Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/471



EX-CAPITAL OF PARAGUAY. 441

to be built upon the model of " La Scala" and fitted for 1000 spectators. Its flanks are one hundred yards long ; in fact, it occupies a whole " cuadra." The brick walls that back the three tiers of boxes are four feet thick; they must be fearless of fire, and, after the usual theatres of South America, they suggest the Coliseum. The building was un- finished, and of course a dead mule occupied the inside. South of the theatre is the plain ground-floor house of Madame Lynch, who did not live in the palace of the Mar- shal-President, and she had bought the next-door house in order to establish an hotel. In Paraguay money-making is a passion even more passionate than love-making.

Following the tramway, we presently reach the railway station, also built by Mr. Taylor. It occupies a whole " manzana/' and is not without pretensions. A tall central clock-tower, topped by a balconied Belvidere, the highest in the city, forms its fourth story ; the long upper rooms are used as offices, and there are quaint turrets at each of the corners. It is somewhat in the reduced Tuileries style, now afi'ected by New London between Westminster and Hyde Park Square. The zinc roofs of the ^^gare" and towers have been stripped ofi" to make canister shot, but the timbers are almost as hard as metal. Altogether it is a good solid building, far superior to anything at Buenos Aires.

Returning to the main square, we bisect the city's depth by means of the filthy Calle de la Cathedral, which runs from north to south. Looking down the Calle de la Palma, the Oxford opposed to Regent Street, we see, towering over the line of hut and hovel, the unfinished palace of D. Benigno

Travellers make the blocks eighty yards square and the streets fifteen yards wide. The " manzana" I have already explained to mean a cuadra cuadrada, or square cuadra.
 * The cuadra of Asuncion varies. It is here assumed to measure 100 vares.