The Republican journal., 1905-12-07
FRAUDS IN Argentina.

GAIL is not Gold That Glitters' is Especial
ly True of This Far Southern Republic.
| Especial Correspondence of The JournaL]
BUENos AYREs, Oct. 25th, 1905.
While waiting in this brilliant city of
paradoxes for the northward bound
steamer we are diligently occupied in
looking up the Lions that escaped us
on our previous visit.
| Rambling about town we have been
struck by the frequency of the inscrip-
ton casa de Renate," meaning auc-
ton room, sprawled in big letters on
shop fronts in every street. At first we
attributed the number of them to the
prevailing depression in the money
market and thought with compassion
of the hundreds of merchants thus on
veloped the fact that the remate mer-
chants are generally the most pros
! porous, this method of buying and sell
ing being the fashionable fad of the
hour in Argentina. Every kind of
stock is disposed Of at auction, from
bon bons to hardware, from groceries to
French millinery-the most common
articles, however, being furniture, brio
a-brac and articles OF yertu, so-called.
But though many of these places in the
principal streets are gorgeous en-
poriums of gilded display and electric
lighting, the goods, as rule, are gaudy
and second class and look as if manu-
featured for the purpose. The greatest
auction house of all, called the Gianja
Nacional, which might have figured APP
propriately as a show place at the
i Worlds Fair, is an immense mart,
where everything Imaginable may be
bought, from a railroad, or hundred
square leagues of land, down to a brass
breast pin Its floors are luxuriously
carpeted, bands play continuously and
at night the whole show is Illuminated
by electricity. There is a fine restaurant
attached, besides riding school, a
| picture gallery, a bazaar of curioS, a
permanent exhibition of statuary,
vases and cases of jewelry; rooms for
the display of furniture, and others de-
voted to pianos and all manner of
musical instruments. There are stalls
for cattle and horses spacious wings
for the exhibition of carriages, palm
trees, flowers, fruit, agricultural i'm
plements-in brief for every known
commodity.
] The Buenos Ayres rematador, or auc-
tioneer, is type peculiar to the coun-
try, distinctively different from follow
ers of the profession in other parts of
the world; and, strange to say, few call
ingS are SO popular among the naughty
dOnS OF Argentina, who as class are
not given to labor in any guise, but find
this business as diverting as profitable.
| The successful rematadOr has little
office in the fashionable quarter, in
which piano is the most prominent
article Of furniture and very large
and highly colored map, or plan, if he
deals in lands and houses, is decided Y
in evidence more than desk and stools.
| While you gaze at the plan a young
man bangs lively airs out of the piano.
| Presently a crowd collects and bidding
J begins; and when he becomes interest
ed the excitable Argentinian "goes in
| regardless OF consequences, as i'll other
forms of gambling. To the Buenos
Ayres auctioneer everything is describ-
ed in the snperlative degree and all is
pure gold that gIitters ever SO little.
The hyperbolical terms in which he
continually deals leave those of circus
! bill composers in total eclipse; and SO
stepped does he become in the spirit of
exaggeration that he can no more come
down to common language and literal
truth than the veteran dry goods sales
man can drop his chronic smile. His
| flaming posters announce in colossal
letters the most extraordinary sales
ever heard of, While great flags flying
| from house tops and windows and
| bunting feStooned across the streets
| compel attention to his "renates'' of
| houses, and lands cattle and every
conceivable property and commodity,
which take place every day in the year.
but with the greatest vim and eclat Oh
Sundays. The daily papers, too, are
full of him. Such enormous "blanket
sheets" as the Nacion, the Herold, the
Prensa and half a dozen other papers
often contain as many as twenty five
solid columns of closely printed adver-
Using, in language tlowery enough 10
put to blush the great Haroun Al Ras-
child himself. The following literal
translation, taken at random from
morning paper, will do for a sample:
"A high-life mansion, forming brilliant
Ter, splendidly situated in most
precious (preciosisimio) neighborhood,
in the f1ourishing suburb of Flores, of
assured aristocratic future, where only
families of greatest distinction and
AlSh OOliO AVolaOS 10 Ol4OlO0 Aol oaiC,
ETC., etc. Another to which cod-blood
ed English falls far short of conveying
the full exuberance of the richer Cas-
lillian, runs this way: "Most luxuriant
furniture, splendid and exceptional OPP
portunity. Most elegant drawing room
suite, style Louis XIV, most precious
piano, upright grand style, and magni-
| ticently strung, splendid console table
with rose-colored marble top and beau
tiful mirrors, all richly carved" If the
remate is to be held outside the city,
the auctioneer provides coaches, or a
special train, for all who will attend, to-
gether with band OF music, free lunch
and unlimited drinks. 10 be sure the
music is of that kind that sets the dogs
ahowling, and the luncheon consists of
sawdust and sandwiches and inferior
beer; but great throng from the idle
and irresponsible, with the usual COM
plement of brokers and bummers, dead
heads and pickpockets, improve the
opportunity of an excursion at some
| body else expense. Pause moment on
the outskirts of the crowd and listen to
the voice of the charmer, the remata-
dos, who with coat-tails flying is in full
| flow and ferver of the rhetorical elo-
quence for which Latin "A mericans are
justly celebrated.
In his glowing phraseology a few
! L.. I