Observations and Reflections 365 



flics. In speaking about the matter to one of my 

 Argentine acquaintances I ventured to plumply ask 

 him the question why Argentina should be apparently 

 venturing upon the very costly and burdensome under- 

 taking of purchasing and maintaining a fleet of war- 

 vessels. He answered, "We are doing it because we 

 are afraid of you." I replied, "But what reason have 

 you to fear the United States? Do you not realize 

 that there is not a rifle in our navy which would ever 

 be used except to protect and shield you in the event 

 that some grave national peril should threaten you? 

 We are your friends and not by any possibility capable 

 of becoming your enemies." To this remark he made 

 no reply. 



It was disconcerting to now and then overhear men 

 speaking of the "Yankee peril." The latter I suspect 

 is more keenly apprehended, not by the people of the 

 country themselves and their intelligent rulers, but 

 by the mercantile classes of foreign lands, temporarily 

 resident in South America, and doing business in the 

 markets. The gradual increase of the commerce of the 

 United States with these countries has to a certain ex- 

 tent aroused the jealousyand provoked the apprehension 

 of a certain element, which has long been entrenched 

 in these republics and has come to believe that it 

 possesses a rightful monopoly of their trade. But the 

 South American of Portuguese or Spanish extraction, 

 who has been for many years compelled to pay heavily 

 for the satisfaction of his w r ants, is not disposed upon 

 the discovery of the fact that he can obtain his wares 

 of equal quality at lower prices to denounce the man 

 who is thus purveying to his wants as a public enemy. 



There are other "perils," which the gentlemen of 

 the newspaper fraternity and essayists detect upon the 



