A Trip to Tucuman 273 



startled me by telling me, that, while I could get a room 

 in the house, I would have to go elsewhere for my meals, 

 as the hotel was closed in part, and the chef and the 

 waiters had all been dismissed the week before. I 

 resolved, nevertheless, to inspect the house. I found 

 I had not been misinformed as to its character. The 

 building is large, the room offered me was as good as I 

 could have obtained in the best hotel in New York, and 

 there was a fine bath-room connected with it, which in 

 view of the heat and the dust which had settled into 

 every pore, led me promptly to decide that wherever 

 I might take my meals, this was the place for me. The 

 sight of a neatly tiled bath-room, and an immaculate 

 porcelain tub resolved all doubts on the instant. When 

 the dust of the journey had been washed away, I felt as 

 I imagine King Naaman must have felt after he had 

 obeyed the prophet and taken his plunge into the Jor- 

 dan. The owner of this fine new hotel in Tucuman is 

 the owner of two large and successful hotels in Mon- 

 tevideo. His reason for closing the house in the north 

 is probably the same which leads the proprietors of 

 hotels in Florida not to keep them open in the summer 

 season. The people about the hotel had no reason to 

 assign for the closing of the dining-room, except that 

 they had received orders to do so. A relative of the 

 proprietor who seemed to be in charge, and who is an 

 English lady, said to me of the owner, 'E is makin' 

 lots o' money in Montevideo, but I don't know 'ow it 

 is up 'ere, tambien; it 's not for the loikes o' us to be 

 givin' 'im adwice, tambien; 'e knows 'is hown biznis, 

 tambien.' Her use of the Spanish word "tambien" to 

 interlard her sentences very much as "Selah" is employed 

 in the Psalms, was delicious. 



I discovered that I would have to take my meals at a 



18 



