Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/268



238 ACTUALITIES OF ROZARIO (sANTA FE).

and enable it to ship produce direct to Europe. Buenos Aires must bestir herself^ and nothing less than a direct railway to the Andes can enable her to retain her supremacy.

The landward-sloping talus of these tall riverine banks makes all the settlements seen from the stream appear small^ ragged, and scattered : viewed from the ridge they are large, and regularly laid out. The shape of Eozario is square, except where the river bed cuts off an angle. To the west there is a bad undrained swamp, which must have been a boon to the cholera : here the city thins out into scattered buildings, brick-kilns, and enclosures recently cultivated. The official plan gives seventeen streets parallel with, and fourteen perpendicular to, the stream. Of these many are still on paper, and all the interest of the town is concentrated in the eight "cuadras," bounded north by the Playa or river side ; south, by Calle Cordoba, the Hegent Street; east by the Matriz, and west by the Calle del Puerto. Within this space is the theatre, lately burnt down ; the usual bull-baiting yard, the chief tennis court, the Club, the Post-office, the two Consulates, English and " American^^ (U.S.), the cafes de Paris and Orispe, acting local exchange, not to speak of " London^s cafe and re- staurant ;" the new house of Messrs. Dugued and Co., and the banks — London and River Plate, the Argentine, the Cabal and Co.-'s, and the Maua and Co.^'s.

The main square, " 25 de Maio,"^ gay with promenades on Sunday and Thursday evenings only, is that of the Ar- gentine country-town generally. The usual scaly and shabby Paraiso trees shelter new seats of cast-iron cleanly painted, and surround a column, upon whose summit stands Liberty like St. Simeon Stylites. But the deity, unlike the saint, wants an arm, and is otherwise much bruised and knocked about. The colours are wonderful; the pe-