Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/153



NATIVES AND FOREIGNERS. 123

remember, has no such term ; there we were simply " fo- rastieros/^

The policemen are like their brethren in certain other lands, offenders rather by omission than commission. Not so the vigilantes, nicknamed " Serenos/^ the Charleys or watchmen that remind us of the old German song,

" Hort, ihr Herrn, last euch sagen," etc.

As the policeman is the chief do-nothing, and the soldier is the head bandit, so is the Sereno head-thief, an accomplice in almost every robbery. The combined result is, that five stabbings in three days distinguish as an average the 90,000 souls of Buenos Aires â€” the sum would represent 10,000 murders per annum in London. The Sereno uses his weapon freely, and is " death upon " the stranger. If you happen to bump him as you turn the corner, your case will be that of a certain Marquis of Waterford and the morning-star. During my first week at Monte Video, an Englishman was carried to the Police Hospital with his head laid open by one of these vicious fathers of the " Bobbies.^'

Monte Video amuses herself much more heartily than does her big rival ; the former cultivates, the latter neglects her theatre and amusements. The pianist, M. Gottschalk, prefers the smaller city. La Codazzi, the diva, receives 400/. per mensem, and others in proportion. Ristori would not disdain such inducements. Besides the Solis Theatre for the opera, there is the San Felipe, generally taken by the Compania de Zarzuela, a Spanish buffo, as yet little known to the world. I greatly admire this purely Iberian style, which will come over to England when the national ear shall be refined into enjoying simplicity. Much of the music is in the minor key, and from the beginning to the end there is a recurrence of motive, of dominant expression, and