The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-09

EFT me give you some X-ray
 views of the giant capital of k1xR,,( Argentina. Buenos Aires is lA4.f5 growing faster than any city
 of the world When I visited 1t Is years ago it's population was S00,000. It has now double that and it is increasing at the rate of 100. 900 a year. The Argentines believe that it will have two and one-half millions by 1925. It is already neck and neck with Philadelphia It will eventually sur lass Chicago and it will be second only 10 New York among the great cities of the new world.
 It is wonderful how the town is in- creasing its area At the time of my last visit the surrounding estates shad heen plotted out into lots. These lots are now covered with buildings and the area of the city has grown to be twice the size of Paris and three times that of Berlin The houses are low ard they cover much ground Altogether. an area of 50,000 acres is devoted to buildings the density of population being about the same as that of New York. The city is l5 miles wide and 25 miles long. motor car ride about il eats up just about as much gasoline as the trip from Washington to Bal timore.
 I say motor car. In the first stages of the city's existence every one went about upon horseback. Even the beg gars had horses and each was re- ouired to carry a plaeard tied to his saddle giving his number. one lrav- eler records that he counted s5 such beggars in one walk through the streets. When I was here in 1898 the town swarmed with carriages. Now it swarms with automobiles, and the chug, chug, chug of the motorcycle is heard day and night. The motor cars have doubled in number within the past two years, and there are now something like 200O motor taxicabs which charge about half the rates of New York or Chicago. You can hIre taxi for s1 an hour and ride four fifths of mile for 20 cents. The taxis are of French makes. They go like the wind and seem to have no speed limit. They all turn to the left instead of the right and fly around the cor 7scic "itHout IcS dIu tD tTdlIic.
 Buenos Aires has good street car system It carried several hundred mill lion passengers last year. It's surface tracks joined end to end would reach as far as from Washington to New York and its subways are the finest ever con structed. Take for instance the tube railway under the Avenida de Mayo from the Great Western depot to the capitol building. It makes the underground roads of old London look like dungeon tunnels. It has cars wider than those of New York. They are walled on each side with plate glass and are artistically lighted. The stations have walls of tiles like those of mllionaires bathroom, with a diff ferent color of tiles for each station. The advertisements are so framed that they give no offense to the eye. The rates are Az cents of our money a trip.
 The subways belong to the British They were built by excavating the streets from above, shutting off the traffic for two blocks at a time while the concrete construction was put in The first sub way cost s300o0.00o Since then others have sbeen built and they are now making freight subways by which the cargoes will go right under the town below the chief business sections and be landed at the docks,