ROUND AND ABOUT THE CAPITAL
The way not to see a city is to be trotted round and shown all the
"sights." I have an idea I may have missed some of the "sights" of
Buenos Aires. I did not "do" the churches. Acquaintances who knew I went
to South America to pursue my trade of writer sometimes asked me what I
was going to write about, and the reply was, "I do not know." But I was
not believed.
Anyway, I may say that I drifted about "B.A." I presented my letters of
introduction, made friends, lunched out and dined out, had motor trips,
went here and there as suggestion provided the inclination; maybe to a
theatre, or to smoke a cigar in one of the clubs with men who are of
account in Argentina or no account at all, or to spend a Sunday with an
Argentine family; maybe to idle an hour in one of the cafés; maybe to
have a serious talk with a Minister; maybe do nothing but idle round.
That is no scientific way to study a city. But it just happens to be my
way.
The conclusions I draw may be wrong, for I may have met the wrong people
and seen the wrong things, especially as I had no system. Yet out of the
confused jumble of impressions and experiences something coherent
evolves, and that is the substance of my remarks when I am asked, "Well,
what do you think about Buenos Aires?"
It is not my wish to accentuate the point, but open-handed extravagance
is one of the traits of the people. It is a fault of democratic
countries that, having no aristocracy of birth, they proceed to create
one of wealth. Argentina has fine old Spanish families; but, though
esteemed, they are in the background. In the wrangle-jangle of frenzied
progress they are not to be counted amongst the moderns. So garish is
the display of money that the idea left is that you have had your
attention called to it by the constant blaring of a bugle.
But I would shrink from saying the display is vulgar. Keeping in mind
that the people are Latins, and are fonder of colour than we of the cold
and moral north, I would write there is a sort of ostentatious
restraint. Argentines glory in spending money, but amongst the older
settled people other things besides money have their place. They are
fond of music, and pride themselves that they discovered Tetrazzini and
Kubelik long before London. Here, as in Paris, London, and New York,
there is the mob which goes to the opera because it is "the thing" to
have an expensive box, and to wear lovely gowns and loads of diamonds.
The prices paid make the charges for a gala night at Covent Garden seem
like those of a twopenny show. It may be said that a well-known artiste
is sure of a kindly reception. Yet Buenos Aires has its moods; it has
its vagaries, and is petulant. For some undefinable reason it will take
a dislike to some performer who arrives with a European reputation.
Perhaps half a dozen ladies who lead the fashionable world will say the
artiste is overrated. "She may be all right for Paris, but she does not
come up to Buenos Aires standard"--that is the attitude. For anybody to
praise the poor singer after that is to advertise their inartistic
taste. There is a boycott. So a European singer or instrumentalist who
goes to the Argentine aglow with the prospect of a dazzling success
sometimes returns with the saddest of experiences--neglect.
[Illustration: LOLA MORA FOUNTAIN, BUENOS AIRES.]
With such a people, Latin in race and living in the sunshine, life is
something of a holiday. One hears stories of the looseness of life
amongst the men--on the boats running between France and Argentina can
be seen the girls going out to meet the requirements of the hundreds of
houses of ill-fame--but the Argentine women themselves are beyond
reproach. Indeed, their regard for correctness is often amusingly
prudish. Public opinion is so strong that no lady, if she wants the
esteem of her neighbours, dare show the slightest originality in costume
or conduct. Plays with the faintest hint of suggestiveness about them
are barred. Performances which would pass muster in a London West-end
theatre are shunned; plays to which the most innocent of girls cannot go
are taboo. The consequence of this is that there are other places of
amusement especially catering for men, which no respectable woman can
enter. Just outside the boundaries there are cinematograph shows "for
men only," which for indecency cannot be outdone in Port Said or Havana.
I have mentioned how the visitor to Argentina soon begins to be aware of
the low position of women in the minds of men, the way in which there is
no real friendship between the sexes outside the family circle, and how
no Argentine will trust another Argentine in regard to his ladies. With
all their finery and jewellery and expensive motor-cars and boxes at the
Colon Theatre, you are prone to remark, "How un-European!" when you see
the segregation of the women.
Yet with all their frivolity, dress, bridge, amusements, you make a
mistake if you fancy the Argentine lady a guarded, slothful doll--though
the description applies in thousands of cases. I had the opportunity of
seeing the other side of the picture. On two days, under the guidance of
ladies themselves, I visited the establishments of Las Damas da
Beneficencia and several Government hospitals. A noble work is being
done. I saw how the poor are cared for. There was the nurturing of the
old. There was tending the sick in buildings worthy of any city in the
world. There were the homes where the wives of poor folk could come to
bring their babies into the world. There is much illegitimacy, and
formerly there was much infanticide. So there was a kind of casement
where, at dusk, mothers could bring their unwanted offspring and deliver
them. No questions were asked, but the infant, because it was a
helpless little child, was cared for. The same work is done to-day, but
without the mystery of the casement. Foster-mothers are engaged to nurse
the children. As one went through the rooms, and saw the tiny morsels of
humanity, many of them feeble, with a shape of head which roused wonder
as to the future, it was hard to keep the tears away.
Poverty, as we understand it in Europe, does not exist in Argentina. But
there are men who are stricken down in early manhood, unable to earn
anything, and who need help. There are widows and the fatherless to be
cared for. There are poor folk, but their trouble is due to misfortune
and not to economic causes. Charity, however, is great, and funds are
numerous and the Government provides handsomely, and there is no
distress such as we know it. But all this good work, hospitals, looking
after the aged, providing for the fatherless, is carried on by the women
of Argentina. Except to serve as doctors, no men have any voice in the
control or management. Ladies, with their presidents and boards of
management and committees, have the work placed entirely in their hands.
It is set apart for them, and no man interferes. Yet the suffrage
question has not extended to Argentina.
Life is taken lightly and showily by this new nation. But when anybody
dies all the relatives go into mourning, to the fourteenth cousin. And
in death the display is just as rampant as in life. The Recoleta is a
strange cemetery, bizarre, ghoulish, tawdry. To own a tomb in Recoleta
is one of the necessities if a family wants to be in the swim. These
tombs are like chalets, occasionally of Italian marble, generally of the
Buenos Aires stucco--the capital surpasses all other cities in the world
in the amount of stucco--and they are ornate. There are streets upon
streets of them, and you take a walk through a town of the dead. The
doors are open, and you can step in and see half a dozen coffins ranged
round the shelves. Occasionally there are photographs of the dear
departed. On All Saints' Day it is usual for the living family to gather
in the tomb, have tea, and munch cakes. After a number of years the
coffins have to be removed, or a heavy sum paid, and the tomb is "to
let." The whole thing is repulsive to the Englishman, but the Argentine
loves it.
The capital of Buenos Aires province is La Plata, about fifty miles
away. I went down one day by the luncheon train, which runs out of the
Plaza Constitution just after midday and does the journey in an hour. It
was a fine train, and the luncheon car was bigger, and the food better
than we have on English lines. The car was crowded with a
sallow-skinned, black-moustached, black-garbed lot of gentlemen, and I
gathered they were all Government officials. Nobody in Government employ
thinks of doing any work in the morning. The men go to the office late
and leave early. It was almost like home.
La Plata is a town that has missed its way. Full of grandiose ideas, and
taking the United States as a model, it was decided to build La Plata
as the federal capital on the Washington plan. Gorgeous buildings were
erected; magnificent avenues were constructed; the loveliest of public
gardens were laid out; a fine museum was founded; a great municipal
theatre was piled up. In the public square bandstands were provided and
statues to national heroes hoisted. It was to be the flower of Argentine
towns. And every Argentine town, when it sets out to beautify itself,
must have an avenida and a plaza and an equestrian statue of San Martin;
the matters of water supply and drainage come later.
[Illustration: LA RECOLETA.]
But the federal capital absolutely refused to settle at La Plata. It was
too near Buenos Aires, where society lived, and where there was a whirl
of excitement. So, perforce, the capital had to be at Buenos Aires, and
a Government House for the residence of the President of the Republic
was built, and is known as the "Palace o Gold," because of the money
consumed in its construction.
Argentina is ever willing to vote vast sums for town adornment; but the
money has a habit of evaporating before half the work is done, and then
more is needed.
However, La Plata is the capital of the province of Buenos Aires; but
the majority of officials refuse to live there. They prefer to come down
from Buenos Aires at a quarter past one, and catch the quarter to five
train back. The Governor has made appeals; he has even threatened what
he will do if the officials do not live in La Plata. They take no
notice. The consequence is that this beautiful city--and without doubt
it is majestic in its spaciousness--is deserted, and a saunter through
it is like a walk through an old cathedral town on a drowsy afternoon.
As a companion and a host no one could be more charming than the
Argentine. He loves his country, but is willing to hear praise about
other countries without thinking you wish to depreciate Argentina. He
will go to infinite trouble to secure some particular information you
are anxious to possess. Men on whom I had no personal claim whatever
laid aside their work and devoted a couple of days in my behalf. As the
men are courteous so the women are graceful, until lack of exercise and
over-eating makes them stout. The girls are modest, but, I am afraid,
centre their thoughts on dress. It rather shocked one to see that it is
a habit for quite young girls of thirteen or fourteen years to daub
their faces with powder. As for the young gentleman, he begins when
twelve years of age to smoke and to tell lewd stories. He is impudent to
the servants and to his parents, and I have known fathers smile when
told their sons of fifteen have taken to visiting houses of ill-fame.
Some Argentines are taking to healthy sport; but it would be better if
all of them took to outdoor exercises, cricket, football, baseball,
tennis, and golf. The Argentine young gentleman is bright but
superficial, and is too fond of the clothes of the dandy
and jewellery and perfumes to excite any admiration amongst men who
dislike effeminacy in their own sex.
[Illustration: THE GOVERNMENT BUILDING, LA PLATA.]
It was my good fortune to receive nothing but kindness from every class
of Argentine that I met. But I am not going to hide I met Englishmen,
who knew more about the Argentines and who had few generous things to
say. "There is no morality, unless the young women are guarded; the
Argentine is egotistic beyond words; domestic habits are dirty, and
taking a bath is rare; the men chatter, and, whilst voluble with
friendship, are suspicious; they are bombastic about patriotism, but are
not above receiving bribes; all the advantages the Argentine has he owes
to foreigners; he produces nothing himself; he is shallow and shiftless;
the only business instinct he has is cunning, and the old Spanish
_mañana_ spirit--always putting off till to-morrow the performance of a
business duty--is deep seated." All of which shows how impossible it is
to draw a composite picture of an individual to represent a nation. Just
as there are nice Englishmen and vulgar fellows, cultured Americans and
bounders, delightful Germans and hoggish sots, so in Argentina it takes
all sorts to make a people. The growing practice of well-to-do
Argentines of sending their children to be educated in Europe has its
advantages, though there is another side of the picture. They certainly
acquire better manners than they pick up at home; they learn that
Argentina is not the centre of the world. When they return to Argentina
and display the consequences of foreign travel they are not popular.
As far as I could discern the Argentine, though still infused with Latin
traits, still showy and talkative, more inclined to gamble than to do
hard work, is breaking through and away from the old Spanish habits.
European business men told me they were keen witted, but incompetent in
practical affairs. But there is too much business now going on in
Argentina, too much development of industries in which foreigners have
little hand, too thorough a grasp of some of the problems which face all
new lands, for the Argentines to be dismissed with a phrase.
I could see they were inexact, that they were fond of showing off, that
knowledge of the world was thin; but I did understand their genuine
ambition to lift Argentina into the first rank among nations; that where
they lacked technical and mechanical knowledge themselves they were
willing to let others come in; that they were quite alive to what
progress means in the modern sense. The conservatism of the old Spaniard
has completely disappeared. The Argentine wants the latest and the best.
If one goes forth to gather faults it is easy enough to get a basketful.
What drew me, however, was not so much listening to a catalogue of
things he is not, but to mark down what he is, what he has done and is
doing, and what he intends to do. As a small instance, in Buenos Aires
the habit of the Spanish siesta is abandoned. There is no pulling down
of business shutters between noon and three o'clock. The climate is
enervating, but be the day never so steamy, with hot gusts panting from
the north, the city is early alive with commerce, the suburban trains
are packed, the Stock Exchange is a babble of excitement--and there
never seems to be any drawing of rein till five or six in the afternoon.
There is hustle.
[Illustration: THE SOUTHERN STATION AT LA PLATA.]
[Illustration: IN THE GREAT SQUARE AT LA PLATA.]
The way the population jumps up is phenomenal. It signifies much that an
eighth of a million is added to the population of a capital in a single
year. Skyscrapers now tower over the buildings which were thought
enormous a dozen years ago. Notwithstanding the services of the
policemen directing the traffic, there is often a tangle of motor-cars,
electric tramcars, private carriages and carts. New broadways are
being driven through the city, and up go palatial stores. Most English
newspapers are modest in _locale_. But the Argentine newspapers keep in
the sun. _La Prensa_ is one of the best-informed journals in the world.
It has a noble exterior to its offices. Inside are luxurious suites of
rooms, lecture halls, libraries, and the public are invited to enter.
Every public building, all the clubs, even the churches, seem to be tied
up with long ropes of different coloured electric lamps, so that on
nights of festival the switch is jerked and the whole place is radiantly
illuminated.
It is all very wonderful. The confusion, the barbarism, the love of
beauty and the display of dollars, the inflow of invested gold, the
coming of the immigrant, the whirl of business, the big deals, the
gambling, the making of fortunes and the losing of fortunes, dazzle the
mind. But you feel the fascination of Buenos Aires. It has grown so
astonishingly in so short a time that you gasp when you contemplate how
much more it is likely to grow.
[Illustration: STATUE PRESENTED TO ARGENTINA BY THE FRENCH COMMUNITY ON
THE OCCASION OF THE CENTENARY OF INDEPENDENCE.]