La Plata 123 



four decades ago, before academic costumes had come 

 into vogue, and the pomp and ceremony which now 

 characterize such occasions had been initiated. It all 

 took me back to the days of my boyhood. There was 

 a great gathering of the friends and kinsfolk of the 

 young men. As a guest of the University I was invited 

 to a place upon the platform, and from this point of 

 vantage was able to scan the audience in which grave 

 fathers, fond mothers, and smiling senoritas composed a 

 picture upon which it was pleasant to look. It was not 

 unlike similar audiences on Commencement-day in any 

 North American college-town. There were depicted 

 in the faces before me the same anxieties, the same 

 hopes, the same pleasurable emotions, which I have seen 

 again and again on like occasions at home. All the 

 world is kin. 



The President of the University of La Plata, Dr. Joa- 

 quin V. Gonzalez, who held the position of Minister of 

 Justice and Education during the Presidency of Dr. 

 Jose Figueroa Alcorta, the immediate predecessor of 

 President Roque Saenz Pena, I discovered to be a man 

 of lofty ideals and great personal charm. He lectures 

 upon international law and diplomacy. Associated 

 with him in the Faculty is Serior Don Agustin Alvarez, 

 who likewise has held high positions in the government, 

 and lectures upon the history of public institutions. 

 For Dr. Alvarez I conceived great admiration. He is 

 a diligent student of the institutions and the literature 

 of the English-speaking peoples of to-day, as well as 

 familiar with the best thought of continental Europe 

 and his own land. I found him as ready to talk about 

 Bernard Shaw as about Shakespeare, and as thoroughly 

 acquainted with the writings of Theodore Roosevelt 

 as with those of Alexander Hamilton. He has fine 



