Evening star., 1898-11-19

drawbacks are the inaccessibiiity of the
country. the lack of water and the enor
nous cost of carrying mining machinery
into it.
The wheat region of the Argentine is
comparatively d small part of the whole
territory. l will write of it more fully in
the future. 1t lies chiefly north of Buen Is
Ayres and east of Cordoba, in the basin of
the Pdrana, and also in the province of
Entire RIGS, between the Uruguay ard Pa
lana rivers This country is like Illinois
along the Ohio river. 1t IS divided into
comp PardtiVely small tracts, ard is largely
farmed by colonies of foreigners.
Such is q birds eye view of the Argentine
Republic. ! will fiji out the picture in let
ters describing different parts of the coun-
try ana the different industries.
The Population of the Argentine.
The Argentine now has 4.OGOO 900 people.
It grows fast. 1t has trebled in within
thirty years, and is people claim they Will
have 5.0Ju,pFJ in 1900. More than 100000
immigrants came in last year. More than
cue-third Of ell the people In the country
are foreigners, and :" per cent of the for
eigners ore Italians. More Italians are
coming and | see from 4. statement in this
Mornings paper that KING Humbert esti-
mates that ipDtDD Italians Will emigrafe
ext year Eighteen per cent of the immi-
grants are Spanish and per cent French.
This makes 81 per cent of all the immi
per cent Is made up Of British. Russians,
Danes. Swiss ard Portuguese. Until lately
there were 50 few Americans that they
were not worthy OF consideration Now
Americans of the better class are coming
in, and they will form an important factor
III the Argentine. The Portuguese as
rule Dc nOt stay. The men of the other
classes remain. In a generation or so they
marry Argentine girls and become Argen-
tines and out Of The whole is being evolved
the Argentine type of the future.
The People of the Argentine.
These Argentine people are not like the
South Americans OF the west coast. They
have no great strain Of Indian blood run
ming through them. They are Of almost pure
European extraction. They are not Span
ish not French net Italian, not Anglo
Saxon. They are evolving combination
Of all these. with the Latin strain predom-
mating, just as in America We are forming
a type with the Anglo Saxon strain in great
asceudancy. | think, however, that our
type is far superior TO any that can be pro-
dUCed here.
The change in the Argentine goes on very
rapidly. A the beginning of this century
the old families We're Spanish and Portu-
guese. Since then they have been inter-
marrying with the English, Scotch, Ger
mans and Americans and Italians. You
can see this in the names of the distin-
gU!shed Argentines. Admiral Brown, one
gish extraction. The Livingston family
whose ladies are noted for their wealth and
beauty, is in the fourth generation from the
LivugstOns of New York. Pelligrine,
former president, and one of the most able
men Of the country, has English blood In
him. The grandfather of the chief of po-
Ice OF Buenos Ayres was an American.
The father of TOrnquist, another prominent
Argentine, was a New Orleans man. and
there are many leading families in whose
veins flow rich strains Of Irish and Italian
blood.
Already the Spanish type has been ma
terialiy modified. Indeed. with its large
percentage of foreign born, this country
is today as cosmopolitan as any country
of the world. If you could be blndfoded
and upon one of the magic carpets of fairy
land transported in the winking of an eve
TO the business parts of Buenos Ayres you
could not tell where YOU We're by looking
at the faces or dress of the people. If YOU
should be dropped into the stock exchange,
for instance. you might. If you Were deaf,
imagine yourself in New York or London
You could not imagine yourself in Buenos
Ayres. If your ears should be suddenly
opened you would still be at loss. The
cries of the brokers would be in Spanish
but from all around you would come a
babel OF Italian. French and English If
you went outside your situation would be
even worse. You would hear the street
sweepers swearing at each other in Italian,
English merchants discussing trade In
Anglo-SaxOn, and groups OF Basques on
every street corner gabbling at each other
in Spanish. You would hear much French
and you might meet with Russians Poles,
or even with Turks
An Up-to-Date Country.
This large mixture of foreigners keeps
the Argentine up to date. New ideas are
coming in from everywhere, and the latest
improvements are to be found Nearly all
the towns have more or less electric lights,
ctr
Cellent railroad connections with the lead
ing centers. The Argentine now has 5000
miles OF railroads. With a capital Of half a