The Opelousas courier., 1891-04-18
LIFE IN BUENOs AYREs.
STREET SCENES IN ARGENTINE's
CAPITAL CITY.
Car Drivers and Their Horns--Ani-
mated Milk Wagons-Butter in
Original Packares-The Reonars.

VI hC JsRALS
There is no better way Of seeing a
people as they are, of finding them un-
prepared for callers, than TO take your
in the early hours some morning
upon a city's busy street and watch the
various types as they go filing by.
stationing ourselves, then, at n of
these points, in the city of Buenos Ayres,
sheltered a little by a projecting door
way, let US note for a time the changing
scene. Buenos Ayres is not a sleepy
city; it retires late and gets up early in
the morning, and already is showing a
good many signs of life and toll. In the
narrow street before us are a number Of
early street cars, not very heavily laden
as yet, and whose drivers, therefore, send
their teams %galloping down the smooth
track and around the sharpest of sharp
turns at a speed ever more reckless than
usual. The South American %cardriver,
like every patriotic citizen of his country,
is fond Of excitement. When he comes
to a hill he opens the brake and whips up
his horses; away go car and contents, and
you are apt to think, as you hold on and
wait for the crash, that in comparison
with this a ride on a toboggan slide is a
very tame affair indeed. There are no
bells on the horses which pull these
cars, nor does the driver ring one as he
approaches the corner of a street. In
stead he carries a large COWS horn fitted
80 4lo .na1io NTH a raod fhn Whnia
forming a wind instrument whose sound,
heard in every key and at all hours OF
the night and day, excels in absolute
~hideousness all other noises yet made or
conceived. For this reason they are, as
a warning, very effective. The streets
themselves are too narrow for a double
track, and cars are obliged to return to
their points of starting by a different
route. There are eight street-car COM
panies IN Buenos Ayres, with a total OF
21S miles of track.
Jumping ninbly on and off these cars
and running back and forth from house
to house are scores of Italian neWsboys,
and full grown men as well, for here
this profession is not restricted by age,
while on the corners are their compan-
ions, the bootblacks open-eyed, all ready
to capture the early riser. One OF these
latter accosted me a few days agofe and
then, discerning in some subtle boot
black way that ! was from the United
States, he sputtered forth his entire
stock Of English in n overwhelming
sentence, without pause d break, "Shin
boots oh yes Do all right" let hin
shine them.
Out in the roadway now, is q strange
panorama of morning labor. Here are
thick-wheeled carts loaded with solid
bales of wool, and drawn by tw;
or three horses hitched tandem to accom-,
modate these narrow streets; and mild
eyed cows, natures milk wagons,
being led about from door to door
These men on horseback, wish such al
array of cups and cans hung pannier-lk'
on either side, are butter peddlers.
In Buenos Ayres butter is delivered IN
the original package. Two hours age
each man started from his farm in com
pany with all his cans. They were fllet
with cream then, but the motion of tn
rough-and-tumble trot to which tn
horse is trained has churned j
into fresh sweet butter now. Higgl
up among his load, with his feet dang
ling along the horses neck, sits th'
dairyman, bounding up and down all tn
while. and his internal condition at tn
end Of the ride has never been accuratel
determined. Here is man who, eve
at this early hour, will sell you a slice 0
hot t~ortillo, the South American no
cake, from a tin which he carries upol
| his head. And there, On the opposit
side of the street, is another novelty
little, white-haired, wr1nkled- faced oil
woman, with a great pile of papers upo'
her head and another under her arm
Her dress is ragged and her eyes ar
dim with age, but she keeps moVln
| along at such. a queer semi-trot, and cal
TIA Nacionl" tia Nacionl' over an
over again ipesuch a cracked, lusterles
voice, and seuans SO very brisk and bus
inesslike withal, that n cannot mel
smiling at the droll figure, while b
pities her, too, from the bottom
his heart. But she moves cheerily Q
with her load, and SO do the rest {
them-poor poems with canvas shoes an
fat caps of red or blue, peddlers wit
huge baskets of vegetables, and Who'll
armies OF italian street cleaners, brown
brawny sons Of toll. Each one hurrie
by as though he were trying to overtak
the enc ahead Of him.
All, save only the beggars. All, th
beggarsi They never go. The creatuI
does not exist which sssticketh closer tina
q beggar.n They greet you wherever 70
may be, and are with you wherever 70
may fly. They are of all ages, size
kinds. Some of thir are old me
grizzied and tottering, who hold out ia
tered hats with q muttered story of VIC
which has been SO many times told that:
has lost meaning ven to the speake
and has flowed together into a confuse
puddle of sound, The next one, pc
haps, is a sorrowfu1- looking sonora, hole
ing q baby which droWses all day, al
parently with its body resting upon j
mothers lap and its little head r~eclinin
upon her breast, the pavement, or upo
vacant space. The torpid good natul
| Of these infants IS amazing, and its secrt
lies inside q large bottle Of soothin
syrup, which is the dirty little cherub
daily diet. And Just beyond this famil
group Of beggars you may COM across
solitary child, logged and sullen of e
preston, and wearing such an air
gloom that you wonder # the poor thin
even knows how to smile. OF course