Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/211



A GLANCE AT BUENOS AIRES. 181

family; he had an English envoy horsewhipped in the streets; he made a laughing-stock of another; he had horse- hobbles made of an enemy^s skin; he forbade men to wear beards that represented the letter U of Unitario ; and he forced even the free-born Briton to don the red waistcoat. But also, in his early career he saved from the pol- lution of the filthy "Indians'^ some 1500 Argentine women and children, left by his predecessors in helpless, hopeless captivity. He discouraged priestcraft, and he turned out the Jesuits â€” they say for refusing to place his portrait upon the high altar. He gave to his native province a civil marriage ; he permitted all ecclesiastics of all denominations to perform the rite ; and when he fled on board the English ship after the defeat of Monte Caseros (February 3, 1852), he carried with him so little, that his friends were compelled to supply him against want. Since that time he has been known chiefly for sell- ing fresh milk at twopence per quart, in the neighbourhood of South^ton.

We have now finished with the square, the typical part of Buenos Aires. A few lines concerning the remainder will suffice. Rivadavia- street issues from the north-west corner of the Plaza, and running some three miles in an east to west direction, cuts the city into a northern and a southern half Here we can find a pick-me-up at Mr. Cranwell's, or ^' something short^^ within the next door, the '*^ American Mineral Water Establishment.^^ A turn to the south leads to the Calle Victoria, in which are the Alcazar and the Progreso Club, of which more presently.

The street to the south-east of the square is the Calle Defensa, so called because in the days when the English were ^'^hereges y tenian cola," General Whitelocke here marched up his doomed men, every house â€” especially the houses of God â€” being a redoubt. We find a wonderful