 only on the supposition that so great is the mortality 
 that everybody has grown used to it, and expects 
 nothing else. Professional etiquette is most jealously 
 guarded amongst the medical fraternity of all nation- 
 alities. I remember an amusing instance of the 
 absurd length to which this excellent principle can 
 be carried. An examination of orina was ordered 
 by my medical adviser ; and as in such matters it is 
 never safe to trust to an uncorroborated report, I 
 had the examination made from identical specimens 
 by two independent and equally well-known experts. 
 The results arrived at by these gentlemen were 
 diametrically opposed the one to the other. One 
 showed abundant traces oi glucose, and consequently 
 that the person whose urine had been tested was 
 suffering from diabetes ; the other report showed 
 that the orina was of the density and constituency of 
 that of a person in a normal state of health. Both 
 
 K 
 
130 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 results were erroneous ; and this in itself was 
 comical ; but the wav in which the doctor defended 
 on professional grounds the conflicting statements, 
 and the plausible arguments with which he sought 
 to uphold the dignity of the profession against 
 the plain and unmistakable evidence of error and 
 common sense, were more amusing still. The onus 
 of the discrepancy between the reports rested, in the 
 opinion of the worthy Galen, not with the incom- 
 petence or possible mistake of the experts, but with 
 the orina or accident. We of course knew better, 
 but had no desire to react the scene between Alfred 
 Hardie and Dr. Wycherley. 
 
 One of the best paying professions in the country 
 is that of the despachante de aduana, or custom-house 
 clearer, a calling which demands great skill and 
 years of hard and special training. A man to 
 succeed as a despachante must be nimble-witted, 
 for ever on the alert to detect trickery, not over- 
 scrupulous, and have the epidermis of a rhinoceros. 
 He must be thoroughly drilled in the tricks and 
 forms, and be as familiar with the countless offices, 
 departments, and depots of that Augean stable, the 
 Argentine Custom-house, as with his own coat. He 
 need be a shrewd physiognomist, possess the "gift 
 of the gab," and be prepared to stand any amount ot 
 hustling and badgering and bullying, and withstand 
 any amount of knavery, bumptious officialism, clerical 
 supineness, ignorance, lying, and deceit. A good 
 despachante may make from ;if 500 to ^2,000 per 
 annum in Buenos Ayres ; dress like a swell, and live 
 like a fighting-cock. He is up to every trick, knows 
 all the ropes, and is intimate with the pawns, the 
 
THE NATIVE AUCTIONEER. 131 
 
 rooks, the castles, and all the pieces in the game, 
 and knows their individual characters and their 
 powers in combination. He spends as much in 
 backshish as a concessionaire or an office-seeker ; 
 but in return he gets more " tips," commissions, and 
 presents than any man outside the Government 
 House. 
 
 Of the few callings which Argentines condescend 
 to follow, none is more popular, attractive, and 
 flourishing, or so full of variety, as that of the 
 auctioneer. The remaiador of Buenos Ayres is of 
 a type distinctly peculiar to the country, and differs 
 in many respects from his fellows in any other part 
 of the world that we have visited. He is quite a 
 modern creation, and may be said to be contem- 
 poraneous and co-existent with C^dulas, for prior 
 to the introduction of the latter he was compara- 
 tively unknown in Argentina. From the etymology 
 of the name of his calling down to its simplest 
 formality, the rematador is a vastly amusing creature. 
 As you walk through the streets of Buenos Ayres 
 or Rosario, you see everywhere huge flaming posters, 
 announcing in big fat letters an important, an extra- 
 ordinary, a colossal, a monumental remate ; while 
 great flags flying at the windows or from the roofs, 
 or bunting stretched from one side of the street to 
 the other, arrest the attention of the most casual 
 transeimte to the numberless auctions of land, houses, 
 furniture, cattle, and every conceivable kind of 
 property and commodity, which, morning, noon, and 
 night, week-days, Sundays, and holidays, go on 
 throughout the entire year. In a dimly lighted, 
 badly ventilated office, in which there is just room 
 
132 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 to turn, and in which the only furniture consists of 
 a piano, a stool, a table or desk, and a huge plan 
 or map, you may see any day, and at almost any 
 hour of the day, the sprightly spider inviting the 
 passing flies to walk into his parlour and enjoy the 
 pastime of bidding for land. And to put the flies 
 into a pleasant mood for bidding, a dapper youth 
 vamps lively airs on the piano ; and soon a gaping 
 crowd of loafers and nondescripts foregathers to 
 take part in this form of gambling. 
 
 There is never an edition of the daily newspapers 
 published that does not teem with extravagantly 
 worded advertisements of auctions without number. 
 I have before me, as I write, some of the enor- 
 mous " blanket-sheets" of the Nacion, the C^wwr, and 
 the Prensa, in some of which there are no less than 
 twenty to twenty-five columns of closely printed 
 announcements of auctions, couched in language as 
 flowery as that of the Celestials themselves, and 
 adorned with imagery which would do credit to an 
 Arabian Nights' tale. But the rematador is a man 
 who deals in hyperbole as a lawyer deals in tau- 
 tology, or as a baker in flour. It covers him, sticks 
 to him, gets ingrained into him, so that he cannot 
 descend to simple language even in the simplest 
 matters. Everything with him is flamante, riqui- 
 simo, eleganiisimo, grandiosisimo, preciosisimo, excel- 
 entisimo. He presses into his service the sun, 
 the moon, the stars, and lays under contribution 
 the whole realm of nature. The following is a literal 
 translation of an advertisement of the sale by auction 
 of — "'A high-life' mansion, forming a brilliant 
 corner, splendidly situated in a most precious neigh- 
 
THE MODERN SCADDER. 1 33 
 
 bourhood in such and such a flourishing suburb of 
 assured aristocratic future {aristocrdtico porvenir), 
 where only palaces are erected, and where only- 
 families of the greatest distinction and high ton 
 reside. There is a most beautiful garden and lovely 
 grounds, with a virgin soil, and laden with the 
 spoils of Eden and Paradise," etc. Or it is a sale 
 of furniture which, in the language of the rematador, 
 is transformed into the following : — 
 
 Lujosisimos muebles. Es- Most luxurious furniture, 
 plendida y excepcional ocasion. Splendid and exceptional op- 
 Elegantisimo juego de sala, estilo portunity. Most elegant draw- 
 Luis xiv. Riquisimo piano per- ing-room suite, style, Louis 
 pendicular, de gran formato, xiv. Most rich piano, upright, 
 encordado de magnificas voces, grand style, magnificently 
 Esplendida mesa consola, con strung. Splendid console table 
 un gran espejo, luna biselada, with rose-coloured marble top, 
 piedra marmol rosada, todo and grand basil mirror, all richly 
 ricamente dorado y tallado. gilt and carved. Flamingly 
 Flamante alfombrado de Bruse- new Brussels carpet, and so 
 las, etc. on. 
 
 A few square yards of land in some unheard-of 
 Eden becomes in the phraseology of the rematador 
 a most precious gold mine, a sure emancipation 
 from poverty, an undoubted fortune to the happy 
 possessor. Like his prototype Scadder, he points 
 out on a huge plan the church, the schools — 
 endowed by the (superlative) Government — the 
 market-place, the town-hall, and the inevitable chalet 
 (erected at a fabulous cost by Sefior Don So-and-so) 
 already built ; and traces the trayecto of the railways, 
 tramways, boulevards, plazas, etc., projected, or in 
 course of construction : and the deluded flies making 
 their way to the golden region so glowingly de- 
 
134 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 scribed by the rematador, find it a dreary, flat piece 
 of the desert, with a barren and treeless soil, en- 
 circled by the vast prairie and bounded by the 
 distant horizon, without a solitary object to obstruct 
 the view of the setting sun. In Villa something or 
 other, there is to be a (superlative) auction of build- 
 ing lots, which the rematador offers at ridiculous, 
 absurd, stupid prices. Price ! It is not a price 
 he asks you, but a gift that he thrusts upon you ; 
 but you will not believe him and his prophecies. 
 It is throwing gold into the gutter! Who would 
 refuse to become a landed proprietor for the sake 
 of a miserable little five, ten, twenty, fifty cents the 
 square vara ? The (superlative) lots he offers for 
 j'our acceptance are certain within a year to be 
 worth ten, fifty, a hundred-fold their present selling 
 price. And so round this talking-machine, this 
 magician who creates towns at a breath, the motley 
 crowd increases and swells, until the air of the 
 room is poisoned with the odours of garlic and 
 tobacco smoke. 
 
 If the remate is to be held outside the city, the 
 rematador provides coaches, or a special train, free 
 lunch, unlimited drink, and a band of music with 
 implements of torture, from which issue shrieking 
 strains that set all the dogs in the district howling, 
 and everybody's teeth on edge. And as for the 
 lunch, which consists generally of stale sandwiches 
 and bad beer, such a scampering and a diving of 
 hundreds of dirty hands into a general trough, like 
 so many pigs, you never did see. And in and out, 
 hither and thither, goeth the steaming, jocular, loud- 
 voiced, and louder-mannered rematador, breathing 
 
THE GRANJA NACIONAL. 1 35 
 
 furiously like an engine ; while of course there is the 
 inevitable complement of seedy brokers and bum- 
 mers {comisionistas), and uncouth loafers getting a 
 holiday and a lunch free, gratis, for nothing. And 
 after the lunch — Uf ! The play begins. " Ojo ! 
 Ojo ! Que aqui hay que andar con pie de plomo ! 
 Ojo! Gran negocionH Sin base!!!" 
 
 But there is an auctioneering establishment in 
 town which beats everything of its kind that I 
 ever saw, and resembles nothing so much as a 
 perpetual world's fair. There is a picture gallery, 
 a bazaar of curios, a show-room of furniture, a 
 permanent exhibition of statuary and vases, cases 
 of jewellery, pianos and other musical instruments 
 galore The floors are carpeted, and music plays 
 all the while as if it were a steam roundabout. At 
 night it is brilliantly illumined by gas, electricity, and 
 fairy-lamps. Attached are a big riding-school and 
 stalls for horses and cattle, spacious locdles for the 
 exhibition of carriages, palms, ferns, and plants. 
 Such is the Granja Nacional, an immense mart 
 where everything is auctioned or dealt in, from a 
 whole province or a railway down to a pint of milk ; 
 from jewels that would grace a royal diadem down 
 to the paltry trinkets that the Arab hawkers vend 
 from door to door. 
 
 T]\& rematador ! Oh! a wily knave is he! His 
 charges are more outrageous than those on a London 
 broker's account-sales. His ways are dark and his 
 tricks fantastic. He surrounds himself with a legion 
 of parasites, who "knock out" genuine bidders, or 
 put up or down the price of any article at a wink 
 from their master. We once had an auction of 
 
136 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 furniture, and employed a rematador. All the best 
 things were bought in by one or another of the 
 auctioneer's creatures at a fraction of their value ; and 
 a week or two afterwards, passing by accident the 
 rematador s place, we saw the self-same things re-sold 
 at three, four, and five times what we had received 
 for them. And this rascal, with a most euphonious 
 name, was a leader of the Red-Cross Society, and 
 a prominent director of several religious and chari- 
 table institutions. 
 
 We must not omit from our list of professions 
 peculiarly Argentine that of the tasador, or valuer. 
 No professional man in the country is more sought 
 after, more adulated, or more vulnerable than the 
 tasador ; while no man has greater need to have 
 ever on his lips the prayer, " Lead us not into 
 temptation." His vanity is flattered, his appetites 
 indulged, his little whims and eccentricities humoured, 
 his words echoed, and his power feared. Why ? 
 Because he is the man who values properties on 
 behalf of the mortgage banks, which pay him a 
 salary, and on behalf of C6dula-hunters, whose 
 properties are valued in proportion as their bribes 
 are tempting. When every avenue to honest em- 
 ployment has closed against a man, he can turn 
 tasador. I have known several of the profes- 
 sion ; one I knew rather too well — a plausible, 
 silver-tongued gentleman, who had "moved up" 
 from Montevideo, his birthplace, because it had 
 begun to close in upon him like the burning walls 
 of the inquisitorial dungeon. In Buenos Ayres he 
 had secured an engagement as contador (accoun- 
 tant) in a large insurance office, where, in the short 
 
THE LAST REFUGE OF THE DESTITUTE. I37 
 
 Space of eighteen months, and in sheer playfulness — 
 I am sure he never meant to sin ; he himself said 
 so — he had clambered down into the felon's dock 
 for systematic embezzlement. But he got off scot- 
 free. Would you know how "i By giving four 
 Pagar^s, three of which he never met, and the 
 other he paid without exertion out of sundry little 
 perquisites that fell to him in his new profession 
 oi tasador\ He became also stock-exchange broker, 
 and appeared every day on the Bolsa without a 
 blush. One afternoon, however, he was arrested 
 and marched off to the comisaria ; but the next 
 morning he came up smiling again : he had renewed 
 his Pagards ! 
 
 There is another profession which must not be 
 entirely overlooked, — that of the camp schoolmaster, 
 literally the last refuge of the destitute. It would, 
 we suspect, cause you no small astonishment were 
 you aware of the numbers of destitute persons who 
 turn their attention towards this " brilliant opening 
 in life." Some of them are travelled and educated 
 men, but most of them are shady characters from 
 all parts of Europe, with more capacity for breeding 
 pigs than for imparting knowledge. Poor-spirited, 
 forlorn, and friendless beings, they go out to the 
 camp, to some far-off estancia, where they are often 
 treated worse and paid as little as, or less than, the 
 domestics. The children are taught to tyrannize 
 over them, and the parents look upon them with 
 supercilious contempt. 
 
 Argentines are great smokers. The annual con- 
 sumption of tobacco in the Republic, chiefly in the 
 form of cigarettes, is enormous. In addition to 
 
13" ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 that which is grown in the country, and with respect 
 to which no figures are obtainable, the estimated 
 annual value of the tobacco imported from Paraguay, 
 the Brazils, Hamburg, Bremen, and elsewhere is 
 12 million dollars currency. The total importation 
 for the last five years (1886-90) reached 26,273,117 
 kilos. "If," says a recently published report, "we 
 add to the quantity of tobacco annually imported 
 the amount of the native product, it may be safely 
 estimated that the yearly consumption of tobacco 
 in this country is not less than seven million kilos ; 
 and assuming that there are one million smokers 
 amongst the entire population of the Republic, the 
 annual consumption per head is seven kilos. The 
 value of the yearly out-turn of the native factories 
 at wholesale prices {pricio de fdbricd) is 36 million 
 dollars currency, which on the assumed basis gives 
 $36 per annum per head." The same report 
 states : " The average yearly value of imported 
 tobacco is 2\ million gold dollars, and the duties 
 thereon \\ million, or, say, a total of 12 millions 
 currency per annum." 
 
 Everybody smokes — from the little urchin newly 
 breeched to the old man tottering on the brink of 
 the grave. In the public offices the clerks are 
 permitted to smoke all day long ; and a nice colour 
 the habit imparts to their teeth and finger-tips, and 
 a fragrant odour to the offices themselves. In 1890 
 50 million cigars were imported into the Republic 
 (not to mention the large quantity known to be 
 surreptitiously introduced), besides another 15 or 
 20 millions manufactured in the country from the 
 imported leaf And there is no place that I know 
 
THE FRAGRANT WEED. 1 39 
 
 of where you pay more for a bad smoke or get a 
 better one for a trifle than in Buenos Ayres. You 
 pay a dollar for a so-called Havanna which, to quote 
 Henry Byron's mot, " no amount of puffing will • 
 make it draw," and which after one or two imsuc- 
 cessful whiffs you throw away in disgust ; and you 
 pay ten cents (about a penny farthing) for a Santos, 
 which you can smoke to the bitter end. In the 
 report of that model State institution, the National 
 Bank, for 1888 appeared an item of $100,000 for 
 "cigars for the directors" along with a number ot 
 other unconsidered trifles. But although the con- 
 sumption of cigars reaches such a respectable figure, 
 the consumption of cigarettes is at least fourteen 
 times as great. Nobody but an Englishman smokes 
 a pipe, and no little derision he obtains therefor ; 
 while everybody smokes cigarettes. It is indeed 
 almost impossible to transact any kind of business 
 without the ever-present accompaniment of the 
 cigarette. You call upon a man to solicit an order, 
 to talk over a matter of business, to beg or bestow 
 a favour, or for any kind of negotiation ; and, no 
 matter how early or how late the hour, out comes 
 the inevitable atado of dry, flavourless, and nasty- 
 smelling cigarettes, not usually made up, but packed 
 into the papers ready for making up ; and, while 
 you empty a packet into the palm of your left hand, 
 and give the tobacco — which looks like coarse gun- 
 powder — a roll and a stir with the forefinger of the 
 right, and, replacing it into the paper, defUy, lovingly 
 finish off the cigarette ; you gradually, in an inter- 
 jectional sort of way, approach the subject of your 
 negotiation, touching lightly en passant upon a variety 
 
140 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 of topics as widely irrelevant to the business in hand 
 as a counsel's cross-questions ; and as through the, 
 curling wreaths of smoke an occasional glimpse of 
 the features of the negotiators may be caught, so 
 now and again in the multitude of words the real 
 business on hand may creep out : then the conver- 
 sation again branches off into other channels, clouds 
 of smoke roll between you, and lo ! the negotiation 
 is ended. How much business would a London 
 merchant or broker get through in the course of a 
 day under such a system as this ? — commendable 
 nevertheless for its soothing action on the digestive 
 organs. No hurry, nor flurry, nor scurry, nor worry. 
 If the matter cannot be settled to-day, never mind! 
 manana, the day after, next week, — any time will 
 do as well. It is a popular saying in Argentina 
 that once a man has learned to make a native 
 cigarette and eat pumpkin, he never leaves the 
 country, or if he does, only for a time ; but, like 
 most popular sayings, it does not bear the test of 
 experience. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Argentine Champs Elysees.- — Vanity Fair. — Palermo by 
 Night. — The Recoleta. — The Suburbs of Buenos Ayres. — ■ 
 Adrogue. — The Tigre. — A Dismal Swamp. — First Visit to 
 the Tigre ; we Walk from the Station and Wade back. — The 
 Fruit Islands of the Tigre. — "Old Scott." — A Modern Crusoe. 
 — Life in the Suburbs. — General Features of a Pueblo. — ■ 
 Pleasures of a Moonlight Ride. — " Camp Folk," their Extra- 
 ordinary Power of Vision. — The Campesino. — An Adventure 
 with the Gauchos of the Chaco. 
 
 In order to behold the pink and flower of Argentine 
 society in its gayest dress, and study the humours of 
 an aristocracy built up on paper money, one should 
 be an assiduous frequenter, on Sunday afternoons 
 especially, of the Argentine Champs ElysSes and 
 Bois de Boulogne, Palermo ; or that less pretentious, 
 but really charming promenade, the Recoleta. 
 Thither the gay and festive natives, leaving at home 
 all that is not meet for the public eye, and decking 
 themselves in costumes as bright as their cloudless 
 skies, sally forth in their carriages or on horseback 
 to join the brilliant procession in the Avenida of 
 stunted palms at Palermo. And what a sight is 
 this ! Helter-skelter through all the streets and 
 byways leading to the " Row " dash the splendid 
 equipages of the wealthy, the hired hack of the 
 shop-keeper, the neat dog-carts, the family breaks, 
 the shabby victorias, etc. ; all tearing along at a mad 
 
142 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 pace over stones, and holes, and ruts, and the hun- 
 dred traps that beset the ill-paved calks, as if time 
 really had an existence on a sultry afternoon, all 
 racing to be first at the weekly show. Collision or 
 accident — a wheel off, a horse down, a human being 
 run over or trampled under foot ; what does it 
 matter ? who stops for trifles like these 1 on, on, 
 with a clatter and a whirl to the happy hunting 
 grounds of fashion and folly. And after the exciting 
 race, what is the goal .'' To join the glittering pro- 
 cession of vehicles in a listless, lifeless crawl up and 
 down half the length of a wide and dusty avenue, 
 defiling in an endless oval, or prance and curvette 
 in its centre, or dismount and saunter on the side- 
 walks. Like the mechanical moving figures in the 
 marionette show, the spectator sees the slow pro- 
 cession revolving in its narrow orbit, and observes 
 the figures stare and plume themselves like the girls 
 at a beauty show, but all as devoid of life as a 
 shadow pantomime or a spectacular, voiceless piece 
 at the Empire. And thus for two hours, in the scant 
 shadow afforded from the glaring sunlight by the 
 palm-trees, the throng continues its march up and 
 down, and round and round ; and then the whole 
 cavalcade breaks up and disperses as it gathered, 
 and at the same wild pace. And this is the summit 
 to which the ambition of the native tends — a showy 
 turn-out at Palermo, a pair of tall Russian steeds, a 
 carriage with plenty of varnish and silver, a black 
 coachman, and all the attendant paraphernalia. A 
 lucirse, Senores ! 
 
 As for Palermo itself, it is a pretty place, and the 
 only park in the country worthy of the name. Many 
 
144 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 an exhilarating scamper through its green glades 
 and wooded avenues have we enjoyed in the sweet, 
 crisp air of the early morning, when the nocturnal 
 music of the insects and the tree-frogs is silenced at 
 last, and all nature is fresh and fragrant ; and after a 
 bracing, head-clearing gallop through the covert, it 
 was pleasant to pull up at the restaurant, under the 
 willows, for a matutinal cup of coffee, and while our 
 horses get a breathing and a quiet crop, we sip our 
 coffee and watch the riders come and go, and listen 
 to the babel of voices, talking all the languages of 
 Europe, and the clinking of the cups and plates, 
 and the rattle of chains and champing of bits, the 
 shrill blasts of the buglers in the barracks hard by 
 starting the echoes with the silver notes of the re- 
 veille. And so, after a short rest, we re-tighten the 
 girths, spring once more into the saddle, and, heigh ! 
 ho ! off again through the lovely drives and the 
 coppice, past the artificial lakes and the old palace 
 of Rosas, and the menagerie, well stocked with 
 animals and birds, chiefly of South American origin; 
 across the tracks of the three railways — the Pacific, 
 the Rosario, and the Northern — away down the 
 finest thoroughfare in all Argentina, the Avenida 
 Alvear, with its chalets, and mansions, and pretty 
 villas, past the Water-works, standing in a grove of 
 sombre blue-gums, up the slope by the Recoleta, 
 and away over the stones again home ; and then, off 
 saddle, off breeches, a morning bath, and there we 
 are, fit for the best day's work we ever did. 
 
 So much for Palermo in the morning and after- 
 noon, but Palermo at night is a great sight also. 
 Successive lord mayors have done their best to 
 
PALERMO BV NIGHT. 
 
 145 
 
 add to the embellishment of their beautiful park, but 
 it was left for an Englishman to give it the crown- 
 ing touch with a fine display of arc lights, by which 
 the revelry of the day might be prolonged into the 
 night. To [)ass across the avenue of palms in the 
 train, coming suddenly out of the darkness on either 
 sicie into the broad belt of brilliant light, catching a 
 rapid glimpse as you rush by of the endless string 
 of carriages and the figures on horse-back flitting 
 
 A QUIET NOOK IN PALERMO PAKK 
 
 hither and thither, is like getting a momentary peep 
 into fairyland. But to be down amongst the gay 
 throng, and the weird shadows of the trees, and the 
 dazzling electric light, throwing over everything a 
 glamour as of moonlight, leaves an impress on the 
 memory like the first reading of the Midsummer 
 Night's Dream. 
 
 But while all the carriage people and equestrians 
 go on to Palermo, a favourite resort for a saunter 
 
146 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 on foot is the Recoleta, with its queer grotto and 
 queerer rock-work, its artificial waterfall, sub-tropical 
 plants, shrubs, and flowers, its well-kept paths and 
 shady seats. Here any fine "feast-day" between 
 the hours of 2 and 5 p.m. may be seen a crowd which 
 tor variety has not its peer anywhere. Groups of 
 laufjhter-loving; girls, clad in costumes of all the hues 
 ot the prism ; knots ot happy, careless youths, smart 
 as tailors' models ; types of every race and colour, — 
 
 black, tawny, red, yellow, white ; active and infirm, 
 young and old, rich and poor ; all mingling together, 
 promenading, gossiping, flirting, ogling ; and over 
 all a sky as deeply blue, a sun as bright, as anything 
 that Italy can boast of But bright and animated 
 as is the Recoleta at the times and hours named, its 
 greatest charms are to be found a few hours later, 
 when the motley throng has dispersed and the 
 evening has set in with its balmy breezes. The 
 
THE SUBURBS OF BUENOS AYRES. 147 
 
 magnolia and Cape jasmine and all the other flowers 
 of the season load the air with their sweetness ; 
 the mosquitos hum around like busy bees ; the 
 chicharras sing in the trees, and the tree-frogs chirp 
 their peculiar, piercing note ; and myriads of fire- 
 flies, like tiny stars, dance and flicker among the 
 shrubs. There is an especially prominent knoll 
 overlooking the whole of the grounds, and com- 
 manding a wide view of the river and the flat roofs 
 of the houses, away even beyond the forest of 
 masts in the Boca. Here on a sumnier evening it 
 was delightful to sit and enjoy the cool air, and 
 watch the broad shimmering track of the moon over 
 the wide and tranquil Rio de la Plata, — a pathway 
 of light leading away across the vast Atlantic to our 
 own right little, tight little island home. 
 
 There is little to inspire poetical feelings In 
 Buenos Ayres, with its rank materialism, sordid 
 avarice, and gross sensuality ; its ungodly, un- 
 sociable, hybrid population ; its showy finery and 
 superficial veneer of civilization ; its weary miles of 
 narrow streets and blocks of houses of monotonous 
 sameness of aspect ; but what little there is, is to be 
 found, if searched for, where and how we have just 
 described. With the exception of Palermo and the 
 Recoleta, and perhaps a few outlying quintas, there 
 is really little in the city itself that is picturesque. 
 But there are some pretty suburbs — pretty that is 
 for Buenos Ayres ; Belgrano — almost contiguous to 
 Palermo — and the adjoining pueblos of San Martin, 
 San Isidro, San Fernando (where some daring en- 
 trepreneurs have built some ambitious docks that 
 will never pay), and the Tigre, are all in their way 
 
148 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 charming ; while in the south there are Lomas, 
 Adrogue, and Temperley ; and in the west the 
 Caballito, Flores, and Moron. In all these suburbs 
 we have lived (for in the summer time the city is 
 intolerable), and know every yard of the circumja- 
 cent country, all the best bits of road, the short cuts, 
 and the favourite rides. Flores, Temperley, and 
 
 VERANDAH OF A BUENOS AYKES QUINTA. 
 
 Belgrano are the districts mostly patronised by the 
 better-class English families, and many of their 
 quintas and villas have quite a home-like appear- 
 ance. From Lomas to Santa Catalina, where 
 Government maintains a really fine agricultural 
 college, and from San Martin, or Belgrano, to the 
 Tigre, there are some very pretty bits of scenery — 
 usually so rare that one treasures up the memory of 
 
BEAUTIFUL EDEN! 149 
 
 them — reminding one now and again of some parts 
 of Cambridgeshire, except for the execrable roads, 
 which appear to be for ever undergoing repair and 
 yet to be always in a chronic state of disorder. 
 
 Adrogue is an aspiring suburb, which already has 
 the electric light and boasts of one of the pleasantest 
 hotels in the country, called Las Delicias, which has 
 extensive grounds and is the favourite resort of 
 young native couples during the honeymoon. The 
 streets {sic) are for the most part moss and grass- 
 grown avenues of tall eucalypti ; and in order to 
 enforce upon the mind of the wayfarer a due respect 
 for their grave-like stillness, the authorities have 
 stuck up notices everywhere forbidding any one to 
 gallop through them under the penalty of a fine. 
 But this notwithstanding, it is a pleasant, cool place 
 to live in during the hot months of the year, and has 
 lately gone ahead considerably since the President 
 of the Republic selected the locality for his private 
 residence. 
 
 But the most pretentious and fashionable suburb 
 is the Tigre, about an hour's run from town, and 
 formerly the terminus of the old Northern Railway. 
 It is a rambling, low-lying pueblo, at the confluence 
 of the rivers Parana and Lujan. It is here that the 
 English rowing clubs of Buenos Ayres and Monte- 
 video hold their regattas, and hither during the 
 season come the picnic, riding, and driving parties 
 from town. But we must say we failed to discover 
 the charms of the locality, about which everybody 
 in Buenos Ayres raves so. To our thinking it was 
 a dismal swamp, worse than the Essex marshes or 
 the Norfolk broads. The damp is so great that the 
 
X50 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 very keys rust in your pockets, and the clothes in 
 the wardrobe mildew in a day. Most of the houses 
 are erected on wooden piles, raised some five or six 
 feet above ground ; for the district is subject to 
 sudden and heavy inundations. A pampero drives 
 the waters up so swiftly and impetuously that in a 
 few hours the surface of the earth disappears, and 
 the trees and houses appear as if floating on a vast 
 lake. And the whole place is infested with a per- 
 fect plague of insects : flies, mosquitos, and the 
 bicho Colorado — to say nothing of monstrous spiders 
 and other parasites. The excessive humidity en- 
 genders a rank vegetation, which imparts to the 
 neighbourhood a deceitful appearance of luxuriant 
 verdure. We vividly remember our first visit to 
 the Tigre. It was on a fine day in September, 
 1885. We walked on foot through the green streets 
 from the railway statidn to the naval workshops on 
 the banks of the Lujan, which we reached dryshod ; 
 and after inspecting the gunboat Ulaipil, then 
 lying at anchor in the river, we started to retrace 
 our steps, but had not proceeded far before we 
 found that the floods had risen without warning, and 
 that the brown water was gurgling through the 
 streets in every direction. But to go back might 
 have been worse than to press forward. There was 
 no help for it but to take off our boots and socks, 
 tuck up our trousers as high as possible, and wade 
 through the muddy water and slush as best we 
 might ; now clinging to the bushes, now jumping 
 o^'er treacherous - looking pools, and frequently 
 having to hold on to a tree or a palisade to prevent 
 ourselves from being swept off our feet. In this 
 
152 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTITSrES. 
 
 manner an hour's journey was lengthened into a 
 five hours' travail ; and when at last the bridge and 
 the railway station came into sight, you may be sure 
 it was a great relief; and you may be equally cer- 
 tain that it was long ere we ventured again any- 
 where near the Tigre without a boat or a horse. 
 And yet the locality is thickly populated — surely by 
 an aquatic race of beings impervious to moisture 
 and rheumatism — and there are many beautiful 
 houses and quintas, and the Tigre Hotel is certainly 
 one of the finest in South America. 
 
 But the glory of the Tigre are the hundreds of 
 small islands which dot the rivers a long way up, 
 and from which Buenos Ayres derives its principal 
 fruit supply. It is very pleasant in the spring-time 
 to pass by these islands when all the peach, orange, 
 and citron trees are in full bloom ; but when the 
 fruit is ripening it is a sight to see the boats and 
 barges laden with the golden spoils passing down 
 the river to the railway wharf; and the islands 
 crowded with people picking, sorting, and packing 
 the fruit. The fruit itself is not of much account, 
 being, like most uncultivated fruit, small and taste- 
 less. The peaches do not ripen properly, for the 
 sun is too fierce ; and while one side of the peach 
 has all the bloom and ruddy hue of this fruit, the 
 other side is green, and the whole insipid. But it 
 is the same with many of the flowers, especially the 
 rose, which has all the colour but none of the smell 
 of an English rose. In the fruit season I have seen 
 at one time floating on the river near the railway 
 station as much fruit as would serve Covent Garden 
 for a week, all rotting and wasted, the surface of the 
 
CREAT SCOTT. 
 
 15; 
 
 water hidden by rosy peaches and yellow oranges. 
 Such is the Tigre. 
 
 One of the queerest mortals I ever met was an 
 uncouth old Scotchman, who lived all alone like a 
 modern Crusoe on one of the thousand islands of 
 the Tigre, surrounded by his fowls, ducl<s, cats, 
 dogs, birds, and other pets. Who that knows the 
 district does not know "Old Scott," as every one 
 calls him, with his untrimmecl red beard, his great 
 round shoulders, swinging gait, and long arms, his 
 
 twinkling grey eyes, and his small thin voice ? A 
 great character is Old Scott, — " lui gran tipoT as 
 the people round about style him ; a man who has 
 knocked about all over the world and seen every- 
 thing and everybody that you can mention ; who 
 has been by turns ship's carpenter, engineer, boat- 
 builder, painter, sailor, smith, and many things 
 besides ; a man full of practical mechanical know- 
 ledge, who plumes himself on his ability to " turn 
 his hand to anything," Not a boat passes up or 
 
154 
 
 argp:xtixa and the argextixes. 
 
 down the narrow stream that runs before his island 
 hut but he has a cheery hallo for Its occupants ; 
 and if the boat happens to contain a " Britisher," 
 the latter — stranger or not — gets a pressing invita- 
 tion to step ashore and "have a tot" ; and Old 
 Scott runs down as agile as an ape to help him 
 hook his b<3at to a con\'enient tree, and lowers his 
 home-made companion ladder for him to clamber 
 
 TIGKE— VIEW OX I H K RIVER ANGOSTURA, 
 
 Up the steep bank; and then the old man with frolic- 
 some glee, yet with some of the grave pride of "a 
 monarch of the isle," leads him up to his house and 
 introduces him to his ample store of whisky or 
 cana (with or without fruit) : and while the two join 
 in a hob-nob glass. Old Scott patters away in a 
 shrill tone the queerest mixture of English and 
 Spanish and Italian that ever was heard ; and after- 
 wards he Conducts his visitor (if a stranger) over 
 
A SOLITARY OLD CRUSOE. 1 55 
 
 his domicile, full of contrivances and unexpected 
 nooks and crannies, and ingenious devices for 
 lightening household cares. Then there is an 
 inspection of the old man's individual efforts at 
 colonization, the space cleared and under cultiva- 
 tion, the plots next projected for this, that, or the 
 other fruit-growing purposes ; the palisading, the 
 fencing, the fowls'-houses, the quarters for the 
 animals, the shed with the fishing-tackle, and all 
 the rest of the solitary old colonist's handiwork, — all 
 shown with a simple pride that cannot fail to win 
 the sympathies of any right-minded man or woman, 
 and yet makes them wonder, too, how any being, 
 solitary old widower though he be, who has been 
 used to bustling about the world, could be content 
 to lead such an isolated existence, his only society 
 that of a few treacherous and needy Italians who 
 work for or near him, and his casual visitors. The 
 old man has a good deal of property in different 
 parts of the country, and is said to be comparatively 
 wealthy ; and yet, as he has himself told us, he has 
 no soul in the world that he cares for, or who cares 
 for him. And when one comes into the great hive 
 again and feels the everlasting grind of the mill 
 once more, one is tempted to think that, after all, 
 the old man's ideas may be right, and his existence 
 the best and most free from trouble and care. 
 
 As for the life of the suburbs, its chief charac- 
 teristic is insufferable dulness, but quite a Paradise 
 for people of rustic tastes who can be happy with the 
 weeds and the frogs. Camp towns present as little 
 variety as the streets of the capital. The principal 
 features are the same or so nearly alike in all cases 
 
15^ 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 that, having seen one or two, one is able to describe 
 them all. There is a plxza ; a hideous pile of 
 masonry called the church, which, as in every in- 
 stance that ever came under our observation, is 
 provided with a bell, louder certainly, but far less 
 musical than a sheep-bell ; the immicipalidad, one 
 long, straggling calle real, or high street, which 
 
 A TYPICAL ARGENTINE CHURCH. 
 
 seems to begin anywhere and end nowhere ; z. fonda, 
 miscalled an hotel ; one, or perhaps two, big abna- 
 ccnes, or general stores, always alike and always dark 
 and gloomy ; any number of piilperias ; some mis- 
 shapen masses of brick and stucco called houses, of 
 which 'you can never be certain which are the fronts 
 and which the backs ; a forlorn tienda or two ; heaps 
 
so MEAN OF THE MOON. 1 57 
 
 of dust Qr mud, and as few signs of life as it is 
 possible to conceive in a place which bombastically 
 styles itself a "town." A stray oil-lamp here and 
 there wastes its dim speck of brightness on the walls 
 of an esquina, as deserted and silent as a grave- 
 yard ; but by what system the authorities regulate 
 the public lighting of a pueblo it is difficult to say. 
 They appear to be guided entirely by the almanack. . 
 If the almanack says there is to be a moon to-night, 
 the lamps are not lit. If through any cause the 
 moon fails to appear, that does not matter. The 
 authorities have done their part in giving the moon 
 a fair field and no favour ; and if that luminary is 
 mean enough to shirk its responsibilities, clearly the 
 viunicipalidad is not to blame. The almanack says 
 it ought to be there, and it has no more right to be 
 absent than a working-man has to be ill. These 
 were, at any rate, the conclusions to which our ob- 
 servations led us. 
 
 In those latitudes there is no twilight, and dark- 
 ness comes on almost suddenly. If there is no 
 moon, the only thing to do after dinner is to sit 
 and read as long as the heavy air will let you keep 
 awake, and then, at 9 p.m. or earlier, go to bed 
 and rise with the sun at 4 a.m. — the best hour of 
 the whole twenty-four. But on a bright moonlit 
 night there is nothing more enjoyable than a gallop, 
 provided you know the roads, are not afraid of 
 the savage curs that are sure to harass you and 
 your horse, and are not too tender-hearted to mind 
 riding through swarms of frogs and clouds of 
 mosquitos. 
 
 Beyond the places mentioned there is nothing 
 
158 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 interesting in the way of scenery for hundreds of 
 miles. North, west, and south the vast camp is a 
 dead level of grass that is not even green, but a 
 parched brown, over which one may travel for fifty 
 leagues without being troubled with the sight of a 
 house, or a tree, or a single object to intercept the 
 encircling line of the distant horizon. People who 
 live in the camp, where a hill or tree becomes an 
 object of veneration, partake of its characteristics. 
 One meets them occasionally in town, or one visits 
 them on their estancias, or perhaps even (as we did) 
 travels with them over a third part of the globe, 
 and always finding them taciturn, unintellectual, 
 unimaginative folk, whose ideas, if they ever had 
 any, have long since grown rusty — people who have 
 quietly got left in the race of life, and whose minds 
 have sunk into a dead level of common-place. In 
 the life of the camp we looked in vain for adequate 
 compensation for the loss of the amenities of society, 
 and the utter absence of all the refining agencies of 
 civilization, literature, art, music, the drama, science, 
 the press. There is the patriarchal knowledge of 
 sheep and wool, and herds and skins, and a cer- 
 tain hardening of the constitution. But I confess I 
 would rather be the most inconsiderable unit in the 
 society of a large centre like London than be 
 doomed to penal servitude on an Argentine esiancia. 
 We visited several of the greatest estancias of the 
 Plate — Las Cabezas, in Entre Rios, Luro's and 
 Peralta's in the south, Casey's at Curumulan ; and 
 estancias nearer town at Monasterio, Chascomus, 
 Domselaar ; and although it is not my intention to 
 describe cstancia life, for that has been done so often 
 
LONG-SIGHTED CAMP FOLK. 159 
 
 and so well already, yet I must say that one thing 
 struck us everywhere with wonder, and that was that 
 the estancia people, of whatever nationality, seemed 
 to have acquired an added sense —a power of vision 
 quite remarkable. When and where we first 
 noticed this was while on a visit to a Scotch family 
 
 at the Estancia, some leagues from Dom- 
 
 selaar. It was a hot summer afternoon, and the 
 sun shone fiercely over the slightly undulating 
 prairie. The two girls of the family were standing 
 outside under the veranda, when suddenly one of 
 
 them came running in to say that J was coming 
 
 up from Chascomus, whereupon the whole family, 
 
 ourselves with them, rushed out to watch J 's 
 
 approach ; and although I am blessed with very 
 long sight, I could see nothing at all for some 
 minutes after every one had pointed out the direc- 
 tion in which the visitor was coming ; and then, 
 when at last I did catch sight of something moving 
 against the horizon, it was more than I could do 
 to tell whether the figure on horseback were that 
 of a man or a woman, a gaitcho or a European ; yet 
 
 even the children seemed to know that it was J , 
 
 as of course it ultimately proved to be. My own 
 sight has ever since fallen out of conceit with me. 
 
 The swart campesino, with his harsh and tanned 
 features, his rusty beard, his fierce, glittering eyes, 
 and his formidable weapons of offence and defence, 
 is not a pleasant object to encounter on a lonely 
 camp road, or on the trackless plain. As we pass 
 each other he peers into your eyes with a hungry, 
 wolfish glare, as though the keen blade of his bowie- 
 knife thirsted for blood. But although I have never 
 
l6o ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 had the luck to be engaged in a broil with any 
 of these fearful-looking beings, I have played an 
 unwilling part in one or two tragic scenes. On one 
 occasion I was riding through a portion of the great 
 Ocampo colony in the Chaco. As I came to the 
 summit of an acclivity, I espied a man riding towards 
 the iranquera, or gate through which we had both 
 to pass, and urging his horse to his top speed. The 
 stranger reached the gate first, nimbly dismounted 
 and opened it, and held it open for me to pass. As 
 I neared him, he signalled to me to stop, which of 
 course I did. And a more ghastly object than the 
 being before me I never saw. His face was 
 blanched, his cheeks drawn in, a lurid light shone 
 in his bloodshot eyes, he looked like a hunted 
 fugitive. His horse was trembling, covered with 
 foam, and painfully panting. The strange object 
 addressed me in a hollow voice, and implored me 
 for the love of God if I met three men on horse- 
 back crossing the same camp to swear that I had 
 not seen him pass that way. " They have been in 
 pursuit of me all night long," he said ; " their horses 
 
 are fresh, mine is spent. I go if possible to 
 
 colony, where I can hide in safety, or, if need be, 
 find assistance. Two or three leagues farther off 
 that way," pointing with outstretched arm to the 
 right, " there is another gate. If you say that you 
 did not see me pass this way, they will think that I 
 have gone that way. Tenga compasion, Sefior, por 
 amor de Dios :" with which brief and unsatisfactory 
 address, and without waiting for any reply or ques- 
 tions, he again sped away, urging his jaded beast 
 with lash and spur. It was an awkward situation. 
 
RENCONTRE WITH THE GAUCHOS. l6l 
 
 I would have given anything to avoid meeting the 
 pursuers of the guilty wretch — for guilty of some 
 unknown crime he clearly was ; but there was 
 nothing before or behind for leagues but the open 
 camp. I knew not in which direction the avenging 
 party might be approaching. By making a detour 
 I might only hasten the encounter I desired to 
 avoid. I therefore did what seemed best under 
 the circumstances — rode straight on, but at a slower 
 pace. In about an hour's time the three horsemen 
 appeared about half a mile away to the right of 
 me, not riding furiously, but steadily and surely. 
 We appeared to see each other simultaneously, 
 for the three instantly changed their course and 
 rode towards me, and I knew that there was now 
 no possibility of escaping them. My heart was in 
 my mouth, not so much from fear of my failing 
 to find nerve enough to act a lie (for I was de- 
 termined not to betray the poor, hunted wretch 
 who had thrown himself on my mercy), but from 
 my utter ignorance as to whether, by shielding a 
 fugitive, I was helping to cheat justice of her law- 
 ful prey. I resolved, if possible, to parley and feel 
 my way. As soon as I could no longer conceal my 
 knowledge that it was their purpose to approach 
 and speak to me, I slackened rein and rode slowly 
 towards them. And a more villainous-looking trio 
 I never saw. They were not flurried. Their 
 horses hardly steamed. They appeared to know 
 as well as the man they pursued that he had had 
 but one horse since the pursuit began — for, of 
 course, from fear of recognition, and to escape all 
 clues, the hunted man had not dared to stop to 
 
 M 
 
1 62 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 get or catch another animal — while theirs were 
 fresh, and had been changed more than once. No 
 sooner had we reached each other than a three- ■ 
 sided volley of questions was poured into my ears. 
 Had I met such and such an individual — accurately 
 describing him ? No. Which way had I come ? 
 To this question I of course returned a truthful 
 answer, being well aware that any prevarication in 
 this respect would instantly betray me and the man 
 whom I wished to protect. Did I know the neigh- 
 bourhood ? Yes. What time had I started ? And 
 I was quite sure that I had not noticed any such 
 siijeto as they had described ? In their own laconic 
 style I answered, — Senores, soy Ingles ! He die ho 
 que no, y asi es. Que mas puedo decirles ? [Sirs, I 
 am an Englishman ! I have told you no. It is the 
 truth. What else can I say ?) With this answer 
 they were fain to be content, though all the while 
 their keen, sinister glances searched me through 
 and through, and it might have gone badly with 
 me had the ordeal been much longer protracted. 
 It was very strange, they said, speaking amongst 
 themselves. Unless the sujeto whom they pursued 
 had doubled after all, they did not see which way 
 he could have gone. They were sure there was no 
 other place to which he could go than the colony 
 which the hunted man had named. It was now my 
 turn to question, and I asked who it was they pur- 
 sued, and what he had done. Es un ladron, Seiior, 
 — He is a thief, sir, who has stolen and sold two of 
 the best horses on the estate, and decamped with 
 the proceeds. I felt considerably relieved when I 
 learned the nature of the crime. To the gaucho. 
 
AN UNSATISFACTORY TERMINATION. 1 63 
 
 to Steal a horse is a graver crime than to kill a man ; 
 and they do not hesitate to mete out the punish- 
 ment of death to a delinquent whenever caught : 
 but to punish horse-stealing with murder — for that, 
 in a word, is what it amounts to — would seem 
 worse than Oriental retribution to a European. 
 And when I marked the implacable hatred and 
 sternness on the faces of the pursuers, and the 
 murderous glitter in their black eyes, I knew that 
 if the hunted wretch fell into their power, all earthly 
 hope for him was gone. But they rode away as 
 they came, and at the same long, swinging pace, 
 and I never succeeded in learning the sequel of the 
 adventure. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 La Plata, Capital of the Province of Buenos Ayres. — An En- 
 chanted City. — The Provincial Tribunals. — The Ministry of 
 Public ^^'orks, etc.— The Lights of La Plata. — Cost and 
 Raison d'Etre of the Capital of the Province. — Jealousy be- 
 tween Federals and Provincials. — La Plata a Huge Joke. — 
 Attempts to Coerce Population. — Exotic Conditions of 
 Existence. — Majority of the Population Foreigners. — The 
 Moths and the Candles. — The La Plata Port. — Compulsory 
 Patronage. 
 
 The rich and extensive province of Buenos Ayres 
 has its capital at La Plata, that enchanted city on 
 the plain which sprang into existence at the bidding 
 of an autocrat in the year 1882,^ was inaugurated 
 in 1884 by Governor D'Amico, and now in many 
 respects rivals the federal capital, from which it is 
 only some thirty-five miles distant. Nothing in the 
 history of Argentina is more remarkable than the 
 creation of this city, and it may be doubted if any 
 of the mushroom towns of North America can 
 compare with La Plata for the rapidity of its erec- 
 tion, the magnificence of its public buildings, and 
 the exotic conditions of its existence. In the short 
 space of two years, on a tract of the wilderness, and 
 hard by the foetid swamps of the Ensenada, arose 
 as if by magic a city of palaces, plazas, broad 
 
 ' A portrait of the founder of La Plata is given on page 311. 
 
 164 
 
THE DREAM OF MARIiLE HALLS. 
 
 it)5 
 
 avenues, and parks. Compared with the narrow 
 and dismal streets of Buenos Ayres, the calks and 
 avenidas of La Plata are boulevards — double or 
 treble the width of those of the federal metropolis, 
 better paved, better designed, embellished with 
 trees, and properly levelled. The Tribitnaks at La 
 Plata are as fine as any law-courts in the southern 
 hemisphere. There is a judgment-room which they 
 show the visitor more like a monarch's throne-room 
 than a judiciary bench. It has a raised dais, and is 
 
 TRIBUNALES, IRuMNCE OF iriENOS A\RLb ~S- . 
 
 gorgeously upholstered in rich crimson plush and 
 gold, has curtains, cushions, and carpets equal to 
 those of Windsor state apartments. The building in 
 which are situated the Ministerio de Hacienda, the 
 Alinisterio de Gobierno, and the Ministerio de Obras 
 Pnblicas, with its long marble corridors, tesselatecl 
 courtyards, adorned with fountains, palms, and 
 sub-tropical plants ; the Hypothecary Jjank and the 
 Provincial Bank, with their lofty and spacious 
 entrance halls, wide marble staircases, stained glass 
 windows, and sumptuously furnished olhces, make 
 
i66 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 our windowless Bank of England look like some 
 grim and dismal old jail. 
 
 From the ship lying at anchor in the roads, from 
 the train rushing through the camp westward and 
 southward, from horseback on the circumjacent 
 plains, one beholds, as darkness falls upon the earth, 
 a sudden and brilliant illumination — it is the electric 
 lights of the fairy city. We shall not soon forget 
 our own astonishment when we first beheld the 
 
 LA PLATA, MINISTRY OF PUBLIC 'SVORKS, ETC. 
 
 lights of La Plata. We had been out shooting all 
 day in the neighbourhood of Punta Lara, and were 
 making our way, towards evening, in the direction 
 of Pereira station on the Ensenada line. There 
 was no moon, and almost suddenly night overtook 
 us ; and then more suddenly still, as we turned a 
 bend in the road, there burst upon our astonished 
 gaze a dazzling blaze of white light, and we thought 
 we must at least have stumbled upon fairyland. 
 
COST OF THE CITY OF LA PLATA. 
 
 167 
 
 We turned our horses' heads towards the light, 
 entered the enchanted city, stayed there that night 
 and the next day, and were never afterwards tired 
 of visiting and studying this wonderful city, this 
 dream of marble halls and boulevards. 
 
 It is said that, apart from the amount expended 
 upon the port, more than ten million pounds sterling 
 
 LA PLATA LEGISLATURE. 
 
 have been spent upon the construction, embellish- 
 ment, and fomenio of La Plata, which owes its birth 
 to a struggle for the supreme power between 
 the inhabitants of the province and the National 
 Government. The latter being victorious, the 
 natural capital of the province became the capital of 
 the federation, and the Buenos Ayreans were driven 
 
1 68 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 to found a separate metropolis as near to their lost 
 citadel as possible. Ever since that feud there has 
 been bitter jealousy between the provincials and the 
 federals. But La Plata is looked upon even now by 
 the federals as a huge practical joke. The seat of 
 the government of the province and the Provincial 
 Bank were of course removed from the old to the 
 new capital. But in spite of this, and notwithstand- 
 ing the vast amount which has been expended upon 
 it, it was with difficulty that La Plata could be 
 populated, even though measures were designed to 
 compel the employds of the provincial Government 
 to reside permanently in the magic city. The 
 measures proved ineffectual, and now the trains 
 carry backwards and forwards, night and morning, 
 from Buenos Ayres the majority of the Government 
 clerks, and others besides who are supported by 
 them. The difference between the night and the 
 day populations of La Plata is as marked as in 
 the case of London City itself. But for this the 
 Ensenada Railway might never have paid a divi- 
 dend. Many of the higher Government officials, it 
 is true, have residences at La Plata, as well as in 
 Buenos Ayres, and pass a portion of their time in 
 both cities ; but these are few. The provincial 
 metropolis has been the theatre of gigantic specula- 
 tion in land and house property ; the operations of 
 those leviathan concerns the Banco Constructor 
 and the Fomento Territorial during the years 
 1885-89 were instrumental in extending the area of 
 the city, and attracting to it a certain population — 
 chiefly foreigners ; but its existence is purely exotic : 
 it has no staple industries, no commerce, except what 
 
THE RIVAL PORT. 
 
 169 
 
 it can filch from the natural port of the country, 
 Buenos Ayres. To-day La Plata has an area of 
 1,086 square kilometres, and a resident population 
 of 65,610 — 27,705 Argentines {sic), and 37,905 
 foreigners ; or, to quote the actual figures : — 
 
 Argentines 
 
 • 27-705 
 
 Italians 
 
 . 20,491 
 
 Spaniards . 
 
 • 9.594 
 
 Frencli 
 
 • 3.°98 
 
 English 
 
 271 
 
 Germans . 
 
 254 
 
 Other nationalities 
 
 ■ 4,197 
 
 
 65,610 
 
 It will be noted that here again there are nearly 
 as many Italians as Argentines, who, as the figures 
 show, are the last to appreciate and patronise the 
 enchanted city. The mistake was in making the 
 provincial capital so near to the greater federal 
 capital. Trust an Argentine living far away from 
 the allurements of Calle Florida, the Pasatiempo, 
 and Palermo, if he can help it ! Go when one may, 
 there is no life in La Plata. On the occasions of 
 public festivals there is now and again a spurt of 
 excitement, but it fizzles and goes out like a damp 
 rocket. 
 
 Then, in addition to having a bran-new capital 
 of their own, the Buenos Ayreans must have their 
 own port. There could be no successful competi- 
 tion between the rival metropoli unless each had its 
 port. Of the two projects — the Madero Port and 
 that of La Plata — the latter is considered by ex- 
 perienced pilots to be much the best, being better 
 
170 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 built, more approachable, better flushed, and less 
 affected by the action of the waters of the Plate, 
 which is continually banking up sand. But Buenos 
 Ayres holds the position of a natural outlet and inlet 
 for all the commerce of the Republic north of the 
 Riachuelo ; and the money which has been sunk in 
 the La Plata port has, it is to be feared, sunk to 
 the bottom, never to be fished up again in this 
 generation. Two or three hundred years hence, 
 perhaps, there may be sufficient trade to support 
 two big ports in such close proximity. No end of 
 professional gibberish has been talked and written 
 on the rival ports ; engineer after engineer, expert 
 after expert, have fulminated the most astounding 
 theories and charges against the rival schemes. 
 Meanwhile one will have far to seek for the raison 
 d'etre of the La Plata port. 
 
 The provincials have recently succeeded in getting 
 measures enacted by which the operations of loading 
 and discharging cargo in the roads of Buenos Ayres 
 have been stopped, and vessels which are too big 
 to enter the Madero docks are now compelled to 
 proceed to La Plata, whence the cargo is transported 
 by rail to the federal capital and elsewhere. This 
 compulsory support of the provincial port outvies 
 the famous decrees designed to coerce a resident 
 population to the enchanted city, and adds one 
 more to the exotic conditions under which the latter 
 exists. Nevertheless, it should prove a boon to the 
 Ensenada Railway, a decided inconvenience to the 
 shipping companies, the passengers, and importers 
 and exporters, and a great blow to the lightermen 
 of Buenos Ayres. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Argentine Railways. — The Great Southern. — One Common 
 Terminus for the Rosario, Pacific, Ensenada, Central 
 Argentine, Northern, and Western Railways. — Gold Tariffs. 
 —No Third Class.— Rate of Travelling.— Goods Traffic— 
 An Artful Dodge.— Native Management.— Actual Condition 
 of Some of the Permanent Ways. — Humours of Railway 
 Travelling. — The Fragrant Camp. — "Bad for the Coo." — 
 Beguilements on the Ensenada.— The Lottery Ticket Seller. 
 —The Vendor of "Blue Books."— The Demon Fiddle 
 Scraper. — The Novelty Man. — While a Train Fetches Wind 
 we take a Stroll on the Line and Pluck Wayside Flowers. — 
 Buenos Ayres the City of Tramways. — Comparison of British 
 and Argentine Tramway Traffic. — "Camp'' Trams. — Low 
 Cost of Motive Power. — Bone-Shakers. — Human Flies. — 
 If in a Hurry, Eschew the Trams. — How the Law Treats 
 Conductors and Drivers. — Pleasant Suburban Rides. 
 
 Argentina has a magnificent railway system. In 
 May, 1 89 1, there were in actual working twenty-two 
 lines of railway, with a total extension of 7,099 
 miles, and an aggregate capital of _^6o,ooo,ooo ; and 
 there were in course of study or construction thirty 
 lines — some 7,826 miles — employing a proportionate 
 amount of capital. At the end of 1889 there were 
 in operation twenty lines, with a total mileage of 
 5,017, and a capital of ^46,230,528; and in 1888 
 there were seventeen lines, with a total length of 
 4,788 miles, and a capital of _;^ 3 8, 600, 000. The 
 
172 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 magnitude and importance of the system may be 
 gauged from the following figures, which refer to 
 1890 : — 
 
 Miles in working 
 
 . 
 
 6,282 
 
 Passengers carried . 
 
 
 13.633,769 
 
 Goods carried (English 
 
 tons) 
 
 7,472,873 
 
 Miles run 
 
 . 
 
 218,061,163 
 
 Gross earnings 
 
 
 ^^10,217,673 
 
 ^^'orking expenses . 
 
 
 -^6,395,473 
 
 Capital employed . 
 
 
 • ^54,138,718 
 
 In most respects the best line in the country is 
 the Buenos Ayres Great Southern, which has a 
 greater mileage, employs a larger amount of capital, 
 and is better equipped, than any other railway in 
 the Republic. Its terminus in Plaza Constitucion 
 is the finest railway station in South America. The 
 Buenos Ayres and Rosario line ranks next in im- 
 portance ; but notwithstanding its importance and 
 wealth, it possesses no terminus of its own in the 
 federal capital, but uses, in common with the Pacific, 
 the Central Argentine, the \\'estern, the Ensenada, 
 and the Northern, the shabby wooden structure in 
 the Paseo de Julio. Various schemes for the con- 
 struction of a grand Central Terminus for all the 
 lines which run to Buenos Ayres have been from 
 time to time mooted, and put on paper ; but as yet 
 nothing has come of any of them. The Anglo- 
 xArgentine railway corporations, like their fellows 
 at home, strain the policy of exclusiveness and 
 monopoly. Each company would like to have its 
 own terminus all to itself in the capital, and the 
 convenience ol its patrons, in this respect at least, 
 is the last thing considered. But while the metro- 
 
RAILWAY PASSENGER ACCOMMODATION. I 73 
 
 polis of the world is content, even in these utilitarian 
 days, to do without what so many European capitals 
 of less importance have long enjoyed — namely, a 
 common central terminus for each and all the rail- 
 ways — Buenos Ayres has no right to expect her 
 ambitious project to be realized. 
 
 Passenger accommodation on Argentine railways 
 is much superior to that provided by many of our 
 
 TERMINUS OF THE BUENOS AYRES GREAT SOUTHERN RAILWAY. 
 
 own railway corporations. Most of the cars are 
 built on the Pullman system, but more solidly up- 
 holstered, and, of course, adapted to the exigencies 
 of the climate. The Rosario line is the best for 
 travelling on. The saloon coaches on the long- 
 distance trains carry lavatories and refreshment 
 bars, and down the centre aisles one may promenade 
 from end to end of the train. The Southern railway 
 coaches, though superbly fitted, are less convenient 
 
174 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 for long journeys, the passenger being confined to 
 his particular compartment ; and although there is 
 good lavatory accommodation, there is none what- 
 ever for the refreshments which are so necessary 
 to the traveller through the dusty regions of the 
 south. On most lines the sleeping accommodation 
 is excellent, and privacy can be secured at a trifling 
 extra cost. The average rate of travelling is much 
 slower than in England, and rates higher. The 
 English railway companies fix their rates on a gold 
 basis ; so that nobody ever knows for more than a 
 few days at a time how many dollars it is going to 
 cost to make a journey by rail. To-day it may 
 be $50, next week it may be $80, or, with far less 
 probability, $40. There is no third class on Argen- 
 tine railways, and, except the immigrants despatched 
 to the colonies by the Immigration Department, the 
 second-class is patronised by few, and these only 
 the very indigent. The second-class carriages are 
 worse than the worst thirds on the Chatham and 
 Dover, South-Eastern, or Brighton lines. Nearly 
 all the saloon cars on the Argentine railways are 
 built in England ; and it seems anomalous that 
 while there should be so much luxury in the way 
 of passenger accommodation in such a half-civilized 
 country as Argentina, we at home should be content 
 to jog along in the uncomfortable pens provided by 
 some English railways. 
 
 The wind and the waves retard or speed the ship 
 according as they be favourable or adverse ; but 
 anything from a breeze to a pampero affects the 
 rate of travelling on some of the Argentine railways. 
 It is not an unknown occurrence for passengers to 
 
ARGENTINE ADMINISTRATIVE CAPACITY. 1 75 
 
 arrive at their destinations one or two days late ; and 
 it is sometimes impossible to say with certainty that 
 goods despatched from the federal capital in ample 
 time for a given season will reach the consignee 
 at the beginning, middle, or end of that season. I 
 never heard of any country in the world that could 
 beat the record shown by some Argentine railways 
 for delay in delivering cargo. What kind of system 
 can that be when truck-loads of goods sent from 
 Buenos Ayres to, say, Mendoza or San Juan are, 
 for no discoverable reason, shunted into some iso- 
 lated roadside station and there left — not hours, nor 
 days, nor weeks, but months — perhaps forgotten 
 altogether, and left a prey to thieves or damp ? 
 Yet such a thing has been of frequent occurrence, 
 and not always on the lines under native manage- 
 ment. It is by no means a rare incident for some 
 astute tradesman in the north to suborn a venal 
 gefe de cargas, and prevail upon him to hasten the 
 delivery of his season's consignment of Manchester 
 or Lyons goods, and retard by every means in his 
 power those consigned to rival tradesmen. 
 
 Except in the case of the State banks, the ad- 
 ministrative incapacity of the Argentines has never 
 been more conspicuously displayed than in the 
 management of the State railways. Wherever the 
 Government exercised control, the expenditure of a 
 line exceeded its income, through sheer mismanage- 
 ment. In the Central Northern the percentage of 
 working expenses for 1890 was 179 per cent. ; in 
 the Argentine North- Western, 145 per cent. ; and 
 in the Argentine Great Western (prior to its acquire- 
 ment by the present English company), 142 per cent. 
 
176 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 But what other result could be expected ? The 
 native has no experience of such things. Where an 
 English manager would employ a staff of ten clerks 
 and get through the work with efficiency and 
 success, the native employs fifty, is always getting 
 into arrears, and is never out of a muddle. The 
 native's notions of book-keeping, too, are as crude 
 as those of a schoolboy just taught a smattering of 
 the science by men who have never journalised a 
 real entry in their lives. We once knew a manager 
 of an important branch of one of the big insurance 
 companies who actually did not know Dr. from 
 Cr. ; but being a well-known man, with a prefix 
 to his name, he had contrived to wheedle himself 
 into such a responsible position. Naturally things 
 went wrong, and in the end the poor doctor had to 
 pay dearly for the short-lived and barren honour of 
 being " Director General " of the great corporation's 
 siiciirsal. Scores of similar cases might be cited 
 to show that, no matter how incompetent an Argen- 
 tine may be, he never hesitates to undertake things 
 beyond his powers, experience, and knowledge. 
 
 With respect to the maintenance of the State 
 railways, the Government generally appeared to be 
 actuated by the supposition that once a line was 
 laid and equipped, it required no further attention, 
 and kept itself in repair. As a matter of fact, the 
 permanent ways of the national lines rarely, almost 
 never, received any attention. There is a national 
 Board of Inspection, whose officials are continually 
 sending to Government reports on the condition of 
 certain lines ; but regard is seldom paid to the re- 
 ports, which are sometimes published in the news- 
 
PLEASURES OF RAILWAY TRAVELLING. I J 7 
 
 papers, and then "archived." A recent report on 
 the state of the Central Northern and the North- 
 East Argentine stated that, in the case of the first 
 named, — 
 
 "The service is very irregular, owing to the bad state of the 
 permanent way, especially in some parts of the line, as for instance 
 between Santa Rosa and Jujuy, where almost every train is thrown 
 off the metals. 
 
 "In the case of the North-East Argentinean enormous amount 
 of labour is requisite to bring the line into anything like suitable 
 conditions for even a moderate service. The permanent way in 
 many places is in a very bad state, trains being unable in dry 
 weather to travel at a greater speed than three kilometres per hour." 
 
 Railway travelling in Argentina has its humorous 
 side too. Should you ever have occasion to travel 
 on the Great Southern, choose a wet day if possible ; 
 for then you will be likely to arrive at your destina- 
 tion with your natural colour. On a hot summer 
 day you will be as black as a tinker ere you reach, 
 say. Mar del Plata or Azul. As for clothes, don 
 the oldest and shabbiest in your wardrobe, for they 
 will be fit for little else but the rag-shop by the time 
 you get to your journey's end. Or if you must be 
 like everybody else and travel well dressed, you 
 must put on a long holland or alpaca dust-coat that 
 reaches to your ankles, a handkerchief round your 
 neck, and a soft hat on your head. All the gentle- 
 men wear this rig-out, and they look like so many 
 meat salesmen just dropped down from Smithfield. 
 And wherever you travel in the camp in the sum- 
 mer time, be sure and provide yourself with a liberal 
 supply of perfume ; you will want all you can take. 
 As the train bears you through the vast featureless 
 
 N 
 
178 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 plains, without ever a hedge or a tree, save at rare 
 intervals a patriarchal ombtl, or a cluster of willows 
 or blue gums, or a clump of dusty cacti in the vici- 
 nity of an estancia house or ptteblo, you will miss 
 all the fragrant odours of the country which at home 
 make travelling a pleasure, and instead, your sense 
 of smell will be offended, often for miles at a stretch, 
 by the stench from scores of putrefying carcases that 
 bestrew the camp in every direction. It may fall 
 to your luck, perhaps, to witness a scene of carnage 
 such as we once beheld whilst riding through one 
 of the upper provinces one scorching day in De- 
 cember. The train had made good progress for 
 some leagues, and had left far in the rear the last 
 vestige of civilization, and got well out into the wild 
 and fenceless camp. Presently the driver slackened 
 speed, and blew the hideous whistle with which all 
 railway engines in the country are provided. In a 
 moment every head was out of window to know 
 what the slowing up and the noise meant. Before 
 us on the line was a tropilla of wild horses, spread 
 right across the track. That part of the camp being, 
 as I have said, unfenced, it was easy for the animals 
 to stray on to the line, and, of course, as easy for 
 them to escape. But a tropilla of wild horses is an 
 awkward mass of stupidity to encounter in such a 
 situation. Every animal keeps close to his fellow, 
 and all press as much as possible towards a common 
 centre. The whistle may screech and the driver 
 may open a valve and let off steam to add to the 
 din; but this only creates a stampede, the stupid 
 things lose all mastery of themselves, and simply fly 
 before the shrieking iron monster, only a few drop- 
 
A VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT. 1 79 
 
 ping off in terror or exhaustion to the right or left. 
 But flesh and blood cannot stand against steam, nor 
 can the train wait ; and as the animals cannot be 
 driven off the track, there is no help for it but just 
 to clap on all speed and dash into the midst of the 
 tropilla with the massive cow-catcher set like some 
 great battering-ram. But, oh ! the shrieks and 
 screams ; the crushing and mangling of bones ; the 
 scattering right and left of quivering limbs ! Hap- 
 pily the sickening sight lasts only a few moments, 
 though quite long enough to spoil one's appetite for 
 the rest of the day, especially if he should happen to 
 be morbidly inclined to glance in the direction of 
 the cow-catcher, covered with hair and blood and 
 dust. Such encounters are happily becoming rarer 
 as the area under cultivation extends. It is certainly 
 preferable to ride through fifty or a hundred leagues 
 of corn-fields than through unfenced pasture lands. 
 
 The passenger by the local lines — especially the 
 Northern and the Ensenada — will find plenty to 
 amuse him and beguile the tedium of the journey. 
 A trip to La Plata, for instance, will be as good as 
 a variety entertainment any day. At the start there 
 will be the ragged urchins selling matches and bawling 
 the news, and afterwards there will be the young man 
 with the showy brass rings and inordinate length of 
 brass watch-chain, who combines the callings of a 
 vendor of newspapers and agent sub rosa for the 
 various lotteries of Montevideo or Mendoza, or some 
 other province where that stage of morality which 
 demands the suppression of the lottery has not yet 
 been reached. This young gentleman approaches 
 you with an air of mystery, and with sundry nods 
 
l8o ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 and winks and unintelligible motions, whispers you 
 confidentially that he has the winning number for 
 the gran premio kept back specially for you. Then 
 there is the gentleman who sells impolite litera- 
 ture, and pays the municipality for the right to 
 exercise his noble vocation a heavy tax of $io per 
 month. (Fancy what a poverty-stricken munici- 
 pality that must be which can stoop so low !) 
 Then there is the itinerant musician — usually some 
 infant prodigy — who rasps the strings of a cheap 
 fiddle till every nerve in your body shudders, and 
 you gladly pay the horrid imp a few cents to " get 
 out of it." Then there is that mysterious individual 
 of most gentlemanly appearance and demeanour 
 who approaches you with a regular music-hall smirk, 
 and, with great volubility of expression, introduces 
 himself to you — to your great astonishment — as the 
 vendor of some of the most remarkable and most 
 childish novelties you ever saw. Match-boxes 
 which, under his deft and dainty manipulation, go 
 through rapid and surprising metamorphoses, — 
 assuming now the form of an outspread fan, now 
 that of a bouquet of artificial flowers, then a pocket- 
 comb and mirror, and then back again into a match- 
 box. Or you may sometimes vary the monotony 
 of the journey to the enchanted city by getting out 
 and taking a stroll on the line, or stopping to pick 
 a few wayside flowers ; the train will catch you up, 
 never fear, — provided you do not walk too fast. On 
 the long-distance trains you may not meet with 
 such varied entertainment ; but you can, if you 
 like, gamble and drink to your heart's content — 
 cock-tails, corpse-revivers, gin-sling, or any other 
 American abomination that you may fancy. 
 
ARGENTINE TRAMWAY STATISTICS. 
 
 I8l 
 
 No city in the world of equal size and population 
 can compare with Buenos Ayres for the number 
 and extent of its tramways. Not only do the urban 
 tram lines stretch beyond the city boundaries to the 
 outlying districts north, south, and west for distances 
 of ten, twelve, and fifteen miles, but from the very 
 heart of the city spring tracks which, when com- 
 pleted, will extend for hundreds of miles into the 
 province, connecting many of its most important 
 colonies, and in great measure superseding railways. 
 
 There are seven tramway companies in Buenos 
 Ayres, and the combined length of their systems 
 amounts to no less than 1 79 miles (in London there 
 are only 116 miles). The number of passengers 
 carried during 1890 was over 55 millions, or an 
 average of about 152,000 per diem. The relative 
 importance of the various companies may be seen 
 from the subjoined statistics for the eleven months 
 from January to November, 1890: — 
 
 Name of Company. 
 
 D 0) 
 
 S 9- 
 
 <u <u 3 _ 
 
 6 3 aJ S 
 3 o-a - 
 
 City of Buenos Ayres . . 
 Anglo- Argentine . . . . 
 
 Central 
 
 Capital ... . . . 
 
 Buenos Ayres and Belgrano 
 Grand National . . . . 
 
 Buenos Ayres, New . . . 
 Metropolitan ' .... 
 
 132 
 145 
 
 S3 
 20 
 
 36 
 
 27 
 
 17 
 6 
 
 2,227 
 2,409 
 834 
 323 
 559 
 394 
 
 239 
 104 
 
 1,107 
 
 1=558 
 418 
 213 
 266 
 371 
 
 95 
 46 
 
 503>oi9 
 560,927 
 140,280 
 
 73>356 
 129,018 
 
 57>354 
 
 32,432 
 
 4,655 
 
 19,641,906 
 
 17,264,916 
 
 4,972,787 
 
 1,963,047 
 
 4,984,526 
 
 1,092,333 
 
 619,018 
 
 52,489 
 
 In liquidation. 
 
 179 
 
 436 
 
 7,089 
 
 4,074 
 
 1,501,041 
 
 50,591,022 
 
 The enormous traffic which is shown by these 
 figures is due to the growth of the suburbs, and the 
 
1 82 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 enforced exodus of urban population thereto through 
 the constantly rising and already exorbitant rents 
 prevalent in the city. There are, however, many 
 other contributory causes. The natural indole of 
 the people ; the languor induced by the climate, 
 which creates an aversion to any kind of exertion ; 
 the oppressive monotony of mile upon mile of 
 streets, all of a uniform width and character ; the 
 absence of all scenery, and even of decent roads 
 to walk upon and to invite to pedestrian exercise — 
 all these are agents for the tramways. 
 
 In an article published in the Financial News for 
 August 20th, 1888, it was stated by the author 
 that — 
 
 " The population of the United Kingdom is about 37 millions. 
 The Board of Trade returns show that the number of passengers 
 carried by the British tramways during the year 1887, over a 
 total roadway of 900 miles, was in round numbers 400 millions. 
 This gives a monthly average of 33^ miUions, or i-o96 millions 
 per day ; so that the tramways of the United Kingdom carry 
 a number of passengers equal to the entire population every 
 thirty-four days. Now, the collective statistics of the Buenos 
 Ayres tramways demonstrate that, with only 93 miles of track, 
 and with a population of less than half a million, the same result 
 is attained every four days. Therefore, comparing population 
 with population, and mileage with mileage, the proportion of the 
 populace who daily use the tram-cars is 66 times greater in 
 Buenos Ayres than in the United Kingdom. This difference is 
 enormous, and is manifestly due to the different climatic con- 
 ditions of the two countries. It appears that the number of 
 passengers carried by all the railways in the country during the 
 year 1887, over a total lineage of 4,121 miles, was 7,169,000; 
 so that the tramways of Buenos Ayres carried during the same 
 period five times as many passengers as all the Argentine rail- 
 ways, and that with only one forty-fourth of the railway mileage." 
 
"camp" trams. 183 
 
 Allowing for increase of population and mileage 
 in both countries, the proportions work out about 
 the same for 1890 as for 1887. 
 
 But it is not alone in the capital that tramway 
 enterprise has made such prodigious strides. There 
 are provincial tramways which for length and effi- 
 ciency almost rival the great trunk railways of the 
 country. What, for instance, would be thought in 
 England of a tramway worked by horse-power only 
 for a total distance of 600 kilometres, with regular 
 stations, yet stationary at any point of the track ; 
 with a well-conducted passenger and cargo service ; 
 with sleeping-cars, cars for fruit, fish, and live-stock, 
 and even refrigerating cars .'* There are several 
 undertakings of the kind, though none of such 
 importance as Lacroze's Rural Tramway, which, 
 starting from the city, is ultimately intended to 
 reach as far south as Bahia Blanca. The utility of 
 these "camp" trams, as they are familiarly termed, 
 is great. They connect and keep open communi- 
 cation between the extensive colonial systems of 
 the interior, and enable colonists settled far beyond 
 the regions traversed by the railroads to keep touch 
 with the world. In the province of Santa F6 alone 
 at the end of last year there were 112 kilometres 
 of tramway in operation, and 819 kilometres pro- 
 jected and in course of construction, the major 
 portion of the latter being "camp," or inter-colonial 
 tramways. 
 
 What probably has made Argentina such a country 
 of tramways is the exceedingly low cost of the 
 motive power mostly employed ; namely, horses. 
 The Argentine tramway horse costs on the average 
 
184 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 but a few shillings, say, 40/- to 60/- at the outside. 
 He is a small, wiry, long-suffering, much-enduring 
 brute, as unlike an English tramway horse as Mark 
 Twain's travelling hardware crate is like a shire- 
 horse. His value being so insignificant, it is not 
 thought worth while in Buenos Ayres to bestow 
 any care upon him ; accordingly he is treated with 
 pitiless cruelty, beaten, driven and worked to death ; 
 and he is fed as convicts are fed — so much food to 
 produce so much dynamic force. While in England 
 the keep of tramway horses amounts to about 41 per 
 cent, of the gross takings, in the Argentine it does 
 not exceed 15 per cent. 
 
 Of all the jolting, jumping, rocking, bone-shaking 
 vehicles ever invented for the conveyance of human 
 beings, few can equal the Argentine open tram-car, 
 or jardinera, which has reversible rectangular seats, 
 platforms at either end for the driver and conductor, 
 and a footboard running the whole length of each 
 side. It is so light that, unless well filled with pas- 
 sengers, it is liable at any moment to jump off the 
 execrable tracks of the city. Notwithstanding the 
 large number of cars in service, there are certain 
 hours of every day when it is impossible to cope 
 with the enormous traffic. Stand for half an hour 
 at the corner of the Plaza Victoria and Rividavia 
 between the hours of 5 and 7 p.m., and you will see 
 fifty cars, or even more, rush by — north, south, west 
 — not merely crowded, but literally covered with 
 passengers, all one can see of the cars themselves 
 being the roofs and the ends, after they have passed. 
 On the platforms and on each footboard, men and 
 boys are hanging wherever they can find space to 
 
EVERY-DAY INCIDENTS. I 85 
 
 hold on with one hand and one foot — fifty or sixty 
 passengers on a car constructed to carry at most 
 thirty-six ; and all pulled by two wretched animals 
 whose combined strength is hardly equal to that of 
 half an English tramway horse. Up certain gra- 
 dients, indeed, the y^inta is assisted by a third 
 horse, which, for some undiscoverable reason, is 
 called the fourth [cuaria). But even when filled 
 the cars often jump the metals, and the passengers 
 have to get off and help replace them. Should 
 time be a matter of consequence to you in Buenos 
 Ayres at almost any hour of the day, avoid the 
 trams as you would a "pirate" omnibus. A seat 
 you may secure if you are lucky, but one or two 
 enormous fellow-creatures are sure to get in and 
 crush the breath out of your body. In the summer- 
 time you will be disgusted beyond measure by the 
 abominable smell of the horses, the odours of garlic 
 and stale smoke pervading the passengers, the suf- 
 focating heat and the over-crowding, the everlasting 
 tooting of the driver's horn, the stoppages and 
 breakdowns, the ribald chaff of the compadrones, and 
 a score of other annoyances, but above all — Uf ! the 
 vermin ! You would think yourself exceptionally 
 fortunate if you got to the end of a tramway journey 
 in Buenos Ayres without some mishap — a break- 
 down, a jumping off the track, a horse dropped dead, 
 and the waiting in the pitiless heat while another 
 is procured, or a new yunta that won't pull, or the 
 waiting at the bottom of a hill until the cuarteador 
 chooses to descend to pull the car up, or an obstruc- 
 tion on the line a mile or two off, and the having to 
 wait until it is removed, and the car you are on can 
 
1 86 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 follow the long string of cars stopped for the same 
 cause. As for management and system in dealing 
 with the traffic of the capital, there is about as much 
 as there was in Mrs. Jelleby's household. Things 
 go on somehow and anyhow. The worst managed 
 of all the lines is the City of Buenos Ayres, which 
 has by far the best system, and carries the largest 
 number of passengers. But all the companies 
 pursue the same mistaken policy. They under- 
 feed and overwork their horses, and so have the 
 worst motive power ; and under-pay and overwork 
 their employes, and consequently get the worst 
 service. The drivers and conductors of Buenos 
 Ayres tramway cars are, with rare exceptions, an 
 ill-mannered, ignorant, abusive, and even dangerous 
 set of men. They do pretty much as they please 
 with the cars in their charge, stopping or going 
 on when they like. They have no interest in their 
 work, beyond securing their miserable monthly 
 pittance, and the consequence is that the service 
 is in bad odour with the public, and the companies 
 themselves are cheated right and left. Under a 
 different system, some of the English companies 
 could earn at least an additional twenty per cent, 
 for their shareholders, and secure a better repu- 
 tation. The laws of the country treat the drivers 
 and conductors of tramways as if they were pre- 
 convicted criminals. Should an accident happen 
 whilst they are in charge of a car, their first care is 
 to escape, and leave the car at anybody's mercy ; 
 for if they should be caught, both driver and con- 
 ductor would be marched off to the comisaria, and 
 there detained until their innocence had been estab- 
 
A PLEASANT RIDE. 187 
 
 lished to the satisfaction of the police ! At present 
 there is an unfortunate conductor "doing time" for 
 an offence of which he was never guilty. A pas- 
 senger committed suicide on a car while the guard 
 was at the other end collecting fares, and as helpless 
 to prevent the crime as if he had been in bed ; 
 yet the law demands its victim, and so the poor 
 conductor is sent to durance vile, as would no doubt 
 have been the driver, had he not managed to effect 
 his escape. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these things, there is much 
 amusement, and some pleasure, to be got out of 
 tramway riding in Buenos Ayres, especially on 
 Lacroze's Rural Tramway, which is better managed, 
 because, perhaps, more manageable. A trip from 
 "the Once" to San Martin on a fine summer night 
 is as pleasant a round as you will find in the whole 
 province. And tramway riding is very cheap. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Argentine Army. — Aliens liable to be Pressed. — The Argen- 
 tine Soldier. — An Army of Pigmies. — Dingy Uniforms. — • 
 Effects of Drill. — The Soldier's Life a Dog's Life. — Cruelty 
 of the Officers. — Fighting Quahties of the Soldier. — His Only 
 Guerdon. — Martial Music ; Noise, not Melody. — Camp-Fol- 
 lowers. — Their Abodes and Ways.— The Lowest of God's 
 Creatures. — The Theatres of Buenos Ayres. — Two Payments 
 before One can See a Play. — Amusements of Buenos Ayres. 
 — Pelota. — Club de Gymnasia y Esgrima. — Holidays a Nui- 
 sance. — Enervating Climatic Influences. — National Fetes. — 
 Popular Enthusiasm. — Fireworks while the Sun Shines. — 
 The Races.— Diversions in the " Camp." — The Pulperia. — 
 Gaucho Races. — Carnival in Buenos Ayres. — Stupid Tom- 
 foolery. — A Scrimmage with the Mummers. — A Fatal Inci- 
 dent. — Poiiiitos. 
 
 The Argentine national army for the current year 
 (1891) consists of 1,395 officers and 6,498 men. In 
 time of war this force could be raised, by calling 
 out the reserves, to about 150,000 ; while in case of 
 invasion the National Guard, in which every able- 
 bodied Argentine is bound to serve, could muster 
 some 400,000. Thus the Republic possesses an 
 effective fighting force equal to nearly 14 per cent, 
 of the population. Aliens are liable in times of 
 disturbance to be pressed into the service of the 
 nation, unless provided with passports. The army 
 and the navy are almost the only departments of 
 the public service in which may be found a sprink- 
 
THE LILIPUTIAN ARMY. 189 
 
 ling of British names. In the beautiful Recoleta 
 one of the finest monuments is that erected to 
 the memory of Almirante Brown, whose deeds of 
 prowess are recorded in the histories of the Re- 
 pubhc, repeated in song and story, and perpetuated 
 in the nomenclature of the streets and townships. 
 
 In point of physique the Argentine common sol- 
 dier is inferior even to the average vijilante. His 
 general height is considerably under five feet, a 
 very large number being under four feet — in fact, it 
 is an army of pigmies, composed of Patagonian 
 Indians, half-tamed Guaranis, and other subjugated 
 chinos, with a liberal admixture of criminals from 
 the State prisons. A few picked men form the body- 
 guard of the President, and what these possess in 
 stature they lack in girth. 
 
 A more villainous-looking horde than the rank 
 and file it would be difficult to find. In the features 
 of the majority Nature has imprinted the unmis- 
 takable marks of the savage — sullen, stupid ferocity, 
 indifference to pain, bestial instincts. Except on one 
 or two days in the year — notably on the 25th May 
 and the 9th July — when the troops are paraded and 
 reviewed in the Plaza Victoria, the common soldier's 
 uniform, sober green and white, or dull red and black 
 in winter, and coarse holland in summer, always 
 looks dingy and faded. The polish and smartness, 
 the esprit de corps, the glowing health, and the 
 manliness which we are accustomed to look for as 
 matters of course in European troops are altogether 
 lacking, even in the picked regiments of the Argen- 
 tine army. Drilling appears to be entirely thrown 
 away upon the privates and the junior officers. A 
 
I go ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 battalion marches, or rather straggles, through the 
 streets of the city, composed of men of all heights, 
 widths, and colours — a motley collection of big 
 heads and pigmy bodies, without order, and appar- 
 ently without intelligent direction, the little fellows 
 often actually running to keep pace with the big 
 ones, who are themselves seldom if ever in line 
 and step with each other. A brutal, hang-dog ex- 
 pression is common to all except the commanders. 
 The splendid accoutrements of the generals and 
 superior officers and the glittering equipments of 
 their chargers offer a vivid contrast to the mean and 
 dirty uniforms of the troops. The latter, it would 
 seem, have to go poorly clad and worse booted in 
 order that the former may be provided with gor- 
 geous trappings. 
 
 In the Argentine the soldier's life is a dog's life. 
 The inherent cruelty of the Indo-Spaniard is most 
 conspicuously displayed in the officering of the semi- 
 savage half-breeds of which the soldiery is mainly 
 composed. A large proportion of the officers are 
 slim and beardless youngsters, who delight in vent- 
 ing their venom on the morose and spiritless beings 
 over whom they exercise authority. The least 
 resentment of the dog-like treatment meted out to 
 the soldier is punished in a manner more or less 
 barbarous — imprisonment, starvation rations, a prod 
 in the cheek, a prick in the arm, or a stunning 
 blow from the sword. One may, it is true, hear 
 and read a great deal in the military annals of the 
 country about the Argentine soldier's devotion to 
 this, that, or the other commander ; but it is the 
 devotion of fear, not love ; for the Argentine soldier 
 
THE SOLDIERS REWARDS. 1 91 
 
 is disciplined by cruelty. It is rare that he is found 
 mixing with the populace, as in Europe ; he ap- 
 pears to be a being of a distinct nature, avoids the 
 haunts of civilians, and passes his scant leisure hours 
 hanging around the barracks, the low dram-shops, 
 and the hovels of the camp-followers. As for his 
 fighting qualities, they more resemble those of the 
 tiger than of a cool, brave, and trained soldier. 
 When his blood is roused, fighting is with him a 
 matter of blind and indiscriminate carnage of friend 
 or foe. " They are nothing to look at, but they 
 are devils to fight," is the popular expression con- 
 cerning them. With such attributes and physical 
 impediments, the chances of advancement in the 
 ranks are naturally most rare. A word or two of 
 encouragement or praise, an occasional pat on the 
 head from his haughty superiors, represent the pri- 
 vate soldier's sole guerdon. For high-sounding but 
 meaningless words he surrenders his liberty or re- 
 signs his life. Drawn for the most part from the 
 wild plains, and pressed into a servitude which he 
 abhors, he must yet content himself with the husks 
 and shells of military rewards, while his superiors 
 divide amongst themselves the corn and the kernels. 
 
 The principal garrison towns are at Zarate, Rio 
 Cuarto, and the federal capital. The old palace of 
 Rosas in Palermo Park is now the chief military 
 school, and the presence of the troops adds con- 
 siderably to the animation of that popular resort. 
 
 There are two or three good military bands in 
 the capital ; but, generally speaking, Argentine 
 military music is remarkable rather for its loudness 
 than for its melody. 
 
192 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 ' In the neighbourhood of all barracks and military 
 j encampments, even in the heart of the capital, may 
 I be found — dwelling in huts rudely constructed of 
 ( sticks, straw, mud, and flattened kerosene tins, rusty 
 and malodorous, and living amidst surroundings of 
 filth and squalor compared with which the pig's sty 
 is a decent abode — those fearful beings the camp- 
 followers, half-clad, unsexed chinas, with tawny 
 skins, bird-like eyes, tangled black hair, and 
 1 emaciated figures. They may be seen any day, in 
 all their native dirt and hideousness, wandering hither 
 and thither two or three together, or squatting with- 
 out their huts sucking matd, or stewing their bits 
 of meat, while their naked and neglected children 
 gambol around them in the filth. Wretched beings ! 
 Surely to be numbered amongst the lowest grades 
 of God's creatures, when, for a few potatoes, or an 
 article of clothing, they will barter away their own 
 offspring ! when surrounded, as in Buenos Ayres 
 they are, by palaces and parks, squares, cathedrals, 
 clergy, banks, rich and well-dressed people, and 
 every evidence of a pompous civilization, they, 
 poor, degraded mortals, have no instincts above 
 those of animals ! 
 
 Buenos Ayres is well provided with theatres, 
 there being no less than fifteen, including those in 
 the suburbs of Flores and South Barracas. The 
 principal theatres are the Teatro de la Opera, built 
 and owned by a prominent member of the National 
 Autonomist party, and which may be reckoned 
 amongst the finest buildings of the capital ; it 
 occupies a space of about 2,500 square metres and 
 seats some 2,000 spectators ; the Politeama, a vast 
 
EFFECTS OF THE CAN-CAN. 1 93 
 
 and dismal edifice, with capacity for nearly 4,000 
 spectators, and noteworthy as being the scene of 
 Patti's brilliant triumphs in the River Plate ; the 
 Onrubia and the Nacional, the latter a snug little 
 building in the Calle Florida. Besides the theatres, 
 there are innumerable cafds chantants and ' ' Gar- 
 dens," the chief of which are the Jardin Florida 
 and the Pasatiempo, the latter a low-class place 
 of amusement, whose principal attractions are the 
 can-can and bad liquors, but which, nevertheless, 
 draws vast crowds of men and numbers of women 
 of the demi-monde, especially on Sunday evenings. 
 The excitement of the can-can used to be so great 
 that the place was often more like a Bedlam than 
 a place of entertainment, the people standing on 
 the benches and chairs and tables, and even 
 mounting upon each other's shoulders ; shouting, 
 screaming, throwing glasses and bottles about, and 
 generally behaving like a lot of disorderly brawlers. 
 There is also an English circus which has for some 
 years successfully held its own against crises and 
 governments in the Teatro San Martin. Formerly, 
 too, there was a conservatoire of music in the 
 capital ; but the results of the indiscriminate ming- 
 ling of the sexes were so serious that its existence 
 was speedily cut short. 
 
 But while there are so many theatres, of national 
 drama there is none. The only histrionic displays 
 the Argentine cares for are imported operas and 
 opera bouffes, spectacular pieces — voiceless and soul- 
 less as anything ever produced at the Alhambra or 
 the Empire — fantastic, and seldom decorous varie- 
 dades and Spanish zarzzielas. The native is a keen 
 
 o 
 
194 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 critic and fair judge of operatic performances ; but 
 the kind of stuff that goes down with him for 
 comedy is surprising. As in everything else that 
 ministers to his pleasure, he is absurdly extravagant 
 in his patronage of the playhouses, paying fabulous 
 prices for poor entertainment, and granting hand- 
 some subsidies to favourite empresarios. In the 
 majority of Buenos Ayres theatres the payment of 
 an entrance fee does not entitle one to a seat. The 
 entrada general is usually from $i to $2 ; and a seat 
 has subsequently to be haggled or fought for. The 
 houses themselves are mostly draughty, ill-venti- 
 lated, malodorous buildings. There is plenty of 
 tinsel and gloss, but little regard to comfort. 
 
 The character of a people may often be judged 
 from its diversions and pastimes. In the Argentine 
 there are very few diversions except the theatres, 
 which are rarely worth a second visit. Everybody 
 is too deeply absorbed in the scrimmage for wealth 
 to find time for the cultivation of the amenities of 
 life. Every man's aims and ambitions centre round 
 that great temple of mammon, the Bolsa. Sordid 
 greed, and the perpetual strife forced upon all by 
 the vagaries of a currency which no man can tell 
 the worth of from one day to another, naturally tend 
 to make society the harsh and unlovely thing it is 
 in Argentina. The natives are much more sociable 
 than the foreigners, who do not readily fraternize 
 either with each other or with the natives. 
 
 But to return to the amusements of Buenos 
 Ayres. From 6 until 8 p.m. all the world dines. 
 Afterwards, the men, for the most part, divide 
 their evenings between the fashionable promenade, 
 
THE NATIONAL PASTIME. 1 95 
 
 the billiard saloon, the " sport houses," and the 
 casus de tolerancia. The women are left to divert 
 themselves as best pleases them. 
 
 The favourite amusement of the Argentines is 
 pelota — a game introduced only a few years ago 
 from Spain, and which is now practised all over the 
 country, and has assumed the importance of a 
 national pastime. In the capital there are three 
 immense locdles where the game is almost contin- 
 uously played, — the Fronton Nacional, the Fronton 
 Buenos Ay res, and the Plaza Fiiskara. In all three, 
 international matches are frequently played. The 
 game itself is simple enough, somewhat like the old 
 English game of racquets ; but, with the modern 
 tendency to destroy the simplicity and consequent 
 enjoyableness of such games, it has, like tennis, got 
 so hedged round with hair-splitting rules and con- 
 ditions and so much jargon, that it has now become 
 a money-getting profession, requiring prodigious skill 
 on the part of would-be players. Still, in a form 
 more or less after the original, the game is played 
 everywhere; every \\tt\e. pueblo and many an obscure 
 and dilapidated pulperia now boasting its cancha de 
 pelotas, or wired-in substitute for \h& fronton. 
 
 Buenos Ayres also possesses one of the best ap- 
 pointed gymnasiums I ever saw. The Club de 
 Gymnasia y Esgrima, as it is called, is deservedly 
 the most popular institution in the country. Its 
 fame has travelled far beyond the limits of the Re- 
 public, for it was the cradle of the Uni6n Civica de 
 la Juventud, the bud that has since blossomed into 
 that powerful political Partido, the UiiiSn Civica. 
 The Club has a roll of, I believe, nearly two thousand 
 
196 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 members. The terms of membership are exception- 
 ally moderate, and inclusive of thorough instruction 
 by competent and well-paid professors in all the arts 
 of offence and defence — English, French, and Italian. 
 The great hall contains every modern gymnastic 
 appliance, while adjoining thereto are a spacious 
 fronton, very fine class-rooms, and apartments for 
 private lessons and practice, and an admirable as- 
 sortment of baths. In addition, the Club is provided 
 with reading, writing, conversation, and music rooms, 
 and has many other advantages besides. There is 
 no exclusiveness. Young men of any nationality 
 are admitted and welcomed as members, provided 
 they are respectably connected and introduced. On 
 special occasions, as, for instance, when the Club 
 gives an assault-at-arms, the entire local is converted 
 into a perfect Babel. One may walk fifty yards or 
 less and hear every European language spoken. 
 But it is not only on account of its excellencies as a 
 gymnasium that the Club enjoys its popularity ; it 
 always takes a leading part in the arrangements for 
 the national fetes, and is always to the fore in the 
 organization of schemes of practical philanthropy. 
 What the charitable dames of Buenos Ayres would 
 do without the Club, I cannot imagine. ]\Iy only 
 wonder was, that every respectable young man in 
 Buenos Ayres was not a sdcio activo of such a 
 thoroughly healthy, well-to-do, and useful institu- 
 tion. 
 
 The dullest days in any part of Argentina are 
 holidays, or fiestas — church festivals. In some 
 months of the year these fiestas occur with such 
 frequency as to make them a perfect nuisance. 
 
DULL DAYS. 197 
 
 They are a serious interruption to the business of 
 Hfe, upset the postal arrangements and the whole 
 social system, and throw a man back into boredom. 
 On such days there is seldom anything doing or 
 anywhere to go. In the heat of summer the river- 
 boat Company might run pleasant excursions to 
 Colonia, or elsewhere, which would be largely 
 patronized ; but the opportunity is lost year after 
 year, and the Company never pays a dividend. 
 One cannot spend every holiday at the Tigre, or in 
 boating, cricketing, tennis, fishing, or riding. They 
 come too often for that. If the day be wet, you can 
 easily imagine how triste life suddenly looks. On 
 such days there is only one course open to you in 
 Buenos Ayres, if you are an Englishman, and that 
 is, just to take as long as you possibly can over your 
 meals, and bury yourself for the rest of the day at 
 the Literary Society's. On fine days there is not 
 much more choice. If you are a new-comer, of 
 course you may find plenty to amuse and instruct 
 you at the same time, but only while the freshness 
 of your energies and the novelty of your surround- 
 ings last. When you have exhausted these, you 
 will soon settle down to the hum-drum routine of 
 life in Buenos Ayres. If you are industrious and 
 studious, you may mark out a course of reading 
 or a system of study. You will make, perhaps, 
 laudable and resolute efforts to master the language 
 and customs of the country. But by-and-by, when 
 the enervating influences of the climate have got 
 a firm hold upon you, your energies imperceptibly 
 slacken, and you find that, somehow or other, 
 you cannot carry out that ambitious programme of 
 
198 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 yours. You find everything so different to what you 
 have been used to ; the habit of heavy eating and 
 drinking, the lazy indifference of everybody around 
 you, and the absence of incentive or stimulus to 
 keep you up to the mark. Any number of fellows 
 you may see go off in the same way ; starting 
 out with tremendous energy, and full of great pur- 
 pose ; but presently the lethargy induced by the 
 climate creeps over them like a slow congestion of 
 the liver, sapping their ardour and debilitating that 
 fine will of theirs, until at last they settle down like 
 everybody around them to the dull mill-walk of life. 
 The arrival of a friend from home will, indeed, cause 
 a temporary spurt to their flagging diligence ; but 
 that soon passes. We have met Englishmen who 
 have been forty and fifty years in the country, and 
 yet were unable to pronounce a single sentence of 
 Spanish correctly, or frame a simple letter gram- 
 matically. But then, it is a widely recognised fact 
 that Englishmen were not about when the gift of 
 tongues was made to man. 
 
 Being a European, it is doubtful whether you will 
 find anything to amuse or instruct you in the 
 national fetes. One " Independence Day" is a 
 surfeit ; you know all about it for ever after. Yet 
 the 25th of May is the greatest day in the year 
 to Argentines. On that day smart uniforms, hidden 
 for the rest of the year, are brought forth to the 
 light of the autumn sun. The city, ^& pueblo, the 
 rancho, are decked with bunting and flags. There 
 are bands of music, processions, fireworks every- 
 where. The Te Deum is chanted in the cathedrals, 
 and the President and his ministers attend with all 
 
HOLDING THE CANDLE TO THE SUN. 1 99 
 
 their regalia. The populace turns out en masse, 
 throngs the streets and blocks the traffic ; and 
 crowds the asoteas, balconies, and the steps of the 
 churches. A thousand brazen trumpets fill the air 
 with the stirring strains of the national anthem — a 
 musical, patriotic, and poetic masterpiece. The sun 
 always shines on that day, as if he really believed 
 in all the parade and nonsense. There is plenty 
 of noise, for the Argentines can do nothing — 
 certainly not rejoice — without making a tremen- 
 dous noise. In every obscure pueblo, as well as in 
 the capitals, every national festival is celebrated 
 with a display of fireworks, which, usually com- 
 mencing with the dawn, continues while the 
 sun shines, and terminates as soon as night . falls. 
 Such pyrotechnic displays are designed evidently 
 to produce the maximum of noise and smoke and 
 the minimum of effect. Bombs and rockets burst- 
 ing in the clouds with reports like thunder, and 
 stinking smoke filling the nostrils and scorching the 
 eyes, make the day hideous for those who have the 
 misfortune to be near. The nervous man stops his 
 ears when the military band approaches, and flies to 
 the desert when fireworks are on the tapis. 
 
 The next chief form of national diversion are the 
 races. No crisis stops them. Gold may rise or 
 fall ; paper issues and governments may come and 
 go ; but the races go on for ever. They satisfy the 
 gambling instinct. How could the Argentine do 
 without his fine hippodromes at Palermo or Bel- 
 grano; his "studs," his imported Newmarket jargon, 
 his upstart notion of doing the grand a la nioda 
 Lts^lesa ! He could better do without his churches ! 
 
200 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 The races themselves are not of much account ; the 
 horses are poor, and the carreras dull and feeble. 
 Betting, on or off the course, is not practised, being 
 replaced by the French pari-miituel system of pools. 
 In the camp there are, of course, few amusements ; 
 in fact, the diversions of the campesino may be 
 said to be limited to two — drinking and horse- 
 racing after the gaucho fashion. A striking feature 
 of camp life is the pulperia — usually an ugly adobe 
 rancho, planted in the midst of weeds and rank 
 grass, or occasionally under the shadow of two or 
 three blue-gums or willows. Yet in its very hideous- 
 ness the pulperia is picturesque. Outside there is 
 an iron bar, or rings fixed in the pavement, to which 
 the horses of the patrdnes are secured. When the 
 sun shines, the walls will be seen to be covered with 
 flies ; while the window-panes, protected by rejas, 
 are so thickly coated inside and out with fly-marks 
 and dirt as to be quite opaque and useless for the 
 purpose of admitting light. In summer time the 
 doorway is concealed by a thick and dirty curtain, 
 which serves the double purpose of keeping the 
 interior dark and cool and keeping out the myriads 
 of flies and mosquitos. The interior consists of a 
 rude " bar," with a zinc top counter, generally sloppy, 
 sticky, and dirty. On white-washed wooden shelves 
 all around are displayed in bottles with gorgeous 
 labels the vile compounds sold for spirits, but which 
 are, for the most part, bad spirits of wine {aguar- 
 diente) coloured with some deleterious pigment or 
 other. The proprietor, usually a coarse, unwashed, 
 unkempt, podgy man, scantily attired in shirt, 
 trousers, and alpargatas, gossips with his customers 
 
DIVERSIONS OF THE CAMP. 20I 
 
 and dispenses the liquors in thick and sticky glasses 
 designed to serve as missiles as well as copitas. Be- 
 yond the bar there is usually a small billiard-room, 
 provided with a French table, always in a state of 
 premature decay, and, like everything in the place, 
 sticky and dirty. If the pulperia be of any size at 
 all, it will have its cancJia and its bowling alley, 
 likewise dusty and dirty, — in fact, the whole place 
 reeks with foul smells and filth, and swarms with 
 flies and other pests of the camp. Such is the 
 general character ol -dL pulperia, in which at all times, 
 when open, scores of bronzed, rusty-bearded, fierce 
 or blear-eyed campesinos may be found stewing 
 their meagre brains in bad cana and muddling 
 their senses with those abominable cigarillos negros 
 that cost about five cents paper the packet, and are 
 certainly the vilest smoking stuff ever prepared 
 for human beings. 
 
 A still more striking feature of life in the camp, 
 however, are the Sunday or holiday races organized 
 by the gauchos [sic). For many leagues round 
 about competitors and spectators foregather to 
 these rough and ready " meets." The swart son 
 of the soil makes great preparations for these events, 
 furbishes his clothes or makes them the occasion 
 for donning an entirely new rig-out. His horse's 
 trappings are cleaned and polished, his mane and 
 tail close-cropped, and his shoes and coat carefully 
 seen to. With a gaudy-coloured silk scarf round 
 his neck, and a profuse display of silver about his 
 horse and himself the young campman sallies forth, 
 proud as a knight of old, to test his prowess and 
 equestrian skill against all comers. On horseback 
 
202 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 he is at home. He sits erect, cool, and daring. On 
 foot he seems to be out of his element, — drags his 
 feet and lolls heavily and awkwardly against any- 
 thing and everything capable of supporting his 
 weight. The races themselves are simply a test 
 display of the hardihood and intrepidity of the man 
 and the speed and endurance of the animal ; and 
 both are tried to the uttermost of their powers. The 
 races are entirely devoid of elegance, and after 
 having been once seen have no further attraction 
 for any one who has been accustomed to the per- 
 formances of " blood." The method of handi- 
 capping the best horse and rider — by lassoing one 
 of the hind feet of the former so that, stopped in 
 full career, his rider is thrown, always, however, 
 alighting unhurt upon his feet — is the same as is 
 practised in Mexico and other South American 
 States, and has been often described. The prizes 
 competed for at these races — an outfit for horse or 
 man, or an extra fine " bit of flesh " — are greatly 
 valued as trophies of the campesind s undoubtedly 
 wonderful horsemanship. The intervals between 
 the carreras are, of coarse, passed in the despacho 
 de bebidas ; and by the time night falls, the whole 
 crowd is pretty far on the way towards insensibility. 
 Our chapter of diversions would be incomplete 
 without a reference to Carnival and the manner of 
 its celebration in Argentina. In Venice, Rome, 
 Naples, and other European cities, Carnival, with 
 its masks and mummeries, and merry-andrews, its 
 gorgeous pageantry, droll buffoonery, and startling 
 conceits, is always an interesting and amusing 
 spectacle. But in Buenos Ayres it is a dull, insipid. 
 
CARNIVAL IN BUENOS AYRES. 2O3 
 
 and stupid display of vulgar tomfoolery, from which 
 all sensible people fly or hide themselves. Those 
 who, either as actors or spectators, remain to take 
 part in the barbarous demonstration, run no incon- 
 siderable risk of getting a drenching or of being 
 covered with flour, or pelted with eggs, paper, and 
 even stones. In the suburbs it is impossible to 
 walk a hundred yards without getting wetted to the 
 skin. Unseen assailants from every housetop, 
 doorway, and balcony will liberally baptize you in 
 water, not always wholesome or clean. Or turning 
 a corner sharply you may receive in your face a 
 fierce discharge from a garden hose. Or a score 
 of hands will pelt you, as you run, vf'iih. pomitos, or 
 packets of finely chipped paper, bags filled with 
 flour, or small pebbles, or something infinitely more 
 disagreeable. In the capital Carnival used to be 
 worse than it now is; for then you dared not stir 
 from your room, unless you would expose yourself 
 as a target for hundreds of unseen pelters stationed 
 at every doorway and window and on every azoiea. 
 Even the maskers and the sacrilegious mockers of 
 the church ceremonies were not left unmolested. 
 From the balcony of the Literary Society's rooms 
 I once witnessed a "scene" between a mock pro- 
 cession of Corpus Cristi and the neighbours. The 
 mummers, with "solemn step and slow," draped in 
 white and accompanying their steps with doleful 
 pantomime and dismal wails, marched down the 
 street. As the procession approached the esquina 
 of Corrientes and Reconquista, it was assailed simul- 
 taneously from three corners with buckets of water, 
 pomos, flour, bags of paper chips, and other muck. 
 
204 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 The image was swamped, the mummers drenched. 
 In an instant the street was in an uproar. The 
 maskers armed themselves with stones, which they 
 threw at the windows and on to the balconies and 
 azoteas. Curses rent the air ; knives were drawn, 
 and several revolver shots exchanged. Two or three 
 persons were injured by the flying missiles, and there 
 would undoubtedly have been blood shed but for 
 the timely intervention of the police. In several 
 parts of the city on that and the succeeding day, 
 several people were shot at and wounded. A trati- 
 seunte, passing quietly along the Calle Callao, received 
 the contents of a slop-pail full upon his head. He 
 retaliated swiftly and fatally with a pistol shot ; and 
 the foolish woman who had been the aggressor had 
 not time to escape from the balcony, but was shot 
 dead. Happily for the peace and security of every- 
 body, the barbarous farce is every year becoming 
 less and less observed, and will, it is devoutly to be 
 hoped, die out altogether soon. Water-throwing 
 in the city is now prohibited by the police, except 
 in the form oi pomitos, — that is, small skin bladders 
 filled either with water (clean or dirty) or " scent." 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Hotels of Buenos Ayres. — Better Hotels in the Provinces 
 than in the Capital.— The Provence. — The Grand. — The Paix. 
 —The Frascati and the Roma. — -Casas Amuchladas, or Lodg- 
 ing-Houses. — -The Deux Mondes. — Necessary Sanitary Precau- 
 tions. — -Disinfectants Galore. — Restaurants of Buenos Ayres 
 ■ — The Georges Mercier. — -The Bodega. — Waiters and their 
 Humours. — -Pensionistas. — -Two Hours in a Pension. — The 
 Humours of the Feeding Man. — -How we Gorge in Buenos 
 Ayres. — Queer Names. — The Bolsa,— The Standard will 
 Make you Famous. — Babel not in it with the Bolsa. — Pande- 
 monium. 
 
 There are sixty hotels in Buenos Ayres, and not 
 one that is worthy of the name. Some of the pro- 
 vincial towns, and even some of the villages and 
 suburbs, are better off in this respect than the capital 
 of the Republic. In Rosario, Cordoba, Mar del 
 Plata, the Tigre, San Fernando, and Adrogue, at 
 least one clean and comfortable hotel may be found ; 
 but in Buenos Ayres, though you hunted for a week, 
 you would not find one that was better than a lazar- 
 etto. The want of a good hotel in the capital has 
 long been felt. Magnificent projects for supplying 
 this want have from time to time appeared on 
 paper— and there have stuck fast. In the office of 
 the registrar of joint-stock companies at Somerset 
 House lie, buried amidst heaps of documents and 
 dreams, not a few abortive Argentine "Grand Hotel" 
 
206 
 
 ARGEXTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 schemes, which actually got as far as registration — 
 and there stuck fast. Had the crisis only had the 
 grace to hold off for a little while longer, Buenos 
 Ayres would doubtless have been enriched architec- 
 turally by the realization of some of those fine pro- 
 jects. Indeed, one of them, a creation of the teeming 
 brain of that grandiloquent intendente, Senor Seeber, 
 
 ROSARIO— INTERIOR OF THE HOTEL CENTRAL. 
 
 even got as far as the foundations — and there 
 stuck fast. The Compania de Grandes Hoteles was 
 going to build on the Paseo de Julio an hotel of 
 such size and splendour as should rival the Metro- 
 pole. Luckily for the shareholders, the dream never 
 came to pass. I say luckily ; for such an hotel 
 would never pay. Foreigners would be too wise or 
 
HOTELS IN THE CAPITAL. 20/ 
 
 too mean to waste their money, and Argentines 
 would not know how to make use of such a place if 
 they had it. They would miss the dirt, the squalor, 
 and the smells of the rookeries they are accustomed 
 to. When the old Recoba in the Plaza Victoria 
 was pulled down a few years ago, a scheme was set 
 afloat for a grand hotel on what would have been 
 the finest site in the city. Nothing came of it, how- 
 ever ; and it would seem as if Buenos Ayres was 
 fated to be disappointed of its long-looked-for hotel. 
 Yet it is not to be supposed that, if there were any 
 real demand for such a thing, at least one good hotel 
 would not long ago have been built. Hoteleros with 
 whom I have conversed in reference to this subject 
 have said that it would not do for them to furnish 
 their rooms well, for the appreciative native would 
 cut, and hack, and slash the curtains, chairs, tables, 
 and cushions in the same spirit of wanton playfulness 
 that prompts him, when unwitnessed, to attack the 
 unoffending upholstery of the railway carriages. 
 Consequently hotels in Buenos Ayres are nearly all 
 cheap and nasty. The chief amongst them are the 
 Provence, which is mostly affected by the English — 
 why, I know not, unless it be because its tariff is 
 higher than elsewhere. The fare is indifferent, the 
 cooking decidedly bad, and the attendance good — 
 for Buenos Ayres. Next comes the Grand — almost 
 as big and gloomy as the aduana. Its only recom- 
 mendation is that from the roof, or the mirador, an 
 extensive view of river, town, and country can be 
 obtained. Opposite is the Paix, where the service 
 is execrable and the smells abominable. In this 
 hotel the visitor will be shown into a room where. 
 
208 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 in all probability, he will find the tablecloth thickly- 
 spotted with candle-grease, candle-ends sticking up 
 here and there, everything untidy, gaudy, and fusty- 
 smelling. In this cell he will be left to ruminate in 
 solitude. No one will disturb him ; and the only 
 sounds he will hear will be the echoes of distant foot- 
 steps and the murmur of the town. If he wants a 
 servant, he will have to go and hunt for one — ringing 
 the bell will never bring one — at least not until that 
 bell has set every other bell in the place a-tinkling. 
 Then peradventure some one may come, looking in 
 wrathful astonishment at the daring visitor. Then 
 there is the Hotel de Londres, a dark and gloomy 
 place, honeycombed with cells miscalled cuartos ; 
 and the Universelle, an immense rookery surround- 
 ing a long patio, in the centre of which are public 
 washing baths ! The rest are too numerous to men- 
 tion, even by name. Probably amongst the best 
 hotels are the Frascati and the Roma (N.B. — English 
 is not spoken at either), the former an extensive 
 building extending into two or three streets — which 
 may be understood if it be remembered that each 
 cuadra, or block of houses, has frontages on four 
 streets. The Roma is not a large, but it is a tolerably 
 clean and snug place, and the service and cooking 
 are good. A good many provincial senators pat- 
 ronise the Roma, and it is the best house for any 
 one who has a wish for a few gratuitous lessons in 
 Argentine obfus — that is, politics. 
 
 A peculiar feature of Buenos Ay res are the casas 
 anmebladas — hotels in all except that they do not 
 board visitors. Of such places there are a great 
 many, and magnificent hovels they are, most of 
 
A MODEL LODGING-HOUSE. 209 
 
 them. There is the Deux Mondes, the most modern 
 and supposed to be the best. It is by no means 
 ill- furnished ; some of the apartments are even cosily 
 fitted. But oh ! the effluvia ! Every hole and 
 cranny seem to have a fragrance all their own, 
 which combining with the odours from the letrinas, 
 make the whole place more like a pesthouse than a 
 lodging-house. The few days it was our unhappy 
 lot to stay there, we bought up all the disinfectants 
 and deodorisers the chemist had in stock. We put 
 camphor in our pockets and trunks ; poured Condy's 
 fluid into the water ; saturated with a solution of 
 carbolic a heavy bath-towel, and hung it outside the 
 door ; filled the ornaments on the mantelpiece with 
 Jeyes' powder ; and, in short, took no end of pre- 
 cautionary measures in self-protection. For why .-' 
 Had we not seen three poor fellows carried off to 
 the hospital from that very place with typhoid } 
 But, bless you ! what else could you expect in a 
 city that has squandered twenty millions sterling in 
 sewers ? All these houses — hotels and casas amue- 
 bladas — are nearly always full. It is seldom easy^ 
 and often impossible to get rooms at any of them, 
 unless arrangements have been made beforehand. 
 Where the people come from who fill them, or what 
 sort of people they are that keep them filled and 
 yet do not die, are mysteries we never could solve. 
 
 Whatever may be the shortcoming of the hotels 
 of Buenos Ayres, however, they are more than 
 compensated by the excellence and magnificence of 
 the restaurants, of which there are several that may 
 be called first-class, the Cafd Paris, the Rotisserie, 
 
 p 
 
2IO ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 the Bodega, the Catalanes, etc. There Is one in 
 the Calle Florida which deserves special mention — 
 for London has not its equal. The Holborn, the 
 Gaiety, the First Avenue, the Criterion, the Royal, 
 are not superior in any respect except size to the 
 Restaurant Georges Mercier. The luxurious ele- 
 gance of this place could hardly be surpassed. The 
 walls of the several dining-halls are richly and 
 artistically decorated. From magnificent chandeliers 
 and brackets the electric light sheds a golden radi- 
 ance over everything. Great mirrors prolong the 
 vista, multiply the lights, and enhance by a hundred 
 reflections the brilliancy of the saloons. The furni- 
 ture is richly upholstered, and the rest of the 
 appointments are in keeping. Everything is in 
 excellent taste, and there is none of that gaudy 
 and shoddy decoration so common to such places. 
 Upstairs there are private apartments and saloons 
 for large and small parties, all fitted in the same 
 sumptuous style. The house is scrupulously clean 
 and free from smells ; its sanitary arrangements are 
 superior to those of any other restaurant in the 
 city. In the Mercier, seven thousand miles away, 
 one can dine as in Paris or London. Salmon, 
 fresh, smoked, pickled, or tinned ; oysters, lobsters, 
 whitebait, and all sorts of native and foreign 
 fish and game — everything, in fact, that the two 
 worlds produce can be had at Mercier s. The 
 cooking is simply perfect, the attendance excellent, 
 and the wines reliable. For all this luxury, of 
 course, one has to pay. A " modest little dinner " 
 for four may be estimated to tot up to about ^4 
 or ^5- 
 
THE SPECIES WAITER. 211 
 
 The restaurant most favoured by the English, 
 and the proprietor and waiters of which understand 
 the tastes and a Httle of the language of Englishmen, 
 is the Bodega, where you can always be sure of a 
 "square meal" at moderate charges, and where 
 you will find as good an opportunity of studying 
 the humours and eccentricities of the species waiter 
 as you could wish for. A good waiter is as rare in 
 Buenos Ayres as elsewhere. Once you run across 
 such a treasure, you like to stick to him, and do not 
 care to be served by any other. If circumstances 
 compel you to dine elsewhere, you are miserable. 
 You get to know his ways, and he your tastes. At 
 the Bodega there used to be a real prize waiter. 
 Unless the crisis has moved him on, he may be there 
 now. That man would have made the fortune of 
 any restaurateur enterprising enough to import him 
 into England to take the place of some of the 
 haughty duffers at the Criterion and other places. 
 He was a heavy-looking fellow, with small, sleepy 
 eyes and a slouching gait ; never sober, yet always 
 perfectly master of himself ; never seemed in a 
 hurry, yet you were sure of being served quicker 
 by him than by any other waiter. He always 
 brought you just what you wanted ; never brought 
 anything overdone or underdone, but just as it 
 suited you. If your fancy wavered between two or 
 three articles on the lista, his choice was always to 
 be relied upon. He was a man whom you could 
 " chaff," or scold, or praise as much as you liked, 
 without fear of losing caste. He was called Elijah, 
 or some other Biblical name ; and report said that 
 he possessed " lots of property," and had two or 
 
2 12 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 three sons at college, and was altogether a pheno- 
 menon of a waiter. 
 
 But any one who takes a delight in studying the 
 humours of the feeding and waiting man could find 
 no better place than any one of the innumerable 
 Buenos Ayres restaurants which receive pensionistas, 
 and they nearly all do so, the only exceptions being 
 the high-class restaurants named above. Even 
 the hotels — the Globe, the Provence, the Roma, 
 etc. — take pensionistas. No dictionary could pro- 
 vide you with such a graphic definition of the noun 
 voracity or the adjective voracious as you may get at 
 any second-rate restaurant which, besides receiving 
 pensionistas, sends viandas d domicilio. No one 
 would credit the distensive capacity of the human 
 stomach who had not spent an evening in one of 
 these places. Whether it be the keen, clear air 
 from which Buenos Ayres derives its name, or the 
 insufficient nourishing power of the food, I know 
 not ; but certain it is that everybody eats three, four, 
 or five times as much food in Buenos Ayres as in 
 Europe. Let us go for a couple of hours into one of 
 these Argentine pensions in, say, the Calle Esmer- 
 alda — a street in several blocks of which every other 
 house is an eating-house. There is nothing in the 
 appearance of the exterior of the restaurant to dis- 
 tinguish it from any of the private houses. It is a 
 one-storied building of three pdtios. We pass the 
 zaguan, or lobby, which leads us into the first pdtio, 
 with tesselated white and grey marble paving, and 
 a native algibe, or rain-water well, in the centre. 
 Here, under the shade of a magnolia, or a cluster 
 of sub-tropical plants, we see half a dozen small 
 
HUMOURS OF THE FEEDING MAN. 213 
 
 tables, each set for two or four persons. We 
 pass on to the second pdtio, which we find to be 
 almost a repetition of the first, and then we enter 
 the restaurant proper by the smallest or last cuarto, 
 from which we can look right through the entire 
 house out on to the street, the dividing walls be- 
 tween the six or eight rooms of which the house 
 consists having been all partly removed and re- 
 placed by pillars or folding doors. All the cuartos 
 are filled with little tables, at which are seated 
 cosmopolitan parties of young men, feeding and 
 chattering as hard as their teeth and tongues will 
 let them. We, however, being silent and reserved 
 Englishmen, seat ourselves at one of the mesiias 
 apart. We know which is our waiter ; and, as we 
 take our places, he runs forward with alacrity on 
 seeing that we have a friend with us, and makes 
 a great show of putting everything on the table 
 straight, although nothing was disarranged. As 
 we have come rather to observe than to dine, we 
 select something which will keep us occupied for 
 a good while. And having given our orders, we 
 first glance through the lisia [menu), and observe 
 that there are two soups, six entrdes, four different 
 joints, asados (requiring dogs' teeth to masticate), 
 steaks, chops, three or four vegetables, salad, 
 cheese, and jelly, bread ad lib., half a pint of 
 wine, fruit, and coffee with or without milk. The 
 pensionista can, if he likes, go through the whole 
 list ; and though it may sound incredible, many 
 do so. We fix our attention upon a party of four 
 young men. Two are Spaniards, one is a French- 
 man, and the other Italian. We watch them for 
 
214 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 two mortal hours, their teeth, hands, and tongues 
 going the whole time, like parts of machinery. One 
 dish after another disappears, until the list is ex- 
 hausted. Two or three strolling minstrels enter 
 and enliven the scene. Our four friends' jaws seem 
 to keep time with the music. The waiter, poor man ! 
 rushing about with piles of plates, looks half stewed. 
 The heat is suffocating ; the clatter of knives and 
 forks, the clinking of glasses and bottles, the chatter 
 and laughter, the thrum-thrum of the mandolin or 
 guitar, the hurry-skurry of the waiters, are quite 
 bewildering. But what most causes our astonish- 
 ment is how any human stomach can digest that 
 awful load of food, and not break down under the 
 strain. There are, it is true, only two meals during 
 the day, breakfast and dinner, with very little differ- 
 ence between them. Yet it takes most people — at 
 least, most young Englishmen— a good while to get 
 used to this custom. One cannot all at once fall 
 into the habit of gorging twice a day. We go to 
 our morning meal, after three hours' good work, 
 perhaps, with an aching void below the belt and a 
 ravenous appetite, and we get up from the table 
 with a sense of repletion almost as uncomfortable. 
 We cannot help it. It is the air, the indifferent 
 quality of the food, the different habits of life, all 
 combined. 
 
 In all countries and languages one may find 
 quaint names — Christian and surname ; and one is 
 always delighted to come upon a new and amusing 
 patronymic. Amongst Spanish -speaking peoples 
 there are certainly some very curious names. Con- 
 cepcidn as a name for a girl does not strike one as 
 
QUEER NAMES. 21 5 
 
 being the sweetest in the world ; neither does 
 Dolores ; both are too dolorously suggestive of that 
 most unhappy moment of our lives — the beginning. 
 Common names for men are the following : Angel, 
 Piibho, Severo, Peregrino, Modesto, Prdspero, For- 
 ttmato. One gentlem.an rejoices in the eminently 
 classical combination of Diogenes Mirundo (Dio- 
 genes Contemplating — the moon, probably). But of 
 all the names that ever we met, commend me for 
 humour to that of Cantagallo, — Cock-crow ! What 
 pleasant visions of the dawn are conjured up by 
 the mere whisper of such a delightfully musical 
 name ! No need for an alarum or an early riser 
 with a patronymic like that ! Such a name for a 
 family, too ! Fancy ! There is Mr. Cock-crow and 
 Mrs. Cock-crow and all the perky little Cock-crows, 
 — quite a chanticleer chorus ! 
 
 In London, if you would learn the news at first 
 hand, you must go to the clubs ; in Buenos Ayres 
 we go to the Bolsa. On the Bolsa we learn every 
 scandal, social as well as financial ; every political 
 rumour, every commercial fluctuation, every varia- 
 tion in the weather — in a word, we learn how the 
 world wags from day to day. A worthy temple of 
 Mammon is the Bolsa of Buenos Ayres ! There 
 twice a day, from 12 to i and from 3 to 4, 
 gathers a cosmopolitan crowd. There we are in 
 the maelstrom of politics, commerce, finance, specu- 
 lation. There is the axis round which Argentines 
 believe the earth rotates. There is the connecting 
 link between Argentina and the whole world. 
 Cable and telegraph, telephone and " tape " flash us 
 the news from and to all the ends of the earth. 
 
2l6 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 The electric light, the electric call system, every 
 modern appliance, the Bolsa has them all and is on 
 a footing of equality with the Bourse of Paris and 
 the stock markets of Europe. There swindles are 
 plotted, bubble schemes concocted, reputations made 
 and ruined, ministers and their affairs turned inside 
 
 BUEMOS AYRES — THE BOLSA. 
 
 out, names kicked about, gossamers spun, projects 
 discussed, fortunes gambled. There the measures 
 of Government are first made known and " dis- 
 counted." No " bonneting " of non-members, no 
 jealousy or " caste " between outside and inside 
 brokers on the Bolsa. 
 
THE TEMPLE OF MAMMON. 21'J 
 
 If you are a local, a provincial, or a foreign 
 celebrity, or even a humble skipper, or a newly 
 arrived nobody, you must go on the Bolsa and get 
 an introduction to Teddy or Mike, either of whom 
 will be sure to make you famous by the publication 
 the next day in the columns of the Standard of a 
 grave piece of intelligence to the effect that Mr. 
 So-and-so (meaning you, of course) was welcomed 
 on 'Change yesterday, and was immediately en- 
 veloped in friends. Unless you are a base ingrato 
 and refuse to " stand drinks round," and so incur 
 the wrath of " Our Fighting Editor," you will, 
 according to the Buenos Ayres rag, be the centre of 
 an admiring group thirsty for news and whisky. If 
 you do not feel as proud as a monarch holding 
 audience, with courtiers by the score hanging upon 
 your every word like the ancient simpletons round 
 the Delphian Oracle, there is no gratitude in your 
 heart. Peradventure you may hail from one of the 
 provinces ; in which case the following announce- 
 ment will appear : " Mr. So-and-so was' welcomed 
 on 'Change yesterday, and reported a great dearth 
 of ' Special Irish ' in the province of ■ — -. Im- 
 porters will doubtless promptly avail themselves of 
 the hint which it is our proud privilege to be the 
 first to offer them. N.B. — Samples tested gratis. 
 A full notice may be had for the price of an adver- 
 tisement, or a sample dozen of the newest brand. 
 Apply at the editorial sanctum." 
 
 Men of every nationality, of all ages, of all sorts 
 and conditions, of all shades of opinion, of all de- 
 grees of honesty, daily foregather on the Bolsa. 
 Babel ! Nothing to the confusion of tongues on the 
 
2l8 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 Bolsa ! At every street corner expressions like the 
 following fall upon the ear : "All right! Leave it 
 till I see you on the Bolsa." " Can't stop now ; 
 settle it later on, on the Bolsa." " Wait for me on 
 the Bolsa." Habitual loafers; men whose occupations 
 one could never guess at ; sleek, well-dressed idlers 
 by the hundred, strutting up and down amongst the 
 throng in the great hall, rarely exchanging speech, 
 never, apparently, transacting any kind of business ; 
 anxious men of business, with -shrewd features and 
 keen eyes ; farmers and graziers, shop-keepers, 
 smart brokers, political knots. Government " John- 
 nies," whose slightest nod or wink sends a shudder 
 through the whole place ; newspaper men taking 
 notes for the fabrication of intelligence ; ship-brokers 
 "bumming" for charters ; old sea-dogs come to be 
 hugged and drugged with nasty liquors from the 
 Bolsa Confiteria, or in search of freight or passen- 
 gers ; the whole crowd — men and boys, members 
 and strangers — with straining eyes fixed on that 
 huge black-board, whereon the marker with frigid 
 impartiality registers the hourly and minute read- 
 ings of that marvellously sensitive thermometer, the 
 gold premium. No quicksilver so delicate as that 
 impalpable gold ! The breath of any one man from 
 Government circles sends it soaring up to fever- 
 heat or thrusts it down to zero. And the marker, 
 perched up on his platform in sight of everybody, 
 the impersonification of stony indifference, chalking, 
 rubbing out, and re-chalking column after column of 
 figures which, to him, express nothing but prices, 
 but to hundreds of the eager onlookers mean 
 poverty or wealth, fortune or ruin. And the roar- 
 
THE TURN OF THE WHEEL. 2I9 
 
 ing of the crowd is like that of the surf on the sea- 
 shore. Porters are shrieking names impossible to 
 hear, brokers in the " ring " are swaying to and fro, 
 struggling and shouting ; the noise and the heat make 
 one's head swim, and the observer veritably imagines 
 himself in Pandemonium, when suddenly the hour 
 strikes, a bell rings, and in a few minutes the Bolsa 
 is deserted : the first turn of the wheel is made, and 
 the price of gold is flashed across to Europe. 
 
 The Bolsa is one of the most important and 
 imposing public buildings of the city. It has two 
 entrances, — one in the Calle Piedad, and the. other, 
 the principal, in the Plaza 25 de Mayo. The 
 latter (of which an illustration is annexed) gives 
 access to a handsome vestibule covering a space 
 of 112 square metres. The great hall occupies a 
 space of 540 square metres, and adjoining are 
 the " Ring," 300 square metres ; the Liquidation 
 Bureau, 480 ; and three other salas of the respective 
 dimensions of 283, 169, and 143 square metres. 
 The ceilings of the halls are adorned with oil 
 paintings, and the arms of the various countries in 
 commercial relationship with the Argentine stock 
 exchange. There is also an excellent library at- 
 tached to the Bolsa. At the beginning of 1891 
 the number of members was 4,421. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Physical Features of Argentina. — The North Wind and Suicide. 
 — The Province of Buenos Ayres.— Climate. — Storms and 
 Droughts. — The Pampero. — Its Terrible Power. — Effects of 
 a Pampero on Land; in the Camp. — The Markets of 
 Buenos Ayres. — Humours of the Crowd. — To learn Spanish 
 go to the Market Place. — Hyper-Independence of Stall- 
 keepers. — Bags of Mystery. — Queserias. — Only One Kind 
 of Fish in the Country. — A Neglected Industry. 
 
 The territory of the Argentine Republic extends 
 through nearly twenty-five degrees of latitude, and 
 embraces almost every climatic zone, from the torrid 
 to the frigid. Its physical configuration, however, 
 presents but little variety. Of the total area — about 
 1,200,000 square miles — at least seventy-five per 
 cent, is flat, featureless plain. Undulating meadows, 
 wooded hills, dales, green hedges, and all that ever- 
 changing diversity which makes the charm of a 
 country landscape are never seen in Argentina. 
 The great province of Buenos Ayres, the immense 
 Pampas, the wild regions of the Chaco, great part 
 of Patagonia, and the major portion of the Andine 
 provinces consist of level canipo. In the Andine 
 provinces (which comprise by far the largest portion 
 of Argentine territory), except where natural or 
 artificial irrigation is possible, the soil is sterile, and 
 the climate in summer time is made unendurable by 
 
SUICIDAL WEATHER. 22 1 
 
 the exhalations from the salt lagoons and plains. 
 Nothing is more dreaded in Buenos Ayres than the 
 burning north wind after it has swept over the salt 
 deserts of Santiago del Estero, catching up an im- 
 palpable mixture of salt and dust, which gets into 
 the eyes, ears, mouth, and nostrils, dries the skin, 
 and altogether makes life miserable. Statisticians 
 assert that during the prevalence of the north wind 
 suicide increases alarmingly in every part of the 
 Republic affected by the hated visitor. One goes 
 about at such times in a kind of stupor, breathing in 
 the hot air with short, gasping respirations which 
 are positively painful. 
 
 The richest agricultural provinces are Santa Fe, 
 and the inter-fluvial provinces of Entre Rios and 
 Corrientes. The northern provinces, known to 
 abound with minerals, are, for the most part, inac- 
 cessible, with a poor, ill-watered soil. 
 
 The wealthiest, most extensive, and most favoured 
 province is that of Buenos Ayres ; " which may be 
 regarded as a vast fertile, alluvial plain." Its area 
 - — about 130,000 square miles — is almost equal to 
 that of Great Britain and Ireland combined ; and its 
 climate is more endurable than that of any other 
 part of the Republic except Mendoza, which is ele- 
 vated, and has a dry and even climate. Neverthe- 
 less, no part of the country is so subject to violent 
 alternations of temperature, or has such an uncertain 
 rainfall, as Buenos Ayres. Its climate is, indeed, 
 one of the most variable in the world. In the 
 hottest days of summer the thermometer may regis- 
 ter in two or three hours a fall of fifteen to thirty 
 degrees Fahr. ; so that if one has left home in the 
 
22 2 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 morning in summer attire, in order to return without 
 catching a severe cold, one has to send for over- 
 coat, flannels, and winter clothing. In the coldest 
 months of the year there are frequent spells of damp, 
 sultry weather, in which everything sweats, and all 
 the delectable smells of the city and camp creep out 
 and revel. 
 
 Prolonged droughts, suddenly followed by storms 
 of the most terrific description, make agricultural 
 and pastoral industry in the south extremely pre- 
 carious. A seca sometimes lasts for months at a 
 stretch, during which time the blazing sun — from 
 which, for hundreds of leagues in the camp, there is 
 no shelter — burns up every vestige of verdure ; the 
 ground is parched, and cracks up into great fissures ; 
 cattle,, sheep, and horses perish by hundreds, as 
 much from starvation as from want of water ; the 
 cainp is strewn with whitened bones, the air is 
 loaded with pestilential vapours from putrefying 
 carcases, and miasma from stagnant pools and half- 
 dried pantanos ; and the apparently limitless plain 
 resembles a prairie after a fire. 
 
 Long droughts are always followed by violent 
 storms and heavy rainfalls of uncertain duration, 
 but sometimes lasting for many weeks. The rivers 
 of the south — -the Salado, Rio Negro, Quequen, 
 etc. — overflow their banks, and in an incredibly 
 short space of time what was a burning desert 
 becomes an angry sea. Bridges, railway-banks, 
 cattle, horses, sheep, men, everything that impedes 
 its force is swept away. Storms like these are 
 usually preceded by a pampero. Who has not 
 heard of that scourge of the plains, that scavenger 
 
THE MIGHTY PAMPERO. 223 
 
 of the towns, the life-giving, death-dealing pam- 
 pero ? that mighty wind which, springing from 
 unknown Antarctic regions, sweeps unopposed by 
 mountain or hill over the dreary wastes of Patago- 
 nia, over leagues of tall grass of the Pampas, over 
 the desolate plains of Buenos Ay res ; gathering 
 force with its increasing velocity ; driving before it 
 myriads of insects, and queer, winged things, and 
 clouds of dust that sometimes turn day into night ; 
 sweeping down in all its fury upon the great, 
 shallow Rio de la Plata ; delving into its broad 
 bosom, banking up its waters, driving them this way 
 and that ; flooding the Boca, the Ensenada, the 
 Tigre, the Northern, the Southern, the Pacific, the 
 Rosario Railways ; tearing up the port works, and 
 undoing in an hour the work of months ; arresting 
 the flow of the mighty Parana, forcing back upon 
 the littoral that outflow greater than the Mississippi, 
 and, lashing the 'widening river till huge steamers 
 rock like corks, speeds on to Montevideo and the 
 mouth of the Plate, without harbour or even break- 
 water to oppose its terrible power ; down upon the 
 unprotected shipping ; dashing the lighter craft 
 shorewards, making matchwood of some, com- 
 pelling larger vessels to cut their cables and scud 
 under bare poles for hundreds of miles before it ; 
 and so sweeps over the ocean, till it meets and 
 spends its last force against the Trades.^ 
 
 But it is on the land that one should watch the 
 
 estragos of the pampero. The heat for days past 
 
 has been suffocating ; we have gone about breathing 
 
 in air like the breath of a furnace. At night we 
 
 1 Vide Frontispiece. 
 
2 24 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 have lain awake tossing and turning in moisture, as 
 though we had been in a Turkish bath. In the 
 morning we have risen exhausted, and weighing a 
 pound or two lighter. We perform our daily avoca- 
 tions in a dull, spiritless lethargy. For food, for 
 life, we care not a rap ; all we long for, all we want, 
 is rain. But relief is at hand. How gladly we be- 
 hold those heralds of the coming storm — the dragon- 
 flies, darting about in the sunshine, seeking a refuge 
 and warning the people ! In the south-east a cloud 
 appears like a black woolly ball, set in a frame of 
 gold. The glass marks a swift descent. The cloud 
 travels up apace and spreads to the cardinal points. 
 The dust of the roads, the litter of the streets, fly up 
 and whirl about in little fitful eddies. Bird and 
 beast seek shelter. There is a distant clap of thun- 
 der. The people in the streets may be seen scurry- 
 ing in all directions. Doors slam, shutters bang. 
 In less time than it takes to tell, the streets are 
 deserted, the city and the camp are given up to the 
 battle of the elements. Millions of insects — mos- 
 quitos, dragon-flies, moths, and bichos innumerable — 
 scud past, followed by clouds of fine black dust, 
 against which every window and door must be fast 
 closed. The lightning — sheet, fork, and summer, 
 all flashing at once — discharges its life-giving fluid, 
 and the tropical thunder shakes the city till the 
 houses seem to rock. And then, close upon the 
 heels of the wind, comes the rain, not in drops, but 
 sheets, and mingled with hailstones big as nuts. In 
 less than half an hour the streets are like rushing 
 rivers ; the brown muddy waters go tumbling over 
 the incapacious sluices and tearing down the inclines 
 
SANTA FEUCITAS CHUKCH, BARRACAS. 
 
226 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 — a perfect deluge. Hapless passengers in tram- 
 cars here and there caught in the storm are sub- 
 merged to the knees. The Boca and the low-lying 
 districts of North and South Barracas quickly re- 
 semble an immense floating island. The Riachuelo 
 and the boundary of the province have disappeared. 
 The water gurgles under the wooden houses, and 
 seems to bear them away in its rapid course. Traffic 
 is everywhere suspended ; it is impossible even to 
 cross from one side of the street to the other for 
 hours after the rain has ceased, except in boats, or 
 on the broad shoulders of an Italian porter. And 
 then, when at length the storm has passed, doors 
 and windows are cautiously and little by little 
 opened, and in rushes the pure air, many degrees 
 colder than that of the interiors, shivering delicate 
 glass, contracting and cracking unseasoned timber 
 and furniture. In a few minutes the sun shines in a 
 tranquil, cloudless sky. The atmosphere is so trans- 
 parent that we can see for an incredible distance up 
 and down the calle. We breathe in deep draughts 
 of the delicious air, the blood circulates freely, and 
 we feel as though we had renewed the lease of our 
 lives. 
 
 But the storm which has been life to us has 
 dealt death and destruction everywhere around us. 
 Wreckage strews both coasts of the river ; the camp 
 is an ocean. Into its imporous soil the water does 
 not sink to any depth, and there is little or no 
 flow to carry it off to the rivers or the ocean. In 
 the marshy lands of the Ensenada it is retained 
 until it disappears by the slow processes of evapora- 
 tion, leaving the camp a quagmire, with innumerable 
 
THE MARKETS OF BUENOS AYRES. 227 
 
 pantanos of soft mud, into which huge bullock carts 
 sink as easily as Carver Doone into the Exmoor 
 bog. But when at last the waters have sufficiently 
 subsided, there may be seen in every part of the 
 camp the carcases of thousands of drowned cattle. 
 Nobody can ever remove them, nor do even those 
 scavengers of the desert, the vulture and the condor, 
 come to clear them away. There they lie and blister 
 and rot in the blazing sun, breeding a plague of flies 
 and poisoning the air for miles around with horrid 
 stenches. A perfect Eden is the camp ! 
 
 One of our favourite amusements in Buenos Ayres 
 was to visit one or another of the numerous markets 
 of the capital. The best hour of the day for such 
 visits is four o'clock in the morning. In the summer 
 time the world is all astir at that hour. Indeed, the 
 heat and stuffiness of the bed-chamber are a great 
 incentive to early rising in those latitudes. After a 
 restless night of tossing and twisting and turning there 
 is a refreshing charm in the clear air of the dawn 
 that is worth all the " pick-me-ups" ever concocted. 
 That is the hour to choose, too, for a morning 
 ride to Palermo. The flowers and trees and shrubs, 
 fresh from the dews of night, are more fragrant, and 
 there is a quietness in the lonely glades of the park 
 that can be found at no other hour during the whole 
 twenty-four. Still, it is good to while away an hour 
 or two occasionally at the m.ercado. There at four 
 o'clock all is bustle and life. The throng is so great 
 that it is with difficulty we thread our way amongst 
 the busy crowd of buyers and sellers and porters. 
 The markets of Buenos Ayres have no pretensions 
 to beauty of any kind, not even to that of wholesome 
 
2 28 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 cleanliness. The striking feature of any one of 
 them is the overflowing abundance of everything. 
 The salesman or saleswoman looks lost and buried 
 amidst the profusion of their wares. Eggs by the 
 hundred thousand, vegetables by the van-load, meat 
 by the ton-weight, and fruit, ah ! fruit by the train- 
 load. The contents of a whole orchard or island 
 meet the eye at a glance. In the season one could 
 fill a big house with peaches from the Mercado Cen- 
 tral without making any visible diminution in the 
 quantity exposed for sale. Peaches ! I have seen 
 acres and acres of ground covered with them — 
 wasted, rotting, to a depth of several feet on the 
 soil — all lost year after year for want of the means 
 of conveyance. And pears ! Excepting the fine 
 grapes of San Juan or Mendoza, pears are the only 
 fruit worth eating in Buenos Ayres, where they 
 grow to perfection and are cheap. Apples grow, 
 but they are very tasteless ; strawberries are small, 
 rare, and flavourless ; currants and gooseberries do 
 not thrive on Argentine soil ; but quinces, figs, 
 melons, oranges, grow in wild abundance. But the 
 prices of everything were what used to astonish 
 us. It seemed so ridiculous to be able to go and 
 buy enough vegetables for the equivalent of a few 
 pence to supply a large family for a week, or a 
 whole sheep for two or three shillings, or a dozen 
 chops for a few coppers, or a brace of fine turkeys 
 for a nacional\ Pumpkins, big as balloons, cut up 
 with a carpenter's saw and doled out at a cent 
 or two the kilo. Asparagus and spinach and other 
 succulent green meats that are considered choice 
 in Covent Garden, selling at next to no price at all. 
 
THE BEST SCHOOL FOR SPANISH. 229 
 
 But all that is past, and most garden produce is 
 now as dear or dearer than in England — not because 
 there has been any shrinkage in the supply, but 
 simply on account of the crisis. 
 
 And then the crowd, the noisy, bustling, motley 
 throng of people, of all ages and sizes and colours. 
 Sweet-voiced, bonnetless housewives, sloe-eyed 
 chinas, broad and buxom cocineras, panting and 
 pushing all over the place, vagabond changadores in 
 blue blouses, red skull caps, and alpargatas tailing 
 after them with enormous baskets, in which to col- 
 lect and carry home the purchases of the podgy 
 dames. And to watch the processes of bartering 
 is better than any comedy. Nothing has a fixed 
 price, but everything must be haggled for, and the 
 haggling is all the fun. If you would know the 
 elasticity of which the sonorous Spanish language, 
 as spoken in the Argentine, is capable, go to the 
 market-place and learn of the buyers and sellers. 
 Such endearing epithets and choice adjectives that 
 rattle across the glib Indo-Latin tongues ! 
 
 "Ah ! sir, you are a thief. It is well known that 
 you rob everybody ! " says one lump of a china to 
 the butcher, or the verdiirero. 
 
 "Ah! Senora. Only an angel like you could 
 utter such untruths." And so on, a regular cross- 
 fire of banter and polished compliments. 
 
 But the independence of the stall-keepers is what 
 most rouses one's spleen. The butcher, the green- 
 grocer, the fruiterer, the fishmonger, none of them 
 seem to care a rap whether you buy or whether you 
 do not. If they sell you anything, it is to do you a 
 favour, not to benefit themselves. But you must 
 
230 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 buy, not what you want, but what they Hke to sell 
 you. You can have what you like, of course, at 
 fancy prices. Crowded as every trade is, there is no 
 competition, no "cutting." An article purchased at 
 one stall at one price will be sold at the adjoining 
 store at quite a different price. It is the same with 
 the shops. The people have no standard of value, 
 but simply get what they can. 
 
 There is no attempt at the markets to make a 
 show of any of the articles of consumption. Every- 
 thing is just heaped up in its abundance, and sold as 
 quickly or as slowly as the demand may determine. 
 A cart-load of fruit is brought into the market and 
 tipped on to the stones like so much basura ! 
 
 Of all the queer things exposed on the stalls for 
 sale, as articles of food, none makes such an odd 
 display as the products of the art of the fiambrero, — • 
 chorizos, and the whole family of sausages, big and 
 little, black and red, flabby and firm, long and short, 
 round and flat, cooked and uncooked, some in skins, 
 some done up in lead paper — all most delectable and 
 wholesome, no doubt, but all most mysterious com- 
 pounds and unsightly objects — suspended on strings 
 and swaying to and fro in the breeze. 
 
 And then there are the queserias, or cheese stores, 
 piled from floor to ceiling with cheeses of all sizes 
 and shapes and colours, all sour and insipid as but- 
 ter-milk. Cheese-making is a lost art amongst the 
 Argentines, although one or two Englishmen have 
 begun to compete successfully with the imported 
 article. As for butter, a good deal of it is still made 
 in the most primitive way imaginable : the cream 
 simply put into tins shaped like inverted sugar- 
 
A GREAT INDUSTRY NEGLECTED. 23 1 
 
 loaves, packed off to town on horseback, and so 
 jolted into butter. 
 
 In the whole country there is only one fishmonger 
 and only one kind of native fish — pejerey. Great 
 quantities of corbina and dorado are consumed, it 
 is true, but these are imported from Montevideo. 
 Pejerey is a white, insipid fish, very much like whit- 
 ing ; corbina is a coarse-fibred, oily, but well-flavoured 
 fish ; and dorado is a large, handsome-looking fish, 
 thought by many to be almost equal to salmon. Of 
 shell-fish there is absolutely none. 
 
 Probably no more striking instance of the neglect 
 into which the natural resources of the country are 
 allowed to fall and remain could be cited than that 
 of the fishing industry. Although the Republic has 
 an extensive sea-board, stretching through some 
 twenty degrees of latitude, no serious effort has ever 
 been made to reap the rich harvests of the sea. 
 From Magdelena as far south as the Straits of 
 Magellan there lies a vast and unexplored field for 
 enterprise and capital. The South Atlantic abounds 
 with all manner of edible fish, and during the greater 
 part of the year the ocean is comparatively free from 
 the risks and dangers that attend the fisherman's 
 calling in the northern seas. Fortunes await those 
 who shall first take seriously in hand the establish- 
 ment and development of this neglected industry. It 
 is true that many an ambitious eye has been already 
 directed towards it, and many a scheme presented 
 to the Government ; but not one has ever got beyond 
 publication in the newspapers, and that illiterate and 
 unenterprising family of fishmongers still retains the 
 monopoly for the whole country. I remember to 
 
232 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 have seen and read at least six different projects for 
 the development of the Atlantic fishing industry, but 
 each and all had the same defect and bore the same 
 character — of land-grabbing speculations ; the chief 
 condition proposed to the Government by each pro- 
 jector being the concession to him, or a company 
 formed by him, of a more or less fabulous extent of 
 national territory, ostensibly for the purposes of the 
 proposed fishing, breeding, and curing establishment. 
 Such projects were a morbid growth engendered by 
 the "boom"; they one and all appeared while the 
 Cedula fever and the land craze were in full force, 
 and when everybody, high and low, was on the look- 
 out for fresh devices for extorting money. The 
 coveted lands once gained and hypothecated, the 
 bubble projects would have quickly burst. The 
 short-sighted would-be land-grabbers, however, in 
 the eagerness of their chase after the shadows, over- 
 looked the substance ; it never seemed to strike 
 them that the true source of wealth lay in the natural 
 spoils of the ocean ; or, if the fact did dawn upon 
 any one of them, the process of accumulating wealth 
 by such means was too laborious, too slow, and too 
 honest to be seriously attempted. The Government 
 of that day would, moreover, have been little disposed 
 to favour the promotion of any scheme that did not 
 promise the immediate realization of huge profits 
 and substantial coima. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Argentine Politics. — A Cancer in the National Organism. — The 
 Constitution Shaped from many Models. — Government of 
 the Provinces. — The Chambers. — The Executive. — Political 
 Freedom a Myth. — Provincial and Federal Antagonism. — 
 How the System Works. — Political Sects. — Literary Legis- 
 lators. — Manufacture of Official Documents. — 3,700 of my 
 Signatures embalmed. — Present Political Aspect of the 
 Country. — Rise and Progress of the Unibn Civica. — The 
 National Autonomist Party. — The Great Unicato. — Mission 
 of the Press. — Apathy and Cowardice of the Masses. — The 
 Dawn of Political Emancipation. — The Champion of the 
 Cause. — How he is Treated. — Effects of the First Public In- 
 dignation Meeting. — Overthrow of the Ministry. — A Sop to 
 Cerberug. — The Loan. — Resignation of Dr. Uriburu and Ap- 
 pointment of a Successor. — Government Apparently Stronger 
 than Ever. — Defection in the Military Ranks. — Inception of 
 the July Revolution. 
 
 In a cursory and disjointed manner frequent allusion 
 has been made in these pages to Argentine politics ; 
 but the matter is of such importance as to call for 
 a more serious and detailed notice. Politics — 
 or rather the turgid system of hoodwinking and 
 mystification which the Argentines dignify by that 
 name — is the cause of almost every evil, social and 
 economical, that has befallen the Republic since the 
 beginning of its history as an independent State. 
 We are familiar enough with the story of nations 
 
2 34 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 that have decHned, or remained stationary during 
 long periods of time, under the stagnating influence 
 of an oppressive and retrogressive hierarchy : we 
 speak of such nations as priest-ridden. But in- 
 stances of young and extensive countries, possessing 
 in themselves every element of progress and great- 
 ness — territorial extent, a fertile soil, a benignant 
 climate, pastoral and mineral wealth — yet racked 
 and torn by their own self-devouring system of 
 politics, are peculiar to South American Republics. 
 Argentine politics is a sarcoma perpetually draining 
 the vital energies of the national organism, and re- 
 quiring either powerful purges that exhaust the 
 patient or excision by the scalpel of civil war. 
 
 Theoretically the political constitution of Argentina 
 is similar to that of the United States — a representa- 
 tive federal Republic. The constitution is modelled 
 upon that of the northern continent, but improved 
 by collation with the constitutions of many other 
 nations. There is nothing original in it, and it is 
 wholly unsuited to the people who are governed by 
 it. Whatever the Argentines of to-day may think, 
 their whole history, their present state, prove them 
 to be a servile race, perpetually demanding a king 
 and getting a stork. 
 
 Each of the fourteen provinces — Buenos Ayres, 
 Entre Rios, Cordoba, Santa Fe, Mendoza, San Juan, 
 San Luis, Santiago del Estero, Salta, Corrientes, 
 La Rioja, Catamarca, and Jujuy — is governed 
 locally by a separate constitution, but is represented 
 in the Federal Government at Buenos Ayres by two 
 senators appointed by the provincial legislatures, and 
 deputies elected by the people in the proportion of 
 
THE ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM. 235 
 
 one deputy for each 20,000 inhabitants, or fraction 
 thereof down to 10,000. Each of the nine national 
 territories— Santa Cruz, Chubut, Rio Negro, the 
 Pampa, the Chaco, Formosa, Neuquen, Misiones, 
 and Tierra del Fuego — is ruled by a governor ap- 
 pointed for three years by the President of the 
 Republic with the sanction of the Senate. The 
 National Government consists of two Chambers, the 
 Deputies and the Senate, and its ordinary sessions 
 commence on the first of May and terminate on the 
 30th of September in each year. Each deputy and 
 senator receives an honorarium of $700 per month. 
 The President and Vice-President of the Republic 
 are elected for a term of six years, and the first- 
 named is the supreme head of the State, exercises 
 direct control over the governors of the national 
 territories, and has power to form or remove 
 wholly or in part a cabinet of five ministers, and to 
 prolong ordinary or convoke extraordinary sessions 
 of Parliament. The Chamber of Deputies has the 
 faculty of propounding laws relating to finance, the 
 organization of the army, and other minor matters ; 
 it is also empowered by the Constitution to impeach 
 the President or any of his ministers before the 
 Senate, which is the supreme tribunal. Measures 
 projected by either Chamber are sent to the other 
 for discussion, emendation, or ratification, and, 
 after receiving the signature of the Executive, be- 
 come laws of the nation. The Executive consists 
 of the President of the Republic and any one of his 
 ministers. For example, the President and the 
 Minister of Finance are the executive in all matters 
 relating to the national finances ; the President and 
 
2^6 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 -O 
 
 the Minister for Foreign Affairs the executive in all 
 international questions. 
 
 Thus in theory the political organization of 
 Argentina is simple enough. The Constitution 
 confers upon every citizen, naturalized as well as 
 native-born, the right to elect his congressional re- 
 presentatives ; it is the violation of this right, and 
 the abuse of the great powers reposed in the 
 President and his satellites, that cause all the trouble 
 and mischief in the State. Abuse of power consists 
 in the " inconditional " imposition of governors 
 obnoxious to the people, and in the violation of 
 the suffrage by the employment of armed force to 
 intimidate voters. Another fruitful source of trouble, 
 however, is the deep-rooted jealousy between the 
 citizens of the provinces and the citizens of Buenos 
 Ayres, or Porteiios, as they are styled. This 
 jealousy, which has existed ever since the proclama- 
 tion of the federation by the Convention of Santa 
 F^ in i860, not only provokes frequent internecine 
 quarrels, but complicates the whole political ma- 
 chinery and hampers every act of administration. 
 Ruptures are checked or subdued only by the diplo- 
 matic quartering of national troops. 
 
 And now to consider briefly the working of the 
 system. Good government depends upon the just 
 interpretation of the Constitution, and unswerving 
 adherence to its principles. In the Argentine there 
 is neither the one nor the other. There are not 
 two men in either of the national Chambers, nor 
 In any of those of the provinces, who will agree 
 upon an interpretation of any given clause of the 
 Constitution except on purely personal grounds of 
 
HOW POLITICAL SECTS ARE FORMED. 237 
 
 partizanship or friendship. Every prominent public 
 man has such self-conceived notions of originality 
 and intellectual eminence that he twists new and 
 tortuous meanings out of every clause according as 
 circumstances or his desires or vanity may prompt 
 him. Selecting any simple article or sentence as 
 a text, he at once launches into a discurso two 
 to twenty newspaper columns in length — a disairso 
 which startles the mind by its rhetoric, enslaves 
 the imaginations of his compatriots, and captures 
 their susceptible hearts by its artful appeals to 
 their passions. Reduced to a prdcis, and denuded 
 of its florid and meaningless conceits, the disctirso 
 is, with rare exceptions, found to be a tissue of 
 sophisms or unsound theories. Calm and dispas- 
 sionate logic acts upon it like vinegar upon the 
 pearl. It does not matter what public speech one 
 examines, it will be found of the same character, 
 ornate and eloquent, but impracticable, bombastic, 
 quixotic. The discurso in itself, however, is a 
 harmless comedy ; its consequences constitute an 
 evil. According to his influence and the number 
 of his following in and out of Parliament, the orator 
 forms a partido composed usually of men with 
 understandings weaker than his own. Everywhere 
 and in every way open to it, the new partido 
 seeks converts and adherents. Disagreement with 
 its political doctrines, or with the interpretation put 
 upon any law or constitutional clause by the admired 
 and belauded chief of the party, is a serious personal 
 offence, a motive para trabar una lucha. Instead 
 of healthy opposition, there is thus created innumer- 
 able sects of disciples of would-be personages. 
 
238 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 These political sects are at constant variance with 
 each other, and in continual disagreement amongst 
 themselves. Only the presence of an armed force 
 is capable of coercing the immiscible elements into 
 something resembling unity. 
 
 The chief business of Congress is to legislate, to 
 create laws. Nothing harmonises so well with the 
 temperament of the Argentine as the making of 
 laws and the wholesale fabrication of official docu- 
 ments, with all their stereotyped and meaningless 
 phraseology. The Argentine's strongest instinct is 
 literary vanity. He might have sat for Emerson's 
 portrait of the " weak and literary man." Those em- 
 ployments satisfy his instinct. K proyecto de Ley is 
 a literary effusion like the student's treatise ; by this 
 an Argentine wins his spurs as a doctor or a lawyer, 
 by that he establishes a reputation as a literary 
 legislator. Decrees, laws, proyectos pour from the 
 Chambers as the fruits of the earth from the Cornu- 
 copia. Nothing is easier than the making of an 
 Argentine law ; nothing is less sacred than the 
 law itself If any one will take the trouble to 
 examine the national statute book, the Registro, he 
 will be astonished to find what a number of laws, 
 created at the instance of literary senators, has fallen 
 into oblivion. Beyond appeasing the literary vanity 
 of their authors and encumbering the Registro, they 
 have served no purpose, have never been used, were 
 never wanted. The decree of yesterday is revoked 
 with the greatest facility by that of to-day. The 
 solemnity of a law is an expression, nothing more. 
 Adherence to a principle for the principle's sake is 
 most rare. 
 
MANUFACTURE OF "OFFICIAL PAPER. 239 
 
 The daily output of documents of an " official " 
 nature is prodigious. The shallowest pretext is 
 seized upon with avidity by every man in the 
 country, afflicted with the furor scribendi, to turn 
 out an official communication — a parte, an acta, an 
 informe, a proclama, a protesta, a resolucidn, and a 
 hundred other formulee. The journals get half their 
 " copy" from this prolific source ; yet not a tithe of 
 what is produced ever finds its way into print. But 
 it does not perish, not a scrap of it ; somewhere or 
 other it is archived. A straightforward communica- 
 tion, a plain statement of facts, unencumbered with 
 prolix " considerandos" and tedious divisions, sub- 
 divisions, articles, and redundant official formulae, are 
 as rare as Argentine coal. From a computation I 
 lately made, I found that in the course of one 
 insignificant negocio, I had placed my signature on 
 no less than 3,700 official papers of one kind and 
 another! It is gratifying to reflect that all those 
 signatures are archived ; that my name — embalmed 
 with all the care and ceremony bestowed upon an 
 ancient mummy — can never perish ; that in time 
 to come some soft-headed, weak-eyed collector of 
 antique autographs may come across at least one 
 out of all that mass of fossilised sign-manuals, and 
 fall into ecstasies over my prided rubrica ! 
 
 With these preliminary observations I shall 
 now pass to a brief consideration of the present 
 political aspect of the country ; and for this pur- 
 pose it will be necessary to sketch shortly the 
 history of the rise and progress of the great Unidn 
 Civica, and to review rapidly the causes of its origin. 
 
 A more instructive " object lesson " in Argentine 
 
240 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 politics than the history of that popular movement 
 could not be found. The Unidn Civica ushered in 
 the promise of the dawn of political regeneration in 
 Argentina. It was the "first association which 
 public opinion, after long years of apathy and sub- 
 jection, had succeeded in forming in defence of the 
 rights, liberties, and honour of the citizens of the 
 Republic." It originated, as has been elsewhere 
 observed, with the banding together of a number of 
 young men, members of the Club de Gymnasia y 
 Esgrima, into a pseudo-political association to combat 
 a widespread and growing evil. What that evil was 
 will presently appear. The programme of the new 
 and boyish organization was undefined ; its aspira- 
 tions noble, but vague. It was an instinctive feeling 
 towards the light. There was an evil, deep-rooted 
 and already grown hoary, that had somehow to be 
 combatted, and this band of youths determined to 
 do battle with the giant. But for the youthful 
 association to succeed in its object alone was im- 
 possible ; it lacked the knowledge, experience, posi- 
 tion, influence, wealth, everything except youthful 
 ardour and courage. Yet by these very qualities, 
 and by virtue of its very weakness, it was able to 
 play a great part well and effectually. It shamed 
 into life and action an opposition the like whereof 
 had exceeded the political enthusiast's wildest dream. 
 The example, the conjuration of the sons were 
 needed to rouse the fathers from their apathy and 
 cowardice. 
 
 For a long time the N acton and other journals 
 had waged war against the powers that were. 
 They had, none of them, a good word for a single 
 
A GOVERNMENT OF FRAUD AND FORCE. 24 1 
 
 member of the Government ; it was, they declared, 
 a Government elected by fraud and force, whose 
 programme was rapine and immorality. With the 
 whole army and a legion of favourites at its back, 
 the Government believed itself invulnerable. The 
 governors of all the national territories, the rulers 
 of some of the provinces, were creatures and place- 
 men of Juarez Caiman and his satellites. They 
 and their countless following, with the military and 
 the semi-military constabulary all over the country, 
 formed and supported the notorious National Auto- 
 nomist Party. So great was the power of this 
 partido that it dreamed of controlling the destinies 
 of the nation for ever, of nominating successors to 
 every office of state from its own circles. The same 
 means by which Juarez had been thrust into power 
 were used to impose upon those provinces not already 
 vassalised governors selected from the hungry 
 crowd of favourites. Their fitness for office was 
 never considered. The people, the nation at large, 
 was ignored ; the opposition press despised, or, at 
 least, little heeded. Public opinion was mute — 
 silenced by the sword and the police. It was this 
 policy that earned for the Government of Juarez 
 Celman the opprobrious epithets of " incondicion- 
 alismo" " unicato." Believing their position im- 
 pregnable, Juarez and his colleagues thought they 
 could do as they pleased with everything and every- 
 body. The whole country lay at their mercy ; all 
 power — the army, the police, the personal influence 
 of the legion who owed wealth and position to them 
 — was in their hands. Having captured the citadel, 
 the unicato proceeded to loot the city, and to make 
 
 R 
 
242 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 merry with the national bienes. One possession 
 after another was ahenated from the nation, sold 
 for foreign gold, and the proceeds divided amongst 
 the spoilers in the form of descuentos. Thousands 
 of Argentines who had never done a stroke of work 
 in their lives ; who pursued no callings save those 
 of deputy, or senator, or minister, or toady ; who 
 produced nothing, but consumed everything ; who 
 added not an iota to the wealth of the community ; 
 grew rich and prosperous with surprising rapidity, 
 and were to be seen dashing hither and thither in 
 splendid equipages, buying land, building palaces 
 and adorning them with costly objets d'arie. What 
 kept up all that brave show ? Surely not the 
 monthly pittance which each man drew from his. 
 official position. That barely sufficed to k-eep the 
 carriage. 
 
 Such, in a few words, was the political state of 
 the Republic at the time of the inception of the 
 Civic Union. Opposition — at least, active oppo- 
 sition — to the hated " incondicionalismo" there was 
 none. It was perilous to hint at such a thing, 
 madness almost to dream of it. But if there was 
 no opposition party, there was an opposition press. 
 Too late the Government of Juarez perceived that 
 It had committed a fatal error in ignoring its power. 
 Upon that error Juarez artfully thought to trade, 
 when in his appeal to the nation upon the outbreak 
 of the Revolution he said : " Respect for the liberty 
 of the press has been carried to the extreme of 
 tolerating its most exaggerated abuse, a lamentable 
 error which it will be necessary to correct in the 
 future." The opportunity was gone ; there was no 
 
BURNING BRANDS. 243 
 
 such future for him : the error was irreparable ; the 
 press had, as it ever must, fulfilled its mission. But 
 the toleration which the President claimed as a 
 virtue was but the disdain of the lion for the mouse. 
 Had the Government felt itself less secure, had it 
 conceived that there was any real danger to be 
 apprehended from mere newspaper articles ; that 
 by the greatest stretch of the imagination they could 
 be thought capable of laying the mine that should 
 blow the odious unicato all to pieces ; the press 
 would have been gagged in the same way as the 
 suffrage had been violated. The Government was 
 no respecter of institutions. The censorship would 
 have been established before, not after the Revolu- 
 tion. It is extremely doubtful whether any one but 
 the most indefatigable student of Argentine history 
 will ever trouble to read the daring articles pub- 
 lished in the opposition journals during the two 
 years preceding the overthrow of the imicato ; yet 
 they would well repay the labour of search, of 
 perusal, or of reperusal. More audacious attacks 
 upon a constituted Government were never seen. 
 Those same despised and fugitive articles were 
 burninsf brands tossed without ceasing; into the in- 
 trenchments of the enemy, and bound at some time 
 or another to set something on fire. 
 
 In all political affairs, in all matters concerning 
 the interests of the community, as distinct from the 
 interests of the individual, the predominant charac- 
 teristics of the Argentine are apathy and cowardice. 
 So long as the affairs of the nation do not interfere 
 with his own personal ends and pursuits, he will 
 never raise hand or voice in defence of institutions. 
 
244 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 Had the Government of Juarez Celman been a less 
 venal, a less rapacious administration, its claims to 
 political autonomy would never have been disputed, 
 certainly would not have been resisted by the 
 people. Had not that venality and that rapine 
 ended, as they were bound to end, in a commercial 
 crisis by which every man's pocket was deeply 
 affected, the Union Civica would never have sprung 
 into existence, the Revolution of July, 1890, would 
 never have been heard of The mere sentiment of 
 political supremacy is a matter of the utmost in- 
 difference to the average Argentine so long as his 
 luxuries are not threatened, or his income assailed, 
 or so long as he does not himself aim at political 
 power. The masses are indifferent. To understand 
 what a crime this indifference amounts to, it is 
 necessary to live with the Argentine and study him. 
 in his private life. It is true he talks politics — in 
 fact, he talks little else. But the res non verba 
 becomes with him an active principle only when 
 he is pushed to the wall ; until then he is content 
 to talk and look on. And for this cowardice he 
 has, it must be admitted, abundant reason. He is 
 afraid of the police, he is afraid of spies, he is afraid, 
 above all, of the soldiery. The history of Cor- 
 rientes, of Cordoba, of Entre Rios, and of other 
 provinces during the last three or four years furnish 
 ample proofs of this. " I ask," said a prominent 
 member of the Unidn Civica quite recently, " I ask 
 the delegates for Corrientes why they are deprived 
 of their rights ; why their best sons remain in exile 
 or obscurity ? Because they have been robbed of 
 the right of reunion." . . . "No!" shouted 
 
CRADLE OF THE CIVIC UNION. 245 
 
 another member — one of the delegates — " because 
 in 1880 the sword of General Roca was suspended 
 over the whole country, but more particularly over 
 Corrientes." But the cowardice of the people — of 
 the apathetic, servile, chattering, disunited masses — 
 had for years back left open every door to the in- 
 vading " oficialismo" invited the very abuses against 
 the consequences of which they now and again 
 offered a feeble and ineffectual resistance. Like 
 parrots at the approach of a storm, they fled to their 
 holes and chattered affrighted. 
 
 But at last arose that noble band of youths. 
 Under the egis of the Chib de Gymnasia was con- 
 vened and held a mass meeting, the like whereof 
 had never before been held anywhere in the country. 
 Memorable speeches were made that golden Sunday 
 afternoon. The elders caught fire at the enthu- 
 siasm and indignation of the young patriots, to 
 whom all were ready to yield a meed of praise. 
 The aims of the Unidn Civica de la Juventud were 
 applauded ; its birth was hailed as a future hope. 
 The press opposed to the Government warmly 
 espoused the new idea, fostering it by every means 
 within its reach. Adhesions flowed in thick and 
 fast ; every Porteno youth unconnected with the 
 imicato wanted to enlist under the new banner. It 
 became a fashion, a rage. Timid men, emboldened 
 by example, fired by emulation, suddenly found a 
 voice. Others, smitten by shame or remorse, found 
 a conscience. All taking heart of grace awakened 
 to the fact that they were members of an outraged 
 and oppressed community ; that the name of Argen- 
 tine was, by those unworthy to bear it, being 
 
246 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 dragged through the mire in the sight of the whole 
 world ; that they had been all this while squabbling 
 amongst themselves, and forgetting that they, the 
 people, were the sovereign power. Like opponents 
 in the presence of a common danger, they resolved 
 to cast to the winds the petty politics of circles, and 
 to band together for the common safety. 
 
 The youthful association pointed the road to 
 reform, led the way to the great reawakening. 
 These ends accomplished, its mission was fulfilled. 
 Its work would be carried on henceforward by 
 elders versed in the affairs of the State, who were 
 in possession of the " secrets of the prison-house," 
 who knew the assailable points in the enemy's 
 armour. At that boyish cry for liberty, a champion 
 stepped forth to give it the force and the dignity of 
 a nation's demand, to espouse the cause, to assume 
 the command, to give form to vague aspirations and 
 undefined aims, to organize the tournament, to enter" 
 the lists, to throw down the gauge of war, to break 
 the first lance. That champion was Dr. Aristobulo 
 Del Valle, senator for the federal capital, a brilliant 
 orator, a travelled and accomplished scholar, a man 
 wealthy enough to despise the venality that sur- 
 rounded him, a true patriot, a courageous man. 
 Around the magnetic personality of Dr. Del \ alle 
 clustered every noble ambition, every patriotic soul. 
 He it was who dealt the first blow at the corrupt 
 administration of Juarez Celman, who carried war 
 and alarm into the camp of the " iiicondicionalismo," 
 who first let in the light of publicity upon the dark 
 ways and darker deeds of the imicato. The dis- 
 curso " pronounced " by Dr. Del \''alle in full 
 
THE CHAMPION OF LIBERTY. 
 
 247 
 
 assembly of Congress, in which he made the denun- 
 ciation of the clandestine issue of forty millions of 
 rag-money, sounded the knell of doom for the 
 Government ; it rang in the birth of the Union 
 Civica. Alas for the Argentines ! That they 
 should not know the worth of such a man. That 
 friends such as he should, sick at heart, be forced 
 
 DR. DEL VALLE. 
 
 into sorrowful renunciation of the patriotic cause 
 because of the pitiful jerrymandering, the con- 
 temptible personalities, the hair-splitting differences 
 between leaders of factions and circles. 
 
 The mere announcement of a second meeting 
 of the Civic party caused a panic in Government 
 circles. Gold touched 300. The Bolsa was in an 
 
248 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 Uproar. The ministry resigned en bloc. Ministers 
 were afraid to face the responsibiHties of the situa- 
 tion created by the ruinous policy of subversion 
 which, with Juarez Celman and Roca the wire- 
 puller, they had pursued during nearly four years. 
 Even the President and his brother-in-law felt, 
 or affected, momentary alarm. Public opinion was 
 becoming impofiente. It was nothing to be really 
 afraid of, of course ; but it was politic to recognise 
 and defer to it in some way. Juarez at once 
 proceeded to form a new ministry, and the popular 
 clamour was appeased for the nonce by the ap- 
 pointment of a popular minister. Dr. Uriburu, 
 a man greatly esteemed both in Europe and in 
 Argentina, a man whose wealth placed him above 
 suspicion, and his long career above reproach, 
 became Minister of Finance. His appointment, 
 however, was but a sop thrown to Cerberus. The 
 new minister set himself with resolution to study 
 the position of his portfolio. He saw quickly and 
 clearly the source of all the mischief in the adminis- 
 tration. He endeavoured to lay strong hands 
 upon the National Bank ; insisted upon a thorough 
 overhauling of its cartera ; demanded sweeping 
 changes in its administration. At every step he 
 encountered an official piedrita that tripped him 
 up. The unicato would permit no profane hand 
 to meddle with the sacred vaca lechera. The 
 minister saw likewise that one of the most corrupt 
 departments of the civil service was the Customs. 
 A hasty examination of its internal working showed 
 him that the revenue was being systematically 
 defrauded to an enormous extent ; that hardly a 
 
MOMENTARY TRIUMPH OF THE GOVERNMENT. 249 
 
 single official was living within his income. He 
 attempted measures for the correction of these 
 abuses : his endeavours were frustrated at every 
 turn ; his conduct censured ; insurmountable ob- 
 stacles placed in his way. Under such conditions 
 it was impossible for him to hold office. He was 
 an honest unit amongst a dishonest million. In 
 less than a month he threw up the portfolio, and 
 was succeeded by a man who represented in the 
 eyes of the populace the quintessence of unscrupu- 
 lous oficialismo. Dr. Uriburu had, immediately 
 upon taking office, opened negotiations in London 
 for the raising of a new loan. His successor. Dr. 
 Juan A. Garcia, inspired profound distrust; how 
 the loan negotiations hung fire is well known on 
 both sides of the Atlantic ; but it is not, perhaps, 
 so well known what a game of battledore and 
 shuttle-cock, what a laughing-stock, what a theme 
 for the journals serious and comic, those negotia- 
 tions became in the hands of the new and un- 
 popular minister. That coarse but clever comic 
 paper, Don Qiiijoie, made capital out of the loan, 
 as much perhaps as the telegraph companies them- 
 selves. Fortunately for many the negotiations 
 broke down, the crisis supervened. 
 
 The retirement of Dr. Uriburu had produced a 
 feeling of dismay in Civic circles. The Government 
 of Juarez was now apparently stronger than it had 
 ever been. The momentary fear inspired by the 
 manifestation of an adverse public opinion had 
 passed away. The Government had reviewed its 
 position, reconstructed some of its elements ; it was 
 now a Government of force {gobierno de guerra). 
 
250 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 Refusing to be warned by the ominous rumblings 
 that denoted the brooding of a storm, it promptly 
 gave itself up to greater excesses and more colossal 
 abuses than it had yet been guilty of. But the 
 clouds were gathering. Danger lurked where least 
 of all suspected, and unknown even to the Civic 
 Union. The defection of the military was a possi- 
 bility so remote from the imagination of the imicato; 
 the ties existing between the army and General 
 Roca were so close and so strong that, as usually 
 happens at such junctures, even ordinary super- 
 vision was not thought necessary. The army 
 represented the base upon which the whole super- 
 structure of in-co7tdicionalismo had been erected. 
 The foundations once secured, men rarely think it 
 necessary to examine them before an earthquake, or 
 a landslip, or some other calamity proves once more 
 the fallibility of human judgment. Of the few 
 Argentine professions, the most honourable is un- 
 doubtedly that of the army. Promotion is slower in 
 that than in any of the others. As a rule, most of 
 the officers and the main body of the troops are 
 away from the immediate sphere of political in- 
 trigue ; the accounts of political events that reach 
 them are, more often than not, received at second 
 hand ; their judgments are thus formed rather upon 
 the judgments of others than upon the events them- 
 selves. And the soldier's instinct is to obey orders 
 without questioning. Moreover, as has been already 
 hinted, the attachment of the superior officers to a 
 man of iron will who has led them to many victories, 
 whose star seems always in the ascendant, to whom 
 many of them are indebted for the rank and position 
 
THE HERO OF THE REVOLUTION. 25 1 
 
 they hold ; all these things combine to make the 
 army the least corrupt branch of the public service, 
 whilst at the same time exposing it to the danger 
 of being made an unconscious instrument for evil in 
 the hands of wily and unscrupulous statesmen. All 
 this notwithstanding, spontaneously, but with due 
 meditation, several officers of high rank stationed in 
 the federal capital had formed certain quiet con- 
 clusions amongst themselves ; to wit, that the army 
 was being misused, the soldier's honour sullied, the 
 profession degraded ; that unless they would willingly 
 stand by and see the whole country disgraced and 
 ruined, something must be done. In the words of 
 their hero, San Martin, "th.& patria does not create the 
 soldier to be dishonoured by his crimes, nor entrust 
 him with arms that he should abuse his trust and turn 
 them against the citizens by whom he is sustained." 
 There had recently returned to Buenos Ayres 
 from a long sojourn in Europe a distinguished 
 Argentine soldier — General Manuel J. Campos. In 
 every city that he had visited he had heard the 
 Argentine Government spoken of with acrimony 
 and contempt ; the condition of the people and of 
 the country commiserated. In countries whose 
 institutions were in theory less free than those of 
 the Republic the people enjoyed a liberty which the 
 Argentine could only dream of. The so-called 
 national autonomy was but another name for the 
 worst kind of despotism. Enlightened by travel and 
 observation, he had brought back to his native land 
 ideas distinctly antagonistic to the reigning powers. 
 The revolutionary tendencies of his views were not 
 altogether unknown to the Government ; they were 
 
252 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 well known to the leaders of the Civic party. His 
 following in the army was not unimportant. A 
 coalition between him and the Civic Union was 
 therefore the most natural thing in the world. 
 
 The Union, far from relaxing its efforts in face 
 of the unlooked-for change in the attitude of the 
 Government, redoubled its exertions and remodelled 
 its programme. Posing still before the public for 
 what its name implied — a civic organization with a 
 policy of conciliation and pacification — in secret it 
 was prosecuting its plans as a revolutionary junta. 
 Dr. Del Valle and General Campos met and con- 
 ferred upon the measures to be adopted. As a first 
 step. Dr. Leandro Alem — who had the reputation 
 of being a man of austere rectitude, advanced ideas, 
 and great energy — was appointed president of the 
 Union. At the first conference held by the three 
 conspirators it was agreed that the policy hitherto 
 pursued by the Union would effect nothing this side 
 of the millennium ; that more energetic measures 
 were imperatively demanded to confront the situa- 
 tion. Then and thus arose in the minds of the 
 three patriots — intangibly at first, but gradually 
 assuming shape — the idea of the Revolution as the 
 one and only means of salvation. 
 
 It is not my purpose in this place to describe the 
 Revolution. As is well known, it failed igno- 
 miniously, and the Junta fell into disgrace. In 
 another chapter, and in its proper place, will be 
 found a short account of the Insurrection, its failure, 
 and the causes and consequences of that failure. 
 For the present we are more concerned with the 
 political constitution of the Unidn Civica as it exists. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Civic Union after the Fall of Cdlman. — The Rosario Con- 
 vention. — The Presidential Elections. — The Vice-Presidency 
 a Stumbling-block. — Adoption of the Formula Mitre-Irigoyen. 
 — Seeds of Dissension. — The Native's Hunger for Notoriety. 
 — Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth. — La Politica a Bauble. 
 — Sample of a Political Meeting. — Disorderly Schoolboys. — 
 Thin End of the Wedge. — Dignity Before all Things.— 
 Commotion in the Provinces. — A Rupture Inevitable. — The 
 Fat in the Fire. — The Split. — Actual Political Outlook in 
 Argentina. — Assured Triumph of the Roquistas. — Retrospect 
 of the Pellegrini Interregnum. — ConfusionWorse Confounded. 
 — Starvation amongst the Masses. — The Salvation Army to 
 the Rescue. — A Cowardly Government. — Jails Filled with 
 Petty Thieves while Public Robbers Lord it o'er all. — The 
 State Banks Swept Away. — Worse than the Worst Days of 
 Celman. — Apostasy of the Government. — Future Prospects. 
 
 It was not until after the fall of Juarez Celman that 
 the new political organization assumed the character 
 and reached the proportions to which it has now 
 attained. Prior to the Insurrection the number of 
 its adherents was comparatively limited. The 
 people took no active part in it. The proclamation 
 of the Revolution, indeed, attracted a large number 
 of volunteers to the standard of rebellion ; but at the 
 capitulation they were all disbanded, and the Union 
 for a time practically ceased to exist. The downfall 
 of the Government was the victory, not of the 
 Union, nor of the Revolution, but of the people, who. 
 
2 54 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 driven beyond endurance, were ripe for a rebellion 
 to which the other would have been mere child's 
 play. After that victory the Unidn Civica issued 
 from its tomb, and spread with amazing rapidity 
 over the entire Republic. In every province, every 
 city, every pueblo, every parish even, branches were 
 established, clubs and centros founded, committees 
 and sub-committees, sections and sub-sections formed 
 to propagate the new political creed, each division 
 having its officers, bye-laws, and formulae. Then it 
 was that, freed from their terrors, the police, the 
 army, and the tmicaio, the masses recovered their 
 courage and flocked by thousands to the new 
 standard. 
 
 The net result of all this propaganda was the 
 convocation of the Convencion del Rosario, at which 
 delegates from all the provinces and national terri- 
 tories were present. The deliberations of the 
 Convencion lasted for some time, and had for their 
 object the solution of that ever-vexed problem, the 
 presidential elections. The power of the Auto- 
 nomists was by no means broken ; it was crippled, 
 but was still capable, under the guidance of Roca, of 
 doing considerable mischief But the Opposition 
 was now strong enough to dictate terms, or at least 
 to discuss matters on level ground. The army was 
 divided. The police had been to a certain extent 
 reorganized, and deprived of some of its former 
 military attributes. Autonomists and Civics were 
 therefore more evenly matched. Unless a compact 
 could be arrived at between the two parties by 
 which the presidential question could be settled 
 without the quarrelling and bloodshed which had 
 
THE ROSARIO CONVENTION. 
 
 255 
 
 accompanied the elections on previous occasions, 
 a struggle must necessarily take place and involve 
 the country in a civil war, which, owing to the more 
 even division of force, was bound to be of an un- 
 precedented nature. The peaceful solution of that 
 momentous question was, therefore, devoutly to be 
 desired. It was the object of the Convencion to 
 seek an acrierdo which should satisfy all aspirations. 
 
 ROSARIO, FROM THE PARANA. 
 
 Strange to tell, both parties from the first agreed 
 upon the same candidate for the Presidency. Sub- 
 sequent troubles arose in connection solely with the 
 candidature for the Vice-Presidency. The choice of 
 the people, of the Unidn Civica, of the Autonomists, 
 fell, with scarcely a dissentient voice, upon ex- 
 President and Lieutenant-General Bartolome Mitre,^ 
 
 1 Vide Appendix C., General Mitre. 
 
256 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 of whom honourable mention has already been made 
 in these pages. The lot could not have fallen upon 
 a worthier man. Thirty years ago General Mitre 
 was elected President of the Republic, and his 
 administration is remembered as one of the few 
 honest and able Governments the country has 
 known. During the years following the expiration 
 of his term of office he has lived in retirement, 
 occupying himself with the conduct of his journal, 
 La Nacion, and in the compilation of his numerous 
 historical works. He is now an old man, having 
 just completed his seventy- second birthday ; but he 
 has lost little of the energy of his earlier years, and 
 has built up a reputation which a European states- 
 man might well be proud of Should General 
 Mitre succeed to the Presidency, and live so long, 
 Argentina would, for the next six years at least, be 
 assured of a wise and honest administration, so far 
 as might be guaranteed by a wise and honest leader. 
 But the actual situation, as we shall presently see, 
 forebodes evil times.^ 
 
 The question of the Vice- Presidency was one 
 much more difficult of settlement ; it was destined 
 to be the rock upon which the Unidn Civica was to 
 make shipwreck. The Civic party, glorying in its 
 strength, would have both President and Vice- 
 
 1 While these sheets were in the printers' hands, the news 
 of the withdrawal of General Mitre's candidature for the Presi- 
 dency, and of the threatened retirement from public life of 
 General Roca, was cabled to Europe, thus justifying the above 
 and following forecasts. With regard to Roca, his threat is a 
 mere ruse. He withdrew from the country during the best years 
 of his brother-in-law's administration ; but his party remained, 
 gathered strength, and worked mischief. 
 
THE SEEDS OF DISSENSION. 257 
 
 President drawn from its own circles, and would 
 deny to the opposite party the right to put forward 
 candidates of its own choosing. Various combina- 
 tions were submitted for the consideration of the 
 Convencion, and rejected one after another. The 
 names and personal histories of great men were 
 tossed and kicked fr©m one party to another like so 
 many footballs. The first combination proposed 
 was : Mitre, President ; Roca, Vice. The latter, 
 however, having no desire to play second fiddle, 
 declined the proffered honour, to prosecute designs 
 of his own. Ultimately the Convencion adopted the 
 formula Mitre-Irigoyen ; issued a proclamation de- 
 claring General Mitre and Dr. Irigoyen the accepted 
 candidates of the Union Civica, and broke up, the 
 delegates returning forthwith to their respective 
 provinces to pursue their labours in furtherance of 
 the compact. 
 
 After the proclamation fresh adherents joined the 
 Civic standard ; new centros, etc., etc., were estab- 
 lished in all directions ; in fact, like all great popular 
 movements, the Union soon grew too big for its 
 leaders and became unmanageable. The seeds of 
 dissension, destined at an early date to divide the 
 Union against itself, were sown in its very structure. 
 Provincial jealousy, personal preferences and anti- 
 pathies, ancient prejudices, petty resentments, dis- 
 affection amongst the officers of the trunk and 
 branches of the Union, led to the splitting up of the 
 association into two divisions, bearing the same 
 name, flying the same flag, but pursuing opposite 
 courses, declared opponents. The briefest analysis 
 of the constitution of the association supplies the 
 
 s 
 
258 ARGENTIXA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 clue to the disunity which wrecks almost every 
 Argentine organization. It is nothing more nor 
 less than the hunger for notoriety which afiflicts 
 every man, from the hour he toddles from the 
 nursery to the moment when he drops into the 
 grave. Every individual member of any association 
 whatsoever yearns to be recognised as an "official." 
 He is not content to be a mere unit ; he must be a 
 leader. Before me lie the articles of incorporation 
 of several centros of the Union. In the constitution 
 of one centra there are two honorary and one 
 official presidents, three vice-presidents, a treasurer, 
 two secretaries, two sub-secretaries, over fifty 
 vocales (voters), and I am afraid to say how many 
 suplentes (substitutes). These constitute the pre- 
 siding committee of that single centra, the total 
 number of members of which is not stated, but is 
 probably not more than equal to the total number 
 of officials. The bye-laws state that no meeting 
 shall be considered legal without the assistance of 
 a quorum of two-thirds of the committee. Not a 
 note, nor a circular, nor a telegram, nor an acta 
 (minutes), nor document of any kind shall be valid 
 unless signed and counter-signed by as many 
 officials as there are knots in a kite's tail. However 
 trivial the matter discussed at the meeting may be, 
 an acta is forthwith labrada, and signed by every 
 member of the committee present with all the 
 solemnity observed at a conclave of our familiar 
 long-eared friends. It not unfrequently happens 
 that there is no business at all to be dealt with ; 
 whereupon it is placed upon record in the acta that 
 such having been the case the session, which had 
 
LA POLITICA. 259 
 
 no beginning, was declared at an end. (Signatures 
 follow.) Any original idea that might creep out in 
 the course of the proceedings is crushed beneath 
 such an overwhelming mass of pseudo-official for- 
 mulce and verbiage, and so buried amongst signa- 
 tures and rilbricas, that the chances of its ever being 
 resuscitated are about as remote as the recovery of 
 a grain or two of corn from a ton of chaff 
 
 It is impossible without presenting a literal trans- 
 lation of any one of the tedious adas, etc., published 
 by the score in the columns of the Argentine daily 
 press to convey to the mind of the staid English 
 voter — the man who, having once formed his poli- 
 tical opinions by common-sense methods, does not 
 frivol away his life from year's end to year's end in 
 the production of ream upon ream of political clap- 
 trap, which never benefits anybody but the news- 
 papers — what a suffocating, gaseous atmosphere 
 surrounds political matters in Argentina, engendered 
 by the finniking and ranting and litter which are as 
 incense in the nostrils of the Argentines. 
 
 La Political It is a bauble. A plaything for 
 the boys in the street. A toy for the nursery. A 
 pipe and soap-suds for all to blow bubbles from. 
 I cannot refrain, even at the risk of overtaxing 
 the indulgence of the reader, from reproducing 
 the following account — selected from dozens of a 
 similar nature — of a political meeting held by a 
 crowd of disorderly schoolboys, which the leading 
 Argentine journals, in their issues of the 3rd July, 
 1 89 1, publish with all the gravity of a parliamentary 
 chronicle ! It will show more effectually than a 
 score of essays what La Politica is. If the reader 
 
26o ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 does not find it entertaining, it will be owing to 
 his own lack of humour : — 
 
 "Last evening at 8.30 p.m., at No. 11 15, Calle Victoria, about 
 one hundred youths assembled with the object of arriving at a 
 resolution with regard to the Manifestation of Sunday last, made 
 in the name of the youth of Buenos Ayres in honour of Dr. Alem. 
 After a brief interchange of ideas, the following Manifesto was pre- 
 sented and generally approved, viz. : — 
 
 ' In the City of Buenos Ayres, on the second day of July, 
 1 89 1, the students of the Faculties of Law, Medicine, and 
 Engineering, and senior students of the National College, 
 whose signatures are appended to the present acta, assembled 
 in the local, Victoria No. 978, with the object of exchanging 
 ideas respecting the attitude to be taken by them in view of 
 the incidents which took place at the Manifestation of Sunday, 
 28th June, and unanimously agreed to adopt the following 
 resolutions, viz. : — 
 
 I. — To declare that we were not present at the above- 
 mentioned Manifestation, and that, therefore, the 
 Faculties were not fairly represented. 
 2. — To protest with all the energy of our sentiments 
 against the disorderly proceedings at the aforesaid 
 Manifestation, such proceedings being contrary to 
 the most elementary principles of civilization and 
 culture ; and because, moreover, such acts are hu- 
 miliating to our characters and improper to youth. 
 3. — To make known to the public these resolutions 
 through the press of the capital' 
 
 "At the moment when, upon the motion of one of the youths 
 present, the assembly was proceeding to discuss the above Mani- 
 festo, one of the students protested against the terms of the docu- 
 ment, declaring that he had taken part in the Manifestation alluded 
 to, and that, therefore, he believed that all who took part in it 
 were students likewise. 
 
 "The orator was here interrupted by a crowd of over 200 lads, 
 who at that moment entered the salon shouting and huzzaing for 
 the Union Civica and Dr. Alem. Immediately there was a great 
 disturbance, which the comision in vain endeavoured to quell, and 
 
CHIRPING OF THE FROGS. 26 1 
 
 the members of the comision were forced one by one to abandon 
 the locdl; whereupon a group of more than 300 youths {anti- 
 Acuerdistas) took possession of the salon just vacated by the youths 
 who favour the Acuerdo, and rapidly constituted from amongst 
 themselves a comision to preside the assembly. At the request 
 of the comision, the youth Mujica, having first refused the seduc- 
 tive offer of the Presidency of still another comision, formed by 
 Messieurs Agiiero and Castro, addressed the assembly in these 
 words : — 
 
 ' Gentlemen : After the splendid victory which we have just 
 obtained, we ought all to be satisfied with ourselves, and dis- 
 posed to arrive at a tranquil decision with regard to the 
 matter which has brought us together. We are going, gentle- 
 men, to declare publicly that the Manifestation of Sunday in 
 honour of Dr. Alem was really and truly the work of the 
 youths of the University, and organized for the purpose of 
 making a frank and public avowal of our opposition to the 
 policy of the Acuerdo. We are going to declare likewise, 
 gentlemen, that the accounts of that Manifestation published 
 by the Nacion, undoubtedly with the object of deceiving the 
 public with regard to our views, and to enfeeble a perfectly 
 legitimate propaganda, opposed, however, to the interests of 
 certain circles and cliques, are completely exaggerated and 
 without foundation. 
 
 ' And now, gentlemen, I must inform you that the police 
 have just notified me that the owners of this locdl, owing to 
 the incidents which have just taken place, have ordered it to 
 be cleared immediately. Already in representation of the 
 meeting, I have compromised myself to obtain from you a 
 full and ready compliance with this request ; in virtue of 
 that compromise, therefore, I beg of you to at once abandon 
 the place with the utmost circumspection and order ; so that 
 we may prove to the world that we are not what the Nacion 
 would have its readers believe — [a turbulent and disorderly 
 crew of boys]. We shall quickly reassemble at No. 536, 
 Calle Cangallo.' 
 " After sundry vivas the youths vacated the locdl, which was 
 
 already in charge of the police, and made their way with all speed 
 
 to the new rendezvous. 
 
262 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 "The party of students {Anierdistas) held a second meeting last 
 night in the local of the Union Civica, Victoria No. 978, and 
 unanimously resolved to publish the following protest, viz. : — 
 
 ' In view of the aggressive procedure of a band of youths, 
 composed for the most part of persons who are entire 
 strangers to the youth of the University, which rudely and 
 with premeditation invaded the loidl in which the under- 
 signed students of the three Faculties and of the National 
 College were deliberating upon the best manner in which to 
 protest against the disorderly proceedings at the Manifesta- 
 tion of last Sunday : we publicly declare that it having been 
 impossible to continue the deliberations on account of the 
 disturbance created by the aforementioned band of youths, 
 and with the \new to avoid scenes so shameful, the President 
 declared the session ended. We now, therefore, do lift up our 
 voices in energetic condemnation of actions unworthy of the 
 high culture of our people and against the profanation of the 
 most sacred of our rights, — ^that of free assembly, which we 
 for our parts are resolved to make respected, and to practise 
 in the form which may best correspond with our legitimate 
 aims. AVherefore we do resolve as follows, viz. : — ^To invite 
 the youth of Argentina who sympathise with the policy of the 
 acuerdo to a public demonstration to be held next Sunday, at 
 the place and hour to be opportunely announced.' " 
 
 Peradventure the reader may picture to himself 
 all those immature frogs and their little swellings ! 
 
 For quite a respectable length of time after the 
 dissolution of the Convencion del Rosario the poli- 
 tical factions were quiet. The seeds of discord were 
 germinating. Suddenly it flashed upon the Auto- 
 nomists that they had let the Civics have all the 
 say in the matter of the presidential elections. The 
 Union had nominated both the candidates, and it 
 was not fair. They had no objection in the world 
 personally to the candidate put forward by the 
 
THE DIGNITY OF MAN ! 263 
 
 Union Civica for the Vice-Prcisidency. Dr. Ber- 
 nardo Irigoyen had been one of themselves in 
 congress, in the ministry, — ahnost in the Presidency/ 
 A Httle less powder and shot, a Httle less Roca, and 
 he would have been President instead of Juarez 
 Celman in iS86. If the Civics had not nominated 
 him, no doubt they themselves would have done so ; 
 still the unpleasant fact remained that the honours 
 
 were not divided, and the Autonomists " did not 
 consider that their dignity loas siijficicntly respected 
 unless they loerc permitted to propose a candidate." 
 " They were perfectly willing," said a prominent 
 member of the National party, Dr. Igarzabal, " to 
 come to an honourable and patriotic agreement, but 
 in no case were they disposed to submit to an imposi- 
 tion. The Union Civica having had the honour of 
 1 ]^ide Appendix C, Dr. Irigoyen. 
 
264 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 the initiative in the matter of the candidature for 
 the Presidency, it was only right and fair that the 
 honour of the initiative in the designation of the 
 candidate for the Vice- Presidency should be reserved 
 to the National party." There was the Argentine 
 all over : his obtrusive personality, his bloated con- 
 ceit, his emasculate sensitiveness, his miserable 
 dignidad del hombre, before all things whatsoever, 
 — before peace, before war, before the salvation, 
 before the ruin of the patria. 
 
 The Unidn Civica had convoked and held an 
 imposing Convenciori ; it suddenly struck the Auto- 
 nomists that they had not done so : so they 
 forthwith resolved that they, too, would have a 
 Convcncion, with delegates and officers and statutes, 
 and all the rest of the tomfoolery. Accordingly, after 
 the lapse of a few weeks, and after elaborate pre- 
 parations, which of themselves sufficed to throw the 
 entire Republic into a state of consternation, the 
 Convcncion del Partido Nacional was convened and 
 held in June last. The state of the country during 
 the preparations therefor was most distressful. 
 Business was impossible, commerce was paralysed, 
 distrust and dismay reigned in every quarter ; 
 nothing moved ; everything remained d la especta- 
 tiva — waiting to see how the apples would swim. 
 The new Convcncion upheld the leaders, — the dignity 
 of the party had not been sufficiently saved. They 
 would reject the candidate put forward by the 
 Civics, and nominate one of their own, namely 
 Dr. Jose Evaristo Uriburu. There could be no 
 quibbling about him. His personality was as good 
 as that of Dr. Irigoyen any day. He had been 
 
DEFINING POSITIONS. 265 
 
 absent from the country for twenty years, which 
 of itself was sufficient guarantee for his honesty. 
 Having resolved thus, the Convencion issued the 
 inevitable proclamation. Its publication produced 
 great commotion. The provinces — Catamarca, 
 Cordoba, Santiago del Estero, Entre Rios — rose 
 up in revolt ; the whole Republic was profoundly 
 agitated. Worse was to come. 
 
 The National party formally invited the Unidn 
 Civica to '' define positions." In the ranks of the 
 Union the action of their opponents produced the 
 gravest alarm. Numbers were in favour of com- 
 pacting with the enemy and accepting the formula 
 Mitre- Uriburu, or the final Acuerdo, as it is styled. 
 Others — and these appeared in momentary majority 
 — rejected such a proposal with indignation. They 
 contended they had no right to depart from the 
 solemn compact by which they had all bound them- 
 selves at the Convencion del Rosario. To change 
 the Civic programme without the sanction of the 
 delegates would be treason. To settle the matter 
 legally it was necessary to reconvoke the Convencion. 
 But such a course meant endless delay — more espec- 
 tativa ; the whole country cried aloud for the cessa- 
 tion of hostilities between the parties. What was 
 to be done, therefore ? A Commission was appointed 
 by each party, composed of six Civics — three in 
 favour of and three against the Aciierdo — and six 
 Autonomists. The latter were empowered to bring 
 matters to a conclusion ; the former had no such 
 power. A modus vivendi was sought, and took the 
 form of an acceptance by both Commissions of the 
 Acuerdo, ad referendum, the Civics compromising 
 
266 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 themselves to carry the matter to a new Convencion. 
 Proclamations to this effect were immediately issued. 
 The Union called a meeting of its members to dis- 
 cuss the project put forward by Dr. Del Valle — (i) 
 to approve the action of the Commission in accept- 
 ing the Aciterdo ad referendum ; (2) to call upon 
 the President of the former Convencion del Rosario 
 to re- convoke the delegates ; (3) to provide that, in 
 case it should be found impossible to reconstitute 
 the Convencion, the Union should be empowered to 
 finally accept or reject the Aciierdo. The meeting 
 was a stormy one. It was well known that the 
 Union was divided upon the question at issue ; the 
 most sanguine believed a rupture inevitable. Even 
 the threatened retirement of Dr. Del Valle from the 
 Senate, and his abandonment of the conflict, pro- 
 duced no effect. One of the members — an advanced 
 Radical, Colonel Espina — got up and made a speech 
 that immediately threw all the fat into the fire. 
 
 "We are asked," said the speaker referred to, 
 " to accept an Acuerdo in order, as it is said, to 
 suppress a possible struggle. But let us bethink 
 ourselves. In this country all possibility of a 
 struggle has been suppressed for years past by 
 ' oficialismo ' and force. We are offered an Acuerdo 
 between General Mitre and General Roca — it is 
 nothing else — an Acuerdo which is backed up by 
 the fourteen governors who rule the provinces. I 
 ask, how can such an Acuerdo be possible ? Even 
 if there be good faith on the one part, there cannot 
 be on the part of the others — of those who have not 
 left inviolate a single institution, who have sacked 
 the public treasuries and devastated the country. Can 
 
TRIUMPH OF THE RENEGADES. 267 
 
 an Acuerdo between such declared enemies restore 
 confidence at home and abroad ? It is impossible. 
 The result of such an Acuerdo will be this — to give 
 permanence to the policy of Roca and to deliver the 
 destinies of the nation for years to come into the 
 hands of public robbers." 
 
 On the other hand, those in favour of the accepta- 
 tion of the Acuerdo declared that, as they understood 
 the matter : — " The Actierdo is a vote of patriotism 
 in an unhappy hour of the country ; it is the act 
 of sacrificing personal ambitions, sympathies, and ill- 
 will ; it is the acknowledgment of errors in the past, 
 — errors which have brought about the present con- 
 dition of affairs in the material and moral life of the 
 country ; it is the expression which each and all make 
 of a belief that, without law and without political 
 honesty, it is impossible to realize the destinies of 
 the nation, or to establish a Government capable of 
 commanding the respect of the Republic at home 
 and abroad ; it is the prevalence of reason over the 
 mere impressions of circles ; it is, in a word, a 
 solemn compromise to set aside in these hours of 
 agony and general ruin the exertions of parties and 
 personalities, in order to consecrate the combined 
 energies of all to the establishment of a solid and 
 independent Government, which shall accomplish the 
 salvation of the country." 
 
 Put to the vote the Acuerdo triumphed by twenty- 
 seven votes against twenty-two — an insignificant and 
 uncertain majority which might disappear at the next 
 reading of the project. The strength of the con- 
 tending parties was thus shown to be pretty nearly 
 equal. The excitement was intense. Rumours of 
 
205 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 the most alarming description were spread abroad. 
 The Radicals, it was averred, would eliminate their 
 accepted candidate for the Presidency if he persisted 
 in accepting the Aciierdo. The best friends of the 
 cause endeavoured by all the means in their power 
 to prevent a division. Every effort failed. The 
 split was inevitable. Dr. Del Valle resigned his 
 office of Senator, and withdrew in disgust from the 
 conflict. The agitation spread. Both sections of 
 the Union — Acuerdistas and anti-Acuerdistas — 
 issued fresh manifestos ; both claimed the right to 
 convoke anew the Convencion del Rosario. Ad- 
 hesions to one and the other flowed in from all 
 parts of the Republic. New centros, etc., etc., were 
 organized, and — in a word — La Politica was now in 
 very truth delivered over to the atorrantes. 
 
 To conclude. The political outlook in Argentina 
 is exceedingly grave. The proclamation of the 
 Acuerdo guarantees nothing ; its first-fruits have 
 ripened into a declaration of war between the two 
 sections of the Civic Union, the Radicals and Acuer- 
 distas. The contending parties are strong, but 
 strongest are the Autonomists. They have held 
 together ; the Acuerdo is their victory ; they alone 
 are likely to benefit by the deplorable defection in 
 the Civic ranks. A house divided against itself 
 cannot stand. The combined strength of the Union 
 might have successfully repelled the advances of 
 their opponents, and shattered the power of that evil 
 system of '" incondicionalismo" which has wrought 
 the disgrace and ruin of the Republic. The Radical 
 section of the Civic Union are in the right : to 
 accept the Acuerdo was disloyal, — was a desertion 
 
THE CIVICS DESERT HIE STANDARD. 
 
 269 
 
 of the standard they had solemnly \'owed to defend. 
 It was no excuse that Dr. Irigoyen had renounced 
 his candidature ; the renunciation was wrung from 
 him by pressure. At home we have either a 
 Conservative or a Liberal cabinet ; we do not 
 
 PRESIDENT rELT.KGKINI. 
 
 mix the two. Government under such conditions 
 would be inconceivable to us. We ha\e an Opposi- 
 tion — a sound and healthy 0[)i)osition ; government 
 without it would be equally inconceivable. Assum- 
 ing that the Acuerdisias succeed in the coming 
 
270 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 Struggle, what would be the resuh ? A mixed and 
 incongruous Government, with the balance of power 
 always in favour of the Autonomists. The in- 
 fluences which have been at work during the past 
 ten years in the provinces and in the national terri- 
 tories under the regime of the Roquistas are at work 
 still ; they are not to be uprooted in a day ; they 
 may not be uprooted at all, should the Acuerdo 
 triumph. At all events, a struggle is imminent. 
 Unless some miracle happen, we shall presently 
 witness a civil feud more bitter and more disastrous 
 than any that has yet torn the nation. The pro- 
 vinces are " convulsed " ; the whole political atmo- 
 sphere is charged with inflammable gases, which the 
 least spark may ignite.^ 
 
 A brief retrospective glance at the results accom- 
 plished by the Pellegrini interregnum will be most 
 instructive, and will indicate what is likely to be 
 the future course of events, should the combination 
 between the renegade Civics and the Autonomists 
 prove successful. 
 
 Three out of the fiye ministers composing the 
 Pellegrini Cabinet are Civics — Dr. Lopez the ablest 
 blunderer. Let us consider for a moment what this 
 Civic majority has achieved. The Government has 
 just completed a year of office. In that short space 
 of time its administration has produced greater evils 
 
 1 Events happen fast in Argentina. The above remarks were 
 penned in August last. In the Times of Oct. 27 the following 
 cablegram appeared : — 
 
 " Riots arising out of the public excitement in connection with 
 the elections have occurred at C6rdoba and Tucuman. The 
 police eventually fired on the people, many of whom were killed 
 or wounded." 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF A REFORMING GOVERNMENT. 2"] \ 
 
 than the whole period of Juarez Celman's govern- 
 ment. The state of the country is in every respect 
 — poHtically, materially, morally — infinitely worse 
 than it was at the time of the revolution of July, 
 1890. The crisis has grown more acute. Starva- 
 tion has reached the masses ; starvation, a thing 
 never before known in that land overflowing with 
 milk and honey ; starvation in that vast and rich 
 territory, which has less than four inhabitants to the 
 square mile ! The Salvation Army, aided by a 
 few charitable dames and the Municipality, provides 
 food and shelter for hundreds of poor deluded 
 wretches who sought, or were cajoled to, the shores 
 of the silver land, filled with rosy visions of quick 
 fortunes. Hundreds more are humanely sent back 
 to over-crowded Europe, while thousands of leagues 
 of virgin soil sigh for the Labrador ! 
 
 The jails are filled with poor devils convicted of 
 petty larceny, while notorious public robbers lord it 
 over the masses — pompous magnates, before whom 
 honest men may cringe. The Government institutes 
 a searching inquiry into the past administration of 
 the National Bank, and the banks of the provinces ; 
 abundant proofs in black and white of malfeasance 
 are brought to light, and traced home to certain 
 functionaries, and not a solitary delinquent is pun- 
 ished, nor even called to account. In Catamarca, 
 in Mendoza, and in other provinces, men who have 
 been guiltless of all crime save that of daring to 
 utter their convictions are arrested, insulted, and 
 imprisoned. The sword of the " incondicionalismo" 
 still hangs over the provinces and national ter- 
 ritories ; the fraudulent authorities who acknowledge 
 
272 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 the sway of the "ojicialismo" have not been changed 
 except in one or two isolated and unimportant cases. 
 The poHcy of the Aciierdo will fortify them in mis- 
 rule. 
 
 Commerce is at a complete dead-lock. Gold has 
 soared to heights unsealed in the worst days of the 
 iLtiicato. Almost every act of the Minister of 
 Finance has been a blunder. He has invoked a 
 hundred evil spectres that shadow him wheresoever 
 he goes. He swept away the State Bank with such 
 effect that the nation has no longer a banking 
 institution of its own ; and if it had, no one would 
 entrust his money a second time to Argentine 
 manipulation. But his gravest blunder, that by 
 which the Government has made many enemies, 
 was the minister's inveterate attack upon the foreign 
 community, their banks, their industries. 
 
 " Government solicited authority to issue 60 millions of paper 
 money — 25 millions each for the National and National Mortgage 
 Banks, and 10 millions for the bankrupt Municipality of Buenos 
 Ayres. The National Bank would recover its position and its 
 prestige by discounting the millions assigned to it. The Mortgage 
 Bank would revive the drooping trade of the country by loaning 
 the millions assigned to it. . . . The price of gold would 
 drop to 200 before the reassembling of Congress, in May last. 
 . . . What are the results? The Municipahty is still as 
 bankrupt as ever. Neither the National nor the Mortgage Bank 
 has ever discounted a cent. The 50 millions assigned to them 
 were absorbed by the Government, to further inflate the gold 
 premium by forcing all that mass of paper on the market in order 
 to purchase gold for Barings, for the Madero Port, and for Lucas 
 Gonzalez's railways. Since then the premium has taken to itself 
 wings, and soared 100 points higher than the highest tij^o 
 iuarista." ^ 
 
 1 La Prensa, June 25th, 1891. 
 
RESULTS ACHIEVED BY A CIVIC MAJORITY. 273 
 
 Apostate to its own faith, the Government sought 
 permission to launch upon a groaning country fresh 
 issues of paper, with retroactive forced currency. 
 The apostasy was saved, by the people themselves 
 subscribing a patriotic loan. 
 
 The duties on imports have been doubled, and 
 in some cases trebled. Iniquitous taxation com- 
 pelled foreign insurance companies to close their 
 doors. The machinations of the Provincial Govern- 
 ment, aided and abetted by the Federal Executive, 
 forced the directors to surrender that "last bulwark 
 of public credit," the Caja de Conversion. The 
 moratorium swept away an honest and ably- 
 managed English bank. So fond were President 
 Pellegrini and his Minister of Finance of their 
 seats and their dieta that, despite the over- riding of 
 their veto upon the three months' nioratorium project, 
 and of the implied contempt and disrespect of the 
 Chambers for the Executive, they still remained in 
 office, the laughing-stock of all sensible men. 
 
 Such are a few of the results achieved by a Civic 
 majority and a mixed government. If what has 
 happened in the past may be taken as an augury 
 of what is likely to happen in the future, all friends 
 of Argentina will devoutly hope that the Acuerdo 
 may not triumph ; but the issue is extremely doubt- 
 ful. Roca's astute policy has always prevailed 
 hitherto ; and he is still in the prime of life. ^ 
 
 In a rapid and imperfect sketch like the present, 
 
 it is impossible to catalogue, much less to comment 
 
 upon, a tenth part of the circumstances by which 
 
 La Politica is surrounded ; but enough has been 
 
 ' See footnote to page 256. 
 
 T 
 
2 74 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 said, it is hoped, to enable the general reader to 
 appreciate the actual position of Argentine political 
 affairs, and to enable him also to follow intelligently 
 the future course of events. President Pellegrini 
 has semi-officially declared that he and his cabinet 
 will retain office until the last moment. This 
 means that, for another year at least, there can be 
 no improvement in the affairs of the country. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Notes on the Financial Crisis. — Political Complications. — Argen- 
 tina's Enormous Borrowings. — The Ever-watchful Times. — 
 Blowing of the Bubble. — The State Paperhanger, Dr. 
 Pacheco. — Rufino Varela. — Mushroom Banks of Issue, The 
 Free Banking Law, the Rock upon which Argentina made 
 Shipwreck. — Devices for Evading the Law. — The Banco 
 Buenos Ayres. — Effects of the Creation of Paper-Mills. — 
 Guaranteed Paper by the Square League. — First Impressions 
 of Paper Money. — The Men with the Muck-rake. — Fortune 
 within the Reach of All. — The Paris Exhibition as a Factor 
 in the Development of the Crisis. — Results of a Costly 
 Propaganda. — Inflation of the Balloon. — The First Prick in 
 the Bubble. — National Bank Shares. — Dispersion of the 
 Gold Reserves. — Effects of the Heresy. — Caiman only a 
 Tool. — Protean Roca. — Character of Juarez Caiman. — A 
 Crisis of Progress. 
 
 It forms no part of my present purpose to write 
 the financial history of Argentina for the last six 
 years. Such a history, if thorough and complete, 
 would of itself exceed the limits of an ordinary 
 volume. Nevertheless, a few stray "notes" upon 
 the subject may not be considered as of too 
 ephemeral a nature to find a place in a mere sketch 
 of Argentina and the Argentines. Indeed, it is 
 hardly possible to avoid some reference to and com- 
 ments upon the reigning crisis ; although it would 
 be presumptuous to suppose that any undiscovered 
 lights remained to be thrown athwart the chaos of 
 Argentine affairs. Yet, beyond a few fantastic 
 
276 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 experiments, which have but confounded confusion, 
 it does not appear that any real progress has been 
 made towards an improvement of the "situation in 
 the Argentine." Until those internal political com- 
 plications, to which brief reference has been already 
 made, have been settled, one way or another, it is 
 not easy to see how any improvement can take 
 place. At present, as for a long time past, the 
 political problem occupies the mind of every Argen- 
 tine at home and abroad to such an extent that 
 all other matters are of secondary consideration. 
 Measures of reform, and affairs of the most vital 
 importance to the nation, will abide the issue of the 
 actual political conflict ; and this is not likely to 
 have either a short or a happy termination. 
 
 Until, under one pretext or another, Argentina 
 had wheedled millions of gold from Europe, Europe 
 hardly ever bestowed a thought on the rising young 
 Republic. An occasional paragraph in the news- 
 papers, a brief summary now and again of a consular 
 report, a few passing comments on the operations 
 of the Anglo- Argentine trading and railway corpora- 
 tions, represented the amount of public interest 
 shown in the new, vast, and fertile country, destined 
 to play such an unenviable role in the finances of 
 the Western world. Knowing little or nothing about 
 her, England, Germany, France, Belgium lent her 
 vast sums. The clergy in some of those countries, 
 preaching thrift to their trustful flocks, recommended 
 them to invest their little savings in worthless litho- 
 graphs, manufactured, like printed calico, at the rate 
 of so many thousand yards per diem. The common- 
 
DELUDED EUROPE. 277 
 
 sense method of business seemed everywhere, and 
 by everybody, to be inverted ; the money was lent 
 first, and the security examined afterwards. Even 
 now, after the fierce Hght of publicity has so long 
 blazed upon her, we find leading journals, professing 
 to guide and protect the interests of that great 
 personage, the British Investor, confessing that 
 " without better knowledge of the country than we 
 can pretend to," they are unable to say what may 
 be the result of this, that, or the other financial 
 juggling in Argentina. To the Times was reserved 
 the honour of opening the eyes of the world to the 
 pranks of the flighty South American. In a short 
 paragraph published in the summer of 1888, the 
 great journal called attention to the enormous bor- 
 rowings of Argentina ; and the moment the big 
 Triton blew his trumpet, the whole tribe of minnows 
 lashed the water, and stirred the mud. Now, the 
 Times has its " Own Correspondent " in South 
 America, whose field of operations, however, is not 
 confined to the Argentine, but embraces the Brazils, 
 Chili, Peru, and the entire continent. A modern 
 Atlas, truly ! Other journals appear to have fol- 
 lowed the example of the Times, and now and then 
 publish most trustworthy accounts of the situation 
 in the Argentine, from occasional correspondents. 
 No doubt other South American States will not be 
 slow to take cognisance of the obvious moral of all 
 this ; namely, that to excite the interest and attract 
 the attention of Europe, it is necessary first to 
 "plunge" and get deeply into Europe's debt. 
 
 It is — to paraphrase the saying of a celebrated 
 Argentine orator — a remarkable truth that in re- 
 
278 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 ligion the few are martyred for the heresy of the 
 many, while in finance the many are martyred for 
 the heresy of the few. For the heresy chiefly of 
 two men Argentina is indebted for the most tre- 
 mendous crisis that has ever afflicted that country. 
 The iridescent bubble of the Argentine " boom " 
 of 1887-89 was blown by that distinguished Argen- 
 tine theorist — upon whom somebody has bestowed 
 the appellative of "the State Paperhanger" — Dr. 
 Wenceslao Pacheco, erstwhile President of the 
 National Bank and author of the famous Free 
 Banking Law — the rock upon which Argentina 
 made shipwreck ; and the bubble was pricked by 
 that speculative dreamer, Rufino Varela, who, called 
 to the portfolio of finance in January, 1889, con- 
 trived in the short space of three months to spread 
 profound alarm throughout the length and breadth of 
 the Republic by his ruinous measures and absurd 
 theories. 
 
 Upon the promulgation of Dr. Pacheco's law, 
 banks of issue sprang up like mushrooms all over 
 the country, the immediate results being to flood 
 the country with fresh paper money, to replenish 
 the already exhausted coffers of the National Bank 
 with the gold deposited in guarantee of part of the 
 enormous issues of paper, and to foment every con- 
 ceivable kind of speculation. 
 
 Most of the State banks of the provinces, whose 
 limited emissions theretofore were legal tender only 
 in the respective provinces to which the banks be- 
 longed, took advantage of the new law to foist fresh 
 issues of paper upon the whole countr)-, — for, the 
 gold guaranteeing the notes being deposited in the 
 
DELIBERATE EMPAPELAMIENTO. 279 
 
 national treasury, the notes at once obtained legal 
 currency in any part of the Republic. In addition, 
 innumerable joint-stock banks of issue were founded 
 in various parts of the country, with capitals vary- 
 ing from one to ten millions of gold dollars. Even 
 the English banks, when the measure first became 
 law, applied for the right to issue notes, but wisely 
 withdrew their applications as soon as the spirit and 
 tendency of the law were clearly discerned. 
 
 Like most Argentine laws, the new banking law 
 was a near copy of a law already in force in another 
 country, and was theoretically sound and beneficial 
 in so far as it adhered to the model from which it 
 was taken. It differed from its model, however, in 
 one most important particular ; for it provided that, 
 at the expiration of two years, the gold deposited 
 in the national treasury in guarantee of the notes 
 could be withdrawn and applied to a purpose other 
 than that of guaranteeing the said notes — namely, 
 the reduction of the most onerous external debt of 
 the nation. For the gold coin (oro sonante) de- 
 posited as guarantee, the State issued gold bonds 
 bearing interest at the rate of \\ per cent, per 
 annum, and having a cumulative amortization fund 
 of I per cent. In other words, paper was guaran- 
 teed by paper ; for if, after the gold reserves had 
 been withdrawn and misapplied, the State became 
 insolvent, nothing remained to guarantee the notes. 
 The sequel has proved that the law was a measure 
 deliberately designed to empapelar the country. Its 
 ultimate result has been, not the reduction of the 
 external debt, but an addition to the internal debt 
 of the Republic of $160,000,000 gold. It was a 
 
280 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 cunning and clever contrivance to stave off for 
 another five years the impending resumption of 
 specie payments ; to save the National and provincial 
 banks from immediate bankruptcy, and to replenish 
 the impoverished treasury, and so bring gold within 
 reach of a peculative administration. 
 
 But if the law in itself was unsound, what will be 
 said of the various devices by which it was violated ? 
 The law decreed that no bank could issue notes 
 without having first purchased the gold bonds with 
 gold coin. The coin was to be at once deposited 
 with the National Bank, and the bonds were to be 
 delivered to the newly created Bureau of Inspection 
 in exchange for the coveted notes. But the law was 
 no sooner promulgated than it was immediately and 
 deliberately broken. Some of the provincial State 
 banks — notably that of C6rdoba — were permitted 
 through political influence to obtain all the benefits 
 of the law without paying any money at all. They 
 ga.v&pagar^s, or bills at long dates, in exchange for 
 which they received the gold bonds which were to 
 guarantee their intended note issues. Thus paper 
 which guaranteed one kind of paper was itself 
 guaranteed by another and still more worthless kind 
 of paper, — for the service on those bills was in some 
 cases met irregularly and in others never met at all ! 
 If this was not a deliberate empapelamiento of the 
 country, I should like to know what was. But 
 worse was still to come. 
 
 Some of the new banks of issue were legitimate 
 joint-stock enterprises, which scrupulously adhered 
 to the spirit and letter of the law and deposited 
 the gold. But others were swindles, of which one 
 
A CLEVER " RIG." 28 I 
 
 example will be worth all the lecturing. The case I 
 proceed to cite — that of the Banco Buenos Ayres — 
 is now actually engaging the attention of the Argen- 
 tine courts, and will probably give them something 
 to do for the next half-century, or at least until all 
 the delinquents are dust. 
 
 A corporation desirous of founding a bank of 
 issue was required by the Free Banking Law to 
 have a subscribed capital in gold equal to 85 per 
 cent, of the total intended note issue. The whole of 
 the gold was to be lodged with the National Bank, 
 which establishment issued a certificate of deposit. 
 With this certificate, and after all the usual for- 
 malities of inscription, appointment, and legal recog- 
 nition of directors, etc., had been completed, the 
 corporation obtained from Government the 41 per 
 cent, gold bonds which were to guarantee the notes 
 of the new bank. 
 
 But the founders of the Banco Buenos Ayres 
 discovered a means of evading the law in comparison 
 with which the procedure adopted by the provincial 
 State banks was daylight honesty. They had friends 
 and influence in the old National Bank Board, and 
 they were permitted — of course for the mere asking 
 — to open an account current with the National Bank, 
 which account current was immediately credited 
 ■with the whole amount of the capital required for 
 the establishment of the new bank. Without an out- 
 lay of a single dollar the projectors of the new bank 
 obtained from the National Bank a certificate of 
 deposit for $1,275,000 gold, which certificate they at 
 once presented to Government, together with the 
 customary petition praying for inscription, etc. All 
 
2 52 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 was found to be in apparent order, and gold bonds 
 for $1,500,000 were forthwith issued, deposited with 
 the Bureau of Inspection, and the coveted notes 
 obtained. 
 
 But the Banco Buenos Ayres, along with many 
 sounder institutions, went down with the crisis, — 
 debtor to the National Bank for the entire amount 
 of the account current, plus interest, and charges 
 which brought the total up to $1,500,000 gold. The 
 service on the account current had never been met ; 
 not a cent had ever been paid, either for interest or 
 amortization. And not only this, but, upon the 
 declaration of the bankruptcy of the Banco Buenos 
 Ayres, an attempt was made to further compromise 
 the National Bank by passing over to it the entire 
 business of the Banco Buenos Ayres, with its very 
 distinct liabilities and its very cloudy assets, in settle- 
 ment of the claim of the National Bank ! But the 
 new National Bank Board would consent to no such 
 disgraceful arrangement ; so the Banco Buenos 
 Ayres was forced into liquidation, and the nett 
 results of the pretty little negocio then stood thus : 
 Banco Buenos Ayres defunct, due the National 
 Bank $1,500,000 gold; National Bank moribund, 
 due the Government $1,275,000 gold, amount of 
 the fraudulent certificate of deposit : Government 
 institutes an " Enquiry" into the affairs and admini- 
 stration of the National Bank, upon which that 
 moribund institution immediately collapses, leaving 
 the Government plantado with a bad debt of 
 $1,275,000 gold. Meantime, the projectors, foun- 
 ders, directors, and officials of the Banco Buenos 
 Ayres, having doubtless enriched themselves and 
 
CREATION OF STATE PAPER MILLS. 283 
 
 all belonging to them by means of the clandestine 
 issue of guaranteed (!) notes, are being procesado, 
 and display a resignation to their fate which, con- 
 sidering how swiftly and surely punishment will 
 reach them, is worthy of the Stoic. 
 
 It requires no great effort of the imagination to 
 conceive what would be the consequences of the 
 creation of so many new banks of issue, — sound and 
 spurious, — and the transformation of all the provin- 
 cial State banks into Pacheco's paper mills, all with- 
 in the short space of a few months. Legitimate 
 business of every description received a tremendous 
 impulse, as well as speculation of all kinds. Had 
 the Free Banking Law been scrupulously adhered 
 to, and the banks confined their operations to non- 
 speculative enterprises, there would have been no 
 crisis and the country might have been to-day a 
 flourishing State. But any one who will take the 
 trouble to study the political and financial histories 
 of Argentina, Peru, and Chili, will soon convince 
 himself that if there are any Spanish-American 
 States which have not yet defaulted, it is because 
 they still sleep the sleep of innocence in some for- 
 gotten or undiscovered Hollow. 
 
 Pacheco's law, it is true, restricted the emissions 
 of the new banks, for the time being, to a combined 
 total of forty millions ; but there was practically no 
 limit placed upon the fresh issues of the existing 
 banks, provided that, by means fair or otherwise, 
 they could get hold of the bonds to guarantee any 
 new notes. Possibly the American Bank-note 
 Company and Messrs. Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. 
 .could tell how many square miles or tons weight 
 
284 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 of billetes were rolled off their presses and shipped 
 to Argentina ; but the joint returns of those two 
 great establishments would not represent a quarter 
 of the total production. In Buenos Ayres the South 
 American Bank-note Company turned out notes and 
 shares by the league : for two years every printing 
 press in the Republic went to work merrily and 
 unceasingly on the fabrication of notes, shares, 
 bonds, Cddiilas, vales, and every description of gtiar- 
 anteed paper. The grand total of the stuff would 
 probably, if placed together, suffice to plaster the 
 whole province of Buenos Ayres and the greater part 
 of the Pampa ; yet the cry is still, — more paper ; 
 paper ; paper ; give us paper or we die : and inter- 
 ested or unenlightened optimist journals, believing 
 in the Argentine more than the Argentine believes 
 in himself repeat the parrot cry. 
 
 How vividly our first impressions of paper money 
 linger in our memories ! That cold, miserable day 
 in September when, after waiting for hours in the 
 bleak and shelterless aduana, we escaped through 
 the big iron gates and made our way to the Con- 
 fiteria del ■, to get a sandwich and a "little some- 
 thing warm." In payment we tendered a piece of 
 bright English gold. The waiter took it and looked 
 at it with an astonishment akin to that of an anti- 
 quary who has just made a startling discovery, but 
 as yet doubts whether it can really be genuine. 
 After gloating over the coin for a minute or two he 
 takes it to the patron, who thereupon looks up with 
 a quick, surprised expression, telling himself no 
 doubt that " these are some newly arrived gringos : 
 charge them double ! " And so we get back for our 
 
THE MEN WITH THE MUCK-RAKES. 285 
 
 gold a pile of dirty little bits of paper, ragged and 
 illegible for the most part, every separate bit having 
 its separate odour and peculiar gritty feel. And 
 this is money ! we exclaim. Shade of John Law, 
 avaunt ! Away with these papelitos sticios ! To the 
 fire with these foul, grimy propagators of disease, and 
 misery, and ruin ! Give us back our honest gold ! 
 
 To understand what a hold paper money takes 
 upon the imaginations of the people, it is necessary 
 to live in a country which has a forced paper cur- 
 rency. On the Bolsa in Buenos Ayres at any time 
 these four years past one might hear groups of 
 business men — brokers, comisionisias, and others — 
 conversing in this strain, with all the earnestness of 
 conviction : — " PVe don't want gold. What do we 
 want gold for ? We don't pay our rent in gold ; 
 we don't pay gold for our food, nor for any other 
 necessary of life. What we want is paper — national 
 currency. You go into a shop and offer gold for 
 any article, except, perhaps, jewellery. Will they 
 take it ? or, if they take it, do they know what 
 change to give for it ? Not they. They want 
 paper, and so do we." It was the voice of the 
 people; they did not want gold. It was paper money 
 that procured them their food and raiment, and paid 
 for their shelter. Gold could not do that ; what, 
 therefore, was the good of gold to them ? The price 
 of everything went up in some mysterious way that 
 the people could not understand. They had to pay 
 three paper dollars now for what used to cost only 
 one. Very well ; give them more paper wherewith 
 to pay, and they were perfectly content. To the 
 untutored and untravelled campesino gold was the 
 
286 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 veriest dross. He had never known its value, be- 
 cause he had never had any but paper money. 
 
 It is not easy to say what amount of gold was 
 lured to the safes (!) of the National Bank through 
 Pacheco's law ; it is variously computed between 
 fifty and sixty millions of dollars. Anyway there 
 was enough to inflate the bubble. In the autumn of 
 1887 there were about three and a half millions of 
 people in the Republic ; the fresh issues of paper 
 brought within the reach of every man shrewd 
 enough to see and seize his opportunity the means 
 of making a swift and easy fortune. With so few- 
 people, so many banks, and such large and rapid 
 emissions, there was paper enough for all. All one 
 had to do was to get a descuento from any one of 
 the banks. There was unlimited choice, and the 
 only obstacles in the way of getting money were 
 a man's own conscience and the amount of brains 
 he possessed. There was not the slightest reason 
 why any man not inconvenienced by too much of 
 the one or too little of the other should remain poor 
 and obscure. We soon heard of changadores and 
 scullions blossoming into " proprietors " of land and 
 houses. 
 
 Thus, with the launching of the banks of Issue 
 began the scrimmage for wealth ; and those stood 
 the best chance who could count upon any sort of 
 political influence. According to the Report of the 
 Commission, the bulk of the contents of the National 
 Bank's coffers were divided amongst fifteen men, 
 of course all loyal panalistas} Everybody felt safe 
 because all the paper was guaranteed. What as- 
 
 1 Members of the P. A. N., or National Autonomist Party. 
 
INFLATION OF THE BALLOON. 287 
 
 sured the guarantee nobody paused to inquire. 
 Everybody swallowed the paper-coated pill and 
 caught the fever. As the Americans would say, 
 things just boomed right away. 
 
 In the development of the crisis, the Paris 
 Exhibition of 1889 played no unimportant rSle. 
 Argentina built a pretty pavilion, in which she dis- 
 played samples of her raw products to the gaze of 
 an astonished and admiring world. Thousands of 
 Argentines, having succeeded in getting " dis- 
 counts," visited Paris, and lived there like Nabobs. 
 Paris felt grateful for the rivers of gold her visitors 
 poured in upon her, and gave the Silver Land a 
 pat on the back. The Revue des Deiix Mondes 
 headed a journalistic crusade to rescue Argentina 
 from her oblivion. Propaganda offices were estab- 
 lished in some of the principal European cities. 
 Most attractive pamphlets, charmingly illustrated 
 and full of bewildering and misleading statistics, 
 were printed in every European tongue, with a view 
 to lure the emigrant and ensnare the capitalist. No 
 inconsiderable portion of the store of precious metal 
 melted away in keeping up on a magnificent scale 
 the European Bureaus of information, and in 
 "assisting" emigration to the Plate. The Bureaus, 
 bound to do something to justify their existence, and 
 having exhausted the supply of genuine emigrants, 
 sent over, free of cost, batches of loathsome beggars, 
 Turks, Greeks, and cripples. On the doorsteps 
 and in the porticos of every public building, de- 
 formed and dirty children were to be seen at any 
 hour of the day squatting in twos and threes, and 
 pestering the passers-by for alms. It was said that 
 
288 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 a company, or syndicate, exploited and battened on 
 the earnings of the hideous crew. 
 
 Then, too, began that feverish period of projects 
 and concessions to which I have elsewhere alluded. 
 Joint-stock concerns, for every imaginable object, 
 and with paper capitals varying from one to fifty 
 millions of dollars, bubbled up in the general 
 effervescence as numerous, rapid, and insubstantial 
 as the gas bubbles in a tumbler of aerated water. 
 The mere issues of the banks were speedily found 
 to fall far short of the requirements of the boom. 
 In one form or another — Bonos agricolas, Cddulas, 
 shares, vales — more paper was created to meet the 
 demand. Yet, notwithstanding that the total crea- 
 tion of paper securities reached the fabulous pro- 
 portions of hundreds of millions (Cedulas alone over 
 350 millions), money was at all times dear, as much 
 as 30, 40, and 50 per cent, per annum being obtained 
 for short loans on " caucion" of shares, while still 
 more usurious terms were demanded and obtained 
 for advances on "pacta dc rctrovcnta!' But every- 
 body who was "in the know," including the 
 President and his satellites, and those who had not 
 completely lost their heads, wisely, and at the 
 earliest moment, metalised tkenisehes, as they say in 
 Buenos Ayres ; that is, they got rid of every scrap 
 of paper they could part with and converted it into 
 gold. Most of the gold in the country was in time 
 launched upon the Bolsa, and fought for by the 
 "bulls" and "bears," until it had all disappeared, 
 and there was nothing left but the gold reserves in 
 the National Bank. 
 
 Such, in a few words, was the state of affairs when 
 
THE BUBBLE BURSTS. 289 
 
 Rufino Varela assumed the Cartera of Finance. 
 Distrust and doubt were already beginning to be 
 felt and manifested. That thermometer of public 
 opinion, the gold premium, showed that the whole 
 nation was in a high state of fever. Portentous 
 rumours were spread broadcast over the market. 
 The first blow came in the shape of an announce- 
 ment that the National Bank would pay no dividend. 
 The shares, at no time of any intrinsic value, had 
 soared to nearly 300 premium. Most of them 
 were in the hands of the Government, and 
 strenuous efforts were made to keep them up 
 until their possessors had had time to get rid of 
 them. But events came too thick and fast. In 
 a day or two they tumbled to par. The whole 
 market was staggered. Many had loaned their entire 
 fortunes on " caticion" of the shares. At a blow 
 those fortunes were swept away. A momentary 
 rally took place when an unexpected new market 
 was found for the rubbish in Europe. But paper 
 was beginning to be distrusted. Everybody — and 
 by everybody is meant, in Buenos Ayres, the Bolsa 
 —clamoured for gold. Merchants wanted gold to 
 meet their foreign liabilities ; the Government wanted 
 gold to meet its foreign obligations ; and when it 
 came to this, the utter worthlessness of all the paper 
 in the country was seen by the merest tyro. So 
 Minister Varela proceeded to cool the tongues of 
 the thirsty crowd — not only of merchants, but of 
 speculators, stock-exchange loafers, and danglers 
 round Government offices— with the gold reserves 
 of the National Bank. What mattered it that the 
 law prohibited the dispersion of the gold for two 
 
290 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 years ? Who cares for the law in Argentina ? 
 The imagination can hardly conceive what would 
 be the effects upon the whole British Empire if 
 some Bedlamite were permitted to take from the 
 vaults of the Bank of England the store of bullion, 
 and auction it for whatever it might fetch amongst 
 a griping crowd of foreigners with pockets full of 
 "shin-plasters." How the green light of cupidity 
 would glisten in their eyes! Yet this is precisely 
 what Minister Varela, with the concurrence and 
 abetment of President Celman and his party, did 
 with the gold reserves of the Banco Nacional. 
 Nay! the visionary went even farther, and prohibited 
 by a police edict those operations of exchange by 
 which in all countries the value of the currency is 
 regulated, shutting up the Bolsa, and commanding 
 all who wanted gold to meet their foreign liabilities 
 to make him private bids for it. Anybody was 
 free to offer as many paper dollars for one hundred 
 gold dollars as he thought fit ; and daily lists were 
 published of the persons who had obtained gold, 
 arid the various prices they had paid for it. The 
 market resembled a vast Sahara, upon whose burn- 
 ing sands the minister might have poured an ocean 
 of gold without producing any lasting impression. 
 The minister's object was, not to cheapen gold, 
 but to valorizar the dirty billete ; and to accomplish 
 this object he emptied the bank's coffers of that 
 gold which alone gave value to the paper of the 
 banks of issue. 
 
 For the heresy of these two men and their aiders 
 and abettors, hundreds of thousands are now doing 
 penance, many suffering hunger and wandering 
 
CONSEQUENCES OF THE HERESY. 29 I 
 
 about the country in a state of destitution, unable 
 either to leave it or to find in it the means of a bare 
 subsistence ; withheld from open riot only by the 
 charity of a few pitying foreigners, the Salvation 
 Army and others, who have started Soup Kitchens 
 and shelters, such as we expect to find in East 
 London slums, or places where the population is 
 equally congested, but not, surely, in a country like 
 the Argentine ; a country as vast almost as our 
 Indian Empire, yet with less than a seventieth 
 part of the Indian population ; a country at peace 
 with all the world except herself ; a country which 
 has not known famine, and where even the filthy 
 curs that prowl the streets of the towns and haunt 
 the ranchos and farms of the camp are fat and lazy 
 from abundance of meat. With no failure of sup- 
 plies, with bread and meat at a few cents the kilo, 
 we read that thousands, all foreigners, or children of 
 foreigners, are going about almost without food, and 
 " glad to get the docker's tanner and the starvation 
 wages of the match-maker." Over a thousand 
 millions of dollars have been robbed and squandered 
 by a gang of native thieves ; and it seems quite a 
 piece of Oriental retribution that the foreigner, who 
 provided all those millions, shall be punished by 
 iniquitous taxation and starvation ; the foreigner, to 
 whom the country owes everything except the rude 
 soil, must be driven from the land, which by his 
 labour, his capital, and his genius he has enriched, 
 or forced to screw and pinch' in order to make both 
 ends meet and keep the wolf from the door. It 
 would be absurd to say that the foreigner did not 
 share in the general scrimmage for wealth ; but at 
 
292 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 least he was guiltless of pillage, and always con- 
 tributed money and skill, whereas the native has 
 never done anything but legislate and plunder. And 
 the native's very right to the soil he inhabits and 
 exploits he owes to the genius of a foreign general, 
 whom he afterwards reviled and persecuted.^ 
 
 The Argentine crisis has come to be associated 
 with the name and misdeeds of the late President, 
 Dr. Miguel Juarez Caiman ; but the character of the 
 man and the ro/e he played have been ill under- 
 stood. As a matter of fact, he never was from first 
 to last anything but the mouth-piece and figure-head 
 of his party — a sinecure abounding with pickings. 
 For the origin of the crisis we must go back to a 
 time prior to Celman's. It began with Roca, was 
 continued and carried out to its present consequences 
 by the party of which Roca was and is the leading 
 spirit. The central figure in the whole drama — not 
 indeed always visible, and assuming Protean shapes 
 at will ; the ablest and most crafty intellect in the 
 country ; the man who, let who may be out, he is 
 always in ; the man in whose hands that enervated 
 voluptuary Juarez C61man was as the potter's clay — 
 is General Julio A. Roca. It has often been asserted 
 that Argentina never made such progress as she did 
 under the administration of Roca. If the repudia- 
 tion of the currency, or, what amounts to pretty 
 much the same thing, its conversion at 2d. the 
 dollar ; if the decreeing of forced currency for the 
 paper created during his own term of office ; if 
 the subjugation of public opinion, the creation of a 
 subsidized press with a mission like that of the 
 
 ' Liniers. 
 
THE CENTRAL FIGURE IN THE DRAMA. 293 
 
 defunct Tribimal Nacional to throw dust in the 
 eyes of Europe ; if the transformation of the poHce 
 and the army into terrorising political gendarmerie ; 
 if these be signs and proofs of progress towards 
 civilization, then indeed, Roca's administration was 
 
 LIEUT.-GENERAL JULIO A. ROCA. 
 
 the best the country has ever had. But the people 
 who hold that doctrine are those only who made 
 fortunes during Roca's time, and naturally feel 
 kindly towards him for their opportunities. The 
 political machinations of Roca are a menace to the 
 immediate future of the Republic. 
 
294 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 The late President, however, was the archetype 
 of a very large class of Argentines. A slender- 
 built, white-faced man, of middling stature and small 
 personal courage ; arrogant, superficial, fickle ; essen- 
 tially what the natives term a b^len muchacho ; easily 
 
 DR. MIGUEL JUAREZ CELMAN. 
 
 swayed ; unable to deny a favour ; fitted neither by 
 nature nor education for the grave responsibilities of 
 a premier's position ; and incapable of commanding 
 that respect without which it was impossible to con- 
 trol such an unruly crowd of parasites and flatterers 
 as constantly surrounded him. In the words of Dr. 
 
A " CRISIS OF PROGRESS. 295 
 
 Rocha : " The President of the Republic — it is hard 
 for me to say it of a man in his unhappy situation — 
 wholly lacks the temperament of the statesman. 
 He possesses neither firm resolution nor clear or 
 fixed ideas ; and the man who lacks these qualities 
 is not a man to confront problems so weighty and so 
 difficult as those which now engage the attention of 
 the whole nation, and the wrongful solution of which 
 would endanger, not only the Constitution, but the 
 nationality, and it might even be, the integrity of 
 the patriae It was the policy of his advisers to 
 conceal from him, in all matters of State, the truth, 
 which he was himself too indolent to seek ; and 
 brought, moreover, from a comparatively obscure 
 position face to face with opulence and power, he 
 was blinded by the dazzling visions of wealth that 
 opened up on all sides of him. To the last he could 
 see nothing rotten in the State, and with an asinine 
 stubbornness, which he probably mistook for 
 courage, he denied that the country was being 
 ruined, or that the crisis was anything but what, 
 with characteristic grandiloquence, he styled a 
 " Crisis of Progress " ! 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The Meek Races of South America. — The Argentines, Individu- 
 ally and Collectively. — Disquieting Intelligence. — Key to the 
 jNIystery. — The Revolution Bungled. — "Want of Unity 
 amongst the Insurgents, Cause of Failure. — Who was to 
 Blame? — The Populace Revolts against the Revolters. — 
 Surrender w^ithout a Struggle. — Behaviour of the Squadron. 
 — Argentines Excellent Shots. — ^The Native's Method of 
 Fighting. — The Uidbn Civica Bows its Head. — ^A Secret 
 Understanding with the Enemy. — End of the Farce ; the 
 Curtain rises on the Drama. — ^Victory of the People. — Popu- 
 lar Frenzy. — Ya se fite el burro. — A Well-behaved Crowd. — 
 Gain and Loss of the Revolution. — Dr. Lopez. — The Twelve 
 Labours of Hercules. 
 
 There are few peoples so meek and long-suffering, 
 and so patient under the yoke of oppression, as the 
 republicans of South America. An ambitious 
 schemer has but to win the soldiery, and he has won 
 the royal road to political power, and the key to the 
 treasury chamber. There is fighting and resistance 
 only when the army is divided, as in the case of 
 Chili recently, and as in the case of the Argentine 
 Revolution in July, 1890. The franchise exists in 
 a state of ideal perfection in the printed pages of the 
 Constitution, but in reality its existence is a myth. 
 Thus only can we understand how robber-tyrants 
 like Santos in Uruguay, Balmaceda in Chile, Lopez 
 in Paraguay, Rosas, Bustos, Quiroga, Celman, and 
 
 296 
 
ARGENTINES INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY. 297 
 
 a host more in Argentina, have imposed their wills 
 upon the peoples whom they rule with the iron hand 
 of a despot. Individually, the Argentine in civil 
 life is a shrewd, suspicious, hyper-independent per- 
 son ; but the moment occasion arises for him to act 
 in concert, for the protection of his boasted institu- 
 tions, he becomes feeble and timid as a woman. In 
 the Revolution of July, 1890, the insurgents held in 
 the palms of their hands the destinies of the nation. 
 Never had the people more righteous cause of re- 
 volt. The sins of the Celman administration, as set 
 forth in the manifesto of the Revolutionary Junta,* 
 have been abundantly proven by subsequent events, 
 and by the revelations of the various commissions 
 of inquiry formed to examine into and report upon 
 the actual condition of the State banks and those of 
 the provinces, the drainage affair, the Madero Port, 
 and a score more gigantic jobs, to have been of even 
 deeper dye than those denounced in the stirring 
 language of the manifesto. The flower of the 
 army, the entire navy, the sympathies of the vast 
 majority of citizens and resident foreigners, were all 
 with the insurrectionists ; they might have broken 
 for ever the power of the dominant party. Yet 
 through sheer incapacity to act in concert, they let 
 slip their opportunity, and the whole sanguinary 
 farce ended in a derisive guffaw. The sequel has 
 shown that, instead of breaking the head of the 
 oppressor, they simply bruised his heel. 
 
 Just when everything appeared to have settled 
 into permanent quietude ; when the arrangements 
 for the moratorium had been successfully concluded 
 1 Vide Appendix A. 
 
298 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 between the European banking houses and the 
 representative of the Government ; when everybody 
 hoped and beHeved that the tide in the affairs of the 
 country had turned at last ; when the best EngHsh 
 and continental journals, animated by the friendliest 
 feelings towards Argentina, were confidently pre- 
 dicting that the combined and earnest efforts of 
 European capitalists and the new Government could 
 not fail to speedily retrieve the fallen fortunes, and 
 win back the lost good name of the Republic ; just 
 then the cables, suddenly and without any premoni- 
 tion, flashed across the ocean the disquieting tidings, 
 of — Disturbances in Catamarca, Insurrection in Cor- 
 doba, Revolutionary Outbreak in Entre Rios, Revolt 
 of the Police, Rising in Corrientes ; each telegram 
 coupled with all sorts of vague and sinister rumours. 
 Simultaneously, Argentine securities dropped to 
 points untouched during the worst days of Juarez ; 
 the gold premium soared to heights unsealed before. 
 At home and abroad discontent and distrust were 
 rifer than ever. The confident predictions of the 
 journals were at once discovered to have been ill- 
 founded and premature ; at a glance it appeared that 
 European financiers and others who thought they 
 knew the country as well as, or better than the 
 Argentines themselves, had reckoned entirely with- 
 out their host. The calculations of the most ex- 
 perienced were upset. What did it all mean ? Had 
 not that via cruets, the Revolution, been passed in 
 safety, and the triumph of right over might assured ? 
 Was it politics again, that eternal curse of the 
 country ? Was it the agitation in connection with 
 the presidential elections .'' Had not the Union 
 
THE KEY TO THE MYSTERY. 299 
 
 Civica broken the strength of the hated Autono- 
 mists ? Was there a spHt in the ranks of the popular 
 partido, — that incarnation of all the integrity and 
 sense of the nation ? Was it not possible that party 
 interests and the everlasting squabbles of factions 
 should remain in abeyance until matters of supreme 
 moment to the whole Republic had been resolved ? 
 To none of these questions were satisfactory answers 
 forthcoming. Yet the key to the whole mystery lay 
 in these two circumstances : { i ) The failure of the 
 Revolution ; and (2) the sudden and wholly unex- 
 pected manifestation of envy and hatred towards 
 foreigners, as revealed in the proposed impudent 
 and unconstitutional scheme of taxation of foreign 
 enterprise of all kinds. 
 
 (i) Like everything else to which the Argentines 
 have put their hands, whether it be railways, banks, 
 ports, manufactures, laws, finances, or revolutions, 
 the Insurrection of July, 1890, was bungled. All 
 preceding revolutions in Argentina, from the time 
 of Rosas down to the accession to office of Juarez 
 Celman, have been more or less sanguinary 
 struggles between political parties for political 
 power. The Revolution of July was a good deal 
 more than that. It was the upheaval and partial 
 triumph of a long-smothered and systematically 
 down-trampled public opinion. No movement had 
 ever been more popular, or more ably designed. 
 Its leaders and organizers were amongst the few 
 upright men of position and note who had at heart 
 the real welfare of their country, and who deeply 
 felt the humiliations and degradations to which the 
 whole nation had been subjected by a tyrannical 
 
300 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 autonomy. They had, as I have said, might as 
 well as right on their side ; the best of the soldiery, 
 an impregnable fortress, the entire navy, and, more 
 than all, they had with them the sympathies of the 
 foreigners. The Government of Juarez had nothing 
 but the cavalry and the police on its side ; a force of 
 small avail against the artillery and the armed 
 masses in possession of the house-tops. Yet with 
 this physical and moral force behind them the revo- 
 lutionists failed ignominiously to carry out their 
 elaborate programme. \^'hy ? In the composition 
 of the Revolutionary Junta there were two antago- 
 nistic elements, the civil and the military, the one 
 jealous and the other suspicious of its associate, and 
 each ambitious of the honour, glory, and supreme 
 command of the Revolution. The civilians could 
 not forget the part which the military had taken 
 against the people in previous uprisings. The 
 Revolution originated with the civilians, and by 
 them was organized up to a certain point ; but 
 without the co-operation of the military success was 
 hopeless. Overtures conducted with sagacity and 
 in secret to secure that co-operation were crowned 
 with a success which those who had imperilled their 
 very lives to obtain it had not dared to dream of 
 The co-operation of the navy was as silently and 
 even more surely secured. Here, then, was a 
 splendid combination, — the popular Unidn Civica, 
 the best of the army, the whole of the navy, — united 
 for a great and common cause, the emancipation 
 of the nation from the thraldom of a powerful and 
 corrupt autonomy. But the combination, though 
 united in purpose, was divided against itself It 
 
WATERED FIREWORKS. 3OI 
 
 was the national characteristic, — incapacity for con- 
 certed action. The military would not take orders 
 from the civilians, and these would not assign the 
 supreme command. The navy would take orders 
 from neither one nor the other. On the second 
 day of the Revolution an armistice was declared, 
 and signals were made to the fleet to cease firing ; 
 but they were either misunderstood or deliberately 
 disregarded ; for, with the white flag up everywhere, 
 the squadron at once responded with "a tremen- 
 dous fire on xh& Re tiro and the Government House." 
 Of the total want of unity, no more convincing 
 proof could be adduced than that for some hours 
 after peace had been declared, and the conditions 
 of capitulation agreed upon between the belligerent 
 parties, the navy was bombarding the city, to the 
 danger of friend and foe alike ! Orders given by 
 one chief were countermanded by another. An 
 ambuscade, skilfully planned and efficiently manned, 
 was formed to capture, at a given hour and upon 
 an agreed signal, the persons of Roca, Celman, 
 Levalle, and Pellegrini, and failed because the sig- 
 nal was never given ; and the party, after waiting 
 hours at its post in an agony of suspense, reluctantly 
 abandoned it, to find the streets deserted, the shops 
 closed, and the Revolution in full swing. 
 
 Upon Dr. Alem, President of the UniSn Civica, 
 has fallen the onus and opprobrium of the fiasco. 
 And, notwithstanding that he has attempted to vin- 
 dicate himself in a book full of ingenious plausibili- 
 ties, the stigma will always rest upon his name. 
 He has endeavoured to fasten the blame upon the 
 military leader of the movement, General Campos, 
 
302 ARGENTIXA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 who, in a luminously written manifesto, has estab- 
 lished — what nobody who knew the circumstances 
 ever, for a moment, doubted — his entire blameless- 
 ness. Soon after his investiture of the military 
 command of the insurrection, he was betrayed, and 
 at the instance of the chief of police, Colonel 
 
 C , placed in solitary confinement ; and it was 
 
 not until the very morning of the Revolution 
 that he was, by his own troops, liberated and put 
 once more in possession of the command, being, 
 however, in almost complete ignorance of all that 
 had transpired during his incarceration, and fully 
 and naturally believing that the plan of attack 
 which, even to the minutest details, had been agreed 
 upon prior to his imprisonment, would not have 
 been changed in any material point without his 
 being duly, even if hastily and imperfectly, apprised 
 of it. Instead of this, however, not only the date, 
 but the plan of attack had been materially altered 
 during the enforced absence of the military com- 
 mander ; so that, while one party was expecting 
 one thing, and preparing for action according to its 
 leader's understanding of the plan, the others were 
 pursuing wholly different courses. Uncertainty 
 quickly bred dismay, and would have led to disaster 
 had the Government had more troops at its com- 
 mand, or known with certainty what part of the 
 army remained loyal and what part had mutinied. 
 But to shuffle out of responsibility is characteristic 
 of the native in every department of life. Business 
 men who have had anything to do with Argentines 
 know how ready and delighted an Argentine is to 
 figure as a "director" of an industrial or joint- 
 
WHY THE REVOLUTION FAILED. 303 
 
 Stock concern. He likes to see his name — prefix, 
 affix, and all — in prospectuses, balance-sheets, re- 
 ports, etc. But if there is any work to be done, 
 it must be done by somebody else ; the native will 
 stand aside, and come upon the scene only when 
 there is some nice, pleasant, and easy duty to be 
 performed, such as the distribution of a dividend, 
 the presentation of a favourable report, or anything 
 in which there is glory, profit, and credit in which 
 he can share ; but trouble, risk, failure, anything un- 
 pleasant, he shirks like the plague, and at the least 
 sign of danger or collapse makes himself as scarce 
 as possible, and withdraws his name. As with the 
 individual, so with the Government. It does not 
 like unpleasant duties ; if trouble is brewing, a 
 decree is issued at an hour's notice creating a holi- 
 day and suspending all business. 
 
 The Revolution was stifled — not for want of a well- 
 conceived plan, not for want of the elements of success, 
 but because at the supreme moment the splendidly 
 reared fabric collapsed like a house of cards, and fell 
 into complete disorganization. Everybody wanted 
 to command, and nobody was willing to obey. 
 Large numbers of civilians who flocked to the revo- 
 lutionary standard were admitted to the barracks, 
 armed, fed, and — left to amuse themselves ; for no 
 one with any real authority was found to drill, or- 
 ganize, or head them. Arms were distributed indis- 
 criminately to whomsoever chose to ask for them. 
 The enemy might have sent and got away half the 
 Remingtons in the barracks, and then turned them 
 against the insurgents. For three days the latter 
 dilly-dallied and shilly-shallied, wasting precious 
 
THE REVOLUTION ALMOST A JOKE. 305 
 
 time, cooling the courage and trying the patience 
 of soldier and civilian alike. Orders given by one 
 chief to cut the telegraph and telephone wires, and 
 tear up the rails, were countermanded by another ; 
 and meantime the enemy was creeping up into the 
 best positions, augmenting its forces, throwing up 
 entrenchments, fortifying the Government House and 
 the Plaza Victoria, forming cordons, and hemming 
 in the strongest party. It seemed as if the whole 
 affair was looked upon almost as a joke. " At times 
 it was difficult to remember that heavy slaughter 
 was going on all around ; in many parts of the city 
 people were chatting, joking, and laughing at their 
 doors, whilst children were playing about the streets 
 apparently without a care. The attitude of the 
 foreign population was more serious ; they seemed 
 to see the heavy responsibilities of the position, 
 and to accurately forecast the result of the insur- 
 rection." ^ Surrender was inevitable. The citizens 
 were disbanded, told to go home, and vouchsafed 
 no word of explanation beyond vague assurances 
 that the cause h-^.d triumphed, that honourable terms 
 of capitulation had been obtained, and that needless 
 bloodshed would be avoided. But the revulsion of 
 feeling amongst the populace was instantaneous and 
 intense. It was with the utmost difficulty that the 
 people could be restrained from turning round and 
 •revolting against the revolters, by whom they de- 
 clared and believed that they had been sold. They 
 dispersed quietly, however, some with derisive 
 -laughter, some with stern resolve written in their 
 faces and ominous murmurs on their lips, and nearly 
 
 1 Buenos Ayres Standard. 
 
 X 
 
306 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 all crying aloud, "Estamos vendidos" (we are sold). 
 A sergeant in command of a revolutionary piquet, 
 which was ordered to surrender to the Government 
 forces, turning towards a group of officers, exclaimed 
 with bitterness, " And for this they called us out — to 
 surrender without a struggle! Cowards! Poltroons!" 
 And so saying, he placed his rifle to his breast, and 
 
 JUAREZ CELMAN's palace. 
 
 shot himself through the heart. Misguided man ! 
 One could understand his shooting any one else — 
 any of those cowards or poltroons, but not his own 
 brave self! All too quickly the victory of the 
 enemy was proclaimed ; the Revolution was suffo- 
 cated ; the great triple alliance had been vanquished ; 
 and yet there had practically been no struggle — the 
 
BEHAVIOUR OF THE SQUADRON. 307 
 
 civilians had not been called upon to fight! The 
 police were again in the streets. Juarez and his 
 ministers, who, with true Argentine courage, the 
 moment the danger appeared, had fled from the city 
 and hid themselves in a train a few miles out of 
 town, on the Rosario Railway, now hastened back, 
 mingled with the crowd, strutted, embraced, wept, 
 laughed, rejoiced, and congratulated each other, as 
 though they had each and all had a share in gaining 
 the victory. Meantime, however, while the people, 
 who had been afraid to put their noses outside their 
 doors for three days, were now pouring into the 
 streets and thronging the Plazas Victoria and Parque, 
 the squadron was firing upon the city ! Had the 
 Government or the Revolutionists won the day ? 
 What was false and what was true amidst so much 
 conflicting evidence ? Time alone supplied the 
 answers. 
 
 Another cause of the ignominious defeat was to 
 be found in the delegation of important commands 
 to hot-headed striplings, without experience, know- 
 ledge, or anything but their customary " frantic 
 enthusiasm" to recommend them. In the words of 
 General Campos : " Notwithstanding their patriotic 
 intentions and their noble purposes, they lacked 
 that respectability which long service and experience 
 of men in public life and in control of State affairs 
 alone can give." Nothing could be more ridiculous 
 than the behaviour of the squadron — under the 
 command of a rash Hiberno- Argentine youth — 
 from beginning to end of the fracas. Its orders were 
 to bombard the Retiro Barracks, Celman's Palace, 
 and the Government House. There is no object in 
 
3o8 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 all the city more prominent or bigger than the last- 
 named building. It stands almost on the water's 
 edge, with nothing but the railway and the flat port- 
 works between it and the gunboats manoeuvring in 
 the Roads. The days were fine and calm. Not a 
 ripple disturbed the broad bosom of the Rio de la 
 Plata ; not a breath of wind to deflect the course of 
 
 GOVERNMENT HOUSE, NORTH END. 
 
 the projectiles. It was as simple as shooting at a 
 haystack or a barn-door. Yet of the 154 shells 
 fired into the town, one, or at most two, and these 
 more by accident than design, struck the chief ob- 
 ject of the attack — Government House ; and all the 
 damage done was — a chip or two of plaster knocked 
 off unexpected corners. Of the rest of the shells 
 
THE Argentines' method of fighting. 309 
 
 fired into the town, some buried themselves in the 
 earth, some never went off at all ; and those that 
 hit anything played sad havoc with some jerry- 
 built dwellings miles away from the Plaza Victoria, 
 killing a few innocent people and frightening a good 
 many more. But the Argentine's method of fight- 
 ing is to strike when he is sure that he himself runs 
 little or no danger ; he fires at a blank wall, and 
 hopes to hit an enemy, or shuts his eyes, and bangs 
 away at the air, or, as in the case of the July 
 Revolutionists, gets behind a feather-bed and blazes 
 away at the street. He is content if his pop-gun 
 makes a noise. For every bullet that found its 
 billet, a hundred chipped the stucco, or cleft the air. 
 The carnage during the Revolution was fearful. 
 Dead dogs and cats and slaughtered horses strewed 
 the streets in the vicinity of the Plaza Parque. 
 Here and there lay the body of a man whom a 
 stray bullet had overtaken. In Plaza Victoria lay 
 heaps of bones and pools of blood, where the 
 Government troops had erected temporary shambles 
 and camping fires. 
 
 So the Revolution was suffocated. The great 
 Union Civica bowed its head ; the modest pink and 
 green colours of the triple alliance trailed in the 
 dust. Days passed, and nobody spoke of the Uni6n 
 except with imprecations and derision. Its leaders 
 were scattered, and dared not show themselves 
 amongst the populace, who believed that they had 
 betrayed their trust, and sought — not the political 
 emancipation of the people, but personal ends and 
 ambitions. There was nothing in the published 
 terms of capitulation to lead them to any other con- 
 
3IO 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 elusion. What were the terms ? Simply these : — 
 Complete amnesty for the military and the navy ; 
 free pardon to all who had conspired against the 
 Government; everybody to lay down their arms, 
 and go home and be good citizens for evermore. 
 It was rumoured, indeed, that secret and important 
 concessions had been obtained by the Revolutionary 
 
 STATUE OF LAVALLE IN PLAZA I'ARQUE. 
 
 Junta, an essential condition being the immediate 
 resignation of Juarez Celman and his ministers. 
 But it cost but a slight effort of the imagination to 
 conjure into existence such a rumour. It was the 
 expression of what everybody wanted ; it was the 
 sole object of the revolt; but it by no means followed 
 that it was a condition that had been secured openly 
 
THE FARCE ENDED ; THE DRAMA READY. 3 1 I 
 
 or secretly by the Junta. What, however, lent 
 colour to the rumour was, that, according to the 
 terms of capitulation, no one was to be punished 
 for the conspiracy, nobody was to lose rank or caste. 
 A victorious and arbitrary Government like that 
 which now seemed to have completely regained its 
 ascendency and power over the people, does not ac- 
 cord amnesty to such determined conspirators except 
 in obedience to invisible and irresistible pressure. 
 The question, then, resolved itself into this : — Was 
 the Junta to be accredited with this unseen force, 
 and was the ostensible defeat a real victory after all ? 
 Was it probable that a movement so immensely 
 popular, so ably designed, so successfully organized, 
 should be willing to hide its light, and voluntarily 
 assume a false and humiliating position in the eyes 
 of the nation ? Could deadly enemies become fast 
 friends so swiftly ? The reason assigned by the 
 Junta for the defeat was, the want of ammunition — 
 not the sudden failure of it, but an insufficient supply 
 from the outset — a reason which every one believed 
 to be, and one which it is to be hoped for the 
 reputation of Argentine generals, was a subterfuge ; 
 for, surely, the merest tyro in the art of war would 
 not have commenced a fight without weapons and 
 ammunition sufficient for all possible needs, even 
 though such provision should have entailed months 
 of secret collecting and hiding. 
 
 But the farce had ended, the real drama was 
 ready to begin, the great actors would quickly show 
 themselves. Dr. Rocha, addressing a crowded 
 assembly in Congress Hall upon an occasion which 
 will become one of the most memorable, because 
 
312 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 without precedent, in Argentine history — namely, 
 the compulsory resignation of the President of the 
 Republic — said, with almost dramatic eloquence : — 
 "The Revolution is not suppressed; it agitates every 
 soul ; it is in every house. No one dare affirm that 
 the army may not a second time rise up in mutiny, 
 
 DR. DAKDO ROCHA, FOUNDER OF LA PLATA. 
 
 that to-night will pass without fresh disturbances 
 which we may not have the power to quell. In all 
 parts, in the squares and in the streets, the people 
 gather into agitated groups, and openly speak, as of 
 a thing to be done, of a fresh revolution." It was 
 true ; the people were roused at last. Enough of 
 parties !— enough of leaders, false or true! — enough 
 
POPULAR FRENZY. 313 
 
 of combinations! They would be all and do all. 
 Public opinion lived at last ; the shameful capitula- 
 tion had stung it into life and action. It demanded 
 a victim. That victim could be none other than 
 Juarez Cdlman. The hated farol must be extin- 
 guished. The long ears must be slit, and the burro 
 sent to graze on the pasture wrung from an im- 
 poverished treasury. Not the Junta, not the Unidn 
 Civica, not the triple alliance, but the outraged peo- 
 ple won the real victory. There would have been 
 rivers of blood running in the streets of Buenos 
 Ayres had not the sacrifice been laid upon the altar 
 of the new-born deity — Public Opinion. With that 
 sacrifice the people were appeased. Their demands 
 had been met. They had established their sove- 
 reignty. They would have new rulers — of what 
 kind they paused not to inquire, nor cared, so long 
 as those whom they hated had been overthrown. 
 They had what they wanted for the moment ; any- 
 body might take the praise and the credit. They 
 became delirious with joy of their victory. The 
 streets, the houses, the squares, the public offices, 
 the whole city, nay, the whole country were in an 
 uproar. The Junta raised its head and lifted its 
 colours — a claimed the victory for its own ! It 
 harangued the people from the balconies, from the 
 windows, from the housetops, from the doorsteps, 
 from carts, from the roofs of tram-cars, from wher- 
 ever human foot could find a lodgment. The masses 
 went mad with entusiasmo frenStico. They screamed, 
 and shouted, and sang, and laughed, and danced, and 
 embraced ; everybody was past containing. The 
 air was rent with their vivas and tumultuous cries. 
 
314 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 The weak voices of the orators scarcely penetrated 
 beyond the window-sills. But the crowd knew what 
 was said ; they were used to it. The catch-words 
 passed on amongst them like wild-fire, each greeted 
 with a tremendous viva. But far above all other 
 cries, above the din and the roaring of the multi- 
 tude, rose the cry, " Yase fud el burro ! " It began 
 with the dawn — it stopped not for the darkness of 
 the night. Old men shrieked it, infants lisped it. 
 Bands of youths, gangs of roughs, linked arm in 
 arm, paraded the streets chanting the cry. In 
 their hats they wore cards on which the words 
 ^yere boldly printed. Prints, banners, garments bore 
 the same device. It was written in jets of gas, 
 chalked on the walls, and stencilled on the pavements ; 
 it met the eye in every private and public place. 
 
 The frenzy — it was nothing less — lasted six 
 days and six nights. The days were prolonged 
 fiestas, the nights were given to revelry. Illumina- 
 tions, balls, gatherings at the clubs, mass meetings 
 everywhere, morning, noon, and night. Processions 
 of carriages, filled with excited and gaily dressed 
 men, women, and children, of all nationalities, filed 
 slowly through the streets. Dense crowds mustered 
 all day long outside the headquarters of the Union 
 Civica, in the Calle Florida ; and at night that 
 fashionable thoroughfare was ablaze with arches of 
 gas, coloured globes, stars, and every kind of illu- 
 minated device. The balconies were draped in 
 costly silk — blue and white, pink and green. Bunting 
 stretched across the streets, flags waved at every 
 window and from every housetop. The fizzing, 
 hissing, and cracking of fireworks, the exploding of 
 
THE BIG LAMP EXTINGUISHED. 315 
 
 bombs and rockets, made the night hideous, and 
 sleep or rest impossible. Traffic was paralysed in 
 the central streets. The crowds filled the tram-cars, 
 and clambered on to their very roofs. Every car- 
 riage that attempted to pass through the masses at 
 night with lighted lamps was stopped, and the driver 
 made to extinguish them. One gentleman put his 
 head out of the carriage window, and addressed the 
 good-humoured crowd in these words : '' Va que se ha 
 apagado el gran farol para, que sirve apagar los 
 mios?"^ The speech was received with tremendous 
 applause, and the carriage passed on in triumph 
 with its lamps alight. Veritably the whole nation 
 had gone mad. Yet to the honour of the Argen- 
 tines be it recorded that there was no drunken- 
 ness, no pocket-picking, no riotous disorder. What 
 damage was done was done by the roughs from 
 the Boca and the riverside. The great multitude 
 was frantic with enthusiasm, nothing more. Good- 
 tempered laughter, a little horse-play, chaffing, and 
 harmless joking, were the most heinous sins of the 
 best-behaved crowd I ever mingled with. Natives 
 and foreigners, men, women, and children, old and 
 young, rich and poor, white, black, yellow, and 
 brown, all enjoyed the play, as if it were some 
 immense and popular carnival. 
 
 And that one man whose downfall was the cause 
 of all this rejoicing and pageantry, — where was he ? 
 Did he hear the shouts and witness the mad joy 
 
 1 " Seeing that the Big Lamp is extinguished, what purpose will 
 it serve to extinguish my gig lamps ? " By the Big Lamp was of 
 course meant the fallen President, who was commonly depicted 
 in comic cartoons as an ass with his head in a street lamp. 
 
3l6 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 of those whom he had ruled and wronged ? Did 
 he behold the crucifixion of his effigy, and shudder 
 to think of the danger he had escaped ? The 
 silence gave no sound. He was mute and invisible. 
 His very portraits had disappeared from the shop 
 windows. 
 
 And yet, after all, what had the people gained ? 
 What had they lost ? They had entrapped the 
 mouse ; the lion was free. The weak, shameless, 
 would-be despot was gone, but the strength of his 
 party was unbroken. The man singled out for 
 capture, as an object of the popular hatred, the 
 coadjutor of the fallen tyrant, the participator in 
 the deeds of a corrupt administration, the man 
 who had solemnly and publicly vowed to abstain 
 from all share in the future administration, was 
 carried in the arms of the very populace that had 
 sought his liberty and his life to the Presidential 
 chair ! The man whom the people cannot fathom, 
 whose iron hand had so long controlled the army, 
 moulding it to his will and making it an instrument 
 of terror and persecution, became the new Minister 
 of the Interior, holding office just so long as it 
 suited his purpose, and leaving it to pursue his own 
 crafty schemes, armed with full knowledge of the 
 position, resources, and programme of the new 
 Government ! The elements of the Autonomist 
 party were scattered, but not destroyed. Under 
 the genius of Roca his party was still capable of 
 regaining the balance of political power, or at least 
 of doing a very great deal of mischief to the liberal 
 and enlightened policy of the Unidn Civica. It is 
 the machinations of that partido which have caused 
 
THE TWELVE LABOURS OF HERCULES. 317 
 
 the commotions and retarded the solution of the 
 crisis, upsetting the calculations of the most experi- 
 enced, paralysing all effort towards reform. 
 
 But the people had gained something. They had 
 succeeded in grafting a few healthy shoots on to the 
 old trunk. The new composite Ministry contained 
 at least one honest man — the chosen of the people, 
 the elect of the Union Civica — Dr. Vicente Fidel 
 Lopez, a man of high rectitude, a veteran in 
 Argentine politics, a professor of Argentine political 
 economy, a man whose services the entire nation 
 might well be proud of securing at such a juncture 
 of affairs. Probably no minister of finance has ever 
 taken office under circumstances so formidable and 
 hopeless as those which confronted the Argentine 
 Minister of Hacienda in August, 1890. To him 
 were allotted the twelve labours of Hercules : — the 
 regeneration of the National Bank, the cleansing of 
 the Customs, the appreciation or conversion of the 
 currency, the hunting for ways and means to meet 
 the liabilities of the State abroad, the negotiation 
 of a " patriotic loan " for the immediate necessities 
 of the country at home, the arrangements for an 
 honourable moratorium, the new scheme of taxation, 
 the restriction of the C6dula issue, the recision 
 of the drainage contract, the bolstering up of the 
 moribund municipality, the suspension of unproduc- 
 tive public works for which no special provision had 
 ever been made, and even the assumption by the 
 national treasury of the liabilities of the provinces. 
 The mere enumeration of such labours would have 
 disheartened any man of less resolution than Dr. 
 Lopez. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 The Ruined Spendthrift. — An Iniquitous Scheme of Taxation. — 
 Presidential Confessions.^One Thousand Millions of Dollars 
 Gone in Luxuries and Pleasure.— How Great Thieves are 
 Punished in Argentina.— Two "Object Lessons."— Sale of 
 the Buenos Ayres Western Railway. — Unlawful Disposal of 
 the Proceeds. — -Descuentos. — Good Business. — -The National 
 Bank. — Its History without a Parallel. — Report of the 
 Directors. — -Scandalous Disclosures.— A Fair Specimen of 
 Argentine Administration. — National Bank Shares. — Se 
 Clavaron, los Itigleses, — Balance Sheet of the Bank.— Share- 
 holders like Frightened Sheep. — What is the Argentine ?— p 
 A Turn-coat Minister. 
 
 (2) Like a spendthrift who, after a long spell of 
 dissipation and extravagance, awakens suddenly to 
 find that he has squandered his wealth, wasted his 
 patrimony, abused his opportunities, alienated the 
 respect, exhausted the patience, and aroused the 
 contempt of his best friends, Argentina awoke from 
 her long night of intoxication to the reflections and 
 remorse of the morning. Like the spendthrift, she 
 rubbed her eyes, looked round upon her friends and 
 acquaintances, and saw with the bitterness of envy 
 that they had wisely refrained from joining in her 
 orgies and had husbanded their resources ; that, 
 while ruin stared her in the face, the provident 
 foreigner was not only secure in his prosperity, 
 
 but was the depositary of the trust, the confidence, 
 
 318 
 
THE SPENDTHRIFTS ENVY AND REMORSE. 319 
 
 and the money of native and alien alike. Like the 
 spendthrift, too, in her mortification she turned 
 upon those who had befriended her, accusing them 
 of contributing to and hastening her ruin. Her 
 distorted vision saw in the ever-ready help of the 
 foreigner only the heaping of fresh fuel on the fire 
 that consumed her, only fresh means for continuing 
 her orgies. 
 
 Such, at least, was the spirit that animated the 
 Commission of Argentine experimenters to whom 
 was deputed the task of drawing up a report on 
 the state of the national finances, and proposing the 
 remedial measures del caso, — i.e., a scheme of ini- 
 quitous taxation of foreign industry. The Consti- 
 tution was again to be violated ; international rights 
 were to be disregarded ; there was to be one 
 law for the native, and another and very distinct 
 one for the foreigner, upon whom the well-being 
 of the former depended. The native, poor man ! 
 had been tempted by the artful foreigner, with his 
 bottomless pockets and his teeming brain, and the 
 native had fallen an easy prey. He had never made 
 anything out of the foreigner ; on the contrary, he 
 had lost all he had. His tempter was rich, and 
 deserved to be punished. His banks should be 
 taxed with a 2 per cent, impost on their deposits 
 and 7 per cent, on their profits. His joint-stock 
 enterprises should pay a tax of 7 per cent, on their 
 nett profits. They could, it was argued, well afford 
 it. Look at the tramway companies ! Tkey paid 
 the municipalities 8 per cent, of their gross receipts, 
 and still flourished. His insurance companies should 
 pay a "pateitte," or licence, of $20,000 per annum 
 
320 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 for the right to do people out of their premiums. 
 The aUen should not be allowed to send the produce 
 raised by his own industry and capital out of the 
 country to bring back gold therefor, unless he paid 
 4 per cent, one way, and goodness knows how 
 many per cent, the other. In a word, a long list of 
 enormities was prepared for the wicked foreigner. 
 And for the native ? Any tax for him ? What ! 
 No tax on his unearned income ? No tax on his 
 luxuries, his "studs," his carriages, his fountains, 
 his statues, his palaces ? Absolutely none. More 
 sinned against than sinning, the native could not in 
 justice be punished with heavy taxation. Yet hear 
 the confession of the leader of the people, in his 
 "Message" to Congress of the 9th May last — a 
 confession designed for the eyes of Europe as well 
 as for the ears of his countrymen : — • 
 
 " According to the report of the Buenos Ayres Bourse, the 
 total value of the sto:ks and shares dealt in during 1890 
 amounted to no less than 950 millions of dollars, in addition to 
 sundry stocks quoted in gold, and which raise the total to very 
 near 1,000 millions of dollars, national currency. In 1886 the 
 total value of the Stock Exchange dealings was 200 millions ; 
 so that in only three years the increase reached 800 millions I ! 
 Taking the average prices for 1886 and comparing them with 
 those for 1890, some idea may be obtained of the enormous 
 losses sustained by the holders of the stocks and shares. At a 
 glance it may be perceived how considerable the total loss must 
 be when regard is had to the fact that many of the stocks had 
 reached a premium of 150 per cent. Some of those stocks have 
 been altogether wiped out, while many are with difficulty dealt in 
 at prices varying from 10 to 40 per cent, of their nominal values. 
 
 "Add to these figures the difference between the present values 
 of lands acquired for speculative purposes and those ruling in 
 1889. It is impossible to determine even approximately the total 
 
AN ACCOMPLICE TURNS QUEENS EVIDENCE. 32 1 
 
 amount of this loss, inasmuch as the speculation was spread over 
 the entire Republic and not confined to populated centres, but 
 extending even to the desert lands of the Chaco, the Pampa, and 
 Patagonia, and the mountainous and arid lands of the Andine 
 provinces. 
 
 " Our paper currency, the nominal value of which is 260 
 millions, has suffered in two years a depreciation of over 200 
 per cent. 
 
 " It is difificult, if not impossible, to calculate the losses sus- 
 tained by foreign capital employed in the country,, and which, 
 exclusive of loans, is estimated at more than ^,^100,000,000. An 
 approximate estimate of these losses may be arrived at from the 
 following statement, which is taken from an authoritative English 
 source, viz. : — ' The fall in the stocks and shares of Argentine 
 railways on the London Stock Exchange alone represents a total 
 loss to the holders of such stocks and shares of no less than 
 twenty millions sterling.' 
 
 " Summing together these items, I believe that I am well 
 within the mark in stating the total loss suffered by the nation at 
 ONE THOUSAND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS national currency. 
 
 " The Free Banking Law authorized the emission of public 
 bonds in guarantee of the notes of the new banks of issue. In 
 order that this emission should not increase the total debt of the 
 nation, it was agreed that the proceeds of the sale of these bonds 
 should be deposited in the National Bank for two years, and be 
 then applied to the amortization of the external debt. But that 
 gold it was not possible to keep in deposit for the term stipulated 
 by the law ; and it was sold at prices which represent a loss to 
 the country of 150 per cent., and in consequence the National 
 Debt has been increased by NINETY MILLIONS of 4I per 
 cent, gold bonds;'- and there remains at the credit of the Govern- 
 ment deposited in the National Bank [then moribund and now 
 defunct] only 2 millions of gold dollars and 60 millions of 
 currency. 
 
 " The national railways were sold, and the proceeds destined 
 to the amortization of external debt, the railways, however, being 
 
 1 The correct amount is, not ninety, but one hundred and 
 sixty millions. 
 
32 2 ARGEKTINA AXD THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 granted the guarantee of the Government. Those railways pro- 
 duce no revenue whatever, and the Government continues to pay 
 in another form an amount almost equal to that which it paid for 
 the service of the debt before the alienation of the railways, of 
 which latter, however, it is no longer o\\Tier. 
 
 " Other important items might be added ; but it is unnecessary 
 to surcharge the already gloomy picture with shadows so black. 
 Enough has been said to afford a clear view of our real situation.'' 
 
 These were startling admissions and revelations ; 
 coming as they did from an accomplice and col- 
 league of the uriicato ; but they were nothing new 
 or strange for those resident in the countr\-. Euro- 
 peans, though well aware that great crimes had 
 been committed, were hardly prepared to be told 
 with the solemnity of a presidential "Message" 
 that the)' were of such magnitude. One thousand 
 millions of dollars — ;!f 80,000,000 ; and the whole 
 population of the country, native and foreign, barely 
 four millions. It required an effort of the mind to 
 grasp the full significance of the figures. 
 
 Deducting the ^20,000,000 which the President 
 accepts as the total amount of the losses sustained 
 by holders of railway stocks and shares on the 
 London Stock Exchange, there remained a balance 
 of ;i^6o,ooo,ooo to be accounted for, — this sum re- 
 presenting, upon the President's premises, the total 
 amount of the losses sustained by holders of stocks 
 and shares on the Buenos Ayres Stock Exchange, 
 and by speculators in land all over the country. 
 But it must be borne in mind that these losses were 
 suflFered exclusively by holders of stocks and land 
 grabbers. The sum total of those losses — say, 
 ^80,000,000 — does not represent a tenth part of 
 the real losses which have fallen upon native and 
 
WHITHER HAD THE MILLIONS GONE ? 323 
 
 foreigner in the Republic, — principally upon the 
 latter. The paralyzation of commerce ; the failure 
 of banks, joint-stock corporations, mercantile houses 
 of repute and standing ; the collapse of nearly every 
 kind of industry ; .the suspension of undertakings 
 like the Madero Port, the Bahia Blanca and N. W. 
 Argentine Railway, and of other railways, ports, and 
 enterprises all over the country ; the emigration of 
 the labouring classes and the consequent decrease 
 of agricultural industry ; — these are some of the real 
 losses which the country has sustained, and the sum 
 total of which it is of course impossible to compute. 
 Had the President multiplied his assumed total by ten, 
 he would probably have been much nearer the truth. 
 But all the millions which had been brought into 
 the country ; the misapplied proceeds of loan after 
 loan ; the misapplied proceeds of the sale of the 
 national possessions ; the enormous capital of the 
 joint-stock concerns, of the collapsed banks, etc., 
 etc. — whither had they gone ? Had they been 
 shipped back to Europe ? When you go for your 
 annual holiday you set aside a certain sum, which 
 you honestly intend not to exceed. But the sum 
 which looks so big in the lump melts away in 
 pleasure quicker than in any other way whatsoever. 
 After your holiday you reckon up, and find that 
 your original sum has been doubled, tripled, or it 
 may be even quintupled. You try and recall where 
 and how the money went. But, alas ! it is like 
 a wave which you watch from the ship. It rises 
 from a mere undulation, grows, rolls onward, spreads 
 over the vast expanse of water, passes beyond the 
 line of vision, and is gone, sunk into the dead level 
 
324 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 of the ocean. So with your Httle pile ; so with those 
 millions. By far the greater part had gone in plea- 
 sure, in riotous living, in splendid equipages, in 
 objets d'arie, in palaces, in race-horses, in a host of 
 glittering baubles, and, above all, in maintaining in 
 luxurious idleness an immense crowd of well-dressed 
 vagabonds who disdained honest labour of any kind. 
 But all those millions could not melt in this way. 
 No. Millions still remain in the country; and it is 
 certain that there are in the Argentine twenty men 
 capable of solving the crisis if they were only made 
 to disgorge their stolen wealth. When Carcano re- 
 signed the most prosperous and flourishing office in 
 the Argentine Civil Service, the Postmaster-General- 
 ship, he left a deficit of six millions. Ojeda, a former 
 Postmaster-General, had left a deficit of $850,000. 
 When D'Amico resigned the Governorship of 
 Buenos Ayres, defalcations were discovered to the 
 amount of $850,000 (gold then, observe). One 
 might go on multiplying instances like these ; but 
 a catalogue of any sort soon becomes wearisome, 
 especially a catalogue of sins. Yet who can wonder 
 that such things should be ? Nobody ever gets 
 punished for such crimes in Argentina. The 
 patente of immunity is — to be an Argentine. 
 This is the way great criminals are dealt with. 
 Some inspired patriot starts a committee of inquiry ; 
 plenty of adherents flock to his standard — porque un 
 zonzo hace cien ; they hold mass meetings, deliver 
 stormy speeches, or fiery clap-trap on patriotism, 
 and pass resolutions "denouncing" in a tirade of 
 bombastic fudge this hecho or that individiio ; the 
 resolutions are profusely signed and adorned with 
 
now GREAT CRIMINALS ARE PUNISHED. 
 
 325 
 
 prefixes and affixes; furnish cheap "copy" for the 
 press, and after publication are never more heard of 
 Nobody is any the better or any the worse for it all, 
 except the inspired patriots themselves, whose self- 
 importance is satisfied and whose patriotism expires 
 like the effervescence of an uncorked bottle of cham- 
 
 DR. WILDE. 
 
 pagne. But should the crime exceed even the 
 bounds of Argentine toleration — a most difficult 
 matter, if the perpetrator should be an Argentine — 
 then the culprit is procesado, and drowsy justice 
 rises up to tomar cartas en el asunto. Sometimes 
 the case is fallado this side the grave ; but more 
 
326 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 frequently the criminal has got well across the river 
 Jordan, or the Styx, or wherever it is that Argen- 
 tines are supposed to go, ere judgment is delivered. 
 The case forms a bulky espediente, is wrapped in 
 a neat carpeta, and archivado. But such a thing as 
 condemnation of an Argentine is extremely rare ; I, 
 at least, never heard of a single instance. Celman, 
 Wilde, Carcano, Ojeda, D'Amico, and the rest, — 
 where are they ? Doing penance for their sins ? 
 Pining in solitary confinement ? Nothing of the 
 kind. They are riding on prancing steeds, dashing 
 hither and thither in gorgeous equipages, recruiting 
 their wasted energies on their magnificent estancias, 
 touring in Europe, America, Palestine, or elsewhere. 
 
 Two "object lessons" will bring this part of our 
 subject to a close. The first is a little " kistoria" 
 showing what became of the proceeds of the sale of 
 the Buenos Ayres Western Railway ; the second is 
 a brief version of the " borchornoso astmio " of the 
 National Bank, a scandal still fresh in the minds of 
 everybody. 
 
 (i) The affair of the Western Railway is not one 
 of direct interest to Europeans, and is of indirect 
 interest only as further illustrating, if that were 
 needed, the sanctity with which Argentines invest 
 their own laws. The following is a summary of 
 the case, for the complete details of which I am in- 
 debted to three sources — the " Message" of Governor 
 Costa, read before the Provincial Congress only a 
 few days prior to the opening of the National Con- 
 gress ; to the report of the Provincial Bank for the 
 quarter ending March 31, 1891 ; and to the La Plata 
 correspondent of the Prensa : — 
 
SANCTITY OF THE LAW IN ARGENTINA. 327 
 
 The Buenos Ayres Western Railway was sold to an English 
 syndicate for the sum of $41,000,000 gohl. The loans raised by 
 Government on security of the lines amounted to !?25,ooo,ooo 
 gold. This debt was to be extinguished with the proceeds of the 
 sale of the line ; and there would then remain a balance in favour 
 oi the Provincial Government of $16,000,000 gold. With this 
 balance the Government was to cancel its debt to the Provincial 
 Bank, which, at the date of the promulgation of the law, stood at 
 $22,422,655 /tf/^,^, including a ^(y/(/ debt of $781,578. The law 
 (art. 6^ and 9^) provided that this debt also should be extinguished 
 with part of the proceeds of the sale ; in fact, the 4r millions 
 
 ^^.%'''\il^k 
 
 LA I'L/VTA — TERMIXUS OF THE WESTEKX RAILWAY. 
 
 were to be appHed wholly and exclusively to the extinction of these 
 debts. But were the conditions of the law complied with ? No. 
 In the first place, the English syndicate that acquired the rail- 
 way undertook the extinction of the debt of 25 millions gold, 
 and paid the Goverment as the balance of the agreed price, not 
 the 16 millions, as by law enacted, but only .313,800,000 gold. 
 The balance of S2, 200,000 gold doubtless represented "fat," or 
 " plunder," or "commissions," or " skimmings," or whatever term 
 the promoter's vocabulary provides for such cases. Thus the 
 Government had Si3,8oo,ooo gold, with which to cancel a 
 debt of, in round numbers, 225 millions paper. But tw(j 
 months after the railway had been handed over to the syndicate, 
 the Government debt to the Bank had, through some m)'s- 
 
3^8 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 terious and unexplained cause, risen to 27 millions paper, and 
 2 millions gold. As soon as the proceeds of the sale had been 
 paid into the Provincial Bank, the Government dictated a law, 
 the terms of which have been maintained in the strictest secrecy. 
 This law authorized the Bank to pay itself the 2 millions gold 
 owing to it by the Government, and to gradually convert the 
 balance of 811,800,000, and apply the proceeds in billetes to 
 the gradual extinction of the paper debt. But the original law 
 had stipulated that the conversion should be carried out at once, 
 and applied to the immediate extinction of the debt. The Bank, 
 however, through mismanagement of the exchange operations, 
 lost 25 per cent., or, say i million gold by the transaction. Had 
 the law been respected, 11 millions gold would have sufficed 
 to cancel the whole of the Government debt ; not the original 
 amount of 22^ millions paper, but the mysteriously augmented 
 amount of 27 millions /a/«;-, and 2 millions ^(?/i!/. As a matter 
 of fact the Bank had exchanged 8j millions gold and had re- 
 ceived therefor only 24 millions paper, or 3 millions less than 
 the total amount required for the extinction of the paper debt. 
 Moreover, by order of the Government, and in deliberate defiance 
 of the laiu, the Bank had applied 81,200,000 gold from the pro- 
 ceeds of the sale to meet the service of the external debt of the 
 province. The case then, at the end of December, 1890, stood 
 thus : — 
 
 Gold. Paper. 
 
 Amount paid for extinction 
 
 of gold debt . . 82,000,000 
 
 Amount paid towards ex- 
 tinction of paper debt . 8,500,000 824,000,000 
 
 Amount paid illegally for 
 
 serviceof the externaldebt 1,200,000 
 
 $11,700,000 824,000,000 
 The position of the Provincial 
 
 Government, on the ist January, 
 
 was therefore as follows : — 
 
 To its credit in the Bank . 82,100,000 
 
 Due to the Bank on account 
 
 of old debt . . . 83,000,000 
 
 813,800,000 827,000,000 
 
THE REAL DESTINY OF THE MILLIONS. 329 
 
 But further sums had been withdrawn from the Bank up to the 
 31st December for "unspecified purposes," amounting in the 
 aggregate to $3,700,000 /«/«;-. Between the 1st January and the 
 31st March the Government debt to the Bank had again increased 
 by fresh withdrawals, amounting to 2 millions paper ; while 
 there was a further debt of 7 millions paper, in Letras, repre- 
 senting sums emitted as " discounts '' to private individuals for 
 the purpose of fomenting " agricultural centres " and " extending 
 the areas of obscure camp towns," and for which sums Govern- 
 ment was also responsible. Adding these figures to those for 
 December we have the following net result : — 
 
 Paper. 
 Due to the Bank on account old debt . . $3,000,000 : 00 
 
 Amounts withdrawn to I St January . . . 3,700,000:00 
 Amounts withdrawn to 31st March . . . 2,000,000 : 00 
 Letras ........ 7,000,000 : 00 
 
 15,700,000 : 00 
 
 Amount to credit of Government, ist January, 
 
 $2,100,000 ^i?/if @ exchange 250 . . . 5,250,000:00 
 
 $10,450,000 : 00 
 
 Net result : proceeds of the sale swallowed up ; law defied ; 
 railway gone ; and in its place an uncancelled debt of io| 
 millions paper. 
 
 A word here about descuentos before we pass on 
 to our second case. The term is used in Argentina 
 only in the sense of advance or loan. Argentines 
 have lived for years on descuentos. The proceeds 
 of the sales of the Western Railway, the National 
 Railways, and every other alienated national posses- 
 sion ; the product of the conversion of the gold 
 reserves, the private deposits of merchants and 
 others, have gone in desnientos to dissolute favourites, 
 speculators, idlers, and persons of no moral or 
 material responsibility. Every day the ante-salas 
 
330 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 of the presidents of the banks, National and Pro- 
 vincial, were besieged by crowds of discount hunters, 
 some of therh honest and responsible men of busi- 
 ness, who rarely, however, got what they sought ; 
 but most of them recoTnendados — servile danglers 
 after the heels of officials. In the tram-car, the 
 train, the conjiteria, the restaurant, on the street 
 corner, the doorstep, and the Bolsa one heard every 
 day dialogues like the following (which I guarantee 
 to be a verbatim report) : — 
 
 Che ! He hecho un buen 
 negocio hoy. 
 
 Si. Que negocio ? 
 
 Consegui un descuento de dos 
 mil pesos al Banco de la 
 Provincia que Don Fulano 
 de Tal me habia prometido 
 desde hace algun tiempo. 
 
 Y? 
 
 Compre un terreno y ya tengo 
 concedido 615,000 m/1 en 
 Cedulas las cuales vendi hoy 
 al precio del dia ; pu&, como 
 tii lo sabras, por motive de 
 la demanda desde Europa 
 para esos papeles, el tipo es 
 muy alto y, — es tan facil con- 
 seguirlos ! 
 
 Pero, tii terreno ; cuanto te 
 costo ? 
 
 Cosa de mil pesos. 
 
 Y tienes ya los $15,000 ? 
 
 Claro ! Ya lo creo ! 
 
 Hombre ! Eso si que es buen 
 
 negocio ! Voy a hacer otro 
 
 tanto, — Y lo hace. 
 
 I say ! I've done a good stroke 
 of business to-day. 
 
 Yes! What's that? 
 
 I got a " discount " of two 
 thousand /«<7J' from the Pro- 
 vincial Bank, which ]Mr. So- 
 and-so had promised me for 
 some time past. 
 
 Well ? 
 
 I bought a piece of land, and 
 I've already got 815,000 
 Cedulas on it, which I sold 
 to-day at their present market 
 price ; for, as you know, 
 owing to the great demand 
 from Europe for those papers, 
 the current rate is high, and 
 it is so easy to get them ! 
 
 But your piece of land : how 
 much did it cost you ? 
 
 About a thousand dollars. 
 
 And you've already got 615,000 
 on it? 
 
 Yes, of course I have. 
 
 Well ! That is good business. 
 I'll go and do likewise, — and 
 he does. 
 
HISTORY OF THE SACRED VACA. 33 1 
 
 (2) The history of the Argentine National Bank 
 is probably without a parallel in the world. That 
 history has still to be written ; for, although a bulky 
 and prosy volume has been published at Buenos 
 Ayres, professing to describe the origin and history 
 of that model institution, it is nothing more than an 
 outline. Now, however, that the Bank has ceased 
 to exist, that history should be written. It would, 
 
 CEDULA F..\CTORV, LA PLATA. 
 
 if veridical, not only form a most instructive if sen- 
 sational expose of Argentine administrative methods, 
 but would also prove the best and safest " Hand- 
 book " to Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Chili, and any 
 other State or Republic under Spanish-American 
 rule. A summary of that history, at least for the 
 last four years, may be gleaned from the Report of 
 the r3irectors, presented at the meeting of stock- 
 holders held at Buenos Ayres on the 30th April, 
 1 89 1. The subjoined paragraphs ot that Report 
 deserve to become historical : — 
 
332 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 "It was a true observation of Dr. Velez Sarsfield's that 'Banks 
 were robbed with signatures, not keys.' In the administration 
 of the affairs of the National Bank we find that there has been an 
 imprudent squandering of the Bank's funds — imprudent not only 
 on account of the status of the people to whom money has been 
 advanced, but also on account of the enormous sums lent to 
 individuals. ^Ve find cases where considerable sums are regarded 
 as entirely lost, and the debtors actually look up07i the fact as a 
 mere accident, in no wise affecting their credit or standing. Truly ! 
 one is stupefied at the tremendous responsibilities that have 
 accumulated through gross neglect of duty on the part of the 
 officials, and through lack of proper supervision of the Bank's 
 loan and ' discount ' business ; and one marvels at the huge 
 amounts which have been advanced to people who had neither 
 the credit nor the moral standing to entitle them to such con- 
 cessions and trust. 
 
 " The Bank and the Government have marched hand-in-glove. 
 The laws and privileges conferred by the latter upon the former 
 were designed and conferred with the express purpose of tighten- 
 ing the fetters of official control. The results of this illicit con- 
 nection were the following : — 
 
 " The granting of loans to members of the Government, as 
 well as to politicians of all creeds, whose liabilities have never 
 been met and whose assets are illusory. 
 
 " The investment of the Bank's funds in speculative stocks and 
 shares ; and the misappropriation of large sums for land and other 
 unlawful speculations. 
 
 "The granting of loans to provincial Governments to meet 
 their ordinary expenditure — the service on which loans has either 
 ceased entirely or is met with great irregularity. 
 
 "The purchase of provincial loans, resulting in heavy losses to 
 the Bank. 
 
 " The purchase of clandestine issues of provincial bank-notes 
 for reasons unknown, or, at all events, unjustifiable : despite all 
 efforts, the Bank has received no compensation whatever for the 
 loss it has sustained in this respect. 
 
 " The purchase of national railway loans at a quotation srceu 
 points higher than that stipulated by law, — an operation which, 
 besides burdening the Bank, has yielded immense profits to some 
 persons unknown. 
 
EXEMPLARY NATIVE MANAGEMENT. 333 
 
 " The purchase of stocks, — an operation outside the legitimate 
 business of the Bank, and which has resulted in great losses. 
 
 " The constant intrusion of the officials of Government, which 
 has exercised direct and unquestioned control over the internal 
 administration of the Bank, whereby tis secrets have been divulged, 
 and the information obtained at the interpellation of the Govern- 
 ment used for speculative purposes. Moreover, a prominent 
 member of the Government used to enter the Bank, and give 
 orders over the heads of the directors and managers for the delivery 
 of large sums of money to certain persons — orders which were never 
 even questioned. 
 
 "Acceptance by the employees of the Bank of drafts for amounts 
 twenty to thirty times greater than those authorized by the Board — ■ 
 drafts which are still unpaid, and many of which have not even 
 any terms of amortization expressed thereon. 
 
 " At a time when the Board had passed a resolution suspending 
 all 'discount' operations, the chairman, with full knowledge of 
 the Bank's critical position, and in defiance of the resolution of 
 the Board, took upon himself to advance a large sum to one 
 of the Bank's debtors, a sum equal to twice that debtor's liability 
 to the Bank, and in face of the fact that fresh guarantees had 
 been requested for his already existing liability. 
 
 " The purchase of loans, some of the bonds of which were held 
 by one of the directors of the Bank, whom it was necessary to 
 suborn by payment to him of a heavy bribe. 
 
 " Advances made ostensibly to third parties, but in reality to 
 the very officials who had the granting of them. 
 
 " Large sums advanced to promoters and managers of joint- 
 stock companies to enable them to buy up and deal in the shares 
 of their respective concerns. 
 
 " Branch managers of the Bank appropriated the moneys in 
 their charge for private speculative purposes ; and local managers 
 issued ' discounts ' to persons entirely unknown. 
 
 "The Bank's records have been checked only up to the year 
 1885, but no index to such records exists ; while there is a vast 
 accumulation of documents which it is impossible to classify or 
 investigate. 
 
 " The most important operations of the Bank are found to be 
 'shrouded in mystery,' owing to the absence of explanatory 
 documents. 
 
334 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 "The Bank's branches have been controlled by the local 
 managers, without reference to the local committees, which either 
 did not exist, or never met. 
 
 "Neither in the head office, nor in any of the branches, has 
 there been any systematic supervision of the accounts. The 
 officials and clerks, being occupied with private speculations, were 
 unable to attend properly to their duties. 
 
 "Last, but not least, there has been a complete lack of sincerity 
 in the management of the Bank, and a decided spirit of duplicity 
 in the systematic attempts to prove that the Bank was in a sound 
 and flourishing condition ;_/ar/j'« balance-sheets have been periodically 
 published, in order to deceive the public and inflate the price of the 
 shares ; moreover, dividends which have never been earned have 
 been paid out of the Bank's capital." 
 
 National Bank Shares ! What merriment there 
 was on the Bolsa in those days when an unexpected 
 market was found for them on the other side the 
 Atlantic ! After some of the Bank's secrets had 
 leaked out, and the announcement was made public 
 that there could be no more dividends, the stock 
 fell from its lofty pinnacle of nearly three hundred 
 premium to par, or a lower deep. How we used to 
 smile and wink at each other when, day after day, 
 orders and fresh orders flashed across the ocean 
 to buy National Bank Shares ! " (9 saben mas qiie 
 nosotros, 6 se van a clavar, los Ingleses /" the natives 
 said. We as Englishmen preferred, of course, to 
 believe in the superior wisdom of our people at 
 home : pero, se clavaron ! 
 
 Two days after Juarez Celman was deposed, a 
 trial-balance was taken, with the object of showing 
 the approximate position of the National Bank. 
 The following was the result : — 
 
A MODEL BALANCE-SHEET. 
 
 335 
 
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33^ ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 That startling revelations were to be made at the 
 shareholders' meeting was common report for some 
 time before that event took place. In all circles 
 there were loud and portentous whisperings of 
 criminal prosecutions, impeachment of ex-directors, 
 and I know not what besides. Shareholders formed 
 themselves into knots, groups, and committees. 
 They would make more stormy speeches. El honor 
 de la patria ; la dignidad del hombre were outraged. 
 Citizens, arise ! Avenge these insults ; punish those 
 dastards ! There would be riotous proceedings, and 
 no mistake ! The day of the meeting arrived. The 
 assembly was numerous. Baring's representative 
 was present with the voice, the vote, and the power 
 of 20,000 shares. What took place ? The unique 
 report was read amidst a silence the most profound ; 
 the scandalous disclosures were received with apathy 
 and indifference. The shareholders sat mute ; not 
 a voice was raised ; not a word, not a murmur were 
 heard. The proceedings terminated. The share- 
 holders filed out of the room like sheep afraid to 
 bleat ! Yet surely there was need here for measures 
 more energetic than mere representation by shares ? 
 Would everybody continue to stand by and listen 
 in complacent silence, and without stirring hand or 
 foot to punish the perpetrators of crimes like those 
 denounced in the President's " Message," like those 
 revealed in the report of the National Bank, like 
 those which, as I am not writing a history of Argen- 
 tine finance, but only a sketch of Argentina and the 
 Argentines, I can barely mention, — the inodorous 
 Drainage affair, the Harbour muddle, the gigantic 
 Cedula frauds, the clandestine issues of $40,000,000 
 
WHAT IS THE ARGENTINE? 2)2>7 
 
 of rag money, the " descuentos" the Fomento Terri- 
 torial juggle, the Banco Constructor swindles, the 
 Catalinas botch, and a score more unwholesome 
 themes ? Do not the wholesale violation of the 
 laws, the profanation of the Constitution, the de- 
 liberate and contemptuous ignoring of international 
 rights, the unjust taxation of foreign enterprise and 
 foreign capital — do not these things teach that the 
 time for believing in the Argentine has gone by ? 
 The stake which Europe has in the country is over 
 220 millions sterling: will Europeans any longer 
 remain passive, and allow the youthful, incompetent, 
 maladroit Argentine to mismanage or plunder those 
 millions ? What is the Argentine ? Is he a serious, 
 capable man of business ? His education, his moral 
 and physical training, do they fit him for the high 
 office of statesman or financier? In what school 
 does he get his experience ? Think of his origin : 
 his Indian blood ; his ineradicable gaucho traits : 
 the indole superinduced by generations of pastoral 
 existence in a sultry climate ! Think of his youth ! 
 In the towns, its unrestrained licentiousness, its 
 early contact with the worst and most enervating 
 forms of vice, its utter lack of moral restriction ; 
 or, in the camp, its barbarous surroundings, its 
 lessons of cruelty, its absence from all civilizing 
 agents ! His life from his youth upward is passed 
 amidst an unhealthy atmosphere of political in- 
 trigue ; yet his notions of political economy and 
 financial science are less practical than those of 
 an imaginative school-girl. In the arts of govern- 
 ment he is a child. In the professions he is a 
 dreaming theorist. He disdains labour, and despises 
 
 z 
 
S2i^ ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 morality. The end and aim of his ambition 
 is — luxurious idleness. Even as a herdsman he is 
 a failure, or successful only when he employs a 
 European mayor-domo, who, even whilst fleecing 
 him of the best half of his wool, accumulates for 
 him more wealth than by his own exertions he could 
 ever gather. But then, the foreigner does every- 
 thing for him — tills the soil, builds the railways, 
 tramways, docks, canals, harbours, bridges, roads, 
 public edifices, and private dwellings ; and the 
 Argentine pays him by borrowing from him the 
 gold wherewith to pay him. All the so-called 
 "native industries" are started, worked, or directed 
 by the foreigner. He provides the implements of 
 war, and the machinery of peace. He furnishes 
 himself and the native with clothing, and every- 
 thing but the savage soil, and the coarsest food. 
 The native is a consumer of everything, and a 
 producer of nothing but bariillo and discord. 
 But while the foreigner does all this, the jealous 
 Constitution prohibits him from holding office in 
 the Government, and from participation in the 
 financial administration of the country, for which 
 offices he is, both by nature and education, infinitely 
 better fitted than the native. But it suits the greed 
 of the latter to preserve inviolate this clause of the 
 Constitution at least, although recent events show 
 that he is ready, upon the slightest pressure of 
 circumstances, to openly and with perfect impunity 
 violate any other clause of it. 
 
 Even when animated by intentions the most 
 honourable, it is impossible for him to act with that 
 concert and cold perseverance which alone ensure 
 
A TURN-COAT MINISTER. 
 
 339 
 
 successful administration. Capable of brilliant initi- 
 atory efforts, he is utterly incapable of sustained 
 exertion. There are few more intelligent or better 
 educated men in the Republic than the present 
 Minister of Finance at Buenos Ayres, Dr. Lopez, 
 and the ex- Minister of Finance at La Plata, Senor 
 Toso. Yet what has been the outcome of their 
 respective programmes of reform ? In both cases 
 confusion worse confounded. Only a few days 
 after Minister Toso had taken charge of the Pro- 
 vincial Portfolio of Finance, we heard him exclaim, 
 "C of Todos van robando indnos yo !" {^'Every- 
 body is robbing here except /.") This gentleman 
 had been brought up in an English house of busi- 
 ness, had imbibed English notions of punctuality, 
 and steadiness of purpose. Minister Toso swore 
 by all things English whilst with the English ; but 
 the instant that power and fame came to him 
 through the Argentines, the burden of his song 
 changed. It was Argentina for the Argentines ! 
 then. Nevertheless, of those notions of business 
 methods, which during the best years of his life he 
 had imbibed under able English tuition, he could 
 not all at once dispossess himself So he set out 
 with all his youthful energy and fire to tilt at the 
 windmills of provincial mismanagement. Reform 
 was written on every line of his face. No doubt 
 he was much astonished to find that the windmills 
 did not yield to his vigorous lance, but that, rather, 
 he himself went over. From Minister of Finance 
 he received an Irish promotion, to the Presidency 
 of the Provincial Mortgage Bank, where he immedi- 
 ately proceeded to do battle with that formidable 
 giant C^dulas, with what result the world knows. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Conclusions. — The Argentine Crisis Unique. — The Industrial 
 Classes the Scapegoats. — The Argentine's Hallucination. — 
 Patriotism a Mere Term. — The Tide of Immigration will 
 Never Turn Till there is a European Administration. — Let 
 the Argentine go Back to the Plains. — Proposed Panaceas. 
 — International Intervention. — An Impossible Solution. — 
 Real Remedies. 
 
 The conclusions that follow upon all that precedes 
 are so obvious, that It is altoost superfluous to point 
 them out. The Argentine crisis is probably unique 
 of its kind. It is unlike a crisis engendered by war, 
 or famine, or other national calamity which, while 
 temporarily crippling a country and paralysing its 
 energies, leaves its honour unstained. In Argentina 
 there had been no great disaster of any kind, neither 
 drought, nor floods, nor war, nor famine, nor plagues. 
 The area under tillage was extending rapidly in every 
 direction. Flocks and herds — ^the staples of the 
 country — were multiplying, and the native breeds of 
 cattle, sheep, and horses were being improved through 
 foreign enterprise and capital. The material wealth 
 of the country was everywhere increasing. At Its 
 commencement there was absolutely nothing that 
 could be assigned as the cause of the most tremen- 
 dous crisis In the history of the nation. A few — a 
 very few — and these were certainly not those who 
 
A SYSTEM OF SHIRK. 34 1 
 
 should have foreseen it — had nevertheless seen it 
 coming for a long time back. To those few it was the 
 natural and logical consequence of the loose system 
 of government that everywhere prevailed, in the 
 provinces as well as in the federal capital — a system 
 by which every public official was permitted to 
 manage the public affairs according to the dictates 
 of his conscience or the caprice of his individual 
 will. If he did his duty well, he received no 
 thanks ; if otherwise, no one called him to account. 
 Every petty authority became a petty autocrat 
 in his particular locality. The superior powers, 
 intent upon their schemes for exploiting the patria, 
 made no serious effort at any time to check abuse, 
 correct errors, or remedy defects in any department 
 of the administration. Schoolmasters, teachers, 
 soldiers, sailors, the constabulary, — in short, all 
 persons holding merely subordinate positions under 
 Government were paid as irregularly as they were 
 supervised. It was no infrequent occurrence, even 
 in the palmiest days of the C61man administration, 
 to read the published complaints of persons whose 
 salaries remained unpaid, not for days or weeks, but 
 for months after they had become due. The same 
 irregularity was observable in the rendering of ac- 
 counts by all Government offices and of all the public 
 institutions, such as the banks, the State railways, 
 the provincial Customs, etc. If system there was, 
 it was a system of shirk. Everywhere the authori- 
 ties were supine or despotic, and the people apathetic 
 and equally blameworthy. 
 
 But while the few thought thus, the vast majority 
 — those who were to suffer hardest, who were to 
 
342 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 be the scapegoats in the wilderness of desolation 
 preparing for them — were taken wholly unawares, 
 unprepared, defenceless. These were the industrial, 
 the wage-earning classes. To them the mystery 
 of the crisis was inexplicable. They saw that while 
 corn and flesh failed not, they were suddenly de- 
 prived of both, being first straitened and then swiftly 
 reduced to want. 
 
 What, then, had brought about this strange crisis 
 which the few foresaw and the many suffered for ? 
 In the first place, insane speculation, in which every 
 man, woman, and child, from the President to the 
 peasant, who had the wherewithal to speculate, 
 joined. This madness — fostered by a crowd of 
 rapacious, powerful, and unscrupulous officials, and 
 fed by the millions of paper created in virtue of 
 Pacheco's Banking Law — preceded and led to all 
 that followed. It is the Argentine's greatest mis- 
 fortune that he is, or believes himself to be, born 
 heir to vast possessions. His patria, his abused, 
 degraded patria, must support him in his idleness 
 and extravagance. His faith in the potentiality of 
 la patria to extricate him from all his difficulties, 
 to afford him sanctuary from the consequences of 
 all his crimes, and to maintain him in Oriental 
 luxury, amounts almost to an hallucination. This 
 blind faith he imbibes with his mother's milk ; at 
 his mother's knee he is taught to believe that he 
 is born to be a ruler in a great land, to which the 
 nations shall by-and-by play the part of the sun, the 
 moon, and the stars in Joseph's dream. There is 
 no need for him to work ; he has simply to sit down 
 and contemplate the operations of Providence in hi§ 
 
THE LAST BAIT. 343 
 
 favour. Lessons like these make him the arrogant, 
 vain, and yet childish personage that he is. His 
 patriotism is but a cloak to hide shameless hawk- 
 ing, or, at best, a profitable sentiment. When the 
 Western Railway was proposed to be alienated from 
 the province of Buenos Ayres, there was formed 
 a patriotic committee which besought the hijos del 
 pais to unite to prevent that rich jewel from being 
 reset in English gold. What was the result of the 
 patriotic appeal } The subscriptions fell short of 
 the required sum by millions. The so-called patri- 
 otic loan in Buenos Ayres fell abortive. I might 
 multiply instances of the patriotism of the Argen- 
 tines. One possession after another has been wrested 
 from the nation and sold for foreign gold — the State 
 railways, public lands, ports, public works of all 
 descriptions. For what purpose 1 In the jargon of 
 the patriots — to create an honest currency. The 
 national bienes have gone, and the currency is more 
 corrupt than ever. When every pawnable security 
 had been disposed of, the Government offered to sell 
 to Europe 24,000 square leagues of unknown lands, 
 which Europeans were unwise not to buy at the 
 price they were offered at : the money would have 
 gone, as all the rest had gone, and the buyers would 
 have had so much greater a hold on the country. 
 The crisis, then, was produced primarily by mad 
 speculation, for a parallel to which we must look as 
 far back as the Mississippi scheme. To keep the 
 gorgeous bubble afloat, Argentines committed a 
 series of crimes which have alienated from them 
 the last vestige of confidence. Faith in the country 
 itself has not suffered, but faith in its rulers has 
 
344 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 been shattered. And of this we may be assured, 
 that so long as Argentines are allowed to retain the 
 undivided control of the administration, that faith 
 will not easily be restored and — what is of far 
 more importance — the tide of immigration will 
 cease to flow. The resources of the Republic are 
 vast ; they can hardly be overstated. Hundreds of 
 thousands of square miles of virgin territory await 
 the hand of the labrador, ready at labour's com- 
 mand to yield golden harvests. The mineral wealth 
 of the Andine provinces remains still untouched, 
 ready at the bidding of foreign capital and energy 
 to pour on the markets of Europe more precious 
 metal than has ever been taken from them to the 
 country. But the Argentine Mining Code stands 
 like Cerberus at the entrance. Of what avail all 
 those resources if they remain undeveloped ? At 
 present, taking the entire population of the country 
 and its total area, there are not four human beings 
 to the square mile. In order that those vast tracts 
 of uncultivated territory may be made to yield their 
 abundance, there must be population ; and to attract 
 population there must be absolute and undoubted 
 security for the safety and well-being of the settler. 
 Until this can be guaranteed, the immigrant will avoid 
 the shores of Argentina as he would Hades. And 
 no Argentine guarantee will be accepted again ; the 
 immigrant — at least the only immigrant who is any 
 good to the country, the European — is not a second 
 time going to be the butt and the victim of rapacious 
 Governments and lying propaganda offices. Euro- 
 pean consuls and Governments have issued warnings. 
 Italy prevents emigration to the Plate ; Spain helps 
 
HONESTY OR CUNNING, WHICH ? 345 
 
 her sons to return to the patria. The tales of woe told 
 by the thousands who have returned to their native 
 lands ; the gloomy accounts sent home by other 
 thousands unable to leave the Republic ; the decep- 
 tion and cruelty practised upon immigrants of all 
 nationalities by the Argentines ; — all these things 
 will effectually check the stream of European immi- 
 gration for a long time to come. Yet without the 
 immigrant the country cannot progress. There is 
 but one way to re-attract the European immigrant, 
 — to have a European administration. That alone 
 will restore belief in the country. To secure their 
 interests in the Republic, Europeans must them- 
 selves look after them. The Argentine is incapable 
 of administering anything — financial affairs least of 
 all. At best he is a shifty, uncertain personage, in 
 whom it is impossible to repose confidence for long 
 together, and of whom it is equally impossible to 
 predict what mischief he may not do from one day 
 to another by his eccentric legislation. Of that 
 singleness of purpose, that concerted action which 
 are indispensable to successful administration, he is 
 utterly incapable. 
 
 Some English journals, afraid to be inconsistent, 
 have for years past held up Argentina as a model 
 worthy of the imitation of all South American States. 
 She has always, they say, paid her foreign debt 
 with punctuality, except in times of crises. Was 
 that honesty or was it cunning ? So long as the 
 Argentine can borrow from Peter, he will pay Paul ; 
 but the moment that Peter refuses to lend, he 
 declines to pay, — defaults genteelly, and calls it 
 liioratoria. For two decades the Argentines have 
 
34^ ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 lived on borrowed gold ; have met the service of 
 foreign debt by the raising of loan after loan, 
 until the limit of their borrowing powers has been 
 reached in the Funding Loan of 1891. "Prior to 
 1 87 1 the Argentine Republic played no important 
 part as a borrower in the money markets of Europe. 
 A small loan of ^1,200,000 was raised as far back 
 as 1824 by the Province of Buenos Ayres, on which 
 default was made in 1829 ;" and the service thereon 
 suspended for thirty years. Since 1871 the internal 
 and external debts of the Republic have risen by 
 extraordinary leaps and bounds, until to-day, with a 
 population of less than four millions, the total public 
 debt, national and provincial, is nearly 125 millions 
 sterling ! 
 
 The Argentine has had splendid opportunities 
 of proving his capabilities — opportunities which he 
 need never hope to get again ; for Europe will not 
 a second time be befooled, and trust the light- 
 fingered Argentine with uncounted and unsecured 
 gold. Not only has he signally failed to make good 
 or proper use of those opportunities, but he has 
 broken pledges the most solemn, betrayed trusts 
 the most sacred, profaned his ideal Constitution, 
 permitted crime to stalk unchecked and unpunished 
 throughout the land, wrought mischief to his best 
 and only friends, and repaid good with evil. Let 
 him now be compelled for once in his existence to 
 work ; let him go back to his piuhero, his asado, 
 his lasso, his bolas ; let him fraternize with his 
 attenuated bovine friends, his emaciated sheep, his 
 lean criollo hack ; let him take his bauble La Politica ; 
 let him fill his pockets, his sombrero, his poncho, 
 
AN IMPOSSIBLE PANACEA. 347 
 
 his cheripd, with his worthless and malodorous rag- 
 money ; but let able and honest resident Europeans 
 step forward and take in hand the control of affairs 
 which are in jeopardy, so long as they are managed 
 by men with whom governor is but a synonym for 
 robber, and government but a system of organized 
 rapine, political obfuscation, and terrorism. 
 
 The European Press has put forward several pro- 
 posals to remedy the situation in the Argentine — 
 proposals which have raised a good deal of discussion, 
 but, as yet, have produced no effect whatever, either 
 in the country itself or in the stock markets of 
 Europe. Two Commissions, each having an array 
 of names which are as household words in the 
 countries of Europe, have been formed for a long 
 time past, but as yet have given few and feeble 
 signs of life. Chief amongst the proposed panaceas 
 is an International Commission of Intervention — a 
 project which, it is said, has been favourably ac- 
 cepted by the Argentine Government. Intervention 
 of some sort there will sooner or later be ; but are 
 those from whom such a proposal emanates aware 
 of the difficulties in the v/ay of its realization ? Are 
 they acquainted with the Argentine } Do they 
 know how intensely the gringo is hated ; how 
 bitterly every native not in the pay of the Govern- 
 ment, yet suffering the consequences of its misdeeds, 
 would resent such interference with the affairs of 
 the nation ? It is because President Pellegrini is 
 believed to be more than half a gringo that the 
 Chambers treat him and his Cabinet with so little 
 reverence. They accuse him of allowing himself 
 to be influenced by the foreign commercial com- 
 
34^ ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 munities of Buenos Ayres. While the Argentines 
 themselves will upon the slightest pretext violate 
 any clause of their Constitution, they will not permit 
 others to do so. The only clauses held sacred by 
 all parties and factions and circles are those which 
 prohibit the foreigner from any participation in the 
 administration. According to the Constitution, no 
 one but a native or a naturalized subject may have 
 any direct control in the affairs of State. Whence, 
 then, would the proposed International Commission 
 derive its authority ? From the Argentine Govern- 
 ment ? Who empowers the Government to confer 
 such authority upon foreigners ? Not the Constitu- 
 tion, certainly. Such intervention would therefore 
 be unconstitutional. Every member of the Unidn 
 Civica, every Argentine in the country opposed to 
 the present weak and ineffectual Government, would 
 rise up to protest against such intermeddling. The 
 Mazhorca, the secret assassination societies, would 
 be re-established. Every measure in which the 
 hand of the gringo could be detected would be 
 defied and disobeyed. There are thousands of 
 Argentines at this moment who firmly believe that 
 all their troubles have been brought about, not by 
 their own mismanagement, nor by the misdeeds of 
 their rulers, but by English, French, and German 
 entreprenezirs. They say: Had not the English, 
 with their bottomless pockets and their scheming, 
 restless craft, come tempting those rulers, tampering 
 with officials, suborning Government employes, 
 pandering to the vices of all, trading on their 
 weaknesses, exploiting their very virtues, — playing, 
 in a word, the part of the serpent, — there would 
 
THE LOST OPPORTUNITY. 349 
 
 have been no crisis. The feelings of this large 
 class of Argentines find coarse but unmistakable 
 expression in the series of cartoons which have 
 been publishing for some time past in the comic 
 papers of Buenos Ayres. Without authority, without 
 respect, with hatred so bitter, how would the Com- 
 mission of Intervention effect anything of a beneficial 
 or enduring nature ? If it is necessary to use force 
 to compel the Argentine to respect his own institu- 
 tions — law, morality, the Constitution, politics — will 
 a commission of gringos, unsupported by an armed 
 force, accomplish its mission of putting straight the 
 finances of the country ? But, above all things, can 
 the proposed International Commission interfere in 
 La Politica ? Can it arrest the growth of that 
 cancer which poisons the whole system of Argentine 
 administration, federal and provincial ? Unless it 
 can do that, its regenerative measures will prove 
 fruitless. 
 
 Many persons believe that an honest native 
 administration is possible ; that a mere change of 
 Presidents will bring about results little short of 
 miraculous, re-attract the immigrant, recover the 
 scattered millions of gold, valorizar the enormous 
 mass of rag-money, revive commerce, reanimate 
 industry, replenish the exhausted treasuries, restore 
 the banks, win back the lost good name of Argen- 
 tine ; — in a word, reconstruct the whole shattered 
 fabric of Argentina, the rich, the gay, the mag- 
 nificent. What an impossible dream this is, the 
 history of the Pellegrini interregnum conclusively 
 proves. Such a splendid opportunity for the re- 
 generation or reconstruction of the political and 
 
35° ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 economical organization of the Republic as was 
 offered to the Civic Union by the overthrow of 
 Juarez Celman and his party never presented itself 
 before, and never will again. The people were ripe 
 for such a change. Ten years of misrule, interrupted 
 by spurts of false prosperity, had roused the spirit 
 of every honest man in the country ; and every such 
 individual, and every foreign resident likewise, 
 would have co-operated towards the attainment of 
 such an object. The Union, however, missed its 
 opportunity, and drifted into petty squabbles, disgust- 
 ing its most zealous and most powerful advocates. 
 Del Valle, Mitre, Irigoyen — the three were a host 
 in themselves — have withdrawn from the conflict, and 
 the field is abandoned to the struggles of number- 
 less factions, and the end is bound to be a triumph 
 for the Roquistas, whose programme is that of 
 Caiman, Carcano, and the rest of the uhicato crew. 
 
 The feeling of the resident foreign community 
 with regard to the possibility of an honest native 
 administration is instanced by the significant fact, 
 that when the project for the new Bank of the 
 Argentine Nation came on the tapis, the Camara 
 Sindical de la Bolsa offered to provide the whole 
 of the necessary capital, provided the native were 
 excluded from the administration of the Bank. 
 Obvious as the inference to be drawn from this 
 circumstance is, it does not mean that the general 
 belief is, that there are no honest natives. There 
 is a loyal, patriotic, educated, travelled, but not 
 very numerous class of Argentines, who mourn the 
 fate of their country, and sorrowfully invoke the 
 shades of Rivadavia, Sarmiento, Belgrano, San 
 
THE ONLY POSSIBLE SOLUTION. 35 1 
 
 Martin, and the proud and honest heroes of the 
 Independence ; and who bitterly deplore the all- 
 pervading mercantilismo — that evil spirit of cupidity 
 which sits enthroned like an incubus upon the con- 
 science of almost every Argentine to whom authority, 
 power, or the handling of money is entrusted. 
 
 The foreign residents of Argentina have yet to 
 be heard, and will be heard, upon another matter. 
 The solution of the crisis is in their hands. A 
 Government composed of such men as Tornquist, 
 Mailman, Bemberg, Drabble, Hale, Bertram, 
 Dreyfus, Wanklyn, instead of the dreaming nonen- 
 tities drawn from the cloisters of the Cordoba 
 University, would accomplish in a few months 
 results which the unaided native will not achieve 
 this side the millennium. A cabinet of ministers 
 whose names were a guarantee to Europe and the 
 Americas of fidelity, ability, and singleness of 
 purpose would at once restore confidence and turn 
 the tide of immigration. To attempt to force upon 
 the Argentines an alien committee of intervention or 
 control would only provoke a bitter and sanguinary 
 feud. The gringo would be looked upon as a 
 meddlesome interloper, whose sympathies were 
 buttoned up tight in his pockets, and who was 
 unfamiliar, perhaps altogether ignorant, of the 
 character and aspirations of the native. But the 
 names above mentioned are already endeared to the 
 Argentines ; bound up in the annals of the Republic ; 
 associated with the best times of prosperity ; and 
 proven true in times of adversity. The exanimate 
 European commissions should bestir themselves, 
 and turn their attention in the only direction from 
 
352 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 which a possible solution of the crisis is likely to 
 come, and press for the repeal of those clauses in 
 the Constitution of the Argentine Republic which, 
 while permitting the foreign resident to make the 
 native's fortune, prohibits his showing him how to 
 keep it. 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 PROCLAMATION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY JUNTA. 
 
 Dated the 26th day of July, 1890. 
 
 (Translated.) 
 
 Patriotism compels us to proclaim a Revolution as an extreme 
 and necessary recourse for the salvation of the country from ruin. 
 To overturn a Constitutional Government ; to disturb without just 
 cause public peace and social order; to substitute a mutinous 
 council for a constitutional assembly, and to raise vioknce into 
 a political system, would be to commit crimes for which we 
 should have to render an account to the nation. But to respect 
 and uphold a Government which is the impersonation of illegality 
 and corruption ; to endure, without voice or vote, the public 
 life of a people born in freedom ; to watch day by day the 
 disappearance of all rule, principle, and guarantee from public 
 administration ; to consent in silence to the malversation of the 
 treasury, the adulteration of the currency, the squandering of the 
 national resources ; to tolerate the usurpation of our political 
 rights and the suppression of our individual guarantees, which 
 are the safeguards of our civil life, without the least hope of 
 reaction or of improvement — because everything has been done 
 that could be done to deprive the people of self-government, and 
 to maintain in power those who have wrought the ruin and dis- 
 grace of the Republic ; to know that labour emigrates because, 
 owing to the demonetization of the paper money, wages do not 
 suffice to pay for the barest necessaries of life, and that commerce 
 is being ruined and business suspended because from the same 
 cause engagements cannot be met ; to put up with the present 
 misery, and await in inaction the day of international bankruptcy, 
 
 353 A A 
 
354 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 which would dishonour us in the eyes of the world ; to resign 
 ourselves, and suffer all things, confiding our destiny, and that 
 of our posterity, to the unknown, the unforeseen, and the evolu- 
 tion of time, without attempting the one supreme effort, without 
 making those sacrifices which our desperate and agonizing situa- 
 tion demand of us, — would be to consecrate the impunity of abuse, 
 to accept an ignominious despotism, to renounce free government, 
 and to assume the gravest responsibility in the eyes of the nation. 
 And even the stranger that is within our gates, and who has 
 come to our shores under the auspices of a Constitution whose 
 principles we citizens have sworn to uphold and respect, in 
 protection of the liberties and rights of all who should come to 
 inhabit Argentine soil, might demand of us an account of our 
 conduct. 
 
 The Revolutionary Junta has no need to tell the nation or 
 foreign powers the motives of the Revolution, nor to detail 
 chronologically all the blunders, abuses, crimes, and iniquities of 
 the present administration. 
 
 The whole country is unhinged, from Jujuy to the capital. 
 Liberal institutions have disappeared from all parts. There is 
 neither republic, nor system, nor federation, nor representative 
 government, nor administration, nor morality. Political life is 
 converted into a lucre-seeking industry. 
 
 The President of the Republic (Juarez Celman), living in luxu- 
 rious repose — the life of a satrap — has set the example, with 
 unheard-of contempt for public opinion, and a want of dignity 
 which day by day has grown more exasperating. 
 
 Neither in Europe nor in America can be found in these days 
 any administrative parallel. Avarice has been his inspiration, 
 jobbery his means. He has corrupted the consciences of in- 
 numerable friends with easy and unlawful gains. He has debased 
 the administration of the State, compelling public functionaries 
 to illegal practices, and has perverted public and private morality, 
 lavishing favours representing millions. 
 
 He has received bribes from anybody whatsoever who has 
 had dealings with the nation, and has joined syndicates organized 
 for vast speculations, without contributing either capital or idea 
 of his own, but only the influence and the means which the 
 Constitution placed in his hands for the better administration of 
 
APPENDIX. 355 
 
 the State. In four years of government he has become a million- 
 aire ; and his fortune, accumulated by such infamous means, is 
 composed of properties of immense value, whose acquisition by 
 him has been pubhcly announced in the columns of the press. 
 His participation in administrative business is notorious, public 
 and confessed. The presents he has received, without the least 
 notion of personal delicacy, amount to hundreds of thousands 
 of dollars, and are recorded in public documents — not being 
 limited to objets d'art and luxury, but consisting also of the 
 donation of territorial bienes, which have been recognised as the 
 price of official favours. 
 
 It may be said that he has lived on the properties of the State, 
 and used the public revenues to build up for himself a patrimony. 
 His friends have not failed to imitate him — ^creatures without 
 professions, without capital, without industry ; they have despoiled 
 the State banks, possessed themselves of public lands, negotiated 
 railway and port concessions, and exacted enormous sums as the 
 price of their political influence. 
 
 In politics he has suppressed the representative system, until 
 he has succeeded in establishing an unanimous Congress without 
 an opposition or discrepancy of views, and in which the only 
 discussion is as to the best means of cementing personal adhesion, 
 submissions, and passive resignation. 
 
 Federative regime has been encanucido : governors of provinces, 
 with but very few exceptions, are his place-holders, are elected, 
 administer, and are succeeded in obedience to his will. Sub- 
 servient to his caprice, Mendoza has changed governors from 
 hour to hour, as in the turbulent times of anarchy. Tucuman 
 witnessed a bloody struggle, planned by his intriguants to incor- 
 porate that province with the system of political monopoly. There 
 have been elections of governors which were nothing else but 
 commercial transactions. Entre Rios, under martial law, has 
 just been compelled to submit to the imposition of a candidate 
 abhorrent to public opinion. C6rdoba has been the theatre of 
 a political struggle fostered to hound from the Government an 
 upright man. To-day that province is as an encampment of 
 nomads ; society is terrorized, and dwells amidst the alarms of 
 the times of Bustos and Quiroga. All the other provinces are 
 fiefs. Salta — that noble province of the north — has been feudal- 
 
356 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 ized ; and feudalized also are Santiago del Estero, and Corrientes, 
 La Rioja, Jujuy, San Luis, and Catamarca. Never before has 
 an Argentine exercised a more offensive authority nor one more 
 humiliating to the laws of a free people. 
 
 In financial matters, disasters, abuses, and scandals are as the 
 days. Clandestine emissions have been authorized in order that 
 the National Bank might pay false dividends, because official 
 speculators had bought up most of the shares and the crisis had 
 surprised them before they had time to gather in the spoils. The 
 savings of the working classes and commercial deposits have been 
 distributed with a prodigal hand amongst a circle of favourites, 
 who have speculated therewith to the extent of millions and lived 
 in luxury, without showing the least intention of ever fulfilling 
 their obligations. Public debt has been triplicated. Securities 
 in paper have been, for no tangible reason and without any 
 apparent necessity, converted into gold obligations. More than 
 50 millions of gold dollars, the proceeds of the sale of the public 
 bonds purchased and deposited with the Government by the new 
 guaranteed banks, have been thrown into the whirlpool of specu- 
 lation ; and to-day the country does not possess a single metallic 
 currency, and is compromised to meet and maintain a service 
 in gold of more than 80 millions. The State railways are sold 
 to reduce the public debt, and as soon as the sale is realized 
 the money is diverted and misapplied. The sanitary works 
 were sold, and amidst the impenetrable shadows which surround 
 that colossal scandal the country can only see that it has been 
 yoked for half a century to a foreign company which sells it 
 health at the price of gold. The guaranteed banks have brought 
 themselves into discredit through false emissions. The paper 
 currency is depreciated more than 200 per cent., and the circula- 
 tion is increased by the clandestine emission of 35 millions which 
 are afterwards legalized, and 100 millions which are disguised 
 under the name of hypothecary bonds, but which are nothing but 
 so much more paper money. When poverty and misery begin 
 to be felt, then life is made intolerable and the necessaries of life 
 unprocurable on account of the introduction of gold duties. And 
 after having provoked the most intense crisis ever known in our 
 history, the Government is on the point of surrendering a portion 
 of its very sovereignty (sic) in order to obtain a new loan which 
 would be misapplied as everything has been misapplied. 
 
APPENDIX. 357 
 
 This brief sketch of the abuses which the nation has suffered 
 is very far from being complete. To give an exact idea of them 
 it would be necessary to formulate a prolix and circumstantial 
 accusation of the public and private crimes which the Chief of 
 the State has committed against the institutions, the well-being, 
 and the honour of the Argentines. One day that charge will be 
 made and punishment demanded, not for the purposes of revenge, 
 but as an example and a proof that the Republic cannot be 
 governed without responsibility and honour. 
 
 We understand and have measured the responsibility which we 
 assume in the eyes of the nation. We have thought of the sacri- 
 fices demanded by a movement which compromises public tran- 
 quillity and even the lives of many of our co-citizens ; but the 
 counsels of illustrious patriots, of great men of all parties and all 
 classes, the inmost voice of the oppressed provinces, and even 
 the sentiment of resident foreigners, urge us to action ; and we 
 know that public opinion blesses and applauds our endeavour, 
 whatsoever may be the sacrifices it demands. 
 
 The revolutionary movement of this day is not the work of a 
 political faction. Essentially popular and impersonal, it neither 
 obeys nor responds to the ambitions of circle or public man what- 
 soever. We do not seek to overthrow a Government in order to 
 separate men in power and substitute others, but because it does 
 not exist in constitutional form and in order to place it in the 
 hands of the people, that they may reconstitute it upon the bases 
 of the national will and with all the dignity of other times, — 
 destroying this immense oligarchy of upstarts which has dis- 
 honoured in the eyes of our own and other countries the institu- 
 tions of the Republic. The sole author of this revolution, of this 
 headless movement — profoundly national, long and impatiently 
 awaited — is the people of Buenos Ayres, who, true to their 
 traditions, reproduce in history a new regenerative evolution so 
 anxiously looked for by all the provinces. 
 
 The national army shares with the people the glories of this 
 day. Their arms are raised to protect and safeguard the free 
 exercise of the institutions of the country. The Argentine soldier 
 is to-day, as he ever is, the defender of the people, the firmest 
 pillar of the Constitution, the solid support of the peace and 
 liberty of the Republic. The Constitution is the supreme law of 
 
358 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 the nation, is the same as its flag ; and the Argentine soldier who 
 should see it perish without stretching forth his hand in its 
 defence, alleging passive obedience, would be, not an armed 
 citizen of a free people, but the instrument or accomplice of a 
 despot. 
 
 The army does not dishonour the flag, nor stain its military 
 honour, nor its courage, nor its fame with a barrack riot. Its 
 soldiers, its officers, and its chiefs have been bound to co-operate 
 and have co-operated in this movement, because the cause of the 
 people is the cause of all, and is the cause of the citizens and of 
 the army, because the country is in danger of perishing, and 
 because it is necessary to save it from the catastrophe. 
 
 Its intervention will check anarchy, prevent disasters, ensure 
 peace. That is its constitutional mission, and not the obscure 
 and dishonourable task of serving as a gendarnurie to suffocate 
 and trample down public liberties. 
 
 The period of the Revolution will be transitory and brief. It 
 will last no longer than may be found indispensable to organize 
 the country constitutionally. The Revolutionary Government 
 will preside over the election in such a manner that there shall 
 be no suspicion that the will of the nation shall have been sur- 
 prised, subjugated, or defrauded. He who shall be elected to the 
 supreme command shall be that citizen who counts upon the 
 majority of votes in peaceful and free election, and from the can- 
 didature shall be alone excluded the members of the Revolu- 
 tionary Government, who spontaneously offer to the country this 
 guarantee of their impartiality and the purity of their purposes. 
 
 Signed for the Revolutionary Junta : — 
 
 L. M. Alem. 
 A. Del Valle. 
 M. Demaria. 
 
 M, Go YEN A 
 
 Juan Jos£ Romero. 
 Lucio V. Lopez. 
 
APPENDIX B. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 (From El Album Ilustrado de la RepMlica Argentina.) 
 
 General Mitre was bom in Buenos Ayres on the 26th of 
 June, 182 1. His father, Don Ambrosio Mitre, founded a school 
 at Carmen de Patagones, where the future President received his 
 first rudiments of knowledge. At an early age, however, he was 
 sent to Buenos Ayres to continue his studies ; but after a short 
 stay in the federal capital he proceeded to Montevideo, where, 
 during the siege by Oribe, he first took up arms. He devoted 
 himself with equal ardour to the studies of literature and strategy. 
 At the age of fifteen he published his first collection of poems, 
 under the title of Echoes of my Lyre. He took an active part 
 in the struggles of 1838-9, and joined an expedition against Rosas 
 the Dictator in 1842. The expedition failed, and Mitre returned 
 to Montevideo to attack the tyranny of the Dictator in the 
 columns of El Nacional, El Iniciador, El Corsarw, and La 
 Nueva Era. In the following year he headed an attack against 
 the tyrant, in which engagement, although only twenty-three years 
 of age, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. The 
 attack was again unsuccessful. In this year also he published 
 his Practical Artillery Itistruction, some dramas in verse, which 
 won the approbation of competent critics, and a translation of 
 Hugo's Ruy Bias. 
 
 Disagreements occurring between Orientals and Argentines 
 caused the young officer to leave Montevideo, and he went to 
 Corrientes and took part in a further unsuccessful engagement 
 against Rosas. He then went to Bolivia, and became director 
 of a military college and editor of La Epoca. As military com- 
 
360 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 mander he took part in the revolution of Chuquisaca, and was so 
 successful in suppressing the rising that the appellation was 
 publicly bestowed upon him of " heroic and eminent benefactor." 
 From Bolivia he repaired to La Paz, of which department he was 
 made military commander. Declining to enter into dishonour- 
 able compacts with certain authorities, he found it desirable to 
 quit Bolivia and go to Peru, where, however, he encountered 
 similar objectionable circumstances and remained but a short 
 time, resolving to try his fortunes in Chili. There he engaged 
 in an active struggle in behalf of public liberties, and opposed 
 the reigning Government in the columns of El Comerdo and 
 El Progreso. His conduct brought upon him all manner of 
 persecutions, and finally he fled the country and returned once 
 more to Peru, where he was received by the people with great 
 rejoicing as the champion of modern political ideals. Pursuing 
 always the same ends, he again actively espoused the cause 
 of the people against a tyrannical Government, but was com- 
 pelled to cede to the power of the dominant party, by whom 
 his exile from Chili was speedily decreed. He then returned to 
 Montevideo, and soon afterwards, in 185 1, the "pronouncement" 
 of Urquiza found in him a zealous advocate and co-operator. 
 He espoused Urquiza's cause, took command of the artillery 
 at Caseros, and was made colonel upon the field of battle. The 
 policy of Urquiza, however, soon turned his partisan into an 
 opponent. Mitre founded Los Debates to combat his quondam 
 chief, and made his debut as a parliamentary orator at the 
 Acuerdo of San Nicolas, achieving such a success that the 
 enthusiastic people bore him in their arms from the hall to his 
 house. Soon after these events the revolution of September 
 nth, 1852, broke out, and Mitre took command at the head of 
 the National Guard. The rising was successful ; and on the 
 31st October of the same year Governor Alsina appointed him 
 Minister of Government and for Foreign Affairs, these being the 
 first public posts held by Don Bartdlome in his own country. 
 A revolution headed by Lagos imperilled the success of the rising 
 of September. There was great disorder in the Government, and 
 affairs looked threatening. Mitre, once more placing himself at 
 the head of the National Guard, succeeded in repelling the enemy 
 from the city and organized its defence. Lagos, however, laid 
 
APPENDIX. 361 
 
 siege to the capital, and during one of the innumerable skirmishes 
 that followed Mitre received that wound on the forehead which 
 has ever since obliged him to wear a soft hat. In 1854 he was 
 appointed Inspector of Arms, edited El Nacional, collaborated in 
 La Ilustracion Argentina, took part in the new Constitution of 
 Buenos Ayres, and published a further collection of poems under 
 the title of Rhymes. At the beginning of 1855 he was appointed 
 War Minister, and devoted his attention to the regular organization 
 of the army of Buenos Ayres, which hitherto had hardly deserved 
 the name. He resigned the Ministry in 1857, once more took up 
 Los Debates, and was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs by 
 Governor Alsina. Shortly afterwards he commenced the publica- 
 tion of his History of Belgrano. In i860 he was elected Gover- 
 nor of the Province of Buenos Ayres, in which post he fought and 
 won the battle of Pavon against Urquiza — a victory which bore 
 him to the Provisional Governorship of the country, and, on the 
 i2th October, 1862, to the Presidency of the Repubhc. He now 
 occupied himself in remodelling the national organization, a task 
 for which he had long prepared himself, but which was seriously 
 interrupted by the Paraguay war, in which he was engaged as 
 commander general of the allied forces from June, 1865, to 
 January, 1868. His Presidency terminated on the 12th October 
 of that year, and upon his retirement from office the people pre- 
 sented him with the house in which he now resides. He was 
 soon after elected Senator for the Province, in which post he 
 gave abundant proofs of his splendid parliamentary talents, 
 taking part in all the pressing questions of the time. After the 
 termination of the presidential era of his successor Sarmiento, he 
 was again nominated for the Presidency, but his candidature 
 proved unsuccessful and provoked a revolution. The rising was 
 quelled, and Mitre retired from public life. In 1875 he com- 
 menced the publication of another of his great historical works, 
 the History of San Martin, as well as other productions of his 
 prolific pen. 
 
 Much might be said of his energies and labours ; of his diplo- 
 matic missions to Brazil, Paraguay, Chili, Bolivia ; of his constant 
 efforts during the years of his retirement from public life for the 
 welfare of his country ; of the propaganda which he has so ably 
 directed through his journal. La Nacion — a Journal which has 
 
362 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 won the sympathies of the masses, who follow his political doc- 
 trines with ever-increasing respect and admiration ; of the prestige 
 which he has won at home and abroad ; but to enter into such 
 details would be to write a complete biography of Argentina's 
 Grand Old Man, who has shown himself ready, even in his old 
 age, to face once more the turmoil and risks of public life. 
 
 Dr. Bernardo Irigoyen. — Argentina has produced few men 
 more deserving of the respect and esteem of their compatriots 
 than Dr. D. Bernardo de Irigoyen, who was born in Buenos Ayres 
 on the i8th December, 1822, was educated in the University of 
 the capital, and received his degree of Doctor at the early age of 
 twenty. In 1843 he practised in the Academy of Jurisprudence 
 as pro-secretary, and in the same year was appointed attache to 
 the Chilian Legation, at that time engaged upon the important 
 question of the Straits of Magellan. He retired from the Legation 
 in 1846, and remained in Mendoza until 1850. AVhile in that 
 province of grapes and earthquakes he made himself intimately 
 acquainted with its resources and won the esteem and gratitude 
 of its principal inhabitants for the active interest he took in the 
 development and protection of the Province. In 1851 he returned 
 to Buenos Ayres, and was commissioned to collect documents and 
 proofs in support of the claims of the Republic to the Straits. 
 After the fall of Rosas he was entrusted with the delicate mission 
 of explaining to the governors of the interior the political aims 
 and ends of Urquiza. Successfully accomplishing his mission, 
 he returned again to Buenos Ayres at the time of the dissolution 
 of the Legislature (June, 1857), and a month later was appointed 
 a member of the Council of State, convoked for the purpose of 
 establishing a Provisional Governorship of the Confederation. 
 After 1853, notwithstanding that he was offered several public 
 appointments, he remained aloof from politics, dedicating himself 
 first to commerce, in partnership with the wealthy English mer- 
 chant, Mr. Edward Lumb, and afterwards to the practice of his 
 profession. Successful operations in land during his connection 
 with Lumb yielded him the principal part of his wealth. In i860 
 he was elected a member of the Convention formed to examine 
 and remodel the National Constitution. He declined a seat in 
 the cabinet offered him by President Derqui, refused the Chilian 
 
APPENDIX. 363 
 
 Legation offered him by Dr. Marcos Paz, but accepted the post 
 of member of the newly-constituted Junta de Credito PiibHco 
 Nacional. During the Presidency of Sarmiento he was appointed 
 Attorney-General, which post he held until 1871. In 1870 he was 
 elected Deputy to the Legislature and Vice-President of the Junta. 
 He advocated the abolition of capital punishment, and delivered 
 several memorable speeches upon the subject. In 1872 he was 
 elected Senator for the capital, and soon after Vice-President of the 
 Senate. He was also designated to assist in the modelling of 
 the municipal system. In 1873 he was elected Deputy in the 
 National Congress, in which office he devoted himself almost 
 exclusively to the reform of the electoral laws and the organiza- 
 tion of the Credito Publico. In 1875 he was elected President 
 of the National Chamber of Deputies, and four months afterwards 
 was' called to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, at a time when 
 grave complications had arisen between Argentina, Brazil, and 
 Paraguay. He succeeded in removing the difficulties, and re- 
 establishing upon surer bases the relations between the neigh- 
 bouring States. In 1876 he took interim charge of the Portfolio 
 of Finance, in moments of acute financial crisis, and was instru- 
 mental in saving the National Bank from failure, and in uphold- 
 ing the credit of the Republic abroad. In 1877 he withdrew from 
 the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and became Minister of the 
 Interior, which appointment he held for six months. In 1879 he 
 was re-elected Deputy, and soon after President of the Chamber. 
 In 1880 Roca called him again to the Foreign Office, at the time 
 when Chili was at war with Peru and Bolivia. His chef d'ceiivre, 
 however, was the negotiation of the definite limits with Chili, 
 resulting in the Treaty of October 23, 1886. The Treaty, which 
 merits a chapter by itself, set at rest, for ever, the question which 
 had vexed the sister Republics for over half a century, and in 
 virtue of which the two countries agreed to throw open to the 
 free navigation of the world the Straits of Magellan. His success- 
 ful termination of the negotiations won for him the applause of 
 governments, peoples, press, statesmen, merchants, and foreign 
 diplomatists alike. After the conclusion of this affair, he was 
 again called to the Ministry of the Interior, under Roca, and 
 devoted himself with his accustomed energy to the prosecution 
 of important public works, such as the railways, docks, etc., which 
 
364 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 made such extraordinary progress under Roca's administration. 
 Nominated by the National Autonomist party, to which he had 
 always been attached, to succeed Roca in the Presidency, he had 
 to retire from the Ministry. His candidature was unsuccessful, 
 and a nominee of Roca's was elected. The vicissitudes of his 
 candidature for the future Vice- Presidency have been described 
 in this work, and it is not likely that he will ever have the oppor- 
 tunity of displaying his undoubtedly great talents in the chief 
 office of the State. His name is one of the purest and noblest in 
 the Republic. 
 
 Dr. Carlos Pellegrini.— The actual President of Argentina 
 was born of foreign parentage on the nth October, 1846. His 
 father was an Italian engineer, and his mother an Englishwoman 
 named Mary Bevan, a near relative of the late John Bright. Dr. 
 Pellegrini studied for the law, and graduated in Jurisprudence. 
 His studies were for a time interrupted by the Paraguayan war, 
 in which he took an active part. He gained early distinction in 
 the Argentine forum, and has associated himself with the political 
 movements of the country from the Mitre Presidency to the 
 present day. At the age of twenty-six he was returned to Con- 
 gress as Deputy for his native Province, having already won 
 considerable reputation as a lawyer and journalist. In the Revo- 
 lution of 1880 he was appointed War Minister, in which post 
 the energy and moderation of his character were conspicuously 
 displayed. In 1881 he was elected Senator for the Province of 
 Buenos Ayres. He founded the journals La Union (provincial), 
 and Sud America (national). The progress which the country 
 made during Roca's administration demanded capital for the 
 development and carrying out of the many railways and public 
 works which were undertaken, and also to foster the immigration 
 which then began to assume an extensive character. Two loans 
 had failed, and in view of the recent declaration of forced cur- 
 rency, further negotiations were considered difficult, if not impos- 
 sible, of realization. Dr. Pellegrini was entrusted with the mission 
 of raising a loan in Europe ; and in spite of all obstacles, and 
 contrary to all expectation, he succeeded in accomplishing the 
 task. From that time the commercial community fixed their 
 attention upon the rising statesman, who had been regarded 
 hitherto as a mere pohtician. Upon his return from Europe, in 
 
APPENDIX. 365 
 
 1885, he was again appointed War Minister, from which post he 
 was raised to the Vice Presidency of the Republic as a colleague 
 of Juarez Caiman. His journal Sud America was one of the 
 ablest advocates of the policy of the unicato, and was almost the 
 only journal which was not suppressed during the July Revolu- 
 tion. Notwithstanding that Dr. Pellegrini had, in obedience to 
 the dictates of the chief of his party, publicly avowed his resolution 
 to abstain from all participation in the future administration, the 
 events of that period overcame his resistance, and he was borne in 
 the arms of the people to the Presidential Chair. After the ces- 
 sation of the popular festivities following the Revolution, his 
 lurking enemies crept out and revealed themselves ; they were the 
 commercial and political crises and the opposition of the Cham- 
 bers. The difficulties which confronted the new and popular 
 President were such as, perhaps, no human being could hope to 
 overcome. 
 
APPENDIX C. 
 
 GLOSSARY OF SPANISH WORDS AND PHRASES. 
 
 a la coniision de obras publicas, 
 to the Public Works Commis- 
 sioners. 
 
 a la espectaiwa, in a state of 
 expectancy. 
 
 a la moda inglesa, English fashion. 
 
 a lucirse, senores, show yourselves 
 off, gentlemen. 
 
 abpgado, lawyer. 
 
 acta, minutes. 
 
 acuerdo, agreement. 
 
 aduana, custom-house. 
 
 ah I Senora V'' es rica y yo soy 
 pobre, miiy pobre, ah, ma'am, 
 you are rich and I am poor, 
 very poor. 
 
 algibe, rain-water well. 
 
 almacen, store. 
 
 alpargatas, list and hemp shoes. 
 
 altos, upper storey. 
 
 ama de leche, wet-nurse. 
 
 amor propio, self-love. 
 
 apoyado, supported. 
 
 asado, a roast. 
 
 asesor de gobierno, Govt, assessor. 
 
 asunto, affair. 
 
 atado, packet. 
 
 atorrante, tramp, vagabond. 
 
 autores no fueron habidos, authors 
 
 were not caught. 
 avenida, avenue. 
 azotea, flat roof. 
 
 B 
 
 bajos, ground floor. 
 
 ballenera, sailing-boat. 
 
 barullo, muddle, discord. 
 
 basura, dust, refuse. 
 
 bicho, insect. 
 
 bieiies, property, possessions. 
 
 bife, beef-steak. 
 
 billetes, bank-notes. 
 
 bochornoso asunto, disgraceful 
 
 affair. 
 buen muchacho, a jolly fellow. 
 burro, ass. 
 
 cabeza, head. 
 cabildo, townhall. 
 calabozo, cell. 
 calk, street. 
 camp, country. 
 campear, to hunt after. 
 campesino, countryman. 
 
 366 
 
GLOSSARY OF SPANISH WORDS AND PHRASES. 367 
 
 campitos, little camps. 
 
 cana, white rum. 
 
 cancha de pelota, enclosure for 
 playing pelota, 
 
 carnicero, butcher. 
 
 carpeta, case. 
 
 can-eras, races. 
 
 cartera, portfolio. 
 
 caso concrete, concrete case. 
 
 caucion, security. 
 
 centra, centre. 
 
 centra agricola, agricultural colony. 
 
 changador, porter. 
 
 charlar, to chaff. 
 
 cheripd, a gaucho garment. 
 
 chicharras, harvest fly. 
 
 china, Indian. 
 
 chorizo, pork-sausages. 
 
 cigarillos tiegros, black cigarettes. 
 
 cocinera, cook. 
 
 comedor, dining-room. 
 
 comerciante, merchant. 
 
 comisaria, police station. 
 
 camisario, commissary, police 
 
 commissioner. 
 compadreando, playing the rowdy. 
 compadres, roughs, rowdies. 
 confiteria, confectioner's shop. 
 conforme, agreed. 
 considerandos, considerations. 
 contadar, accountant. 
 contrato de concesion, contract of 
 
 concession. 
 conventillo, low lodging-house. 
 capita, "tot." 
 criollo, Creole. 
 cuadra, square, block. 
 cuarta, extra horse. 
 cuarteador, rider of ditto. 
 cuartas, rooms. 
 
 D 
 
 despachanie de aduana, custom 
 
 house clerk. 
 despacho de bebidas, dram-shop. 
 dicidmen, report, judgment. 
 dieta, stipend. 
 dignidad del hombre, dignity of 
 
 man. 
 discurso, discourse 
 
 embramar, to humbug. 
 
 empapelamienta, papering. 
 
 empapelar, to paper. 
 
 empresario, lessee, manager. 
 
 en el acta, in the act. 
 
 en esias dias, in these days. 
 
 entrada general, admission. 
 
 entusiasmo frenetica, frantic en- 
 thusiasm. 
 
 escribania, scrivener's office. 
 
 escribano, scrivener. 
 
 escriturada, written out. 
 
 escudo, shield. 
 
 espediente, expedient, bill. 
 
 esquina, corner. 
 
 estd al informe del asesor, it awaits 
 the assessor's report. 
 
 estancia, cattle farm. 
 
 estanciera, cattle breeder. 
 
 estragos, effects. 
 
 fallado, sentenced. 
 farol, lantern, lamp. 
 fiambrero, sausage-seller. 
 fiesta, feast, holiday. 
 fomento, foment. 
 fonda, inn. 
 fronton, pelota-court. 
 
368 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 gaucho, man of the plains. 
 gefe de cargas, goods manager. 
 gobierno de guerra, govt, of force. 
 gran premio, great prize. 
 gringo, foreigner. 
 
 H 
 
 hecho, act, deed, fact. 
 htjos dd pais, natives. 
 hisioria, history. 
 hostelero, hotel-keeper. 
 
 I 
 
 imponente, troublesome. 
 imponerse, to impose one's self. 
 individuo, individual. 
 Indole, temperament. 
 informe, report. 
 intendencia, mayoralty. 
 intendente, mayor. 
 interesado, interested party. 
 inutilizar, to destroy. 
 
 la autoridad, the authorities. 
 la semana que viene, next week. 
 labrada, raised, written. 
 labrador, farm labourer. 
 letrina, w.c. 
 lista, list, inenu. 
 local, place, store. 
 
 M 
 machete, a short sword. 
 maiiana, to-morrow. 
 manicomio, madhouse. 
 mat'e, Paraguay tea. 
 
 mayoral, c9nductor. 
 medico, doctor. 
 mercado, market. 
 mirador, skylight. 
 viozo, waiter. 
 
 N 
 7iegocio, business, transaction. 
 
 O 
 
 b saben mas que nosotros 6 se van 
 a clavar las ingleses. Either the 
 English know more than we 
 do, or they are going to be 
 let in. 
 
 oficial mayor, chief clerk. 
 
 ojo ! ojo I que aqui hay que andar 
 con pie de plotno ! Ojo ! gj-aii 
 negocion ! sin base ! Hi ! hi ! 
 ^^''alk by with leaden feet 
 (pause here). Hi ! splendid 
 business. No up-set price. 
 
 orina, urine. 
 
 oro sonante, coined gold. 
 
 pacta de retroventa, deed of re- 
 sale. 
 
 pagare, bill. 
 
 pampero, storm, hurricane. 
 
 panalista, member of the P.A.N. 
 (National Autonomist Party). 
 
 pantano, bog. 
 
 papelitos sucios, dirty bits of paper. 
 
 para trabar una lucha, to make 
 a quarrel. 
 
 parte, statement, party. 
 
 partera, midwife. 
 
 partido, party, district. 
 
GLOSSARY OF SPANISH WORDS AND PHRASES. 369 
 
 pasado fitanana, day after to- 
 morrow. 
 
 iiaseo, promenade. 
 
 patenie, patent, tax. 
 
 patio, courtyard. 
 
 patrocinar, to patronize. 
 
 pensionista, boarder. 
 
 pero, se davaron, but they were 
 sold. 
 
 piedrita, a little stone. 
 
 plantado, planted. 
 
 plaza, square. 
 
 policia, police. 
 
 poncho, shawl. 
 
 porque un zonzo hace aen, because 
 one fool makes many. 
 
 procesado, proceeded against. 
 
 prodama, proclamation. 
 
 procurador, attorney. 
 
 protesta, protest. 
 
 proyecto de ley, project of law. 
 
 puchero, a Spanish dish. 
 
 pueblo, country town. 
 
 pulperia, camp drinking-bo oth. 
 
 Q 
 
 quinta, a country house. 
 
 R 
 
 razon sodal, a firm. 
 recomendado, recommended. 
 rejas, iron bars. 
 rematador, auctioneer. 
 remote, auction. 
 
 rubrica, a flourish after one's 
 signature. 
 
 sola, parlour. 
 
 secretaria, secretary's office. 
 
 sinfalta, without fail. 
 sbdo activo, active member. 
 solidtud, petition. 
 sujeto, subject. 
 suplente, substitute. 
 
 tasador, valuer. 
 
 tenga compasion, setior, por amor 
 
 de Dios, have compassion, sir, 
 
 for God's sake. 
 testamentaria, will case. 
 tienda, store. 
 todos van robando menos yo, 
 
 everybody robs except me. 
 tomar cartas en el asunto, to take 
 
 proceedings in the matter. 
 tramites, proceedings. 
 tranquera, gate, palisade. 
 transeunte, wayfarer. 
 trayedo, a surveyed track. 
 triste, sad. 
 tropilla, herd, troop. 
 
 U 
 un gran tipo, all a character. 
 unicato, the one and only. 
 utilidad pi'Mica, public utility. 
 
 V 
 vaca lediera, milch cow. 
 vale, an acknowledgment, or 
 
 I. o. u. 
 
 valorizar, to appreciate. 
 
 vara, a Spanish measure equal to 
 
 ■87 of a metre. 
 variedades, varieties. 
 velorio, w.c. 
 
 B B 
 
2>7o 
 
 ARGENTINA AND THE ARGENTINES. 
 
 verdurero, greengrocer. 
 
 viandas d domicilio, meals sent 
 home. 
 
 vijilante, policeman. 
 
 villa, village, hamlet. 
 
 vino, wine. 
 
 vista, view, stage of official pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 vivas, hurrahs. 
 
 vocales, voters. 
 
 Y 
 ya que se ha apagado el gran farol 
 
 para que sirve apagar los mios 1 
 seeing that the Big Lamp is 
 extinguished, what purpose will 
 it serve to extinguish my gig 
 lamps ? 
 
 ya se fue el burro, at last the 
 donkey has gone. 
 
 yunta, pair. 
 
 zaguan, lobby. 
 
 zarzuela, a dramatic performance, 
 part of which is sung. 
 
 Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and Laidoi. 
 
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