SERIES: Views From A Trip Around The World
ILLUSTRATIONS: View of Buenos Ayres; A Planter; The Fortifications; A Native
SIZE: 3" x 5"
DATE: 1891
LITHOGRAPHER: Joseph P. Knapp, N.Y.
CONDITION: Good, I'd say. This card is lightly soiled with somewhat worn edges and rounded corners. There are three diagonal creases cutting across the left portion of the card, the largest of which runs through the planter's face, resulting in a small white scrape at the edge of his glasses. (Please see scans.)
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REVERSE TEXT: BUENOS AYRES,
Argentine Republic.
Buenos Ayres, the Capital of the Argentine Republic, was founded in 1535 by a Spanish expedition under Don Jorge de Mendoza, on the right bank of the estuary of the La Plata. The river at this point is so wide as to make it impossible to distinguish the opposite bank with the unassisted eye, and at the same time so shallow that ships drawing 15 or 16 feet of water must anchor seven or eight miles from the city. The town is in a vast plain extending westward to the Andes. Stormy periods of foreign invasion and civil wars filled the centuries until the establishment of the republic in 1861. Since that time progress in the development of resources has been so rapid that the city is now the finest in South America, giving promise of becoming the first city south of the equator before the close of this century. The streets are systematically arranged; Calle Reconquista is the street of banks, Calle Maypù that of merchants, Calle Victoria that of shops, Calle Piedad that of newspapers and money-changers, and Calle Florida the favorite promenade. Plaza Victoria, one of the twelve public squares, has the government house, custom house, opera house, cathedral, and other important buildings. The cathedral is one of the finest churches in the New World, approximating in dimensions and seating capacity to St. Paul's, Notre Dame, or St. Peter's. Its portico is supported by twelve Corinthian columns, the interior solemn and imposing, with twelve side chapels, the high altar standing under the dome, which rises 130 feet. There are six theatres. The Politeama, in Calle Esmeralda, is the largest in South America. The Colon, in Plaza Victoria, intended chiefly for Italian Opera, holds 2,500 persons. The Buenos Ayreans inherit from their ancestors much of that passion for music which characterizes the Spaniard.
The industrial works in the suburbs are using the most improved machinery known in Europe or North America, and the city has telegraphic relations with every part of the world.
Population, 1890, 561,160.