BUENOS AIRES AND ITS RIVER OF SILVER 



A Journey Up the Parana and Paraguay to the Chaco 



Cattle Country 



By William R. Barbour 



AS YOUR ship, at the end of its 



f\ seven-thousand-mile journey from 

 J \ New York, breasts the current of 

 the majestic Rio de la Plata, and the 

 white buildings of Buenos Aires appear 

 low in the west before you, you are, per- 

 haps, disappointed especially so if you 

 have stopped en route at Rio de Janeiro 

 and been privileged to view its fairy-like 

 setting, with the mountains girt about it 

 and the blue Atlantic laving its curving 

 shore-line. 



Like a person of retiring nature, 

 whom you must know long and well to 

 appreciate, Buenos Aires reveals itself 

 little by little to you and twines itself 

 about your heart, till ere long, and so 

 gradually that you have not realized it, its 

 subtle charm has made a lasting conquest. 



Your first view shows great white grain 

 elevators in rows along the shore, with 

 one skyscraper of fourteen stories loom- 

 ing up behind them. The great size of 

 the city is not evident, for the land is flat 

 and the warehouses and office buildings 

 close to the busy docks hide all that lies 

 behind. 



A CITY WITH NO SLUMS 



Nearly every traveler is impressed first 

 of all by the cleanliness of the capital of 

 the Argentine Republic. The industries 

 of the city are confined largely to port 

 activities and trading. Partly for this 

 reason and partly because Argentina has 

 no coal, and hence cannot manufacture 

 cheaply, hideous chimneys and smoke- 

 grimed factories are not numerous. There 

 are no slums. Naturally, there are dis- 

 tricts of poverty, but the tenement, as we 

 know it, does not exist. In even the 

 poorest quarters, such as the "Boca," the 

 streets are clean and well paved, and the 

 houses, only one or two stories high, all 

 have patios behind them. The houses are 

 tinted cream white or yellowish tan and 

 face directly on the streets, with blank or 

 nearly blank walls. 



One drawback to the older part of the 

 city is the narrowness of the streets, and 

 especially the sidewalks, which are often 

 three feet or less from wall to curb. 

 There is no excuse for this, for when the 

 city was laid out, the whole vast expanse 

 of the pampas lay open behind it. The 

 newer streets are much wider, often with 

 a ribbon of shrubbery and grass down the 

 center. 



Buenos Aires is roughly circular in 

 shape and of immense size, covering some 

 seventy-five square miles. Two of its 

 sides are formed by the Rio de la Plata 

 (so wide that it seems like a muddy sea) 

 and a small stream, the Riachuelo. Along 

 both of these, but principally the former, 

 are the numerous docks, basins, and 

 warehouses. Avenida Rivadavia, start- 

 ing at the waterfront and running almost 

 due west, divides the city into two roughly 

 equal portions. 



Over the greater part of the city the 

 streets intersect at right angles, and it 

 would be a very easy place in which to 

 find one's way around were it not for the 

 fact that the streets are all named instead 

 of numbered, most of the names being 

 historical or geographical. Every coun- 

 try in the world has a street named for it, 

 and every Argentine president, general, 

 or other important personage. Another 

 habit is to name streets for dates, of 

 which there are several roughly corre- 

 sponding to our Fourth of July. Thus 

 there are Avenida de Mayo, Calle 25 de 

 Mayo, Paseo de Julio, and Parque de las 

 Tres de Febrero. 



AVENIDA DE MAYO, THE CHIEF ARTERY OF 

 THE CITY 



Much of the city is uninteresting, con- 

 sisting of block after block of low plaster- 

 covered brick buildings and innumerable 

 small almacencs (groceries), cervecerias 

 (beer saloons), cafes (coffee-houses; 

 here a cafe is not a restaurant, as in 

 United States), cigarrcrias, and loterias 

 (shops where lottery tickets are sold). 



393 



