CHRISTMAS AT BUENOS AIRES 121 



will be found in any New York or American store, their 

 goods being nearly all made in Europe or the United States. 

 The element of being quaint, appropriate, or tasty is en- 

 tirely lacking. Even souvenir spoons were wanting. The 

 jewelry stores were of all most disappointing, for Argen- 

 tine has no native gold, silver, or precious stones. There 

 were no pretty little objects. The silver was heavy and 

 overwrought, the gems were showy and merely big (prices 

 also). After a thorough search we found as characteristic 

 some handsome rugs made of the baby guanaco skins, and 

 sold for loo pesos each, the duplicates of what we had seen 

 everywhere on the Patagonian coast for 30 pesos. We 

 only bought a few mate cups and the bombilloes which were 

 really native. But Buenos Aires is a good place to buy the 

 fine hand-made lace which the Paraguay Indians make, 

 and there are attractive baskets made from the shell of 

 the armadillo with the tail caught in the mouth for a handle. 

 These were also made in Paraguay. 



On the twenty-ninth we left Buenos Aires by a special 

 train for La Plata, where some of the boats dock to avoid 

 the heavy harbor charges of the capital city. Though we 

 went on board at once it was nearly a full day before the 

 boat pulled away from the dock ; for Argentine was then in 

 the sway of a great dockmen's strike. These Highland 

 boats are engaged in the business of transporting refrig- 

 erated beef and mutton to England, and we were not en- 

 tirely loaded ; so all the afternoon and evening we sat and 

 watched the carcasses of mutton and quarters of beef come 

 sliding along the overhead trolleys out of the great refrig- 

 erator houses, move across the dock and down into the 

 hold, each one sewed up in a nicely fitted cheese-cloth 

 jacket, and protected by awnings all the way from the 

 buildings until in the hold. The people were not so care- 

 fully protected against the sun (presumably because they 

 were still alive). Fortunately being lightly loaded on the 

 trip out from England these boats carry their coal for both 



