. The Spanish-American republics . COUNTRY HUT. was that very Hotel Club Social, where I lodged at Mendoza. It hadrecently been sold for an enormous sum to a syndicate of half a dozenmen, who were all active politicians, and the consequence was thatboth the restaurant and the bar were monopolized by the numerouspolitical friends of the various proprietors, who ate and drank oncredit. For that matter, it appeared that almost everybody in Men-doza was living on credit; in the whole province, with its 110,000 in-habitants, there was not one million dollars of paper in circulation, 28 THE SPANISH-
. The Spanish-American republics . COUNTRY HUT. was that very Hotel Club Social, where I lodged at Mendoza. It hadrecently been sold for an enormous sum to a syndicate of half a dozenmen, who were all active politicians, and the consequence was thatboth the restaurant and the bar were monopolized by the numerouspolitical friends of the various proprietors, who ate and drank oncredit. For that matter, it appeared that almost everybody in Men-doza was living on credit; in the whole province, with its 110,000 in-habitants, there was not one million dollars of paper in circulation, 28 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN REPUBLICS. and nowhere was money rarer than in the banks. It was in vain thatthe depositors presented their checks. We cannot pay to-day, re-plied the cashier; next week, perhaps, we may have some for the local railways, freights were at an impossible figure, owingto the high rate of gold, and furthermore the rolling stock was insuf-ficient to transport the merchandise which sometimes remained six. months en route betweenRosario and Mendoza, andoften disappeared entirely,being either lost or stolen. Like the other Argen-tines whom I had met, Ifound the Mendocinos to beloquacious and indefatigablecritics, but there seemed tobe no ideas among them of united action and energetic , disappointed with my first experience of the republic, 1 spent afew more days in visiting various estates, where I found the employesfor the most part living in comfortless and slovenly huts; I visited W$V^. RUINS OF SAN AUGUSTIN, MENDOZA. FROM BUENOS AYRES TO MENDOZA. 29 also the famous Trapiche vineyard, belonging to Sefior TiburcioBenegas, which is a model of order and fertility; and, last of all, theruins of old Mendoza, consisting of the shattered walls of the churchesof San Augustin and of the Jesuits, which rise in picturesque andmournful grandeur against the vast background of green plain andmountain solitudes. *>-. CHAPTER III. ACROSS THE ANDES. IN the pleasa
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