Nevin O. Winter

“ These two fruits, together with the Mendoza grape, are the finest kinds. It used to be that one could buy a week’s supply of vegetables for a small sum, and meat for almost a song, but prices, except for meats, are now almost as high as in our own city markets. A noisy, bustling, motley crowd of people of all sizes and colours fill the aisles. Buxom cooks, pretty Italian girls and vendors with their enormous baskets jostle against each other. To watch the bantering is a source of endless amusement. ”

“ It is a place of contrariety. The contrast between light and shade and the different colours is very marked. There is no delicate and gentle shading of tints. There may be a black wall surmounted by the clear white snow; near by will be other rock walls, pinnacles or spires of green, violet, pink, blue or yellow. It is as though nature had set up a great kaleidoscope between the sun and the bulwark of rocks in order to flood this valley with colour.
When I crossed the Andes it was just a few weeks before the tunnel was opened to traffic. ”

“ Vegetation gradually disappears on the upward journey, and the most of the streams contain water unfit to drink. Soon the giant cliffs and crags of Aconcagua tower over the traveller, a great mass of rock rising like the battlements of some stupendous castle. Its vast proportions are bewildering to the pygmy onlooker. Amidst this amphitheatre of peaks and valleys it would seem was the arena of one of the early-world dramas ages and ages ago. The cold becomes greater and more acute as more lofty heights are reached, especially so just before daybreak. The wind is biting. ”

“ On the western side the Andes range of the Cordilleras stand out against the sky like a mighty barrier. They are a tumult of mountains ever climbing upwards, their lofty gorges choked with glaciers, their hollows holding great lakes of ice-cold blue waters, and about their bases stretch thousands of miles of forests of which only the mere edge has been explored. Thus it is that the vast extent of Patagonia offers the most extreme and the most abrupt contrasts. ”

“ Electric street cars, which carried one hundred and twenty-five million passengers last year, run in every direction, and splendid trains convey passengers to almost every part of the republic. Carriages of all kinds and taxicabs remind one of New York and London. Hotels and restaurants abound on every hand. A visit to this southern metropolis opens one’s eyes to the fact that South America is forging ahead at a much more rapid pace than we have ever dreamed.
One of the finest cemeteries of the world is the Ricoleta Cemetery, the fashionable burying place of Buenos Aires. ”

“ The Spaniards who first visited the coast of Argentina, and sailed up the broad and imposing river that empties into the Atlantic Ocean, were so impressed with the outlook and prospects, that they named the country Argentina, which means silvery or silver-like, and bestowed upon the majestic stream the name Rio de La Plata, which means river of silver. When their prospectors failed to find the great deposits of gold and silver, which had been described to them by the natives, this province lost much of its importance, and soon dwindled into comparative insignificance. ”

“ The Camp is a vast plain. It spreads its smooth, unbroken surface for hundreds of miles, with no natural hillock higher than those which the termite ants have erected, and no [49] depression more marked than those which the huge cart-wheels have cut in the loose surface soil. It can best be characterized as an ocean of land, spreading out like an unruffled sea from horizon to horizon. Here and there, in the distance, objects may seem to arise out of this vast expanse like little islands at sea, and the illusion at times seems almost perfect. ”

“ The gong strikes, the Argentinians who have gathered to see their friends away on this long journey wave their adieus and the train slowly pulls out without the clanging of an engine bell, with which these British locomotives are not provided. The passengers are all leisurely in their preparations for the journey, and one will seldom see the spectacle of a woman grabbing a box in one hand and a struggling child in the other and rushing frantically for her car. There is usually plenty of room, and whether there is or not the passenger takes his own time. ”

“ There are almost a million and a quarter of these busy people who make their homes in Buenos Aires. In the New World it is exceeded in population by only three cities of the United States. It is as cosmopolitan as New York, and is the hub and centre of the whole republic. On the vast pampas grow the grain and meat which sustain the energies of the factory workers of Europe, who, in turn, send to Argentina the product of their looms and machine shops. ”

“ They are so great that they must be viewed from several points before their full magnitude dawns upon the traveller. They plunge out of the hidden recesses of the forest in many places, for numerous islands have been formed which are now densely wooded. Nature here seems to have revelled in perfect abandon in producing this wonderful spectacle. It is like another Niagara set out in the midst of a wilderness, where the hand of man has done nothing to add to or detract from what nature has here prepared for the delectation of mankind. ”

“ There is an aristocracy in Argentina as in all countries. The real aristocrat here, as in other Spanish countries, is the pure-blooded Castilian, who follows unfalteringly the traditions of his native land, and who prides himself more upon the accomplishments of the past than upon anything his family or race have done in modern times. The greater aristocracy, however, is not an aristocracy of the old Spanish régime, such as one will find in Chile or Peru, but a more recent upper ten based upon wealth. ”

“ For several hundred miles after leaving Buenos Aires the country is as level as a barn floor, and the train traverses fertile fields in which wheat, corn and grazing lands alternate. One will pass through corn fields miles in length and then wheat fields still larger; and following these the alfalfa pasture will extend clear to the horizon, with immense herds of cattle dotting it until, in the distance, where earth and sky meet, the largest animals appear as mere specks on the landscape. ”

“ It has always seemed to me sad to contemplate a girl’s life in these Latin lands. No sooner has one crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico than the restrictions upon a woman’s freedom become evident, and these same customs extend clear to the “Land of Fire,” at the southernmost limits of South America. Not only are the little girls held in a species of bondage, but in later years they miss that care-free, happy period of American girls in their early “teens,” when every one considers it a privilege and pleasure to contribute to their enjoyment. ”

“ There are the same workmen laying asphalt streets, the same gangs of builders and labourers tearing down buildings and laying foundations for great business structures, or demolishing rows of houses to make way for new avenues or squares. Everywhere the city is expanding. It already covers an area four times as large as Manhattan Island, three times larger than Berlin and more than twice that of Paris.
The Spanish people love the beautiful, and that same trait is observed in Argentina. There are many beautiful plazas in Buenos Aires, as well as several free public parks and gardens. ”

“ It is a shame, for youth does not need these artificial aids and the evil effects are seen in the complexions of those of maturer years. This beauty of youth is more evanescent than with American girls, and the girl of even twenty has oftentimes begun to fade, and at thirty she is decidedly matronly in appearance.
Love and religion are the only two things that a Spanish woman should concern herself about, according to the theory of that land, and the same sentiment permeates even the childish amusements. Love and lovers run through all the childish rhymes of the children of Spanish-America. ”

“ In one are the offenders of the Argentine army, and in the other several hundred criminals, many of whom are the very dregs of humanity sent down here from Buenos Aires. Here in this unknown quarter of the globe, guarded by a few score of armed men, these unfortunates work on the roads, dress stone for new and stronger walls, or make the coarse garments worn by the prisoners. Few attempt to escape, and fewer still succeed, for the loneliness and desolation alone would keep a prisoner where human companionship might be found. ”

“ The seal of Spain is upon everything that she has touched. The Spaniard has left his religion, language, and social creed all over the New World south of the Rio Grande, and his mark can be traced upon face, laws and landscape. ”

“ The gaucho of Argentina is generally of mixed blood. The blood may have become mixed centuries back, when the first Spaniards came to this country, but it still shows in his swarthy features. For centuries these people have lived an easy-going, care-free [68] existence on the great plains of that republic. If there is one thing the gaucho loves, it is his freedom, and it is difficult to accustom him to the restraint that becomes necessary as development and private ownership proceed. In the centuries past the gauchos have always been engaged in the wars and revolutions which were common. ”

“ He is so to his horse or mule, he can view the cruelties of the bull-fight with enthusiasm, but his voice softens in speaking to a child. In fact the children are often petted and humoured too much, and the affection lavished upon them becomes a passion. And yet these bewitching little people are never unmindful of the simple courtesies of life. They learn the amenities of speech almost from the cradle. Ask some little fellow in Spanish America his name, and he will probably roll out a long name, such as Jesus Antonio Martinez y Alcorta, “at the service of God and yourself.” ”

“ The Camp is the mainspring of Argentine prosperity. The marble palace of the millionaire, as well as the mud hovel of the immigrant, has to thank this rich soil of the campo for its foundation. It is upon this land that the republic has grown and prospered. Its eccentricities and its products are watched with all the anxiety usually lavished upon a baby by anxious parents; and it is a pretty big infant, for the Camp comprises millions upon millions of fertile acres. ”

“ The barriers created by nature are impassable without the massive and forbidding walls erected by man. To the south is the unknown Antarctic, to the north the impassable barrier of snow-clad peaks, and in all other directions the fathomless channels separating, it from the other islands. With the exception of the irregular trip of a small steamer from Punta Arenas and an occasional visit from an Argentine warship, this little settlement is unvisited, and not even a telephone or telegraph wire keeps it in communication with the world. ”

“ It is not a rare thing for a President or other high official to quit public life after many years of service poorer than he went in. President Bartolomé Mitre was one of the more recent types of that kind, as he bore a reputation for financial integrity that was absolutely above reproach. The country is becoming too big for petty graft and petty revolutions. The increasing importance of the nation has rather sobered all classes by a feeling of responsibility for its reputation. The spirit that formerly showed itself in revolutions now occasionally makes itself felt in disorder during strikes. ”

“ A splendid freighter just in from Europe and loaded with champagne, automobiles and other luxuries may lie next to a river boat just in from Paraguay and loaded with oranges and bananas. Giant cranes are swinging, heaped-up trucks are constantly on the move and men are carrying loads backward and forward. Here are vessels from all the carrying nations of the world, flying the flags of Germany, Italy, France, Great Britain, Spain and Austria, but the flag of the United States is not visible. ”

“ Thus runs the nursery rhyme about the chief of the larger army of the vulture tribe, which is common in the states adjacent to the Andes. Seen against the pale blue of the sky, swerving in graceful circles at a great height amidst the inner solitudes of the Andine peaks, its stately flight and grand spread of motionless wing make it seem like a noble bird. On a nearer view it shares the repulsive appearance of all birds that feed on dead animal flesh. ”

“ The more picturesque attributes of a Spanish civilization have almost disappeared beneath the spirit of modernism in Buenos Aires. The development of social grades all over the republic has been rapid and has kept pace with the opening up of new lands. It is possible even now to watch this development, which is still in process of evolution in the newer communities. A material prosperity has sometimes overwhelmed the other virtues and inherited characteristics. Any way to make money is the aim of the Argentinian, and an aristocracy of money has grown up. ”

“ The risks of the revolutionists too are greater in a nation of nearly seven million people than formerly, when there were not one-fourth that number, and a country in which prosperity and education have made great strides. Furthermore, there is the feeling on the part of the Argentinians that their country is on its way to take its place as one of the great nations of the earth, and this idea has undoubtedly sobered them somewhat. There are, no doubt, many, even to-day, who enter politics with no other purpose than to enrich themselves. ”