The true Argentine of the past is the descendant of the Spanish conquerors4 with usually some admixture of native Indian blood derived5 from a remote ancestress, while another less remote has perhaps given him a tinge7 of black blood in remembrance of the days when African slave labour tended his great-grandfather’s sugar canes8 and maize9.
But Spanish blood is predominant and Spanish qualities distinguish most of the Argentine, and all of the Uruguayan, leading families of to-day. Ceremoniously courteous10 to a fault—the fault of deeming it rude ever to refuse a favour asked; regarding it as a strange lack of savoir vivre on the part of the suppliant11 should the latter not understand the granting as a mere12 polite formality, in no way to be taken as a serious engagement.
[41]
An Argentine will ask a favour of another as a mere hint that he would be very glad if the latter granted it; a stranger ignorant of Argentine manners and ways might ask it really expecting to receive a substantial response to his request. Both would be met with a charming if vague assertion that nothing would give the person asked greater pleasure than to do anything the asker desired. Each might attain13 his object or not, as other considerations dictated14; but whereas the demand would be credited to the former as finesse15, contempt for boorishness16 would be the lot of the latter did he present himself expectant of the immediate18 fulfilment of the promise. Almost as well might he turn up unexpectedly to lunch at the home of an Argentine who on first receiving him had said with a graciously comprehensive wave of his hand, “This house is yours.”
As a matter of fact an Argentine’s home is a very difficult castle for a stranger to enter.
This probably for two chief reasons. For the first of these we must trace racial elements back to the Moorish19 civilization of Spain and the jealous seclusion20 of women from all male eyes but those of close relations. The second is a general lack of orderliness (also an Oriental characteristic) usually prevailing21 in even the richest Argentine households; which makes it inconvenient22 to receive except on special and specially23 prepared occasions.
We must follow up the Arab-Semitic blood brought in the veins24 of the Spaniard to the new world through mingling25 with Native Indian and Negro blood before we come to the heroes who fought for and won independence from Spanish rule now over a century ago. Since then what intermarryings, mostly with natives of Italy but also with British, French, German, Scandinavian and Belgian men and women.
Guthries, Dumas, Murphys, Schneidewinds, Christophersens, De Bruyns, Bunges, not to mention bearers of the historic patronymics of Brown and O’Higgins, are now among the landed aristocracy of Argentina; though, still, the[42] crème de la crème consists of the descendants of the Spanish families of Colonial days. Among the middle and lower classes, especially in the towns, the Italianate element is now overwhelming; though recently again Spanish immigration has begun to exceed Italian. All this goes to make a strange racial mixture; of which the first generation born on Argentine soil knows little about and cares nothing for the language of its parents, but grows up with a pride, comical to the detached observer, in the glorious Wars of Independence (fought at a period when its own ancestry26 were, as likely as not, peasants in one or another corner of Europe, and wholly ignorant of the fact of the existence of the River Plate) and patriotically27 devoted28 to the blue and white Banner and National Anthem29 (an Italian composition, by the by) of the land of their parents’ adoption30.
Everyone born on Argentine or Uruguayan soil is Argentine or Uruguayan of his own very decided31 will as well as legally; furiously so with the exclusive fervour of the convert. He cannot or will not speak English, French, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish or Flemish as the case may be; nothing but Spanish, River Plate Spanish, that is to say, is worthy32 of his tongue, and he has a truly Galician contempt for the lisping Spanish of Castile.
Contrarily to a generally accepted but quite superficial view, an Uruguayan differs from an Argentine almost if not quite as much as a Portuguese33 does from a Spaniard; the reason being that the early immigration to the two countries was drawn34 from different parts of Spain. The first settlement of what is now Uruguay was chiefly drawn from the Canary Islands and the Basque Provinces; the latter origin being easily perceptible from a glance at any list of the names of prominent Uruguayans, past or present. To this fact of early settlement and because Uruguay has, until quite recently, offered much less attraction to the stream of European Emigration which flowed past Montevideo to Buenos Aires, is due the possession of the high degree of[43] many sterling35 qualities which distinguishes Uruguayans from their cousins of the other shore of the River Plate. These qualities have sustained the National and individual financial credit of Uruguay throughout all troubles and political vicissitudes36. She as a Nation and her individual traders have always paid 100 cents gold to each dollar and her commercial community has successfully negatived any attempt on the part of her Governments to depart from the strictly37 gold basis of her monetary38 system. The Uruguayan dollar is worth slightly more than that of the United States. This significant fact is due to the uncontaminated preservation39 of racial qualities derived through the old Colonists40 from the Northern parts of Spain; especially from the Basques, than whom no honester, nor perhaps more obstinate41, people exist.
LANGUAGE
Everyone knows that Spanish is the language of the River Plate Republics; but, while the written Spanish of South America is one with literary Spanish all the world over, the spoken language of Argentina and Uruguay differs from Castilian in many respects.
The first of these, and probably the most interesting, is the survival in South America of words in common use in the days of the early conquistadores and colonists but which have long ago fallen into disuse in Spain.
These words gave a deal of trouble a few years ago to certain Argentine amateur philologists42 who made more or less ingenious endeavours to derive6 them from the aboriginal43 Quichúa or Guaraní.
It was reserved for Mr. Paul Groussac, a Frenchman and the custodian44 of the Argentine National Library, to inform these derivation hunters, in a coldly sarcastic45 little pamphlet, that they would find all the words that were puzzling them intact in the works of Cervantes and other old Spanish authors.
[44]
So it is with many Britons not learned in philology46. There are many words and expressions commonly regarded as Americanisms which in truth went to New England in the Mayflower.
There are also several striking differences between the pronunciation of Spanish on the River Plate and in Spain. Thus the “ll” which is liquid in pure Castilian is given in South America a sound very much like the French “j” in je. This, I believe to have come to the New World with the Galician immigration.[11]
In the beginning of historical times the various Galician dialects prevailed over the whole Peninsula; Galician subsequently developing into modern Portuguese and the Castilian dialect, with much more widely divergent steps of development, becoming the accepted language of Spain.
Also the Argentine and Uruguayan disdain47 the lisping “θ” sound given by Spaniards to the letter “z” and in a lighter48 degree to “c.” In South American Spanish “z,” soft “c” and “s” are indistinguishable to the ear; all three being given the same sound as an English “s.” There is also, as might be expected, a distinct difference of intonation49 between Spanish as she is spoken in South America and in Spain. Everyone who has learned to speak Spanish in a South American country ever afterwards carries with him oral evidence of the place of origin of that linguistic50 acquirement; just as does a foreigner who has learned English in the United States. So it is with South African Dutch; and (may it be said?) Australian English. And all Colonists of either English, Dutch or Spanish origin are consciously proud of their own particular fashion of speaking and, either secretly or openly, regard the intonation of the older country as rather effeminately affected51. De gustibus, etc.
Really, I suppose, there is no good or bad “accent,” as these differences of intonation are commonly called. It is[45] like flavour, chiefly, if not entirely52, a matter of custom and taste. Pronunciation, however, seems more frequently a matter of fashion, recurrent as are other fashions in easily dated periods.
Probably the South American pronunciation of Spanish mostly dates back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; with, perhaps, an added blunt plainness born of generations of free rough life on the vast expanses of the Pampa.
Modern innovations in the written or spoken language of Argentina and Uruguay can usually be traced to the great stream of immigration constantly flowing to these countries, chiefly from Italy and Spain.
ARGENTINES AND URUGUAYANS
The inhabitants of the two Republics of Argentina and Uruguay are only similar in appearance and natural characteristics to the superficial or hasty observer. There are several points in which they really differ fundamentally, the difference being due, as has just been observed, to the fact that the original settlements of the two parts of the River Plate Territories were drawn from different parts of Spain and that the later cosmopolitan53 stream of immigration passed by Montevideo, on account of the constantly politically disturbed condition of Uruguay, and disembarked only at Buenos Aires. Therefore the Uruguayan has retained the characteristics of his Spanish ancestors in far greater purity than has the Argentine.
It is therefore impossible to club the two peoples together in any attempt at a description or even indication of their leading characteristics.
By way of rough comparison it may be said that while the Argentine has gained in polish and versatility54 by interbreeding with immigrants from many European countries, chiefly from all parts of Italy, the Uruguayan has retained a very large share of the dogged honesty, obstinacy55 and[46] capacity for sustained effort in hard work of his Basque and Galician ancestors.
In passing from comparison to particular analysis one is at once confronted with the difficult question, “What is an Argentine?”
According to Argentine Law, all children born on Argentine soil are ipso facto Argentines, but to attempt classification of the offspring of mixed marriages in several degrees of remoteness of parentage would immediately become a complex impossibility. Certain influences, however, imposed by the life and surroundings in Argentina, affect all individuals brought up there, no matter what may be or have been the nationality of their immediate or remoter ancestry.
But, with this exception, any description or setting forth56 of the leading characteristics of “Argentines” can only safely be submitted in regard to the direct descendants of the Spanish Conquistadores and early settlers and of the mixed unions between these and the aboriginal Indian women. The further but much rarer admixture of African blood introduced by slave labour, is almost a negligible quantity in the upper classes, though of considerable and noticeable influence in the lower, especially in the Northern Provinces, in which the mixture of Indian and Negro blood is very considerable.
Nevertheless, these elements of Spanish, Indian and Negro became fused into a national type the picturesqueness57 of which is now (alas!) being rapidly absorbed and transformed in the melting-pot in which it meets strange elements from every part of civilized58 Europe.
Still, the chivalrous59 and courteous Argentine to be found to-day not only in the National Senate (and in the Presidential chair), but also in the maize fields and sugar plantations60 of the far Western and Northern Provinces cannot be overlooked either as very important prime material for the coming race or as possessing many qualities the dilution61 of[47] which can only be viewed with a sincere, if partly sentimental62, regret.
Are you a travelling stranger? The gaucho63 will offer you of the very best his humble64 ranch65 affords with the same native charm and dignity of manner which will strike you on your arrival and welcome on the estancia of his ancestral overlord.
There are still corners of Argentina where the patriarchal system has not yet died out, where every peon and vaquero considers himself a child of the great house whose se?ora sees to the creature comforts and small luxuries of his wife and children on feast-days and in the time of need.
No stately old-world courtesy could ever have surpassed that of an Argentine host of the old school. Truly, on his estancia, all is yours, and he will frequently make you a daily offering of fruit, chosen by him, picked with his own hand, especially and exclusively for you, his guest. The aristocratic Argentine of the old school is a very dignified66 gentleman indeed, notwithstanding a century of democratic profession. I say “profession,” for though I believe the leading families of the Republic are quite sincere in a conviction that they rank among the world’s most advanced democrats67, the government of the country has remained almost exclusively in their truly patrician68 hands since the days of the Declaration of Independence. What may happen in the present newly commenced era of compulsory69 exercise of a universal franchise70 no one can well say, but most of the landed influence still belongs to the great historic Argentine families; who, moreover, form a caste which keeps even the plutocracy71 of more recently foreign origin at a quite respectful distance. It will be a long time, at any rate, before the prestige of these families ceases to make its influence felt in the capital as well as in the districts over which they have ruled for, practically, at least a century. The apparent familiarity which exists between them and their dependants72 or humbler provincial73 neighbours is the[48] outcome of the loyal affection which at one time existed in England between squire74 and farmer or villager. A feeling born of and sustained by the patriarchal system and very widely different to the “I am as good as you are” pretensions75 of new democracy.
The true Argentine, be he patrician, estanciero or gaucho peon is never boorish17 even when he seeks to pick a quarrel with studied insult; and if his humour and language would, at times, severely76 shock European ears polite, he is studiously careful to keep that sort of talk for the intimacy77 of his own household and associates. If you are admitted to that intimacy, well, so much the worse for you, if you are of a prudish78 disposition79, but you can console yourself that your privilege is a very special and rare one; bestowed80 on you by virtue81 of some exceptionally sympathetic quality with which your host’s kindly82 imagination has endowed you. He is a kindly, charitable man, the real Argentine: an odd mixture of infantile vanity and strong common sense, hospitable83 to anyone arriving at his house through force of circumstance or if he can find a reasonable excuse to himself for breaking through the rule of almost hareem-like privacy of his home and intimate family affairs. Courteous himself, he expects courtesy, and will not brook84 clumsiness of speech or manner. Leisurely85 in his ways, he will not be hustled86 over any business. Try to hurry him, and he not only resents your lack of good manners but also suspects that you are endeavouring to lead him into some kind of sharp-dealing trap. Anyway, he not only will not budge87 an inch from his own deliberate attitude but most probably will oppose the inertia88 of a closed front door to all your further endeavours to approach him. This Argentine characteristic is a rock on which many a Yankee hustler has seen his best thought-out propositions founder89.
In any business or other intercourse90 with a true Argentine you must not expect him to keep verbally made appointments nor to apologize subsequently for not having done so.[49] Usually you need not trouble to keep them yourself. Whatever you have in hand with him will prosper91 better and progress just as, or even more, quickly if you are content to take the matter up where you left it at your last interview, the next time you happen to meet him by chance at any at all convenient place or time. Do not talk him to death about it, he is very quick at understanding your wishes and proposed plans from the merest hint. If not, he will ask you very plain questions.
But he must conduct the negotiations92, he must clothe your ideas until they bear a respectable appearance of being of his own originating. That is his vanity; but only then may you venture to strip them of certain new features which on close examination will be seen to be more favourable93 to his interests than your own.
During the changes which your propositions will inevitably94 undergo in the course of negotiations, he may, if you are not careful, get the better of you in the deal. That also is his vanity; a vanity to guard against without ever committing the solecism of a too bluntly apparent discovery of his aim. If he finds you always politely firm as a gentleman should be, you will have gained his friendship and respect—often valuable assets even if your original business should not go through.
In a word, in Argentina, as elsewhere, one must respect the native customs and conventionalities unless one wishes to encounter opposition95. And the vis inertia of the opposition which an Argentine can and does offer to persons and ideas with which he is out of sympathy is invincible96.
Such persons or schemes will be remitted97 by him to a “Ma?ana” which never comes.
That is the true inward meaning in Argentina of ma?ana; a polite excuse for temporarily or definitely postponing98 matters which have not made a favourable impression. It is not, as is so often thought, a mere lazy pretext99 for not[50] doing to-day anything that possibly can be put off till to-morrow.
The Argentine is not in the least lazy. On the contrary, he has reserve stores of latent energy the sudden calling into action of which, when he considers such action called for, is apt to astonish those who have formed superficial and hasty judgments101 on his nature.
It would seem trite102 to say that the first step to success in a country is intelligent study of the inhabitants were it not so constantly evident that new arrivals, who really ought to know better, seem to bring with them the idea that along with their business, whatever it may be, they have brought a mission to mould Argentine methods on the latest European or North American forms, forms which are the outcome of entirely different racial and climatic conditions. Thus, they, at the outset, impose upon themselves the Sisyphus task of rolling their pet stones up the hill of customs which really are the outcome of the racial and physical necessities of the people and country.
You cannot grow wheat in a swamp nor make much of a retriever out of a pointer, but the swamp may yield good rice and a pointer may be a very good dog in his way.
The sooner an immigrant, be he financier or farmer, realizes such facts the better for his success on the River Plate or elsewhere. By not doing so he fails in his enterprise and blames the failure on to the people or country to which he took projects predoomed only by his own lack of intelligent adaptability103.
Another word of didactic advice to the intending emigrant104 to Argentina. Always be sure, no matter what his appearance and manners may seem to indicate to your first glance at him, that every action of an Argentine is firmly founded on a perfectly105 common-sense view of circumstances and their influence on his own best interests, although that foundation may lie under, and, for those who do not really know him, be hidden by various strata106 of personal vanity and easily[51] aroused but ephemeral enthusiasm. He is no fool and most emphatically not a lazy man, but only one who is rather cynically107 apt to let other people work for him as much and as often as they will. When he cannot get things done for him he can and will do them, very effectively, for himself.
And lest, to some people, the foregoing observations and counsel might seem so much word-embroidery on a canvas composed mostly of the author’s imagination, the reader is humbly109 asked to compare it with the known facts of Argentine economic history.
In 1810, the beginning of the country’s real development, the great River Plate landowner was a rural patriarch, much after the fashion of the shepherd kings of Palestine.
He ousted110 the Master-Stranger from his land and only afterwards permitted him and encouraged him to return to it as the servant of himself, the true overlord of the soil. On that soil its patriarchs extended their proprietary111 rights ever more and more while foreign railways and all kinds of other enterprise constantly enhanced the value of the land held, always almost exclusively, by Argentines. His railway and dock-building servants from overseas got very good wages indeed for their work, as they still do in common with others who have made tramways and constructed water, gas and electrical power works. But he who up to now has had the most durable112 and the chief profit from all this is the Argentine or Uruguayan; the man who holds and will hold the Government of the two Republics and retains all the appreciated value of the much greater part of the soil of their vast territories. Concessions113 of land to foreigners made in the past by way of part wages are nowadays secretly regarded as having been errors committed in ignorance of the real value of what was then parted with and with such self-accusation114 of error goes the resolve not to repeat it. Still it should be stated that at the time of making such grants some such inducement was necessary in a part of the world[52] which had only very recently emerged from half a century of civil war.
It is, of course, self-evident that no new railway enterprise will get a huge grant of land; as did the Central Argentine Company as an inducement to construct. The attitude of the Argentine to-day to all foreigners is that they may come to his country and there enjoy similar rights and liberties with himself coupled with rather less than his own responsibilities. They may keep the profits they make, and very good profits are obtainable by well-conducted, necessary enterprise, after deduction115 of certain percentage by way of rent for their concessions or licences; but the real property, the value of which is constantly being increased by the activity of foreign industry and commerce, remains116 in, and even as to formerly117 alienated118 parts of it gradually tends to drift more and more into, native hands.
The Argentine is, as I have said, not a fool, even still less is the Uruguayan; on the contrary, he is especially wise in his appreciation119 of his own natural limitations. He is by long heredity and his own upbringing a farmer, not a commercial man nor a speculator in aught else but land. And to land, therefore as well as for the other good reasons already pointed120 out, he devotes his best attention.
He cannot, perhaps, build nor manage railways, nor has he generally a genius for banking121, but he can and does breed as fine cattle and sheep and grow as good quality maize and wheat as any imported European farm manager. In farming, the special subject which he does thoroughly122 understand, he gives practical evidence of his judgment100 in assimilation of the best farming science and of adapting it, or such part of it as is most capable of adaptation, to the conditions and requirements of his own particular lands.
The finest and the most up-to-date model estancias in Argentina and Uruguay belong to and have been brought to their present state of perfection by Argentines and Uruguayans.
[53]
Probably these facts dispose of the accusation of dilatory123 laziness so often brought against him.
In this chapter I have attempted to inform intending emigrants125 and not to formulate126 a defence of the Argentine or Uruguayan against the ignorance of his calumniators. He needs none. With a charmingly cynical108 indifference127, which is all his own but which it does not at all times suit his interests to manifest, he goes on piling up colossal128 fortunes amid surroundings much more congenial to his nature than even the European Grand Hotels or Cafés in which he likes from time to time to disport129 himself and display his wealth. His estancia always remains his home, in which he spends the best and greatest portion of his life, surrounded by the peons whose great-grandfathers were vassals130 of his own.
It is rather the fashion among new arrivals in Buenos Aires and Montevideo to laugh at the Argentines and Uruguayans and their ways of managing their affairs, but it appears to me that this is a case of “He laughs best who laughs last.” The native of the River Plate has contrived131 to get his country developed for him while retaining the entire mastery of it. Men of long residence in these countries have practically adopted their manners and customs simply because experience has taught them that such are best adapted to these countries’ natural conditions. As has been observed earlier in this chapter, the Argentine, especially, is conscious of his own limitations, one of the chief of which is a pretty general incapacity for patient attention to detail in his work. His scientific acquirements are often brilliant as far as study is concerned. He assimilates knowledge rapidly and accurately132, but in its application he is often too apt to fail of obtaining satisfactory results just and only because of his lack of patience and appreciation of the value of detail in practice. That is why he prudently133 abandoned his own past attempts to control certain of his railways which, financial failures under his management, quickly became prosperous concerns in British hands. His hospitals still[54] show many defects due solely134 to the lack of attention to necessary details on the part of the medical staff. Brilliant exceptions, which unfortunately do not vitiate this rule, are to be found in Mr. Lertora, the Argentine manager of the Western Railway, and Dr. Penna, the President of the National Council of Hygiene135 and the creator of the magnificently managed Asistencia Publica of Buenos Aires and of all the great sanitary136 works of that city.
To sum up the average Argentine of the upper classes, in middle age and onward137 he is a grave and reverend se?or; a rather wild and boisterous138 young gentleman until he has sown a profusion139 of wild oats.
Throughout his life he shows a childlike pride in his wealth and all it can give to him and his, is lavish140 in largesse141 with occasional and seemingly capricious moments of close-fistedness. Courteous to a fault in manner, he has nevertheless ever a keen eye for the main chance in all matter of sufficient magnitude to really interest him.
In fact he has many characteristics which are reminiscent of the less objectionable qualities of medi?val nobility, in common with whom he is quick to resent anything he deems intentional142 insult to or disparagement143 of himself. He will forgive anyone for having got the better of him in a deal (though it is fair to him to say that it is not often he finds himself the victim of such an offence), but he will not for any consideration brook clumsily bad manners. He is by no means a puritanical144 moralist nor severe on the moral peccadillos of his neighbours, and he leaves religion pretty much to his women-folk.
In the lower classes he is still always courteous, expects courtesy from others, and resents, quickly and often fiercely, any defect in that respect in his neighbour’s behaviour.
Neither will he brook pretentious145 arrogance146 in any man, his social superior or his equal. Such arrogance meets immediately not only with his quick resentment147 but his profound and evident disdain. Treat him as he will treat you,[55] and you will find him uniformly pleasant, light-hearted and humorous. Obligatory148 education is slowly freeing him from the illiteracy149 which until recently was very general, especially outside the limits of the Capital or one or other of the largest towns. Even now the lower-class Argentine is usually an exceedingly poor scholar. Therefore, and because of his rapidly growing admixture of Italian peasant blood, he is superstitious150 and still often has a deeper faith in fortune-telling quacks152 than in qualified153 medical science. Wise men and women are still much consulted for love-potions and cures and curses of all sorts for man and beast in the country districts, but while mere fortune-tellers are not interfered154 with by the law, penal155 restrictions156 are being more and more stringently157 enforced against quack151 doctors; most of whose remedies have come direct from medi?val Spain or Italy.
Argentine women? This is a subject on which one is not only tempted124 but almost forced to confine oneself to the usual platitudes158 concerning beauty of the Spanish type: large-eyed and opulent and at its apogee159 during the decade between 15 and 25 years of age.
It is seldom that an Argentine woman of any class troubles her head with business matters; still less with theories concerning the rights of her sex. She is usually content to do her most apparent duty in the sphere to which it has pleased God to call her.
She manages her household in a quasi-Oriental haphazard160 way; if of the wealthier classes does little but order that household in such ways as may correspond to her momentary161 caprice, if of the poorer, naturally, she does the work herself, but in the same capricious fashion.
Saturday is the great day for domestic cleaning up throughout all classes, Sunday a feast day whereon little work is done.
Apart from these general fixtures162, household duties may be said never to be begun and never finished. In all houses[56] one may see the servants or the housewife, as the case may be, besom in one hand and mate in the other at any time of day. What is not done to-day is finished to-morrow, that is all; and what can one do more?
To newly arrived Europeans these methods give an idea of continual discomfort163, but the sooner such Europeans become accustomed to the ways of the country in this as in other matters the better for their own peace of mind. Of one thing they may be assured from the commencement of their stay on the River Plate, viz. that it is not they who will change those ways by an iota164, and that therefore they may as well abandon all notions of what they would consider as reform of good grace to begin with instead of at the end of a more or less lengthy165 nerve-racking struggle.
The servant difficulty is particularly difficult in these sunny lands where no one need, and very few do, know what it is to suffer the real pinch of want or of hardship other than such as custom sanctions. The European lady who worries her servants with, to them, new ideas of how her household should be conducted will simply cause them to quit her employ with wonderful unanimity166 and celerity.
They won’t stop, that is all. She may give them sleeping or other accommodation which they may never before have enjoyed nor probably even dreamed of. These attentions strike no sympathetic chord if they be accompanied by what the native Argentine considers silly pettiness of interference with the way in which he or she is accustomed to do his or her work. Any Argentine servant would sooner sleep, as many do, on a mattress167 thrown down at night in any passage way in the house of a native Argentine family and suffer the alternate friendly familiarity and impassioned scolding of a mistress whose ways they understand and who leaves them to theirs, than occupy the nicest possible servant’s bedroom in a more strictly ordered establishment. The true and main lesson of all which is that the Argentine, to whatever social class he or she may belong, is a child of nature to whom disciplinary[57] fetters168 of any kind are unbearable169 and to the freer nature of whom the monotony of much of the punctual regularity170 which Europeans are apt to consider a necessary factor of real comfort is impossibly burdensome.
On the River Plate one must live as the Rio Platenseans do if one’s stay is not to be one continued struggle for unattainable domestic ideals. In the best hotels, in the millionaire’s palace or the peon’s hut the same happy-go-lucky spirit prevails and dominates domestic, as it also does public, life, in especially, perhaps, Argentina. Everything is muddled171 through somehow. But it is muddled through to desired results, which, after all, is the chief practical desideratum.
There is much of the Spanish seclusion in the better-class home life of both Argentina and Uruguay, which adds to the obstacles in the way of criticism or appreciation by a foreigner.
That the children are almost universally what we should call spoiled is, however, evident from the most superficial experience of that life. The Argentine theories, if they can be termed such, of bringing up are largely controlled by a fear of crushing the individuality of the child especially if he be a boy. The most usual reply of an Argentine child to any order given to it is “No quiero” (I don’t want to), and there the matter ends. The parents smile indulgently, the child does not do what it did not want to do, and woe172 betide the governess or tutor who is possessed173 of too strict disciplinary ideas. Thus, from the cradle to the grave the male Argentine is used to his own sweet way, while his sisters are made to feel few trammels of a purely174 household kind. These apart, however, Argentine women seldom, if ever, show any symptoms of rebellion against the domestic seclusion which is their accepted lot, especially after marriage.
The Argentine woman is seldom disturbed by intellectual aspirations175, likes creature comforts and facilities for the standard of dress pertaining176 to her station, and she is contented177 and happy in her home with the theatre as a distraction178.[58] At the theatre she only favours performances which demand intellectual effort for their appreciation if and when fashion impels179 her attendance thereat; so that she may see and be seen in the foyer and hold pleasant receptions in her box, receptions not always confined to the extr’actes.
In a word, she is not intellectual and therefore feels no need for troubling her usually handsome head with intellectuality.
She is a wife and a mother and a lady bountiful to all the feudal180 dependants of her husband’s house. Childishly fond of dress and admiration181 but with as little desire for liberty of action as she has for deep thought.
As will have been gathered from the foregoing, much of the Moorish civilization in Spain remains reincarnate182 in the woman of modern Argentina.
A word may very well be said here for the much-criticized Argentine jeunesse dorée. In the author’s humble opinion the real wonder about him is that his sometimes objectionably intrusive183 boisterousness184 in public places does not outstep its actually not very wide limitations.
In any other country, if you had a warm-blooded young scion185 of a sunny land who had grown up under the almost constantly approving smiles of an indulgent father and mother, possessed of great wealth and traditions of spending freely on amusement and outward display and, lastly, a native police which would almost as soon dare to rebel openly against the Government as to lock up for anything short of serious and unconcealable crime any son of a great ruling family, it appears to me more than possible that you would have much more trouble with such a gilded186 youth, who, moreover, would probably succumb187 to early physical and financial ruin instead of developing, as has been said, into a grave and reverend se?or, capable in either Chamber188 of Congress or in a ministerial or diplomatic capacity, as the Argentine fils de famille eventually does. That he does so[59] develop and does not succumb, I attribute to his underlying189 quality of common sense, coupled with his mainly open-air upbringing in the Camp.
Also, the young Argentine may be and often is, exceedingly fond of sowing a vast quantity of wild oats, but he is very seldom ill-natured or fundamentally bad. His very vices190 are strongly tempered with redeemingly generous qualities.
As good a comparison as any I can hit on between the upper-class Argentine and his Uruguayan cousin is that of the smart Londoner and the resident in a provincial Cathedral town. The latter is less given to display of such wealth as he may have and much less likely to make any pretence191 of greater. The Uruguayan is usually unpretentious in his way of living and at the same time gives an impression of greater solidity if more modest dimensions of fortune. Among both there is the same aristocratic assuredness of social position; but whereas each better-class Argentine seeks to outvie his immediate associates in luxurious192 outward appearance, the Uruguayan is content with a more solid if less showy all-round level of comfort. If one may use so discredited193 a term, the Uruguayan is the much more “eminently respectable” of the two, a man who derives194 his greatest pride from the fact that his word always has been and is every bit as good as his bond.
He has some contempt for Argentine showiness; while on the other side of the River Plate estuary195 he himself is considered as too slow-going to be very interesting. The Argentine is certainly jealous of the sounder general credit enjoyed by Uruguay, a jealousy196 not soothed197 by a certain quiet assumption of superiority of a nation which has always turned a deaf ear to any suggestions of convenient financial juggling198, however critical or difficult the times.
There can be no doubt but that while the Uruguayan is possessed of common sense in much the same degree as is the Argentine, this quality is in the former tempered by a large quantum of Quixotic obstinacy.
[60]
Roughly speaking—very roughly, for generalization199 is almost as hazardous200 as prophecy—it may be said that while the Argentine is often apt to be guided rather by opportunism than fixed201 principle, the Uruguayan will only begin to listen to the voice of opportunity when he feels sure that no one of his inflexible202 principles is likely to be affected by so doing.
As we have seen, both the White and Red political parties in Uruguay have over and over again racked the whole country with civil war for the defence or assertion of pure principles, in regard to which no compromise seemed possible to one side or the other.
Argentina also had her period of Civil War brought about in a very great measure, no doubt, by similar causes; but her politicians have during the last fifty years learned the pecuniary203 value of, at least apparent, adaptability.
The Uruguayan of to-day is just as inflexible in his convictions as he was a century ago, and if he now chooses peace rather than civil war it is because he has become sincerely persuaded that peace is the only real way to his country’s best good and prosperity. Peace with honour, that is to say. He would rather commit public or individual suicide than accept any other.
For this reason (and for others) there is no likelihood of the Banda Oriental ever becoming a part of Argentina. Uruguayans could never be peacefully governed by Argentine policy, and Argentina would never wish to be burdened by such a troublesome community as would be the Uruguayans if they should come under her nominal204 rule. As historical fact, Argentina has already refused Uruguayan territory as a gift, and acted wisely in such refusal.
The lower classes and rural populations of Argentina and Uruguay differ, pari passu, as much and in similar fashion, from one another as do their respective social superiors, though Camp life is in many ways Camp life in both Republics alike. But ruggedly205 uncompromising staunchness to those[61] principles which he has adopted for his own—which, however, may differ from European standards—is as evident in the Uruguayan peon as in his master.
Once you really know the Argentine or the Uruguayan, it is seldom difficult to forecast what either will do in any given circumstances. Needless, perhaps, to add that your study of them must be sympathetic; as must all such study in order to obtain positive or any at all satisfactory results.
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1
influx
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| n.流入，注入 | |
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2
enumerate
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| v.列举，计算，枚举，数 | |
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quantitative
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| adj.数量的，定量的 | |
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conquerors
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| 征服者，占领者( conqueror的名词复数 ) | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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canes
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| n.（某些植物，如竹或甘蔗的）茎( cane的名词复数 )；（用于制作家具等的）竹竿；竹杖 | |
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maize
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| n.玉米 | |
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courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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suppliant
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| adj.哀恳的；n.恳求者，哀求者 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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13
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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dictated
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| v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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finesse
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| n.精密技巧，灵巧，手腕 | |
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boorishness
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boorish
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| adj.粗野的，乡巴佬的 | |
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18
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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19
moorish
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| adj.沼地的，荒野的，生[住]在沼地的 | |
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20
seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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21
prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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inconvenient
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| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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25
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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ancestry
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| n.祖先，家世 | |
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patriotically
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| 爱国地；忧国地 | |
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28
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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29
anthem
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| n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌 | |
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30
adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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31
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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32
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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33
Portuguese
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| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
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34
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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sterling
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| adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑) | |
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36
vicissitudes
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| n.变迁，世事变化；变迁兴衰( vicissitude的名词复数 )；盛衰兴废 | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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38
monetary
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| adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的 | |
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preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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colonists
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| n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
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41
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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42
philologists
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| n.语文学( philology的名词复数 ) | |
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43
aboriginal
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| adj.（指动植物）土生的，原产地的，土著的 | |
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44
custodian
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| n.保管人，监护人；公共建筑看守 | |
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45
sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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46
philology
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| n.语言学；语文学 | |
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47
disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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49
intonation
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| n.语调，声调；发声 | |
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50
linguistic
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| adj.语言的，语言学的 | |
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51
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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52
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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53
cosmopolitan
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| adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的 | |
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54
versatility
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| n.多才多艺，多样性，多功能 | |
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55
obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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56
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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picturesqueness
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58
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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59
chivalrous
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| adj.武士精神的；对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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60
plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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61
dilution
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| n.稀释，淡化 | |
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62
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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gaucho
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| n. 牧人 | |
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64
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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ranch
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| n.大牧场，大农场 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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democrats
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| n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 ) | |
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patrician
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| adj.贵族的，显贵的；n.贵族；有教养的人；罗马帝国的地方官 | |
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compulsory
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| n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的 | |
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70
franchise
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| n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权 | |
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plutocracy
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| n.富豪统治 | |
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72
dependants
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| 受赡养者，受扶养的家属( dependant的名词复数 ) | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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pretensions
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| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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prudish
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| adj.装淑女样子的，装规矩的，过分规矩的；adv.过分拘谨地 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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80
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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81
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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82
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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84
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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hustled
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| 催促（hustle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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budge
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| v.移动一点儿；改变立场 | |
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inertia
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| adj.惰性，惯性，懒惰，迟钝 | |
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Founder
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| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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prosper
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| v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣 | |
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negotiations
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| 协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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remitted
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| v.免除（债务），宽恕( remit的过去式和过去分词 )；使某事缓和；寄回，传送 | |
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postponing
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| v.延期，推迟( postpone的现在分词 ) | |
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pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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judgments
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| 判断( judgment的名词复数 )； 鉴定； 评价； 审判 | |
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102
trite
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| adj.陈腐的 | |
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103
adaptability
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| n.适应性 | |
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emigrant
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| adj.移居的，移民的；n.移居外国的人，移民 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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strata
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| n.地层（复数）；社会阶层 | |
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cynically
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| adv.爱嘲笑地，冷笑地 | |
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cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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ousted
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| 驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺 | |
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111
proprietary
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| n.所有权，所有的；独占的；业主 | |
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durable
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| adj.持久的，耐久的 | |
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113
concessions
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| n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权 | |
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114
accusation
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| n.控告，指责，谴责 | |
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115
deduction
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| n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎 | |
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116
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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117
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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118
alienated
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| adj.感到孤独的，不合群的v.使疏远( alienate的过去式和过去分词 )；使不友好；转让；让渡（财产等） | |
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119
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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120
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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121
banking
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| n.银行业，银行学，金融业 | |
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122
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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123
dilatory
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| adj.迟缓的，不慌不忙的 | |
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124
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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125
emigrants
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| n.（从本国移往他国的）移民( emigrant的名词复数 ) | |
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126
formulate
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| v.用公式表示；规划；设计；系统地阐述 | |
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127
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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128
colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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129
disport
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| v.嬉戏，玩 | |
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130
vassals
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| n.奴仆( vassal的名词复数 )；（封建时代）诸侯；从属者；下属 | |
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131
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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132
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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133
prudently
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| adv. 谨慎地，慎重地 | |
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134
solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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135
hygiene
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| n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic） | |
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136
sanitary
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| adj.卫生方面的，卫生的，清洁的，卫生的 | |
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137
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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138
boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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139
profusion
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| n.挥霍；丰富 | |
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140
lavish
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| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
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141
largesse
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| n.慷慨援助，施舍 | |
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142
intentional
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| adj.故意的，有意（识）的 | |
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143
disparagement
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| n.轻视，轻蔑 | |
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144
puritanical
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| adj.极端拘谨的；道德严格的 | |
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145
pretentious
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| adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的 | |
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146
arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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147
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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148
obligatory
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| adj.强制性的，义务的，必须的 | |
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149
illiteracy
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| n.文盲 | |
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150
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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151
quack
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| n.庸医；江湖医生；冒充内行的人；骗子 | |
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152
quacks
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| abbr.quacksalvers 庸医，骗子(16世纪习惯用水银或汞治疗梅毒的人)n.江湖医生( quack的名词复数 )；江湖郎中；（鸭子的）呱呱声v.（鸭子）发出嘎嘎声( quack的第三人称单数 ) | |
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153
qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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155
penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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156
restrictions
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| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
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stringently
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| adv.严格地，严厉地 | |
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158
platitudes
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| n.平常的话，老生常谈，陈词滥调( platitude的名词复数 )；滥套子 | |
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159
apogee
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| n.远地点；极点；顶点 | |
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haphazard
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| adj.无计划的，随意的，杂乱无章的 | |
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161
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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162
fixtures
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| （房屋等的）固定装置( fixture的名词复数 )； 如（浴盆、抽水马桶）； 固定在某位置的人或物； （定期定点举行的）体育活动 | |
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163
discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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iota
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| n.些微，一点儿 | |
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165
lengthy
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| adj.漫长的，冗长的 | |
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166
unanimity
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| n.全体一致，一致同意 | |
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167
mattress
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| n.床垫，床褥 | |
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168
fetters
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| n.脚镣( fetter的名词复数 )；束缚v.给…上脚镣，束缚( fetter的第三人称单数 ) | |
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169
unbearable
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| adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的 | |
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170
regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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171
muddled
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| adj.混乱的；糊涂的；头脑昏昏然的v.弄乱，弄糟( muddle的过去式)；使糊涂；对付，混日子 | |
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172
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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173
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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174
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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175
aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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176
pertaining
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| 与…有关系的，附属…的，为…固有的(to) | |
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177
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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178
distraction
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| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
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179
impels
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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180
feudal
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| adj.封建的，封地的，领地的 | |
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181
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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182
reincarnate
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| v.使化身，转生；adj.转世化身的 | |
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183
intrusive
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| adj.打搅的；侵扰的 | |
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184
boisterousness
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| n.喧闹；欢跃；（风暴）狂烈 | |
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185
scion
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| n.嫩芽，子孙 | |
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186
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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187
succumb
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| v.屈服，屈从；死 | |
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188
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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189
underlying
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| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
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190
vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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191
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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192
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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193
discredited
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| 不足信的，不名誉的 | |
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194
derives
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| v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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195
estuary
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| n.河口，江口 | |
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196
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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197
soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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198
juggling
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| n. 欺骗, 杂耍(=jugglery) adj. 欺骗的, 欺诈的 动词juggle的现在分词 | |
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199
generalization
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| n.普遍性，一般性，概括 | |
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200
hazardous
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| adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的 | |
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201
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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202
inflexible
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| adj.不可改变的，不受影响的，不屈服的 | |
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203
pecuniary
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| adj.金钱的；金钱上的 | |
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204
nominal
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| adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的 | |
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205
ruggedly
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| 险峻地； 粗暴地； （面容）多皱纹地； 粗线条地 | |
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