Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 440, 22 September 1904, Page 7

Traveller.

LIFE IN ARGENTINA. WHEN proparing to come out to this far-away land, I made many attempts to find out something of the everyday hfe i shoutt load -. what sod should find ; what amusements were to be got out of one's surroundings; and what opportunities of making home-life pleasant and interesting. I could get little information, for few people knew anything of Argentina, except as a country which had swallowed up much English gold, and where revolutions wore as common as strikes at home. No books seemed to have been written about lifo out there, and in the magazinos I could find no stories of incidents, stirring or picturosque, from lifo in Argentina. I had to fall back on a traveller s talos of grotesque animals wandering over a hideous land. Indeed I came to' the conclusion that I was going to a country where social life was too uninteresting to be worth describing, After a year or two I have found that time has not passed so monotonously, but on tho whole pbasantly, so I venture to describe something of the style in which we spend our days, for the benefit of those at home.

Of course in a country which is equal to the united area of Great Britain, Franco, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, and Greece, and whose population is made up of natives from all theso countries and a few more, one finds every sort of life and many strange customs. The city of Buenos Ayres, the first in South America, is a great capital full of stirring lite. It is not beautiful in itself or its surroundings; the shops are good, and you can buy anything you want, if you care to pay a heavy price. English people on the whole seem to find the life pleasant and sociable; they can enjoy good theatres, operas, and balls, as well as any amount of outdoor amusements in a delightful climate. The smaller towns are more or less provincial and unattractive, with the exception of Cordoba, one of the few old cities in the southern homisphcre. For throe centuries it was the centre of learning, under the despotic rule of the Jesuits. It has many fine churches and a cathedral worth seeing, fortified and showing traces of Moorish art. There old families, lived in great houses with innumerable retainers, all the luxuries of Europe being brought (at enormous cost) in bullock carts over the leagues of grassy plains that lie between Cordoba and the ports of Rosario and Buenos Ayres. There were to be found the finest -types of Argentina refinement arid learning. The city itself is beautiful, a green oasis with a background of noble hills.

' But I must turn to the camp and the life of the ; English thore. . Gamp • is the Argentina name for the country as distinguished from the town (the. Spanish campo), and is the word always used by the English residents. We talk of a man buying a, bit of camp, of going out to the camp; and there is no mistaking a camp man in boots and breeches, with a wide-brimmed hat, a revolver in his belt, and a riding whip in his hand. ' ; There are two styles of camp—inside and outside. Inside consists of the district round Buenos Ayres, where the land is. well populated, many railways, all centring in Buenos Ayres, making it easy to come and go, sell the products of the estancia, and bring out in return the luxuries of town. Here you find old-established estancias with houses as,well furnished and as comfortable as you can find in a country where m general comfort is little understood. Well-grown montes (as woods are called), and gardens rich in flowers, surround the houses. Outside is a very different world. Where trenches and earthworks of the simplest fornr, to keep out the Indians, once .tretched league upon leaguo. with forts at ■hort distances, from which barbarous soldiers :defended the frontier, by degrees, dlling out the miserable Indians, there are iow long lines of railway, with small wayside stations, and here and there an attempt it a town, and estancias, from small enclosures of two or throe lcaguos, to huge estates owned by companies (one of these covers a: thousand square miles). Here, outside,';all is new; the oldest house has .perhaps a record of twelve years, and we look with respect on its watch-tower and koopholed walls, for Indians were still lurking round when it was built. ' Their 'former presence is still to be traced in the dark skin, straight hair, and narrow eyes often noticed in a gaucho, and also in many ivords used by the natives when working in the corrals amongst horses and cattle.

It is in this district that so many of the young Englishmen who arrive by every mail from England, full of high hopes and courage, are chiefly to be found. They are, of course, eager to make money, and for the most part capable of doing so, aided by the few (as yet very few) wives and sistors" who have the courage to rough it. The first years of a new estancia have to be years of hard toil and rough living,, but whea wells have been sunk and fences put up, then-one can turn to building a comfortable house and laying out a garden; and though the work is still hard and constant, yet there is time for recreation and amusement. On the whole, life is very cheerful in a land where the sun always shines and the air is peculiarly clear and bracing. Of course there are days when a furious north wind sweeps unchecked over the great level land, bringing clouds of scorching dust, its hot breath seeming to burn up all tender vegetation, being almost as fatal to a garden as a sharp spring-frost. Then again, there are csld winter days when it is impossible .to get warm, and one realises only too well what a precious thing firewood is in this fuel-less country. Nothing oould be more perfect than the spring and autumn weather, and it.is thon, when the days, are long and the sun. not too hot, that one can enjoy a equivalent in English for this word, as it means anything from loitering round the garden, or paying a -call,, to a trip to Europe. To us a ' pas£o ' .generally means a few days' holiday, getting away from the estancia and its everyday cares and worrios, leaving them all to* some kindly friend who is left in the solitary house with a bewildering numbor of parting injunctions about things on no account to be forgotten. How pleasant it is to start in the-'cool-sweet-scented dawn, when the early sunbeams are glinting over the purple alfalfa fields, the horses eager to be off in the keen air! Then came long hours on the road, until at sundown twinkling lights tell that we are near our friend's house, eager voices welcome us, and" kindly hands help to unsaddle or unharness the horsos. After their simple wants (very simple in this country) are seen to, comes a cheery evening meal in the plain but snug sittingroom. Next day is spent' looking round,' inspecting the horses to see what new ones have been bought or' broken in. There is always something new about an estancia, and this is the most interesting thing in camp-life, that now schemes have to be made and carried out continually. Then messages are sent out to summon the neighbours; who shortly turn up from all sides to play in or watch a game of polo. . There is a groat slaughter of ducks "arid 'turkeys, aud whero the company includes

ladies, cakoa and pies are. baked, mid a dainty dinner -.served. Extra beds are easily arranged, forevery house has a large supply of catris", arid in cold weather every one travels with ponchos. A i catri' is the simplest form of bedstead, made, like a cßiiip-stool, easily folded up and put. aside, and without a.mattress most cool and restful on Sot- nights. The evening is spent, if hot. in tho verandah, or indoors round tho firoside, playing games, an<| danoing or singing whore there is a piano. The custom of visiting all the estanoias in the neighbourhood in this way, passinpr a day or two at each, answors to a round of calls, in camp the distance between neighbours being usually too groat to allow of paying a visit and returning in tho saino day. I have heard many amusing descriptions of going a paseo in the old timos, when things were done on a larger scalo than nowadays. In one house all tho neighbours gathered for Christmas, two tents being put up:in the ' patio,' one for ladies, the other, for men. The young tallows on their -arrival- would secure a ' catri' and hide it in tho ' monte 'so as to make sure' of a bed, tho less fortunate having to sloop on their ' recau' (as tho native saddle is. called), which is being made up of about half-a-dozen saddle-cloths and skins, is not a bad substitute, and is indeed the true gaucho's only bed. Far less stirring is a lady's life : except for a ride or drive, she never leaves the house. If she has children, she must be always with them, ior a good nurse is not easily found, and, even with one, she cannot leave home with a mind at rest, knowing that there is no doctor, or even an experienced friend at hand, ,vho can be summoned in case of illness. I have seen some brave matrons go off for a ' paseo' with all their boys and girls and babies; but this can hardly be an enjoyable holiday for them or the friends they visit. As a good cook is quite an impossibility in camp, the lady of the house has to spend most of her time in the kitchen. The dairy also must be under her special care, as no native understands how to make butter. Naturally, if a woman is interested in house-keeping, she has plenty of scope and materal for her talents, and nowhere is a comfortable homo more appreciated than in this land of roughing it. Of course, in the more civilised parts it is different, and indeed life is much the same as life at home in an ordinary country' house. Both inside and outside it is a life free from many irksome conventional restraints, and from all passing fashions, where each household is modellod and directed according to its own ideas of what works best and is most comfortable ; but it is usually a life wanting in culture, and. art, and good music, such as may be found in the most out-of-the-way corners of England and Australia.