La Plata 109 



capable of holding vessels drawing twenty feet, was 

 constructed at the upper end of the channel within the 

 limits of the proposed city. Plans for the latter were 

 drawn after the model of Washington. The streets 

 were staked out and an army of workmen was employed 

 to grade and pave them. The necessary funds to con- 

 struct public buildings were secured by the issue of 

 bonds, the credit of the province being pledged for their 

 payment, and their erection was commenced at once. 

 No detail was omitted. In addition to the buildings 

 necessary to house the government offices, provision 

 was made for a theater, for a zoological garden, a 

 system of parks, an astronomical observatory, a uni- 

 versity, a museum, a cathedral, in short everything 

 deemed requisite to the life of a large urban community. 

 Rapidly growing trees were planted along the newly 

 planned streets and avenues. The officials of the 

 province were informed that they must make the new 

 city their home. The work was quickly done, and the 

 town sprang up like a mushroom over night. During 

 the early years of its existence there was a great deal of 

 criticism. Many of the officials preferred to live in 

 Buenos Aires, and only stayed in La Plata during office- 

 hours. The growth of population was slow at first. 

 Grass grew up in the streets. Visitors to Argentina in 

 recording their impressions of the country slyly derided 

 the "fiat city," and contrasted it unfavorably with the 

 great metropolis with its hundreds of thousands of 

 inhabitants a few miles away. One of my good friends, 

 a Professor in Princeton University, when he learned 

 that I was going to La Plata, where he had spent six 

 months about ten years ago, informed me that I had a 

 novel experience before me. 'You will find a city 

 with enough grass growing in its thoroughfares to feed 



