Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-16

at niahtfan which robs the heat of the
day OF its terrors. The winters are so
mild that the ma iority of the houses
are not heated. a fall OF snow is an
event The story goes that on the last
occasion when snow was seen there, II
was the cause of an impromptu half
holiday throughout the city. Laborers
everywhere left their work and went
forth to marvel at the sight.
Atmosphere Of cayety
There is in Buenos Ayres a pervasive
atmosphere of gayety and hgnt-heart-
edness In this respect the city is en-
tirelv Latin. A large number of the
women of the wealthier class make an
annual pilgrimage to the dressmaker's s
shrine I'm Parls-more from the prestige
that such n trip gives them than from
any intrinsic superiority of the Partisan
wardrobe. For Argentina Is herself the
glass of fashion and the mold of form.
Every afternoon during the season may
he seen out I'm the beautiful Palermo
park a procession of equipages drawn
by the finest horses in the world, and
containing women the elegance or
whose appearance might we'll make
even the fashionable Parisian stare.
The line of carriages winds round ana
round, one vehicle often Keeping ts
place in the procession tor several
hours. IT.
This exposltion of fashion is the
nearest approach of outdoor recreation
to which the Argentine woman usually
attains. But her athletic English Sis
ter is gradually teaching her TO dofL
her. enamel and her train for a coat Oh
tan and short skirt And the time
of her full emancipation Is probably
not far distant
The language of the Argentine Re-
Ill. I,,,t with n
adnixtrre of foreign terms, and SO
marked an impurity Of pronunciation
that a Castilian is often heard to COM
plain of having difficulty in making
himself understood in the shops ana
among uneducated people. English IS
spoken in most of the large stores and
hotels. But the foreigner who is ig-
norant of Spanish will find himself
even more handicapped than he is IN
Munich without German or in Venice
without Italian.
The Prensa Whistle
Every visitor to Buenos AyreS should
be warned of the Prensa whistle. La
Prensa is the leading newspaper OF
the city, and it has one method of ad-
vertising itself which is as amusing
as it is original. Every time an event
of world Importance takes place any
SO loud, weird and unearthly-so preg-
nant with disastrous meaning-that
when heard in the stiffness of night by
an uninitiated tourist, 1t may well lead
him to believe that something dire has
happened 1t was blown twice during
the writer's visit to Buenos Ayres-
once on the occasion of the death OF
President Quintana, once after the San
Francisco earthquake. The whistle is
L. Id
and each time it sounds a heavy fine
is imposed on La Prensa, but the fine
is always paid with cheerfulness (said
to be very aggravating to the courts),
as the siren is the best advertisement
the newspaper has been able to invent.
The dailies OF Buenos Ayres are now
engaged in an active crusade against
an abuse which is prevalent there and
which contributes more to the discom-
fort of the woman tourists than any
other one condition in the city, namely,
the fragrant disrespect shown by ma
tive men to foreign women who go out
unattended by male escort. An Eng
lish or American woman is liable to
be accosted, no matter what her ap-
pearance or station There are even
regularly formed bands of young men
about town from the so-called better
classes, Who make it their daily amuse-
ment to walk UP and down the fash
ionable streets accosting and in vari-
Gus ways insulting the ladies' who are
unfortunate enough to cross their
path. Public sentiment is however,
at last aroused in this matter and it
may be expected that the evil will soon
be done away.
Except at times when the United
States is playing the leading role on
the worlds stage, as it did after the
San Francisco disaster, for example,
it figures very little in the Buenos
Ayres press. During the first week
after the writer's arrival, daily search
for United States news in one of the
leading papers was rewarded only with
the discovery of an item concerning a
trolley accident in Green Village! The