98 To the River Plate and Back 



and saw some of the prettier suburbs of the city to the 

 northeast. We came back in the last glow of the even- 

 ing, while the stars began to twinkle above and the 

 brilliant electric lights of the avenues responded below. 

 It was time to think of dining. We found a good hotel 

 and enough to refresh the inner man. The service was 

 excellent, the viands palatable, and after our rather 

 strenuous efforts to obtain a general idea of the city 

 and its principal attractions it was good to rest. After 

 dinner we peeped into a theater, where we did not tarry, 

 as my companions confessed that they were not suffi- 

 ciently 'long on Spanish' to enjoy the play. One of 

 them suggested that he preferred billiards, and the 

 second of the two assenting, we went to a place where 

 the game was being played. It was a large hall with 

 a score or more of tables. I obtained a comfortable 

 chair and an evening paper, and while my comrades 

 punched the ivory balls, I read the news, puffed my 

 cigar, watched the crowd of players, and kept my eye 

 upon the clock. Everything was orderly. There 

 appeared to be no betting, but of this I cannot be 

 absolutely certain. Beer was being dispensed to the 

 thirsty at small tables. The people in the room were 

 genteel in dress, looking no different from similar gath- 

 erings in New York and Paris, save that here and there 

 was a man whose costume showed that he was a gaucho 

 from the country. My shipmate who had proposed 

 this diversion was an Australian. He said that he had 

 been a sheep-rancher in that land of the antipodes, and 

 now struck up an acquaintance with a man who was 

 engaged in the same business in Uruguay. His pleasure 

 was apparently unbounded. ' I tell you this is a great 

 country!' he exclaimed. "This is a sheep country, 

 and sheep countries are all right. That man I was talk- 



