The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-11-27

the Paris of the Argentine republic. 1t
is even more. 1t might almost be call
ed the Argentine itself. 1t controls this
country as no capital of the world does
the land it is supposed to dominate. 1t
is an old saying that Paris is France.
She is not so to the extent that
Buenos Ayres is the Argentine. There
are a half dozen different cities in
France which are independent CONNER
cial centers. Paris is by no means all
France industrially. She is so artist
ically, socially and perhaps Intellectual
ly Buenos Ayres is the political cap
ital of the Argentine. It is its COM
mercial capital Its industrial capital,
its financial, social and intellectual
capital Politically the most Of the
Argentine congressman are Buenos
Ayres citizens. Many of them who
represent PARKWAY districts practice
law here They live in the city the
year round, although they may now
and then go to see their constituents.
The republic is composed Of rotten
boroughs supplied by Buenos Ayres
men, The result is that when BuenoS
Ayres takes snuff the whole Argentins
sneeZes.
Industrially, BuenOs Ayres has 50
per cent of the factories of the repub-
lie. 1t has more than 300, employing
over i, 900 hands. The great volume OF
foreign trade now amounting to more
than two hundred million dollars
year, passes through 1t. It's wholesale
houses supply the republic with goods.
There are, in fact, only two places IN
the observation-disclosures Ayres and the
Camp. Buenos Ayres is Buenos Ayres.
The Camp is all Of the Argentine out
side of Buenos Ayres.
BIG BANKS AND FINANCES.
Commercially and financially Buenos
Ayres is the Argentine. 1t has the
banks which supply the republic with
money; big banks, with fine buildings;
banks with deposits of from S0,0OeO00
silver dollars down. 1t had one with
a capital of $50, 600, but this was
closed by the failures which startled
the financial world and made the Bar
ing Brothers trembie, it's depositorS
losing $40. 600 600 by its breaking.
Buenos Ayres has it's stock exchange,
where "The Argentine" is bought and
sold In parcels, and where stocks and
bonds rise and fall as Buenos Ayres
thinks them good or bad. On this eX-
change more than half a billion gold
dollars worth of stock was loated dur
ing the ten years ending in 1890. When
the panic came 80 per cent of the COM
panies failed and most of the shares
are now not worth l per cent of their
face value Nevertheless, both city
and country are in a good financial con-
dition.
As q social center Buenos Ayres Is
the Argentine. The most Of the money
made in the Camp is spent here. The
city has scores of millicnaires, nabob5
who each own Their half million acres
OF land and who count their cattle and
sheep in herds IF thousands, They
mey go to their farms in the summer
but their winters are spent In Their
raIaces here where they give royal
entertainments and pay a thousand
dollars for a season box at the opera
house.
A BOOMING TOWN.
The Argentine is growing fast in pop
ulation. 1t has on it's seven league boots
compared with the United States. 1t
trebles it's population every thirty
years, and 1t now has more than 4,0OO,-
coo people Buenos Ayres grows even
faster than the rest of the country. 1t
IS jumping upward at the rate of lOO,-
600 a year 1t has now 500, goo people,
and by the end of the century Its people
claim that it viii number more than
a million. One-fifth of all the people
in this country live In BuenOs Ayres.
The city grows like a green bay tree
1t increases more rapidly than any
city in the United States. Long ago
ii began 70 take in all the adjoining
territory When II had its great boom
on the edge of the PANIC all out doors
was plated out In lots, and within
FIVE years the real estate transactions
amounted to about $500 600, 600. Still
ercugh land has been built upon to
make vast city. and that a most
solid one The houses are not detach-
ed as oufs. They are built in blocks
of four acres, each surrounded by mar
rev streets Some of the sections are
so crowded that the people swarm In
them like bees. In others there are
wide stretches of bare fields. The city
as il is laid out is eleven miles from
end to end, and a ride around ii is
as long as from Washington to Ballt-
more Within it's boundaries there IS
twice as much ground as in Paris, and
Il has q greater number of stores and
HI. siness places in proportion TO its
population than any town in the Unit
ed States You find stores everywhere.
There are miles Of them The reason Is
that there are few stores outside.
1t has not the great suburban popula-
ton of our cities whose wants are
supplied by their home towns. but who
come into the city for business.
BIGGPHr SPANISH CITY.
Buenos Ayres is a Spanish city. II
is the biggest Spanish-speaking city
of the world. 1t is almost twice as big
as Madrid and three times as big as
Barcelona. Its Spanish character
however, belongs to the past, and il
is hst developing a municipal individ.
uality of its own. 1t will always have
the Spanish language, but the popula-
ton will be q mixture drawn from tn,
four quarters of the earth. Today
more than half of the population 1!
foreign and the city itself is fast los
ing its Spanish character. The house.
on the new avenues, which have beer
recently made, are more like those o.
Paris than Madrid. The Avenida d,
Mayo is wide boulevard, with an as.
phalt pavement The buildings upor
ii make you think of those Of the
Champs Elysees, and there is a tota
absence of the fat, low one-story
with some OF the business blocks which
began its rapid growth
HISTORY OF BUENOS AYRES.
The most Of the buildings, however
are low. For a century or so Their,
was not a two-story house in the CITY
The town was laid out in the Spanish
style in rectangular blocks along mar
row streets. 1t was founded ava,
back in 1885 by Spanish freebooter
Pedro de Mendoza. He named 4
"Buenos Ayres." The words meaI
good air." but Mendoza did not nam
1t thus because air here is especlall,
good. 1t is not. Its death rate is high
More than 1000 people died here las
month and the average is IS per thor
sal nd. Just now the fog over the cjt,