THE ARGENTINE TANGO.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 99, 20 April 1914, Page 6

THE ARGENTINE TANGO.

Mr R. B. Cunnighame Graham saw the 'lango danced years ago m Argentina, and holds that it “lias changed devilishly upon its passage overseas.’ hi the English fie view for February, he gives a vivid description of the surroundings in which he first became acquainted with it. He and some friends rode over from their own ranch one evening to a party at the house of an old Gaucho named Frutos Barragan. In the low, straw-thatched building, with its smoke-blackened eaves, were burning rude lamps which consisted of cotton wicks floating in bowls of mare’s fat. The flickering light fell on the dark, sun-tanned faces of tall wiry Gauchos and the light cotton-dresses of the women as they sat against the wall. The floor was earth stamped hard, and as the Gauchos walked upon it their heavj spurs cliulyd. An old blind Paraguayan played on a guitar, a huge lljegro accompanying him on an accordion. Now and then one qr the other of them would break into a high-pitch-ed song, which forced the listener to try to imitate its wailing melody and strange intervals'. The air reeked of tobacco and rum, and a strong Catalonian wine which the ladies drank from a tumbler passed round from one to the other. At last the singing ceased, and tire two musicians struck up a tango. Men rose, and, taking off their spurs, walked gravely to the corner where the women sat, and with a courteous compliment led them put upon the floor. “The flowing poncho and the loose chiripa,, which served as trousers, swung about,” says Mr Graham, “just as the tartan of a Highlander swings as he dances, giving air air of to all the movements' of the Gauchos as they jevolved, their partners’ heads peeping above their shoulders and theif hips moving to-and fro. At times they parted and set to one another gravely, and then the man, advancing, clasped his partner round the waist and seemed to push her backwards, with her eyes half closed and an expression of beatitude. Gravity was the keynote of the scene, and, though the movements of the dance were as significant as it was possible for the dancers to achieve, the effect was graceful, and the soft, glid ing motion and the waving of the parti-colorcd clothes wild and original in the dim flickering light. Rum flowed during the intervals. The dancers wiped the perspiration from their brows, the men with the silk wore about their necks, the women with their sleeves. Tangos, cielitos, and pericones succeed ed one another, and still■ the atmosphere grew thicker, and the lights seemed to flicker through a haze as the dust rose from the mud floor. Still the old Paraguayan and the negro kept on playing, with the sweat running down their faces, smoking and drinking ruin iu their brief intervals of rest, and then the music ceased for a moment. The wild neighing of a horse tied in the moonlight to a post sounded as ii lie called his master to come out any! gallop home again. The night wore on, and still the negro and the Paraguayan stuck to their instruments. Skirts swung and ponchos waved, whilst ‘mate’ circulated amongst the older men as they stood grouped about the door. Then came a lull, and as men whispered in their partners ears, telling them, after the fashion of the Gauchos, that they were lovely, their hair like jet, their eyes bright as ‘las tres Marias,’ and all the compliments which iu their case were stereotyped and handed down for generations, loud voices rose, and in an instant two Gauchos bounded out upon the floor. Long silver-handled knives were in their hands, their ponchos wrapped round their left arms served them as bidders, and as they crouched like cats about to spring they poured out blasphemies. ‘Stop this I’ cried Frutos Barragan. Rut even &s he spoke a knife-thrust planted in the stomach stretched one upon the floor. Blood gushed out from his mouth, his belly fell like a .pricked bladder, and a dark stream of blood trickled upon the ground as he lay writhing in his death agony.”