The temperament of the Oriental--Some merits of the race--The Spanish Main as treated in fiction--Distinction between the villains in print and in actual life--Civility as a national trait--Courtesy of officials--The Uruguayan as a sturdy democrat--A land of equality--Some local mannerisms--Banquets and general hospitality--Some practical methods of enjoying life--Simplicity versus ostentation--Some consequences of prosperity--The cost of living--Questions of ways and means--European education and its results--Some evidences of national pride--The physique of the Oriental--Sports and games--Football--The science of bull-fighting--Eloquence and the oratorical art--Uruguayan ladies--Local charm of the sex--South American institutions--Methods by which they have been improved--The advantages of experiments--The Uruguayan army and navy--Some characteristics of the police--Honesty of the nation--Politics and temperament. Life in Uruguay is perhaps best described by the German word _gemüthlich_, an untranslatable adjective that savours in its birthplace just a little of light beer, easy-chairs, cigar smoke, steaming coffee, and an atmosphere of _camaraderie_. After which it is necessary to come to an abrupt halt in this task of translation, since the danger of dragging in a foreign word becomes evident when it is necessary to introduce another in order to explain it. In any case, this good-fellowship of the Uruguayan is of a far lighter order than the Teutonic, and is only remotely concerned with the material matters of life. Like the majority of the races of Iberian descent, the Oriental is essentially sober in his tastes, and frequently of an ascetic temperament. Such traits are inborn and natural, and by no means the result of a campaign of schooling and self-repression. He has not, for instance, found it necessary to undergo an outward treatment of badges and blue ribbons nor to devote himself to a special era of self-protection from the like of which the chastened Anglo-Saxon is only just emerging.