160 To the River Plate and Back 



of the South American wilds. Benjamin Franklin ex- 

 pressed a preference for the turkey as a "national bird, ' 

 but, as the fowls used on national emblems according to 

 the bellicose spirit of the past and Roman traditions 

 have always been eagles, we chose an eagle to scream for 

 us, but I do not know why our forefathers should have 

 selected and placed upon our escutcheon the miserable 

 'bald-head, " which is at best but a cowardly thief and 

 robber. If they had selected the golden-eagle it 

 would not have been so bad. The harpy-eagle is a 

 still finer bird. Of all the eagles I admire him most from 

 the artistic standpoint. 



Not very far from the grounds of the Zoological 

 Garden is the Hippodrome, or Race-course, which is 

 maintained by the Jockey Club. Horse-racing is a 

 popular pastime in Argentina and the Hippodrome is 

 one of the sights of the city. The fashionable and the 

 unfashionable, the wealthy and the poor patronize the 

 races, as they do in France, and Sunday, as in all Latin 

 lands, is the day chosen for the sport. Large sums of 

 money are won and lost at the races. The Argentines, 

 like the French, are given to gambling and games of 

 chance. The lottery flourishes among them, and on 

 the railway-trains, at the street-corners, and in the 

 shops and stores we were constantly approached by 

 venders of lottery-tickets, soliciting us to take a chance. 



We lingered long in the Zoological Garden, finding 

 much to interest us, but at last the sun began to sink 

 toward the western horizon, and we were reminded that 

 it behooved us to return to La Plata. We boarded a 

 tram-car, warranted to take us to the Plaza Constitu- 

 cion. The route lay through narrow streets lined by 

 the low houses which prevail in the residential sections 

 of the metropolis. Let not the reader imagine that the 



