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Birdseye Views of Far Lands

<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2> <h3>The Wonderful Argentine Republic</h3> The wonderful Argentine Republic is a little world in itself. Take all the United States east of the Mississippi river, add the state of Texas, place them in the Argentine Republic and there will be room for more. Here you can find some of the highest and most rugged mountains and then you can travel two thousand miles and hardly find a hill worthy of the name. From the torrid heat of the north you can go to the cold, bleak glacial regions of the south, all in Argentine. The seasons are just the opposite from ours. July is their coldest month and the hottest time in the year is in January. The north side of the house is the sunny side. In the Argentine there are some of the finest forest regions imaginable and then you can travel a thousand miles across level plains and never see a tree. The southern part of Argentina used to be called Patagonia. This is the Alaska of South America. The extreme southern point is the island of Tierra del Fuego, which is divided between Argentina and Chile. Argentina's part of the island is as large as the state of Massachusetts. Argentina has nearly five hundred million acres of ground that can be cultivated and this great area is extended over well watered plains, all of which are so accessible to the sea that the simplest railway construction is all that is necessary. Of this vast area only about one-fifth has as yet been cultivated or brought within the present railway area. At present the country has less than one-tenth as many miles of railway as the United States and what they have is practically under English control. Engines and cars are all of English pattern. American locomotive works make engines for some of these lines, but everyone of them must be made strictly according to the English pattern. One-fifth of the eight million people in the Argentine live in Buenos Aires, the capital city. This city is the Paris of South America and is one of the great cities of the world. Here can be seen more extravagance perhaps than in any other city in the world. The advertised rates in the best hotels are from twelve to sixty dollars per day and these hotels are nearly always crowded. The writer attended a luncheon given by the United States Chamber of Commerce at the Hotel Plaza. The price was three dollars and a half per plate; there was scarcely anything to eat and the waiters expected a dollar tip from each man. These people buy their clothes in Paris and are only satisfied with the latest fashion. They drink French liquor in French style and demand the best Parisian comedy and opera in their theaters. The Colon theater is finer than anything in New York, and rivals any playhouse in Europe. It seats thirty-seven hundred and fifty people and I am told that a man cannot get in unless he is dressed in an evening suit. Buenos Aires boasts of the greatest newspaper on the globe and surely no other paper rivals it when it comes to service to its patrons. That paper is the La Prensa and it is housed in a beautiful building. The office of its editor in chief makes one think of a king's palace. This paper provides a company of the best physicians and surgeons who minister to all who apply free of charge. Its expert lawyers give council and advice free, its skilled teachers of music instruct all who enter one or more of the five series of classes. The prizes given annually by this journal for altruistic acts and deeds of heroism are worth a large sum. The chemical, industrial and agricultural bureaus are a boon to those interested in such subjects. This city also has the greatest race tracks in any land and the weekly races are generally attended by from thirty to fifty thousand people. The money bet on a single day's races often runs into hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the Jockey Club that owns the race tracks is so rich that it is embarrassing to get its money spent. Of all the cemeteries the writer ever visited, the aristocratic burying ground in Buenos Aires caps the climax. To be laid away in this ground costs a fortune. The tombs, many of them, are above the ground and nearly every family tomb is a little chapel. Here the living friends gather on certain days, visit, drink tea, and smoke cigarettes with coffins all around them. In many of these tombs chairs are always in order with flowers arranged, kept so by the servants of the tomb. There are thirty-six public markets in the city, some of which are very large. The wool market alone covers thirty acres of ground and the iron and steel building cost four million dollars. In it are seventy-two cranes and elevators and fifty million pounds of wool can be stored at one time. Not far from this building is another almost as large where the sheep are killed. The arrangements are so complete and the men so skilled that it is said a single man has killed as many as six thousand sheep in a day. Buenos Aires is a city of locked doors. People never think of leaving their homes even for a few moments without locking the doors. If a business house or hotel has a rug at the door on which to wipe the shoes it will be chained fast. Stealing and pilfering is carried on extensively all over the city. Shippers claim that there is an international organization for stealing at the port cities all along the coast and it is hard to get at. In one shipment of thirty automobiles twenty-nine of the boxes had been opened and the set of tools taken. It is the custom at that factory to pack the set of tools in a certain corner of the case. A hole was cut exactly in the right place and the set of tools neatly taken out. In two instances that I was told about a drygoods firm had shipments opened and ten thousand dollars worth of silks and velvets taken. Near the city is said to be the largest dairy in the world. They milk seven thousand cows and this is done with the latest and most up-to-date machinery. At an annual stock show recently the crowds were so dense that men paid five dollars each to get near enough to the judges to see them do their work. The sale at the close was attended by five thousand people. The champion shorthorn bull sold for more than forty thousand dollars of American money. The champion Hereford sold for $32,737.00 and a two-year-old bull sold for $23,643.00. One ram sold for more than four thousand dollars. The Argentine could be made a great sugar producing country, but for some reason this industry is not being developed very rapidly. During the war special inducements were offered but the 1919 crop was but little more than that of 1913. There are only forty-three mills and refineries in the whole country and the surplus for exportation for 1919 was only three hundred thousand tons and that is insignificant when one thinks of the possibilities of this great industry. But one can hardly think of Argentina without thinking of cattle ranches and wheat fields. It is in these industries that she shines. She now has thirty million head of cattle, but strange as it may seem she had as many ten years ago. She has thirty million sheep which makes her the greatest wool producing country on earth except Australia and if I am correctly informed she is not far behind that country. In Argentina the country is called "Elcampo" and the large farms "Estancias." These great estancias often consist of thousands of acres. A single one of them is said to be as large as the state of Rhode Island. The owners generally have good houses but do not live in them much of the time. They are in Buenos Aires, or traveling in Europe, and their children are in the colleges and universities. A number of overseers look after the farm but the work is largely done by foreigners, mostly Italians. Their lives are far from easy. The homes of these workers are generally made of mud. The floors are often nothing but the bare ground. These people are generally called colonists and work the soil on shares. They are in debt to start on; the overseers generally manipulate things so that they often never do get out of debt. The poor man's children do not have much in common with those of the rich. They are generally kept entirely separate from each other. While the cities are filled with beautiful parks and clinging roses are nearly everywhere, yet I never saw a country town with any thing beautiful in sight. The streets of these towns are either mud holes or dust piles, no work whatever being done upon them. The houses and stores are one-story buildings and often look like hovels. The one exception is the railroad station and often that is quite well kept. There are no four-wheeled wagons like ours in this country. All the hauling is done on large lumbersome carts often pulled by oxen. But they sure load them heavy; how they get so much stuff on them is a mystery. Much of the farming is slovenly done. While England produces thirty bushels of wheat per acre the rich fields of Argentine only produce eleven bushels per acre. This is but little more than half as much per acre as is raised in Saskatchewan and Argentine soil is fully as rich as Canadian grain fields. I crossed the great Argentine plain in October. Wheat was just beginning to head. Corn planting was in progress. Alfalfa fields were green while both trees and flowers were in bloom. But in riding six hundred miles without a hill, or tree except those planted by the hands of man, the journey soon became monotonous. Thousands of acres were almost covered with cattle and sheep. On Sunday men and women were in the fields almost the same as any other day. At the towns almost the entire population came down to see the International train go through. This train only runs twice a week. The young women were dressed in their best but they were never with the young men. They would parade up and down the platform while the young men would go in the other direction and the lads and lassies hardly seemed to notice each other. The train ran almost on the dot. A hotbox delayed it thirty minutes on one occasion but it was carefully watched. At every stop for hours the train would hardly come to a standstill before a couple of men were at that box. The engines have no bells on them and the whistle is blown just before the train starts rather than before it stops as in our country. The train was largely made up of sleepers and a diner. The cars were quite comfortable. The berths are crosswise rather than lengthwise as in our sleepers. Everything on this train, however, from fare to eats was very expensive. On many of the larger farms the better breeds of stock are being raised, agricultural schools are springing up and scientific farming is being talked about. The government is taking a hand along many lines. Some of the great estancias are being divided and subdivided. The Welch people have a large settlement where better methods are being introduced. The Jews have a large colony and even the Italians are looking forward to a better day. Men from this country are entering in small numbers but with ideas that will revolutionize things, and especially the school house. An Englishman truly said: "Wherever the Germans go you find the arsenal; wherever the French go you find the railroad; wherever the British go you find the custom house, but wherever the Americans go you find the school house." <hr /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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