Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-12-18
On the Gale Florida.

On the Gale Florida.
And this brings ME to a Buenos Ayres
custom OF the young dudes of the Argen-
tine capital, who make u business Of stand
ing upon the street and greedily staring
at ladies' as they so by. There is no city
Gale Florida. which is the Broadway or
Regent street of Buenos Ayres. 1t is the
lashlonabie shopping street, and its stores
are those OF the swell jewelers.. confec-
TONERS, milliners. tailors and fashionable
restaurateurs o fthe city. The street has
not more than twenty feet of roadway
between its narrow pavenents. Every aft
ernoon from 4 10 c o'clock a line of car
and down the other. 1t may grow dark.
but up TO C the line is solid, and You may
ing to and FRO: The carriages are open.
as a rule, and in them sit the fashionable
ladies OF the capital.
They drive here every evening merely
because it IS the fashion. and the young
men have the fashion OF standing on the
street and staring at them as they, pass.
thronged with knots of young men who
are there for this purpose. They are we'll
dressed and Well sroomed. They carry
canes; wear gloves and smoke cigarettes as
they look. From time to time they make
remarks on the women who go by. and not
~nirequently say things which are abso-
lutely indecent. Not long ago one of them
said something to an American girl who
was passing along the street. What he said
was al insult. ana the young American re-
ward,ed him with a slap across the mouth
which almost knocked him TO the ground.
The ordinary Argentine girl would have
merely pouted and passed on. Within the
past year or so the Argentine police have
been trying to stop this insulting of
women; and now any woman who makes a
complaint can have her insulter at once
taken 10 the city authorities for trial.
The Young Argentine.
We hear a good deal said Of Young
America. and hiS inrIriarra Tho h,,z ~
the Argentine are even more precocious
than those OF the United States. An Ar
genuine father seldom whips his son. and
children lave much more liberty south of
the equator than north of il. The Sunday
school is almost unknown. and ideas of
morality are so loose that children are
brought up. in u most pernicious way. AS
to iyiIg, this is common a,aons men. wom-
en- and children. The polite lie is met with
everywhere. and u father Will sometimes
say about his little girl or boy in admiring
How we'll it does lte:' why. / could not
lie better than that myself" They do not
think it is disgracefuI to lie. You might:
for instance, call an Argentine a liar and
he. would think nothing of it. He might
think it a compliment more than anything
else. But if you should call him a coward
he could not consistently rest until he had
Knocked you down or stabbed you in the
back.
The young Arsentines learn wickedness
at a much earlier age than do our boys.
Many of them have depraved minds at II.
and already pose as men. Boys begin to
talk politics before they are out of knee
pants. Nearly every college has its po-
litical factions. The boys organize revoiu-
tons against the professors. thus train
ing themselves to get up revolutions against
the government when they grow older.
The well-to-dO young Argentine is not
brought up to any business. He has q
prejudice against trade and work. though
ne VIII study Tor a profession. 1t Is the
fashionable thing to study law. and thus
get the title of doctor to the name. though
the young man may never expect to prac-
tice.
The children, as a rule. learn tn. lam
guages easily. and many young men speak
English and French. Girls are also good
know but little. l doubt whether you will
lind a score of young girls in Buenos Ayres
VINO nave any such education as is given
dl our hrst-clasS women colleges.
Family Life.
1t is hard to learn much about family life
in the high circles of the Argentine. Each
family is run as a close corporation, and
when a son is married he usually brings his
Wife home. Sometimes an addition is built
TO the house, and the newly married couple
moves into 1t. The sexes are not kept apart
as much as in the other countries of South
America before marriage; still. there is no
such in~discriminate calling and counting as
in the United States. If Il young man pays
any attention to a girl he is understood to
mean business, and if he goes to her house
often he is expected to ask her in marriage.
" iitl ne CdIIS ne uOeS not see MS sweet
heart alone. and he is not permitted to be
with her without the family is present.
After marriage there is more freedom. but
even then women are closely watched. L
am told that the women are usually faiths
full TO their husbands, and it is said that
the percentage of good married women is
greater in BueHoS AyreS than in any capi-
tai of Europe. You seldom hear of a scam
dial in connection with a wife or mother
of a high Argentine family. There is no
such thing as a divorce, although there are
separations. The women are very proud,
and their regard for their children often
keeps them from making a fuss about
things which otherwise they could not par
don: As to the men, there are many good
husbands, but there are many who nave as
loose ideas of such things as you will find
in Paris, and who model their lives after
much the same style as that of the heroes
of most of the French novels. The per-
centage of illesitimate births is very high.
The Women and the Lottery.
The women are the religious element of
the community. They keep up the
churches. attend mass regularly and man
age all the charities of the country. One
of the chief charitable organizations pre-
sided over by these adde's is supplied with
funds from the national lottery, a certain
percentage of which goes to them. This
lottery has drawings weekly and the sums
realized are The women take
charge of them and spend the money for
bad effect upon the character of the peo-
pie. You cannot make a child think it is
bad to gamble when has mother handles
the ill-Gotten gains. no matter for what
good. The result is that the Argentines are
a nation of gamblers. and Buenos Ayres
to-day is as badly affected by its lottery as
was New Orleans when the Louisiana lot
terry was at the full.
There are drawings now every week, the
grand prize some weeks rising to upward
of $100.0Nj in silver. and at every Christmas
to 81. 600 coo. Last year $2S.ego.0t0 worth of
lottery tickets We're sold. There are now
lottery offices in every block. You meet
lottery ticket peddlerS on every corner. and
you are not safe from them even ut the
doors Of the churches. Among other gam
bling Institutions are the ball alleys. the
r~acecourSe and the Stock exchange. [
shall write of the Stock exchange in an
other letter. But in the lotteries. the ball
alleys and on the raCecourSe i see by d
statement in Il Buenos Ayres paper that
S47, 00O.0O was won and lost last year, while
tie sales at the Stock exchange footed up
the amount of $iS6.0Go.O 600 gold,
The total foreign trade of the country dur
ing that year WIS less than Sl2b, 900, 900 gold.
of the exchange was done on worthless
showing that th~ree-fourths of the business
paper. There is 4 great deal of private
gambling in Buenos Ayres. There are card
tables at the clubs where a hacienda may
be lost in a night. and there are many
small gambling hells which carry on their
business contrary to law under the very
eyes OF the police