The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1949-06-09
THROUGH
HAZEL
EYES

Argentina, has a population of
5.l50,000 and is the largest city
In South America, the third lar
gest city in America, and the
seventh largest in the world. II
Is cosmopolitan to the nth degree
and may be best described as a
new metropolis with old world
charm - for Buenos Aires has
grown to be a great city only in
the past so years.
Superb parks and plazas. l57 of
them, and wide boulevards mark
this beautiful city which lies on
the banks of the Rio de la Plata
river, about $50 miles from the
Atlantic ocean. The river at this
point Is % miles wide. The city
occupies an area Of some 70 or 80
square miles. Its streets are broad
and straight, its shops delightful.
In architecture the traditional
French style has given way to
the modern, as in most great
South American cities.
Buenos Aires is a great and
beautiful city but even those who
love it best will admit that it
lacks originality. Here every
thing is copied from either Lon
don, Paris or Rome and in almost
every section of Buenos Aires
one recalls those great cities.
Today, however, some Argen-
tines will tell you, the country
Is coming into its own and Argen-
tine artists and writer's are pay
ing more attention to native Gull
ture than they are to the great
galleries in Europe.
Buenos Aires has become a
great center of Spanish printing
and publishing in the past de-
cade. Several of the leading
publishing houses of Spain have
been moved there because of the
Spanish Civil war.
Interest in music, sculpture and
literature is great. One critic
said: Argentine creative activity
in the past has turned to Europe,
especially to France for inspira-
ton pattern and form. Her pic
torial art still leans strongly to
the French impressionists and
modern, but under the rising tide
of nationalism and the realities
of war this trend is changing. To-
day our musicians and writers are
taking advantage of wealth OF
native themes and subjects in
stead of borrowing and initiating
European forms. Composers are
turning for inspiration to the In
dian themes, the heroics of the
struggle for independence and the
dramatic episodes of national de-
velopment."
The list of great writers, ar
lists and musicians of Argentina
contains many of the most out
standing in South Amrica and is
steadily growing under the in
fluence of the many flourishing
art schools and exhibition gal
leries.
Interest in opera Is great and
the Colon Opera house, beauti-
full building occupying an entire
city block, is copied after the
opera house in Paris, generally
regarded as the most beautiful
in the world. The Colon seats
1000 persons and the stage, an
immense affair, will hold over
600 performers. The greatest ar
lists in the world have performed
here. The rows of seats are go
widely spaced as to give plenty
Of room for passage without hav-
ing to rise every time one comes
into the row to be seated. On
either. side Of the house there are
boxes screened from public view
- ostensibly to allow those in
mourning to come and enjoy the
opera without being seen - but
your guide will always tell you
the boxes are a nice place to pro-
mote romance, or for a man to
take a lady who is not his wife.
The rules of society are very
strict and the list Of things not to
be done, the places to be seen and
at the right time, are very ex-
tensive and quite rigidly adhered
to. Mourning is observed by both
sexes after a death, and men
wearing black bands around their
arms are seen every day on the
streets.
The fashionable hour to dine in
Buenos Aires is from nine o'clock
to midnight. Restaurants do not
start serving dinner until nine o.
clock and no Argentine of fashion
would be caught dining publicly
before ten. Dinner usually takes
two or more hours. After dinner
one usually moves on to night
club where the rhumba and tango
in Argentine fashion enthralls.
This custom of late dining is the
hardest to take, North Americans
say, but within a few days they
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