'Americanos Work Too Hard, 

 Miss Pleasure/ 



Argentine Resident Describes Li^i 

 to Star Correspon<^iJ( 



(No. 2<Lpf a Series.) 



By W. H. SHIPPEN, Jr., 

 Star Staff Correspondent. 

 CORDOBA, Central Argentina..— 

 The philosophy of Senor "Nickey" is 

 not entirely of his own invention. 

 Too often I have heard the gist 



of it echoed in , :c .,,,,,,,,.... 



these parts— 

 "Ah, you North 

 Americanos, you 

 work too hard 

 to find pleasure 

 from the money 

 you make!" 



Senor Nickey 

 took time to 

 elaborate on 

 this theme while 

 tooling his 

 American auto 

 over the pam- 

 pas. The sub- 

 ject — I noticed 



with some alarm w. h. shippen, jr. 

 —was more to his interest than 

 the dust traps and pot holes of the 

 country road we were traversing. 



"What do you North Americanos 

 think of me? I am the loafer, yes? 

 The laziest bones. Today I am 

 suppose to voork at my office. I, 

 Nickey, declare the holiday. Yes- 

 terday was a holiday also, but no 

 matter! Today is a better one! 



"I say, 'Nickey, today you do not 

 ' work. You take your friends, the 

 North Americanos, to the estancia. 

 You and your friends will have fun, 

 yes. You will drive in the country, 

 row upon the lakes, look at the wild 

 birds and fishes, drink a little wine 

 and converse much, yes?" 

 "That's okay with me." 

 "Hokay!" shouted Nickey, "ho- 

 kay!" 



Just Around Lot of Corners. 



Nickey took several wrong turns 

 while we chatted. He was part 

 owner of the great estancia we were 

 bound for, but seemed to have ne- 

 glected to notice, on previous trips, 

 just where the land was located on 

 the vast plain. 



"Never fear, my franns"— Nickey 

 gave the latter word a Rooseveltian 

 pronunciation, "we will find heem, 

 yes? He's just around a lot of 

 corners ! 



"I don't worry about it! I hate 

 worry! My boss in New York, he 

 was such a big worryer ! I work for 

 heem, learning the mining business 

 —from the ground up, as you North 

 Americanos say. 



My boss, he kept worrying. 'You 

 must get to work at 9 o'clock,' he 

 would tell me, and then, 'What you 

 late again? Was the subway stuck? 

 Did you break your alarm clock?' 



"Finally I tell him no subway 

 stuck, and I don' have alarm clocks 

 on my premises. I say to heem: 



"I come to work at 10 o'clock 

 because I never get up until nine ! 



"He don't understand. I work 

 later than the others, but I nevair 

 get up until nine. My boss say, 

 'Why take so long for lunch, why 

 waste time dringing tea at 4 o'clock, 

 why smoke at work against office 

 rules' 



Hates to Hurry. 

 "I say to heem, 'That is my cus- 

 tom. I hate to work before 10 

 o'clock. I hate to hurry lunch. I 

 hate to work without tea. • I can- 

 not work without my cigarette. I 

 can't think. My boss, he finally 

 i get the idea, maybe. He compre- 

 hend South Americanos are dif- 

 ferent. Maybe that's why his com- 

 pany sell much goods here, yes?" 



The young Spaniard was quite 

 positive about his dislike for the 

 social customs he say in the states. 



"The peoples I met drink too 

 i hard, they eat too fast, they talk 

 i too loud. I hate to get drunk, I 

 hate to gulp food, I hate to shout! 

 I love to be happy ! , . . to ge gay, 

 yes?" 



"How can you manage that on 

 the long hours your business men 

 spend downtown in B. A.?" I asked. 

 "You get to the office at 9— or rather 

 10— you have two hours for lunch, 

 an hour or so for tea, and then 

 work until 7 or 8 o'clock before 

 going to the movies or theater — 

 after that there's dinner from 9 

 to 10 or later, plus a night club." 



"Ah, you Americanos," smiled 

 Nickey. "You pride yourselves on 

 *tting to work with your head 



>ar as a bell. If I come to work 

 h my head ringing like many 

 v, I say: 



ich, Nickey— oh, oh, oh ! Have 



you forgot your morning coffee? 

 Soooo! I go out and give myself 

 morning coffee— again ! It is very 

 good— our coffee, yes?" 



Has Work to Do. 



For all Nickey 's talk, he had got- 

 ten up at daylight— not 9 o'clock— 

 and driven us some 400 miles over 

 rough pampas roads, had walked 

 about the estancia, rowed a boat 

 and helped the estancia tenants 

 with the outboard engines. Get- 

 ting back into the city again, we 

 "North Americanos" were worn out. 

 Nickey delivered us at our hotel at 

 10 p.m. We asked him to come in 

 for dinner. 



"Oh, no!" he said. "I have voork 

 at the office! I hate to work after 

 dinner!" 



The virtual embargo on American 

 goods has deprived Nickey and other 

 importers of many opportunities for 

 toil. 



"But don't worry about Nickey," 

 said a business associate. "He knows 

 how to get what he wants down 

 here. If he can't get it today, he's 

 Latin enough to remember there's 

 always tomorrow ! " 



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THE LOCAL Z00~ 



(To The Editor). 



Si/,— As a lover of animals, may 

 I suggest that Dr. William Mann 

 and Mr. William Shippen should go 

 very thoroughly into the matter of 

 how the Buenos Aires Zoo is run 

 before leaving their valuable col- 

 lection of animals in the care of the 

 Zoo authorities. 



It has been admitted by the Zoo 

 authorities that vivisection is prac- 

 tised in, the premises. Hesald read- 

 ers must remember the article 

 which appeared in the Herald of 

 November 3, 1936, when strong con- 

 demnation of vivisection was made 

 by the late Dr. Roberto Dabenne, 

 the well known natural scientist, 

 who resigned his position at the 

 Zoo after twenty years' service there 

 e.s Chief of the Bird Section. Dr. 

 Adolfo Bolmberg admitted, when 

 interviewed by a Herald, representa- 

 tive, that vivisection was practised 

 at the Zoo on dogs and rabbits, but 

 Dr. Dabenne stated that in one 

 year one Russian boar, an Argen- 

 tine ostrich and various birds had 

 been tortured on the operating 

 tables, and he also said that the 

 Buenos Aires Zoo was the only one 

 of such institutions in the World 

 where vivisection was practised, and 

 suggested that it was foreign for a 

 Zoo to possess such a laboratory, 

 since its work was contrary to the 

 ideal of the institution itself, which 

 should preserve life. 



From various sources complaints 

 have been made to the Sarmiento 

 Society and the Anti-vivisection So- 

 ciety, stating that live dogs from 

 the Municipal ' Perrera ' are given 

 daily to the Bears, and an Argen- 

 tine couple, stated to a Sarmiento 

 Member that they actually saw a 

 police dog and a daschund put in 

 the Bears' cage, and said that the 

 fear of the dogs was terrible to 

 witness: they maintained that the 

 dogs are given to the Bears after 

 the Zoo closes to the public. 



It is also admitted by the Zoo 

 Authorities that the ' perrera ' sup- 

 plies dogs for vivisection purposes. | 

 It is to be hoped that Mr. Shippen, 

 special feature writer of the 

 Washington ' Evening Star' will get 

 into touch with lovers of animals 

 here, and find out how the. 'per- 

 rera ' is run by the Municipality 

 in Buenos Aires. Dogs are stolen 

 by the dog-catchers from their 

 owners' gardens, in many cases, 

 and kidnapped even when on the 

 lead. In Suburban areas it has been 

 known that dogs have been kept 

 for three days in the ' perrera, ' 

 without food or drink, because the 

 authorities- N had no place to keep 

 them— so many were captured. In 

 many cases dogs stolen by the dog- 

 catchers have had to be destroyed 

 because a suspected case of rabies 

 was in the same dog-cart, and 

 when the owners went to claim 

 them a few hours after they were 

 told that their cherished pets were 



dead. ^ 



It is suggested that both Dr. 

 Mann and Mr. Shippen might very 

 usefully go into the matter of ani- 

 mal welfare in this country, and if 

 they are real animal lovers > let the 

 World know what torture goes on 

 here, and how disgracefully animals 

 are treated. A trip to the Provinces, 

 or even the Suburbs, would open 

 their eyes to the cruelty which goes 

 on, and the utterly uncivilized 

 state of affairs as far as animals 

 are concerned. I certainly would 

 advocate a visit to the Mercado de 

 Plata, in Calle Carlos Pellegrini 

 and other Municipal Markets, where 

 the poultry are plucked alive in fur 

 view of the public: this is a sight 

 that should not be missed. 



Here the majority of the popula- 

 tion have no love of animals, and 

 nothing is done in the schools to 

 teach children to be compassionate 

 to animals. The mother of an ar- 

 gentine girl of fourteen wrote to the 

 Sarmiento Society that her 

 daughter had to vivisect a pigeon 

 and a frog, if I remember rightly 

 at her secondary school, and askec 

 the Sarmiento Society if they could 

 do anything to stop children from 

 seeing such sights as it upsets them 

 very much. When such things are 

 permitted by Argentine Education 

 Authorities can one wonder that 

 children ? .iave no love for animals? 

 , Perhaps the Argentine Govern- 

 ment might do something to help 

 the animal welfare question if suf- 

 ficient propaganda were made in 

 America and the United States, and 

 in Great Britain and other Euro- 

 pean Countries, regarding the in- 

 human and dreadful conditions 

 prevailing here. 



Let not the dust be thrown in 

 the eyes of our visitors— the usual 

 feasts and entertainments will be 

 given to them, but if they want 



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abundance if they keep their ears 

 and eyes open. Let them be very 

 sure if it is wise to leave their va- 

 luable collection with the Buenos 

 Aires Zoo- These animals would be 

 much better off if re-shipped to 

 America, and that country warned 

 of the true state of affairs here. 

 Our heartfelt sympathy is tendered 

 to William and Francisco, and I am 

 animals lovers would 



sure many animals lovers 

 gladly contribute towards a fund for 

 their passage to North America — 

 ''copy' and a knowledge of the true Yours, etc., 

 state of affairs they will find an STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. 



