Argentina and Her People of To-day: An account of the customs, characteristics, amusements, history and advancement of the Argentinians, and the development and resources of their country — John Shaqi
Argentina and Her People of To-day: An account of the customs, characteristics, amusements, history and advancement of the Argentinians, and the development and resources of their countryWinter, Nevin O. (Nevin Otto)
History
Argentina and Her People of To-day: An account of the customs, characteristics, amusements, history and advancement of the Argentinians, and the development and resources of their country
Winter, Nevin O. (Nevin Otto)
Argentina
It is not a city one need hesitate to visit. All the creature comforts
may be had. There are good physicians, good hospitals, good schools and
the other advantages of populated centres in either the United States or
Europe. There are no less than sixteen hospitals in the city, most of
which are maintained either by the municipal or federal government. The
British Hospital is an admirable institution, and is the one generally
patronized by the Americans, for it has a staff of very able physicians.
There are also numerous asylums for various unfortunates, foundlings’
homes, orphanages, etc., of a very high character. Electric street cars,
which carried one hundred and twenty-five million passengers last year,
run in every direction, and splendid trains convey passengers to almost
every part of the republic. Carriages of all kinds and taxicabs remind
one of New York and London. Hotels and restaurants abound on every hand.
A visit to this southern metropolis opens one’s eyes to the fact that
South America is forging ahead at a much more rapid pace than we have
ever dreamed.
One of the finest cemeteries of the world is the Ricoleta Cemetery, the
fashionable burying place of Buenos Aires. As one enters its appearance
is that of a marble and granite city, with small palaces on either side,
and narrow streets which are paved the same as the streets of a city.
These small palaces are vaults within which the mortal remains of the
departed are buried. They are of all sizes and conditions, from small to
massive, and from the grand to the unpretentious. Some are the palaces
of the rich and others the humble tenements of the poor. A few of these
vaults contain hundreds of bodies. All have but one room that can be
seen as you enter, and this room is rather furnished as a chapel of the
dead, and is not, as a rule, very large. The entrance to the tomb is by a
door almost at the level of the street. Sometimes a marble slab in this
room may contain the sarcophagus of some distinguished member of the
family, but in general this small room is only the entrance to the vault
underneath, which contains the bodies. One will generally find this small
room filled with flowers, real or artificial, and bouquets are oftentimes
placed there at intervals of only a few days. The outside doors of this
mausoleum are often of plate glass, furnished with locks, and many of
them have lace curtains and gratings of iron curiously wrought. In the
vault underneath the coffins are placed on shelves, one above another
in niches which have been provided and then cemented in. Although this
cemetery is not large it contains, so it is said, about two hundred and
fifty thousand inhabitants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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