Evening star., 1898-11-19

agriculture. school of mines and thirty
five normal schools. Both girls and boys
attend these schools. There are women
teachers, some of whom came out from
the United States years since to inaugurate
the normal school When Sarmento was
president of the Argentine Republic, de-
cade or so ago, he made study of the public
school systems of the world and decided
that that used in Michigan was the best
He imported number of hgh-bred Yankee
schOolmaIms and now the Argentine is
raising first-class schOolmarms of its own.
Its normal schools are producing more Of
the native variety than can be used, SO
there is no opening here for additional
Yankees.
The language used in the schools is
Spanish. 1t is the language of the country.
Every one who has been here for a year or
more speaks it. and the children, what
ever their parents may be, lisp in Spanish.
There are private schools here where not
a word of Spanish is taught, but it is the
Language of the playground. nevertheless,
and many son of an English father and
an Argentine mother can speak nothing
else. Spanish is the language of the gov
eminent, of business and of society. Most
Argentines can speak French, and not a
few converse fiuently in Italian and Eng
lish as well.
The Post Office and the Press.
The chief literature sold here is French
and Spanish. There are also Italian, Ger
man and English book stores. The country
reads the newspapers. Remember, It's pop
ulation all told is now not greater than that
of the combined cities of New York and
Philadelphia. Still, it has twenty-four dali
lies and 14G weeklies. Fifteen Of the dailies
are published in Buenos Ayres, the leading
one. La Prensa, having a circulation of
10000 copies, and another, the Diario, an
evening paper, 10000. There are three dali
lies published in English and one of these
the Buenos Ayres Herald, is edited and
owned by Warren Lowe an American. The
other twelve are IN Spanish Italian, French
and German.
The Argentines are letter writer's. They
use the mails. One hundred and seventy
seven million letters passed through their
fourteen hundred and odd post offices last
year, and their postal revenue was $50 600, .
900. There Is a fair telegraph service un-
der the government. The telegraph lines,
if tied together, would reach around the
world. They have length of $4,000 miles,
and with the exception of the railroad
lines, all are in the national system.
There are plenty of telephones, too, and
the same trouble exists here as with us
that is the telephone rates are too high
On this account there was founded In Bue-
nos Ayres about ten years ago what is
known as the Cooperative Telephone Com
pany. In 1889 it had 200 subscribers; it
now has 5000. Its capital has more than
doubled, and its profits last year were about
sio,VD 1t has 5000 miles of wires, most
or which are in underground conduits This
company gives reduction of 33 1-3 per cent
to all business firms who are among its
stockholders. 1t Is necessary to buy about
$40 worth of the stock to get the reduction,
and the rates per telephone are $3.50 a
month In American gold. Private resi-
dences and doctors can have the same
rates without stock. Business firms not
holding stock must pay 81 a month and as
the company IS now paying dividends of
about 9 per cent it is far cheaper to be a
stockholder
FRANK G. CARPENTER.