The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-27

mo, 6ueuOs AyT6S ulQ not get It's name from
its superfiuous ozone. Mendoza, like Cortez,
Pizarro and the other adventurous Spanish
cutthroats Of his time. had deep regard
for the saints, and he named the city after
the virgin Maria de Buenos Aires. whose
aid he had invoked for his expedition before
leaving Spain.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Asuncion, Paraguay and Cordoba, a days
ride by train west of here, were far better
places than Buenos Ayres. The town long
remained a settlement of mud huts. al
though lots $50 yards front and three miles
deep could be bought for suit of old
clothes. In the seventeenth century some
of the central blocks of the city were sold
for a white horse and a guitar. To-day the
average value of the land per square yard
is over So end the house property is said
to be worth over S300.O00,000 in gold.
When our Declaration Of independence
was signed there were only $1,000 people in
this region, and only 5000 in Buenos Ayree.
The colony, however, began to make money
out of negroes and chiefly out of negro
slaves The best families then lived in
matched huts, but they ate their meals from
dishes of solid silver, being waited upon
by their own negroes. When John Quincy
Adams was President Buenos Ayres had 3D.
600 people. During General Grants first
term in the White House it had less than
IT'S 600, and when Cleveland began his Sec
ond administration, six years ago. it's citi-
zens numbered 535 900. Its great growth has
thus been within the past thirty years.
Buenos Ayres is a queer city A city
made up of shreds and patches both as to
architecture and man. AS to man, it has
people of nearly every race Three hun
dred thousand of its residents are Italians
60 600 are Spanish, about 10000 French, and
the remainder Germans, English and Ar
gentines. The Argentines proper do not
probably number over 10000, and they
are the only real citizens, in the sense that
they vote and take part in the govern
ment. The rest prefer to keep out of poll
tics and the army, for the foreign resi-
dent here has every property right of the
citizen, with none Of his military obliga-
tons.
Most of the foreigners stick to their old
nationalities, although some of them would
not dare to go home to vote. The Argen-
tine is one of the few countries which
have no extradition treaties Criminals
from everywhere have taken advantage of
this and it is said that there are more
men living under assumed names here than
in any city of the world. This is especially
so as to the emigrants from Italy, and I'M
til recently it was so as to some of those
from our country.
HAD ONE STATE LEFT.
A year or so ago, it is said, four Amer
leans were chatting together in one of the
cafes of Buenos Ayres, when three of the
crowd began for some reason to jeer at the
fourth. He grew angry and said:
'Well, gentlemen, you may sheer at me
if you please, but 1 want you to under
stand that there is at least one of the
United States that dare go back to with
out fear of the sheriff. I know none of you
can say as much"
This, however, is rather hard on the Amer
leans. Years ago, before we lost our nler-
chant marine, the Americans were among
the most prominent Of the foreigners here,
and those who have been coming within re-
cent years are men of high standing. Some
of them have large interests here, and at
present the Americans as a class are much
respected.
Alphabetically Buenos Ayres is patch
work city. l have rooms high up in one of
it's biggest hotels. They are high in price,
as we'll as in altitude. They cost me Ar.
gentiLe dollars a day. am on the fourth
floor and from my balcony 1 can see
over most of the roofs of the city. Step
out of the window with me and take a
bird s-eye view Of Buenos Ayres. Below and
about US lies a vast ragged plain of one
and tWo-story houses, whose fiat roofs are
made of bricks, or brick tiles, or corrugated
iron. Some of them rise high above the
others, and the whole looks like a lot Of
great store boxes Jumbled together along
narrow canyons, which are the streets.
Away to the south you see a few smoke
stacks, the masts of ships and big ware
houses. That is Barracks, the part of the
city where meat, wool and hides are pre-
pared for shipment to America and Europe
To the north there is a spot Of green woods
That is Palermo Park, where all the swells
go to ride and drive every afternoon. You
may see a thousand carriages there at a
time.
To the east, beyond that thicket of masts
and spars lining the docks, extending on
and on until they meet the horizon, are the
muddy waters of the Rio de la Plata,
which connects Buenos Ayres with the rest
of the world. The river here is twenty
eight miles WIDE and in the foggy misty
air we cannot see its opposite banks
Buenos Ayres is only forty-eight feet
above the Atlantic ocean, and back around
and beyond it extends the vast plain of
the valley of this river, as rich here as
that Of the Mississippi 1t is cut up by
railroads and spotted with farms, some of
which support cattle and sheep in herds of
thousands.
AS you look more closely at the roofs be-
low you you see that many of them sur
round little courts or patios. This is the
Spanish style of building. There are no
gardens in front or behind the houses and
the masses here live without plants, flow
ers or trees. There are no chimneys The
Argentines do not think fires healthful in
their living rooms. You see here and there
a black stovepipe coming up through the
roof. Those pipes are connected with the
kitchens, not with the parlors.
THE PIAAZAS
There are few open spaces in the city
of roofs. These are the plazas or parks.
There are twelve in the city, varying in size
from four to twelve acres. That one near
the river is the Plaza de Mayo. 1t is the
ecclesiastical, governmental and financial
center Of the city. Upon it face the ca
thedral, the Presidents house, Congress, the
courts and the Bolsa or stock exchange.
Into it run some of the chief business
streets, and from it to the west extends the
Avenida de Mayo. the wide boulevard OF
which the people here are so proud, and at