TOWN OF BUENOS AIRES. 



31 



and some marble vases, but they have no idea of 

 grouping their furniture into a comfortable form : 

 the ladies sit with their backs against the walls with- 

 out any apparent means of employing themselves ; 

 and when a stranger calls upon them, he is much 

 surprised to find that they have the uncourteous 

 custom of never rising from their chairs. I had 

 no time to enter into any society at Buenos Aires, 

 and the rooms looked so comfortless, that, to tell 

 the truth, I had little inclination. The society of 

 Buenos Aires is composed of English and French 

 merchants, with a German or two* The foreign 

 merchants are generally the agents of European 

 houses ; and as the customs of the Spanish South 

 Americans, their food, and the hours at which they 

 eat it, are different from those of the English and 

 French, there does not appear to be much com- 

 munication between them. 



At Buenos Aires the men and women are rarely 

 seen walking together ; at the theatre they are com- 

 pletely separated ; and it is cheerless to see all the 

 ladies sitting together in the boxes, while the men 

 are in the pit, — slaves, common sailors, soldiers, 

 and merchants, all members of the same republic. 



