Evening star., 1925-07-03

Editors Note-This Is the third
of q series of four articles by Send-
tor Jones describing his trip to aud
impressions of South America.
BY SENATOR WESLEY l.. JONES.
We reached Buenos Aires promptly
at z am. Ambassador Riddle met us
and had every arrangement made to
get us through the customs promptly.
Ho took us to the railroad station,
where we got some breakfast.
wanted some cereal, but could not
make the waiter understand what it
was. Finally he said. Ham and
eggs" and in desperation l said.
Yes" They usually eat nothing
more than a roll and coffee or some
fruit that early in the morning, hav-
ing their breakfast in all South
American countries about II o'clock.
Our train left promptly at 9:I5 am.
and we started across Argentina to-
ward the Andes. The railroad is
owned by English capital and the cars
are of the English type. They are
compartment cars and you are shut
off from everybody else, but unless
you take the whole compartment by
yourself you have a stranger in with
you. They DO not at all compare with
our Pullman cars.
I enjoyed the journey from Buenos
Aires TO Santiago as much as any
other part of the trip. even though it
was overland and by train.
Road Free From Curves.
From Buenos Aires the country is
literally as level as a floor as far as
the eye can see. and is so the entire
distance from Buenos Aires to Men
doza. During the daylight run there
was not a grade to climb and the
train did not depart from a straight
course, except for a slight jog or two
in entering or going through cities.
No streams were crossed, except posi-
bly, one or two very small rivulets.
Two or three lakes were seen, one of
them probably two or three miles
long. The country apparently got
drier as we neared Mendoza, because
it was strictly arid there and crops
were raised by irrigation, the water
being taken from streams coming
down from the Andes and evidently
running into the Plata
From the time we got beyond the
boundary line of Buenos Aires up
until dark there We're cattle, literally
by the thousands, on each side of
the railroad line as far as we could
see. I saw more cattle in that days
ride than l have ever seen in all my
life put together. Ranches, or
haciendas, are large-5O, 900, $4,000
and 100. 900 acres. They grow alfalfa,
corn and grasses of various kinds.
We saw some wheat stubble fields,
but this road does not go through the
great wheat-producing section. The
corn did not compare with the crop
OF our Middle States. What 1t will do
with better cultivation and care l do
not know. 1 saw quite a good many
corncribs filled with newly gathered
corn. The corncribs are cylindrical,
20 or 80 feet high, and look like they
were constructed of cornstalks tied
together in some way. / saw them
only from the train, but think they
are constructed this way because of
the scarcity of lumber.
Cattle Fattened Cheaply.
The cattle are grown and fatten
largely on the pastures, and I was
told that most of them had been fat
tened without corn or grain of any
kind. The beeves that we saw in the
packing houses at Montevideo were
just as fat as any corn-fed beef have
ever seen in the States. From what
1 saw I think I can realize the diff
Guilty that our cattle men must expe-
rience wherever they come in compe-
tition with the beef of this great
country.
Like Yakima Valley.
We reached Mendoza at o'clock in
the morning. There we changed to a
narrow-gage road to cross the Andes
Mountains, which could be seen in the
distance. The country about Mendoza
Jc {y-y-1c to1 l1I
ina. There were some peach and
pear orchards, but the popular crop
is the grape. There were many very
large vineyards, splendidly cultivated,
and the grapes are extremely fine.
The land above the bitches looks much
like our dry lands and is covered with
something that resembles our sage
brush, or rather more like the grease
wood.
Our train ran in two sections, first
and second class passengers taking
the first section, Pullman passe ngers
following in the second section about
an hour behind. The Pullman cars
are chair cars. The chairs in our car
were large, comfortable wickers
There is no smoking or wash room
such as we have in our cars. The
windows were large and easily low
cred, making the cars really observa-
d
car and meals are served on the train
very much as in the hotels. They
have no early breakfast, but they
usually take coffee and a roll early in
the morning and have breakfast be-
ginning about IL o'clock. You do not
give your orders as we do on our
trains. They come around and if you
want breakfast they give you a ticket
for the IL, IL or 1 o'clock serving, az
you prefer. They take an hour for
each sitting. They don't ask you
what you want. They serve you what
they have.
Breakfast Menu Ample.
Here, in substance, is the breakfast
we had on our narrow-gage road:
Bread and butter, ETC., radiShes and
onions. The first real course consist
ed of cold meats, chicken, ham, beef
and stuffed eggs. The waiter brought
all these on platter and served them
to you, giving you liberal portion of
each. Then came soup and CLAIMS.
followed by cornmeal and cheese
omelet. The next course was fried
chicken, potatoes, carrots, beans, cab
bage and cooked celery, with fried
cucumbers. When we had disposed
of our chicken, they brought fried
veal, or in another meal fried steak,
potatoes and lettuce. Dessert con-
sisted Of baked apples or grapes, ba-
nanas or other kinds of fruit, cake,
and the meal closed with black coffee
The price on the train to Mendoza