Scene on the River at Tigre
The pleasantest of all pastimes in and about Buenos Aires is boating at Tigre. This little town, the Argentine Henley, is twenty-one miles north of the capital and is reached by half-hourly service by the Central Argentina Railway. Strange to say at this time of writing (1917) no electric line has yet been built between the two places. Tigre is on the Las Conchas River where it empties into the Lujan, one of the tributaries of the La Plata. It is thronged on Sundays by crowds from the city, who besides rowing and canoeing, also take in the pageant from the awninged verandas of the Tigre Hotel.
Most Argentinos do not care much for North Americans although they are invariably polite to them. It appears that there is a chord of jealousy somewhere against our nation. Some of this gentry have the gall to think that Argentina is the greatest nation on earth and these ideas are taught them in school. I have known inhabitants of Buenos Aires who believe that Argentina could whip the United States in a war, although most of them have an unwholesome fear of Chile. The British nation was not especially popular with Argentina because in 1833 it took the Falkland Islands from them. In 1916 Great Britain seized a couple of Argentine vessels which it claimed were taking contraband to the Central Powers. An anti-British demonstration occurred on the streets of Buenos Aires most of the participants in which were students. Several were cut by sabers in the hands of the police but this affray did not prevent roughnecks from yelling at Americans and calling them names, mistaking them for Englishmen. I unfortunately was a victim of these insults, as I was driving one night in the Plaza de Mayo. Even though Great Britain was not popular, neither was Germany a favorite as can be testified by the depredations on property of German ownership. On the night of Saturday, April 14, 1917, a street mob attacked the offices of two German newspapers, La Union and Deutsche La Plata Zeitung, and broke all the windows. This same mob also demolished the delicatessen store of P. Warckmeister at 555 Calle Sarmiento. A few months later, following Count Luxburg's iniquity, the mob wrecked the Club Aleman, and tried to burn it.
Thirty miles south of Buenos Aires, is La Plata, the capital of the Province of Buenos Aires and which has a population of about 120,000 inhabitants. Till 1880 the city of Buenos Aires was the capital of the province of the same name, but in that year it detached itself from the province and became the Federal Capital. The province, now lacking a capital, decided to build one, and a site having been chosen and the plans for the laying out of a city having been approved of, the city of La Plata was formally founded and created capital of the Province of Buenos Aires, November 29, 1882. In 1885 the population of the city was 13,869. The census of 1909 gave it 95,126 inhabitants while that of 1916 gave it 111,401; the total for the commune being 136,026.
Station of the Southern Railway, La Plata
La Plata is a dull, sleepy city of broad streets and low houses of light brown and cream-colored hues, with little shade. The sun's hot rays scorch the pedestrian as he walks over the sizzling pavement of the ultra-quiet and tomblike town. I have known people who, however, prefer La Plata to Buenos Aires, but I cannot comprehend how a person can live there and not die of ennui. It is laid out much on the order of Washington with broad angling avenues cutting off slices of square and rectangular blocks.