Children of South America

by Katharine A. Hodge

On our way to the capital of Buenos Aires, we pass miles of waving corn, with great expanses of grassland upon which graze hundreds of sheep and cattle. Here and there, too, we see ranches where the owners of the wheat-fields and cattle live.

Who are these people? Not foreigners, but our own British men and women, miles away from any city and from civilization.

There is no church for them to go to, so Sunday is the same as any other day; but occasionally they receive a visit from the chaplain of the South American Missionary Society. More often than not, they are without any spiritual help whatever, and yet how much we owe to them!

Supposing we had no church or Sunday-school, no one to tell us of the beautiful things of God—how we should miss it all! And yet here are these people living out on the plains of Argentina, with their little children, tending the sheep, and reaping the corn, all of which is for our material benefit.

The sheep and cattle are killed and put into the freezing-houses in Buenos Aires; the wheat is harvested and made into flour, and all is shipped from the docks every week, to England and other parts of the world. Shall we not send them news of the Bread of Life which perisheth not, so that the boys and girls of Argentina may know about the Lord Jesus Christ?

Now we are in the city of the whole continent, Buenos Aires. The houses are flat-roofed and have no chimneys, for the very simple reason that they have no fires. Most of the cooking is done either on a charcoal brazier or on a gas or oil stove. Most of the streets are very narrow, especially the older ones. The newer streets are made much wider, and down the centre are avenues of trees.

House rent here, as in every other South American city, is very, very high, so that the poor people live in “conventillos” such as you see here. “This is a form of slum peculiar to South America consisting of a square, or courtyard surrounded by buildings one or two stories high. A ‘conventillo’ sometimes contains as many as a hundred families, each one crowded into a single room, opening on to the common square. Here the women wash, and cook, and sew, and gossip and drink ‘maté’ with their friends (the native tea of the continent is grown in Paraguay). Here also the children swarm and quarrel at their games.”

Buenos Aires is a most cosmopolitan city, full of life, gaiety, and commercial activity; and yet so full of wickedness that many a mother’s boy has been ruined for eternity.

There are numerous factories of various kinds in the city and neighbourhood, in which hundreds of girls and boys are employed. In the richer homes the girls are kept very secluded by their mothers, having no purpose in life but just to dress up and make themselves look nice.

In the hot months everyone rises with the sun, and the first substantial meal, called “almuorzo” (breakfast) is taken at 11.30. The hottest part of the day is spent in “siesta” (sleep), under a mosquito net, on a shady verandah, after which you have a cold bath and dress ready for visitors, or go visiting yourself.