BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2181, 20 June 1914, Page 11

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

BOOKS OF THE DAY. THE AMAZING ARCENTINE. . Whatever objection may be taken to tho carelessness, tho inaccuracy, the evidences of merely surface observation, and. slipshod comment, which have undoubtedly characterised Mr. Foster Erasers sketches of. life in tho various countries he has visited, the enterprising British, journalist must be credited with a decided knack for writing travel impressions for a popular and not-too-critical audience. The latest addition to the now quite lengthy series of books which began with "The Real Siberia" is entitle!! "The Amazing Argentine" (Cassell and Company; per S. and W. •Jlaekay). It is written on the same lines as those of tho author's earlier works, and makes easy and interesting reading. , . '■ Buenos Aires. ;It is quite a common remark of Melbourne and Sydney people, to'allude to ; their, respective cities as the "largest and .finest cities in the Southern Hemisphere." . They are quite, wrong. Buenos .Aires; is.-now thirteenth in size amongst the,cities of the world. It has a population, of a million and a half. Its • public': buildings and theatres rival in .size and splendour those of:• Paris, Lon;dqn, and Berlin. It is one if tho most 'luxurious, most extravagant, and, if .■rtunour is to be believed,'most immoral cities of the world. Also, it is one of the busiest. The older Argentines conserved- most of- the Spanish habits. ..Manana: ("to-morrow") was their proverb. Life was, taken-as easily as possible. But in Buenos Aires of to-day the people are.-beginning to bustle after the approved Chicago style.. The habit of,the Sp'anish siesta, for instance,.has' been abandoned. - J • There is now no pulling down of. shutters between noon and three ; o'clock. ,The climate is enervating, ; •but be. the day never so steamy, ' • with hot'gusts, panting from the : north, the city is early alive, with : .commerce, the suburban trains are packed; the Stock Exchange is a 'babble of excitement,- and there ..never seems to be any drawing.of: rein till five or six; in the after--' noon.'; There.is hustle.' \ Some Characteristics. .Mr.. Fraser speaks well of the. hos-■pitality.-pf the'-capital.'.The men' are courteous' and the -women graceful— until lack of exercise, and over-eating mikes'them stout. The girls, ho-says, are. modest, but "spoil their appearance' by an' over-liberal use of powder." As to the Argeutihe youth, Mr. Fraser was .clearly/not greatly impressed with that-'ydting gentleman. "He begins when twelve years of age to smoke and to -tell lewd stories. He is impudent to/tho-servants, and to his parents; and I have known fathers smile when told their sons of fifteen have taken to visiting houses <f ill-fame"—a remark which seems to .smack of that hasty generalisation which characterised Mr. Eraser's book on Australia, and would be probably dismissed by thousands of Argentine baseless 1 slander. .In the same chapter. Mr. Fraser says that his "is .no , scientificway to study a city, but it.just happens to me my way." "The conclusions I draw," ho calmly admits, "may bo wrong, for I may have met- the wrong people and seen tho wrong things." I am rather inclined to believe Mr. Fraser is not unfrequently' wrong. He certainly is very. Careless. Thus, in speaking of a trip,to La Plate City, the legislative capital of the Buenos Aires province, he says: "The car was crowded with a sallowiskihncd, v bla6k-mo.ustaehed, black-garbed lot of gentlemen, .'and . 1 gathered'they were all Govern-' -■ -pient .officials'..". Nobody in Government -.employ, thinks-.of doing any work'in tho; morning. The men go to tlie office'.'late, and-leave.'early.' It was almost like home. The English Civil' Servant of Anthony, lrollopo's-novels' may have been" in the habit of shirking his work, but to-day ho is as regular in his office'attendance as tho lowest-grado City clerk. Yes, I can. fully.^believe'that Mr. Fraser often did meet "the wrong people," and drew "wrong conclusions," in Argentina, just as he did so notoriously in Australia. Buenos Aires has a 6uperb opera house, and. prides itself upon liav-.-ing "discovered,Tetrazzini and Kubelik long before London." The opera-goers of tho Argentine have their own opinions upon, musical matters, and it often happens'.- that a much-boomed European "star" falls very (bat when he or she appears, before the highly-critical .Argentine ' audience.', The poor are' well cared.for. "Charity is great arid funds are numerous ;'the Government.provides handsomely, and' there is no distress such as. is known in England." As a matter of.fact,.according to Mr. Fraser, poverty, as understood in Europe, does not exist in the' Argentine. ■ The Railways of Argentina. ■ Mr.v'Fraser'.dovotes a guod deal of attention to the Argentine railways, built and owned mainly by foreigners. Over three hundred-millions of British capital is .invested in Argentine railways and electric railways. ' .There are 20,000 miles of.-railroad in the Republic. -Out-' side the; private lines' .-there .are State lmc.a, built by the .Government through country "that was suitable for. colonisation,; out which does not appeal to the outside investor." According to the author," these State railways aro financially a failure." "' The general managers of tho big British railways in Argentina . get large salaries—£7ooo a year. This, says Mr. Fraser, "is partly to -removo them from the range of temptation of being bribed by owners, syndicates, or' land companies to authorise the making of railways where they would «ot be economically advis-. able." Extensions near the big towns cost the railways as much as they would in England. One man who bought, thirty years ago, a piece of land for £1600, sold it to a railway company for over £LW,OOO. Although the Argentine railways are, for the major part, privately owned, they are all, as to certain details of their management, subject to State control, as exercised by a board called the DircccionGcneral ,de Fcrrocarriles. This National Railway Board safeguards the interests of the public. No time-tables can be altered without the sanction of the board, which' also decides tho number of coaches to be run on each train. Sleeping-cars are obligatory on all night-trains, and dining-cars over certain distances. Every train carries a letter-box, and the mails are carried free. On every train is a medicinechest, a stretcher, and a bicycle, so that quick communication can bo made with the nearest station in case of accident. Every carriage is thoroughly disinfected, every month, and-* bedding and mattresses aro subject to a scientific disinfection, such as the author has nowhere seen in Europe. Land and Agriculture. The agricultural wealth of Argentina, Ji simply colossal, and is making gigantic strides every, year that goes by. The history of the live stock trade of

BY "LIBER." Give a man a pipe he can smoke, Give a man a book he can read; And his home is bright with a calm delight Though the room be poor indeed. —James Thomson.

tho country is almost a romance. Five centuries ago a bull and ten cows were abandoned.' What beoamo of them troublod no one To-day tho cattlo of Argentina number many millions. In 1794 some merino sheep were imported from Spain. In 1824 came some Southdowns from England.. "They mado an excellent cross, and that was tho start' Argentina got in the growing of wool." livery year tho pastoral and agricultural industries are becoming more specialised, scientific instruction to farmers being liberally endowed by tho State. To-day (1914), there are eight million 'horses, thirty milion head of cattle, and over eighty million sheep in the Republic. Arid yet only a portion of tho country suitable for stock has been utilised. Everything indicates, says Mr. Fraser, that within tho next ten years two hundred million animals of all classes will bo grazing on the pastures of Argentina. Much of the farming is slovenly. This 'is partly due to race, but chiefly because the- farmers are not owners, but only occupiers in return for giving . a proportion of tho crops to tho owner. Tho Government .is now considering a Scheme of purchasing the, great estates, and cutting them up for closer settlement on easy terms. The country is roughly termed, by .English-speaking colonists, ''Tho Camp." Mr. Fraser gives a long and interesting account of the;curious mixture of races which comprises tho population. Tho Italians predominate among the immigrants, but a largo proportion of them return to their native country after they have saved a littlo money.' Land values have increased enormously. Sections in Rosario City, for instance, worth, in ISBS, half -a-crown a square yard, now fetch £200 a yard.- Suburban sections, say, twenty by sixty yards, formerly obtainable for ■ £5, to-day .bring £150. A river frontage stretch, bought twenty years ago for £800, was sold last year for £40,000.'' Twenty miles from Rosario, ■ "camp-land," which a dozen years ago could • have been obtained for £10,000 the square 1 league, is worth £100,000 the square league. Mr. Frasor describes in >'detail tho powerful cities ( of the Republic, and deals at some'length with tho system of government; :attd tho political and social institutions of the country. "Camp" life is described n a specally interesting chapter, and the author gives an' entertaining description of a trip into'the .Andes country. By the completion of the Trans-Andean railway Valparaiso can now bo reached withotit' change of cary.'in'thirty-eight hours''from Buenes Aires.' The'railway distance "is .883 miles. A useful feature of the book is the advice given by the author to Engwho may think-of settling in Argentina. Above all, the immigrant, should thoroughly master the Spanish language. Tho book contains a number of exoellent illustrations reproduced from photographs. (Price, 3s. 6d.).