The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-28


"A to be shot for striking supe-
AZ n rior officer, was told on the
morning of his execution that
he could have anything he desired to
eat or drink. He demanded mate.
Any other Argentina in a similar
plight would have made the same re-
quest. He looks to mate for comfort
and solace almost from the cradle to
the grave. 1t is largely drunk through
out South America, but in the Argen-
tine Republic it has no rival as the
national drink What tea is TO the
Japanese, mate, otherwise called
"Paraguayan tea," is to the Argent
mas.
The Deon. toiling twelve hours day
for wage of 'veinte-ocho centavos,"
about 20 cents of our money, sucks his
mate through d straw or brass bonn
billa from a gourd cup. The well-to-
do merchant uses a silver bombilla
and silver cup, while the member OF
the Argentine -four hundred" pos
sesses a mate service Of gold, hand
engraved, handsomely chased and set
with costly jewels These sets are
worth many hundreds of dollars, and
are highly priced as works of art and
curioS
The first thing a man sees in Argen-
tina is mate 1t is mate first, last and
all the time there. When the tramp
steamer, on which | took passage
from New York to Buenos Ayres,
steamed lazily up the muddy La Plata
River, we were greeted by a Customs
officer whose uniform was decorated
with enough gold lace to supply
dozen major-generals. He held a
gourd in his hand, and was sucking
some unknown liquid through a tube.
Afterwards found out he was taking
mate.
What Mate Is.
Mate is .called "yerba' until it is
brewed tits the leaf of shrub close
ly resembling holly, which fourishes
i'll the semi-marshy places in Para
quay.
The leaves are gathered and care
fully cured by the natives, and when
perfectly dry are placed in huge wood
en- mOrtars and pounded until reduced
to brown, dust-like powder This is
placed in Unframed cow hides, with
the hair side out, and sewed up with
rawhide thongs. Some of these bales,
or "bolsas," contain a hundred and
fifty pounds of yerba. Smaller pack
ages, some holding about five pounds,
are put UP from the bulk in the same
manner. A retailer buys a bolsa of
mate, opens one end, puts it under
his counter and sells whatever guam
tity the customer desires. Thousands
of these bales of mate are piled in the
warehouses, and the different colors
of the hides which serve as the outer
covering make a wonderful color
scheme.
A Mate Service.
The mate cup is usually a pear
shaped gourd the size of a large coffee
cup, with an opening the size of half
dollar at one end. This gOurd is pol
ished and decorated with fanciful de-
signs by the Indian women, and can
be bought for five cents A handsome,
bejeweled, chased and engraved cup,
made to order from your own design
Will NOul COdl-Ol-dl Ills upO1 IL, CdII
be bought for any amount you want
to pay in Gale Florida.
The Buenos AyreS bombilla is hol-
low tube, quarter of an inch in di-
ameter and eight inches long, open at
one end and formed into bulb half
inch across at the other This bulb
is perforated with numerous small
holes, to act as a sieve for the yerba,
and is the straw through which the
mate is sucked. 1t is made of reed
wound with grass or straw, stained in
different colors, or of brass, or silver,
or gold, as the owners taste dictates
or his purse allows An alcohol lamp,
a tea kettle, some lump sugar, and last,
but not least, the yerba, complete the
outfit.
A Pink Tea in the Argentine.
| visited the home of a native Ar
gentine carpenter He was a thrifty
fellow and owned his own home-a
queer little house built around yard
after the Spanish manner, with only
one entrance, and that right on the
street.
We sat out in the patio, under a
huge, grapevine, which chung gritnly
to a stunted sage palm tree. The
moonlight made fantastic shadows or
the stone floor, as grandmother served
the mate. This is how to do it:
The bombilla is put in the cup, three
heaping spoonfuls of yerba and one
or two Jumps of sugar are added, and
the cup is filled with hot water Il
must not be boiling, but just on the
point of it, as boiling water scalds th<
yerba and destroys the flavor A littls
napkin is now wrapped around The
cup and it is given to you.
You suck the mate very slowly anc
daintily through the straw When yot
have exhausted the liquid, you hand thu
cup back to your hostess, and if 20;
desire more you smile and say era
cias," and she merely adds more ho
water; but if you have had enough }yo,
look sad and say "Bastante Tn,
same outfit is then passed to the mex
guest. All take their refreshment from