The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-07-29
ARGENTINAS COWBOY.
BISHOP FOWLER TELLS OF THE CEN
TAUR OF SOUTH AMERICA.

Personal Appearance and characteristics
of the Gaucho of the Pampas-Simpls
Food and Picturesque Garments-Span-
ish Speech and Compliment.
The original cowboy is the product Of
+ South America. he rides a horse as if he
and the animal was one. He comes near
/ 10 realizing the old thought Of the MeXi-
/ cans, when they first saw the Spanish
/ horsemen that this mounted human body
was distinct order Of<Seings- One would
not hunt on the pampas among the
/ gauchos for the millennium, nor for a
higher order of beings any quicker
than he would among the cowboys of
I Texas or Arizona, The gHucho is not I'M
/ like the cowboy, except that he is every
/ way more so. He is more of an Indian,
( for he usually has quite a per cent of
/ Indian blood, undeniably declared in his
7 high cheekbOnes, straight, course, black
/ hair, and copper or dark-tinged skin. He
rides wilder horses, and with either more
or less trappings, as necessity compels or
fortune allows. He needs only a short,
club-handled, heavy-laShed whip, with
which he first tames his horse and then
his herd. He is also greatly delighted
with saddle and bride heavily plated with
silver He sleeps where night overtakes
him and feeds on the dried meat which he
carries; under more favorable circum-
stances he has a small foorless cabin as
| headquarters.
FOOD AND CLOTHING.
Here he takes his breakfast on broiled
meat He goes after the herd, leaving his
wife, when he has one, in the hut, and he
returns late at night TO be fed on meat.
For months at a time he never tastes of
vegetables or bread. Sometimes he has
little pulverized farina, into which he
dips his meat. His dress is, like himself,
a compromise between the Spaniard and
the pampas Indian There is the broad
brimmed sombrero, borrowed from Spain.
Then he wears over his shoulders his
poncho. This is the garment upon which
he sets his heart. 1t is like shawl, with
slit in the middle, through which he
thrusts his head, and allows the ends of
the shawl to hang down over his arms.
When his arms are extended at full length
the ponchO looks like shawl folded
through the middle and held up by the
folded edge This is often embroidered
most deliberately ana ornamentally.
When he comes to town wearing this gar
ment he sticks to it regardless of the tenn
perature. We have seen the poor fellows
on the steamers, with the thermometer
nearly 100 in the shade, wrapped in one of
these heavily embroidered shawls per-
spring as if in Turkish bath, but
they would never think of putting them
aside.
Next he wears chirrepa This monde
script is worn where civilized men wear
pantaloons. 1t looks like a square or OBJ
long piece of CLOTH folded diagonally, one
corner fastened to the waist and the OPP
posite corner brought up between the
limbs and fastened to the belt in front.
The limbs seem to be loosely enswathed
with it. The chirrepa may be very COM
Portable, but it is far from trim 1t looks,
when they stand still, like very loose
drawers, but when they step it shows the
garment to be one piece, loosely folded
and wrapped about the limb, with the bias
fold hanging between their feet Under
the chirrepa the gauchO wears calconcillOs,
q pair of loose white cotton drawers. Thus |
got up the gaucho adds the Turk to the
combination of the Spaniard and the In |
dian in his composition. Mounted on his
horse, with his lariat hanging to his saddle, |
he is distinct product of South America
DIGNITY AND POLITENEss
1t is not well to regard him as a savage. |
Though he feeds on meat, and enjoys both |
dangers and hardships, he has in his veins |
some of the best blood of Europe. Go to |
this mans hut on the pampas, push aside |
the Unframed bulls-hide which serves as
"portiere" at the doorway, greeting you |
with all the dignity and ostentatious |
pOliteness of an old Castilian knight, he
will offer you a seat on the skull of an OK.
Be careful to bring to the front your best
and most cOurtley manners, and exercise
your most prudent judgment in determin-
ing how much of his smooth Spanish
speech is meant and how much is to be
set down as pure Spanish compliment 1t
Is good manners in Spaniard to say my
house is thine"-but it is Saxon boorish-
ness to accept his offer.
The gauchOs have had their representa-
tives on all the fields where liberty was
the stake, and they have also had their
term in the place of power The tyrant
Rosas was a gaucho. Few men ever exer-
cised more power in their fields than did
he in his. The assassination of rivals and
enemies is q phenomenon produced by
weak and strong despotism alike, but to
order the color of ones family to be worn
by all the families of a state indicates
great confidence in ones executive abili-
ties. No weakling could, for Instance, sur
round the churches with soldiers on fine
Sabbath morning, capture all the women,
rich and poor, and stick with pitch a red
rosette upon the hair of each one. But
Rosas, who did this, could dare anything.
He could mount wild horse-neVer even
armed with a heavy whip,
run him down, tame him to be guided by
the motion of his hand, and then knock
the animal down for his own convenience
in dismOunting, and in this be only
gauchO, a wild Spaniard, bred into the
fierce blood of the pampas Indian. But to
capture, paste and subdue all the women
Of his dominion he must need be an execu-
tive of majestic Oportions.-BishOp Fow-
ler's letter in Chicago News