La Plata 121 



had, as we say in the United States, a very substantial 

 1 boom, ' which is not yet over. 



From Madame Nelson, the charming and accom- 

 plished wife of the Professor, and from various members 

 of the Faculty of the College, we received a pleasant 

 welcome, and soon found ourselves at table surrounded 

 by groups of manly young fellows, whose faces recalled 

 days long gone, when we were students, and had lunched 

 and dined in just such comradeship. If youth derives 

 a quickening impulse from contact with those of maturer 

 years, it is equally true that those of advancing years 

 find pleasure and profit from mingling with those who 

 are young. It was an inspiring sight to sit at table and 

 look around over the company of fine young men which 

 was gathered in- the dining-hall. They represented the 

 hopes of the best families in the republic. The com- 

 posite nature of the population of Argentina revealed 

 itself in the study of the faces before me. The lan- 

 guage in use was Spanish, but the blood of all races 

 showed itself in the countenances of the company. 

 One young fellow with ruddy complexion and flaxen 

 hair showed at first glance that he traced his descent 

 back to " Merrie England " ; another, of even fairer face, 

 that his forbears had come from Sweden; there was no 

 mistaking the Teutonic ancestry of a round- visaged, 

 sturdy lad who sat opposite me ; others showed by their 

 darker complexion and their glorious black eyes that 

 they were the inheritors of the traditions of the Latin 

 races. In some of the faces there was an even darker 

 tint, not unlovely, but attractive, which hinted at the 

 fact, that, when the land was first settled, an Indian 

 maid had consented to be wooed and won by some strong 

 man of European lineage, and had been a mother to his 

 sons. After luncheon many of these lads were intro- 



