Buenos Aires Visitor 



Of Buenos Aires 



Other of Cephalopoda, 

 However, Prove to Be 

 Delicious 



(No. 22 of a Series:) 



By~W. H. SHIPPEN, Jr., 



Star Staff Correspondent. 



BUENOS AIRES.— Tender octo- 

 puses from the mouth of the La 

 Plata, sweet mussels, fat snailr 

 tasty sting rays, tortoises and terra- 

 pins, fruits of 

 many climates 

 and meats be- 

 yond compare. 



A cornucopian 

 horn of plenty 

 is poured out 

 here at the city's || 

 markets — some 

 of the finest in 

 the world. To 

 learn how B. A. 

 dines, the wise 

 visitor hikes 

 through miles of 

 meat and prod- 

 uce stalls before 



Sitting down tO W. H. Shippen, Jr. 



such educational exhibits as the 

 restaurants offer. - 



Take the biggest market here—a 

 block square and occupying five or 

 six floors above and below street i 

 level The endless foodlined corri- 

 dors are an invitation to a stroll 

 long enough to counteract later in- 

 vestigations with a knife and fork. 



The thing that first hit my eye- 

 and the market is laid out to please 

 the eye as well as the appetite- 

 was a stall of strange creatures that 

 swim, crawl and run in the sea- 

 octopuses, etc. Tender little tteltom* 

 galloped over the bottom of their 

 tank or shrank timidly from the 

 public gaze. Their big brothers had 

 been stripped of their arms, all 

 eight of them. These limbs geo- 

 metrically arranged, were laid out 

 before me in boxes of ice. 



Smothered in Onions. 

 Having read about octopuses eat- j 

 Ins men, it occurred to me that I 

 nfght turn the tables on the greedy 

 Sphalopod. I therefore ordered! 

 octopus tonight-large octopus, the , 

 bigger the better. 



The waiter, who is my pal (I 

 overtipped him several times before 

 I learned the difference between 

 the milreis of Brazil and the pesos 

 of Argentina) brought me my octo- 

 pus smothered in onions-pretty well 

 smothered, I'm happy to say. 



Such sections of the cephalopod 

 as I had the temerity to excavate 

 tasted like slices of last year's gar- 

 den hose, plus a rather pungent 

 odor which anybody who ever ate 

 fish in a boarding house should be 

 able to identify. So much for the 

 octopus, but the mussels the snails, 

 sting rays, etc., were a happier ex- 

 periment - much happier. They 

 were done to a turn (many chefs 

 here are Parisian, and one I know 

 of catered to a Balkan King, who 

 didn't die of overeating) and gar- 

 nished with delicate sauces. 



The meat stalls at the market 

 were artistic triumphs— carcasses of 

 baby lambs, suckling pigs, fattened 

 ducks, geese, chickens, partridges, 

 pheasants, all arranged in patterns 

 of color, size and shape. Even the 

 edible interior arrangements ot 

 sheep and cattle were plaited and 

 festooned in garlands. Bright, van- 

 colored cheeses made pretty mosaics, 

 and, in luxury meat stalls, special 

 cuts bore the hair and hide of the 

 contributing animal so that fastidi- 

 ous Argentines could identify their 

 favorite breeds. 



Lambs Sell for $1.50. 

 Choice fat young lambs were going 

 for 6 pesos each, less than $1.50 in 

 our money, or about the price of 

 a second-rate leg of lamb in the 

 States. Other prices were m por- 



P °In°a vast underground market 

 auctions disposed of wholesale quan- 

 tities of beef in rapid order. Tne 

 proceeding sounded like a dozen 

 North Carolina tobacco auctions all 

 conducted simultaneously in Span- 

 ish. I was glad I didn't have to 

 bid on my beefsteaks there. 



The fruit and produce sections 

 combined the best from temperate, 

 cold and semi-tropical climates of 

 this vicinity— pineapples, citrusfruit, 

 bananas and avocados from Brazil, 

 huge Chilean apples; grapes, 

 peaches, plums, olives from Mendosa, 

 Argentina; chicory, lettuce and 

 watercress, vast mounds of cauli- 

 flower; Japanese persimmons in 

 graded boxes, pomegranates ana 

 countless melons, fruits and vege- 

 tables I had never seen or heard of. 



But tonight, after miles of walk- 

 ing between abundant quantities of 

 the world's finest food, I found I 

 wasn't hungry. 



I'm afraid that octopus got me 

 after all! 



Tomorrow:; A Woman's View of 

 Argentine Women. 



Now, as Winter Nears, 

 Furs and Gems Glitter 

 Along Calle Florida 



Dr. William M. Mann, director 

 ef the National Zoological Park, 

 is now in the Argentine collect- 

 ing birds, reptiles and animals. 

 Among those accompanying him 

 are William H. Shippen,' jr., fea- 

 ture writer of The Star staff, and 

 Mrs. Shippen. As No. 23 o±_ Mr. 

 Shippen's series of articles, Mrs. 

 Shippen herewith provides the 

 "woman's angle" on Buenos 

 Aires. 



By FRANCES SHIPPEN. 



BUENOS AIRES.— Nowhere else 

 in the world, so they say, is the 

 woman more pampered than here 

 in Argentina. 



She is less emancipated, perhaps, 

 but certain 1 y 

 more feminine 

 than her sisters 

 in the States— 

 and obviously 

 ' doesn't suffer in 

 a material way 

 from the differ- 

 ence, judg i n g 

 from her furs 

 and jewels. 



A newcomer to 

 Bueno-s Aires, 

 espe c i a 1 1 y a 

 woman, is de- 

 lighted with her 

 first walk 



through the fa- 



Frances Shippen. 



mous° shopping district— the Calle 

 Florida, which is closed to vehicular 

 traffic during the day. For it seems 

 that every shop along the narrow 

 street displays exquisite furs, ex- 

 pensive perfumes, dazzling jewels 

 or great baskets of flowers. 



Although the furs and orchids 

 may be the envy of feminine vis- 

 itors from the States, readymade 

 clothes here represent a compara- 

 tively new industry and are not 

 quite up to the older standards of 

 manufacturers at home. The sight 

 of readymade clothes in store win- 

 dows is still a novelty, we are told. 

 They have been featured for only a 

 few years. 



Flowers Are Abundant. 

 Women here love flowers. Even 

 the most modestly clothed worker 

 wears a nosegay on her lapel, and 

 no home seems too poor for a vase 

 of flowers in the window. Seasons 

 are reckoned by the flowers, and just, 

 now, with the coming of winter, the 

 chrysanthemums, huge and bril- 

 liant in their strange color combi- 

 nations, are at their height. One 

 can buy a corsage of violets at the \ 

 best stores for less than a quarter j 

 in our money* and a dozen sunburst j 

 roses for less than a dollar. Eight 

 lily-of-the-valley plants growing in 

 a pot will cost little more than half 

 a dollar, and gladioluses in every 

 conceivable color combination are 

 almost as plentiful as our daisies. 

 The wholesale flower market here 

 is supposed to surpass that of Paris 

 and is visited by thousands daily as 

 one of the city's most beautiful 

 sights. 



Although snow here is a rarity 

 and stores display native-grown 

 flowers throughout the year, groups 

 of women already are getting to- 

 gether over their tea and talking 

 of going north to the hills for sun- 

 shine and warmth. South winds 

 will soon be blqwing, they say, 

 bringing a chill humidity they wish 

 to escape. * 



Other than Spanish, the language 

 most frequently spoken here is* 

 French, and the city has a decided 

 Parisian atmosphere. Sidewalk cafes 

 line the streets. Food is one of the 

 most important reasons for living. 

 Everybody has two or three hours 

 for luncheon. Small shops tempt 

 the passer-by, especially those which 

 sell the inexpensive though some- 

 what ornate Bolivian silver, and 

 the finely-woven Paraguayan lace 

 —two of the best buys in Buenos 

 Aires, I hear. 



Women Stay at Home More. 



One doesn't see as many women 

 pedestrians as in the States. Here 

 women are more emancipated in 

 that respect than a few years ago, 

 when it was almost unheard of 

 for a lady to be seen— especially at 

 night— on the streets without an 

 escort. No gathering (whether it 

 be a ship sailing, tea hour or a 

 jockey club luncheon) is complete, 



however, without the woman's de 

 rative presence. 



It is said that the finest plets i, 

 the world are gathered and sen' 

 here— platinum and silver fox, 

 ermine and sable. And this winter, 

 so the local stylists say, lots of 

 nutria, a native fur and one that 

 is being sent to the States, will be 

 worn. Diamonds are the most popu- 

 lar jewels, with a preference, too, 

 for Brazil's aquamarines, said to be 

 good bargains. 



One watches the Argentine woman 

 rise to dance the tango with her 

 escort. She has flowers in her hair 

 and on her shoulder, a necklace 

 and earrings— too much for us, per- 

 haps, but somehow in good taste 

 on the scintillating, feminine se- 

 norita. 



Entertainment Plentiful. 

 Casinos— night clubs— are plenti- 

 ful and the entertainers are among 

 the best obtainable. Here, too, the 

 Argentines seem to prefer the 

 French. Josephine Baker, the toast 

 of Parisienne night' life, has just 

 left. Mistinguette, that perennial 

 French favorite, replaced her and 

 received a tremendous ovation on 

 her arrival. One is struck by the 

 lack of South American music in 

 many places of entertainment. 

 Swing tunes— fortunately or other- 

 wise—appear to be popular. 



There are many fine legitimate 

 theaters and several hundred movies, 

 practically all showing pictures 

 from the States. Just recently 

 there has been a revival of Shake- 

 speare's plays in Spanish, Last sea- 

 son there was some difficulty over 

 the presentation of "The Taming of 

 the Shrew," we were told. The 

 translators had a hard time finding 

 a word in Spanish for "shrew." 



"You see," a native Argentine ex- 

 plained, "women here are not like 

 that. After worrying about the 

 word for quite a while the trans- 

 lators had to fall back on a Spanish 

 word which means 'wild beast.' 



"It is very difficult for us to 

 imagine a woman like that— espe- 

 cially us married men!" 

 The Argentine's wife smiled her 



