It should also be remembered, while on this subject of transportation facilities, that the Paraná River is navigable for light draught steamers two thousand miles inland from Buenos Ayres, into and through one of the most productive valleys in the world. From Montevideo to Point Piedras, the river is uniformly sixty miles wide, and at Buenos Ayres it has only narrowed to about half this distance. The two main rivers which form the Plate are the Uruguay and the Paraná, which in turn unite to form the grand estuary called Rio de la Plata.
The city of Buenos Ayres has about as many miles of tramway as there are in Boston. The various routes are well managed, and afford an infinite amount of popular accommodation. This service is carried on by six different companies. It is not in the hands of one big monopoly, as with us in Boston. Competition in undoubtedly best for the public good, but the business can be more advantageously conducted by a single company. Experience has shown, however, that such a franchise is liable to great abuse in the hands of a corporation having no rivalry to fear.
The citizens suffered long and patiently for want of good water for drinking and domestic purposes. This trouble has been partially obviated for a considerable time by the establishment of extensive water-works, but they are not adequate to the demand. The means for obtaining a new and additional supply are now under consideration. A system of drainage has also been constructed, which was fully as much of a necessity as the supply of water, but which, as usual, proves to be insufficient in capacity to perform the necessary work,—at least it but partially meets the requirements for which it was designed. People grow hardened by association with danger, but the importance of good and sufficient drainage for a capital in which malarial fevers prevail hardly requires argument.
Unlike nearly all of the South American cities, Buenos Ayres has no Plaza Mayor, or public square, as a grand business and pleasure resort, a central point, par excellence, designed also for the recreation of the general public. There are, however, several spacious squares, quite large enough to represent such an idea,—nine or ten of them in fact, all of which are surrounded by fine buildings. The Plaza Victoria, for instance, already referred to, is some eight acres in extent, made brilliant at night by electric lights, which supplement the old style of gas-burners. The government house, the Palace of Justice, the cathedral, and other effective buildings front upon the Plaza Victoria. Eight or ten of the principal streets converge here, and this point is also the place of departure for several lines of tram-cars. The cathedral is in the Grecian style, the portico supported by twelve Corinthian columns, composed of brick, mortar, and stucco, but the general effect is the same as though each pillar was a monolith. The edifice is capable of containing eight or ten thousand people at a time, being equal in size and architectural effect to any ecclesiastical establishment on the continent. As this cathedral is a very remarkable one in many respects, we devote more than usual space to its description. It was rebuilt by the Jesuits in the seventeenth century, but was originally founded in 1580, and is not much inferior to St. Paul's, London, as the following dimensions will show. It is two hundred and seventy feet long by one hundred and fifty in width, having an area of forty-five hundred square rods, and stands next in size to Notre Dame, Paris. The interior of this immense building, with its twelve side chapels, is dark, dingy, and dirty, while the want of ventilation renders the air within foul and offensive. It is only on some rare festal occasions that an audience at all adequate to occupy its great capacity is seen within its walls. A hundred persons do not seem like more than a dozen in such a place. Less than a thousand only serve to emphasize its loneliness. One sees a few women, but scarcely any men, present on ordinary occasions. The latter are content to stand about the outer doors and watch the former when they come from morning mass, or the ordinary Sabbath services. Here, as in Havana, Seville, and Madrid, the Spanish ladies, who lead a secluded home life, under a half oriental restraint imposed by custom inherited from the ancient Moorish rule in continental Spain, do not resent being stared at when in the streets. Probably this is the main attraction which draws most of the señors and señoritas to the church services, though undoubtedly many of them are devout and sincere in the outward services which they perform. At least, let us give them the benefit of such a conclusion.
The national religion of Argentina is that of the Roman Catholic Church, but the power of the priesthood is strictly confined to ecclesiastical affairs, as in Uruguay. Absolute religious freedom may be said to exist here. No religious processions or church parades are permitted in the public streets. This used to be very different in times past, almost every other day in the Romish calendar being some saint's day, and it was the custom to make the most of these occasions by elaborate parades and gorgeous display. Besides some twenty-four Roman Catholic churches and chapels, there are a score presided over by Protestants of various denominations,—Episcopal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, and so on. There is, as we were informed, a large and growing Protestant constituency in the city.
It should be mentioned very much to her credit that Buenos Ayres has supported, since 1872, a series of normal schools, in which regular courses of three years' training are given to persons desiring to fit themselves to become school-teachers. To assist those wishing to avail themselves of these advantages, the government appropriates a certain sum of money, and those persons who receive this public aid bind themselves, in consideration of the same, to teach on specific terms in the free schools for a period of three years. There are quite a number of North American ladies employed in these schools, throughout the several districts of Argentina, receiving a liberal compensation therefor, and commanding a high degree of respect. The University of Buenos Ayres, with about fifty professors and some eight hundred students, stands at the head of the national system of education. It was founded in 1821, having classical, law, medical, and physical departments. There are also four military schools, two for the army and two for the navy.
Buenos Ayres has more daily papers published within its precincts than either Boston or New York. It has several elegant marble structures devoted to the banking business, generally holding large capitals, though the financial condition of several of them at this writing is simply that of bankruptcy. This applies mainly to the state banks. There are here an orphanage, a deaf and dumb asylum, four public hospitals, and two libraries: the National Library containing some seventy thousand volumes, the Popular Library having fifty thousand. There is also a free art school, together with public and private schools of all grades. Last to be named, but by no means least in importance, the city has a number of fairly good hotels and restaurants, the latter much superior to the former. Hotels are not only a strong indication of the social refinement of a people, or of the want of it, but they are of great importance as regards the commercial prosperity of a large community. Travelers who are made comfortable in these temporary homes remain longer in a city than they would otherwise, spend more money there, and are apt to come again. If, on the contrary, the hotel accommodations are poor, travelers complain of them, and strangers avoid a city where they are liable to be rendered needlessly uncomfortable in this respect. Rio Janeiro is a notable instance in hand, a city whose hotels we conscientiously advise the traveler to avoid.
We well remember, at the great caravansary in Calcutta, the only hotel there of any size or pretension, that a party of five Englishmen and five Americans, who had come from Madras with the purpose of passing a fortnight in the former city, shortened their stay one half, simply because the hotel was so wretchedly kept, the accommodations were so abominably poor, and the discomforts so numerous. Let us put this idea in mercenary form. Ten guests, expending at least eight dollars each per day, curtailed their visit seven days. It is safe to say that they would have left six hundred dollars more in Calcutta had they been comfortably lodged, than they did under the circumstances.
We should not omit to mention the Commercial Exchange, in speaking of the public buildings of Buenos Ayres. It is a fine, large, modern structure, admirably adapted to the purpose for which it is designed. Until within a year, the edifice in Boston applied to the same purpose would not compare with that of this South American capital.
There is no dullness or torpor in this city. All is stir and bustle. Life and business are rampant, and yet, strange to say, no one seems to be in any special hurry. Everything is done in a leisurely manner. The number of handsome stores and the elegance of the goods displayed in them are remarkable, while the annual amount of sales in these establishments rivals that of some of our most popular New York and Boston concerns in similar lines of business. One may count forty first-class jewelry establishments in a short walk about town. There is hardly a more attractive display in this line either in Paris or London. Diamonds and precious stones of all descriptions dazzle the eye and captivate the fancy. The Calle Florida is one of the most fashionable thoroughfares, and presents in the afterpart of the day a very gay and striking picture of local life, a large element being composed of handsome women, attended by gayly dressed nurses, in charge of lovely children wearing fancy costumes. The young boys affect naval styles, and their little sisters wear marvelously broad Roman scarfs, and have their feet encased in dainty buff slippers. What pleasing domestic pictures they suggest to the eye of a restless wanderer!