New-York tribune. [volume], July 24, 1921, MAGAZINE TRIBUNE INSTITUTE BOOK SECTION, Image 49

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MAGAZINE
TRIBUNE INSTITUTE
BOOK SECTION
JULY 24, 1921
MAGAZINE
TRIBUNE INSTITUTE
BOOK SECTION
PART V. TWELVE PAGES
CONEY ISL?N
m
r~m
The sands where the Uruguayans of Montevideo look out upon the Atlantic ; and in the background, a tent city.
Sea bathing in South America, however, isn't as popular as it is with us. The poor make little use of the sea for
pleasure. And at the fashionable coast resorts, the roulette wheel has a greater lure than the surf
-ir -gr ERE are some of the things the Coney Island "fan" will have to do without if he or
I a she ever tries the delights of sea bathing in South American resorts, where the ocean
JL Jg_ dip is prized for its own sake and not for its attendant features:
Chutes. Nobody ever slides down a glazed trough in South America, because
there are no glazed troughs there.
Roller coasters. Nobody increases the action of the heart and lungs by the Coney Island method
: Hot dogs. There never has been a strike of sausage vender? in South American resorts
because there are no sausages to vend.
Acid drinks. Circus lemonade and the South American resorts are strangers.
?Barkers. One's vocabulary of slang has to be increased by other instructors. There is
nothing to bark for at a South American bathing beach.
Witching Waves. The only ones are the wet waves of? the shore line.
Merry-go-rounds. There may be some made-in-Germany affairs later, if American man?
ufacturers don't wake up to their opportunities.
By Charles Evers
THE most important beach resort of
South America is situated south of
Buenos Ayres and some of the most
delightful seaside places of Chile are
south of Valparaiso, but, taking only the coast
line from Buenos Ayres to Valparaiso, round
the northern extremity of the South American
continent, we find no fewer than 5,280 miles
of sandy and rocky beaches, 3,760 miles of
which?from Santos to Antofagasta?are act?
ually within the tropics.
Eight of the ten republics are maritime.
Brazil's extension of coast is immense, and of
Chile it may almost be said that the country
consists of nothing else. It might therefore
well be supposed that the young people of both
sexes who live beside the sea** in South America
would be addicted to the great sports of swim?
ming and surf bathing, just as the youth of
New York delights in the turbid waters of
Coney Island or?if their means permit?in
the more transparent and boisterous waves of
Atlantic City.
Human nature is more or less the same
everywhere, and the urge to cool the body in
the ocean when the sun's rays are insufferably
hot is felt in Pernambuco and Callao just as
strongly as in New York or San Francisco;
but customs differ, and the fact remains that
the big coast cities of the southern continent
have not seen the necessity of making the sea
easily accessible to the masses for the exercise
of the best sport in the world, and much less
have they tried to popularize this healthy en?
tertainment by the addition of side shows such
?s have made Coney Island famous.
Obviously, the nations of South America
are afflicted with the conventions of civili?
zation in the same measure as are we our?
selves, and the people must have compen?
sation and inducement to endure the ills
attendant on their pursuit of the joyous dip.
The sweltering, confined journey in the sub?
way, the heavy bag, the hutch in which they
indress, the absurd ponderous costume or?
dained for women by the blue laws, the long,
we_ry waiting at the door of the bathhouse,
the dripping, heavier bag on the return jour?
ney?all these impedimenta to pleasure must
nave their corresponding reward?the water,
the friendly intercourse, the opportunities
for Cirtation, the scenic railway, "drop the
^P." the water chute and the succulent hot
dog.
ht Honolulu and Tahati the bath is
sufficient inducement, but then there is no
Jourr.jy, no bag, no bathhouse, no waiting
*5d no costume. The water is clearer and
!"e frie>nd.ly relations are more intimate.
*n South America there is nearly always
a Journey to be made, a bag to be carried,
a costume tn be donned and a period of
waiting to be endured before entering the
uninviting cubicle; but there is no "giant
r*cer" ?rid no hot dog, and oonn flirtation?
are frowned upon with the utmost severity.
It need not be inferred, therefore, that
the boys and girls of Brazil and Peru ar-3
less inclined to appreciate the delights of
ocean bathing than are those of America and
Hawaii, but they have not the same oppor?
tunities or the same inducements. It is
easier for them to take a shower bath at
home and then go for a trolley ride into
the country or to visit the bull-ring or tho
racetrack. Nor must it be thought that
these young people are at all 'water shy.
All the native-born South Americans of the
coast are cleanly, especially the Brazilians.
Of some of the immigrants and some of those
who live in the highlands the least said the
better in this respect.
There ia a great opportunity for some
enterprising American impresario to provide
Spanish for "Swept by Ocean Breezes" is the correct slogan for the Municipal Beach of Buenos Ayres.
the great cities of Rio de Janeiro, Buenos
Ayres, Valparaiso and Lima with some Coney
Island shake-ups, but they must be of the
best. Some years ago, at an exhibition iri
Rio de Janeiro, an ideal location was given
to some such contrivances imported from the
United State?; but they ?ven? all second rat?
without thrills or shocks, and the show was
a dismal failure. Coney Island 1921 prices
would not do at all, at least not while ex?
change keeps its present level. There is to
be another exhibition in Brazil next year
to commemorate the centennial of Brazilian
independence, and it is none too early to
0
get busy in this matter unless Americans ar?
content to let these essentially American
constructions be made in Germany.
I have said ihat there are some facilities for
sea bathing?without frills?for the masses
? in the big cities of the coast. These estab?
lishments are well frequented, but that means
Mar del Plata, Buenos Ayres, the Atlantic City of South America. The Rambla
is a magnificent esplanade, two and a half miles long and one hundred feet wide
very little because they are so few and so
small. For the rich there are other places,
notably at Mar del Plata, in Argentina, and
at Montevideo. At Rio de Janeiro the ac?
commodations are poor?the water of the bay
is not very clean, and the currents at the
seashore are said to be dangerous for bath?
ers; they are better at Guaruj?, near Santos.
At the southern extremity of Callao harbor
is the growing seaside resort of La Punta.
From December to May its fine beach is
thronged with bathers; Vi?a del Mar, near
Valparaiso, ' is fashionable, but there is no
rush for the sea bathing.
Mar del Plata is the Atlantic City of South
America, though it is not a bit like the New
Jersey resort. It is also much further away
from Buenos Ayres than Atlantic City is
from New York; but the railroad of 250
I
miles is good and the service quite well done.
both as regards sleeping arrangements and
food.
Mar del Plata was made to order by the
government of Buenos Ayres Province in
1879, and soon grew to a respectable size,
thanks to the wealthy citizens of Bueno."
Ayres, who built their villas here by the
score, each surrounded by a beautiful garden.
These villas a?c unique, as most of them
were built regardless of expense in the tim:
of the great boom in the eighties in a style
of architecture which the French call 'ras
taquoer." Needless to say, this style, favored
by the newly rich and by the unsophisticated,
is no longer fashionable in Argentina.
Tho Boardwalk of Atlantic City is rep?
resented at Mar del Plata by the "Rambla,"
a magnificent esplanade and arcade of stone
and cement two and a half miles long and
a hundred feet wide. Here are fine scores
and music galore for the temptation and
entertainment of visitors, who are snap?
shotted as they walk pass the wily photog?
raphers, and buy their own portraits ex?
posed in the windows on the following day.
Bathing in the morning, golf in the after?
noon, a constitutional on the "Rambla" in
the evening, and hard work at night over
the roulette and baccarat tables of the
Casino: this is the daily round at Mar del
Plata.
The Argentines, like the Brazilians, the
Chileans and the Peruvians, are inveterate
gamblers. La Raz?n estimated that in the
year 1919 the huge sum of 176 million pesos
?$77,440,000?was wagered in the republic
on horse races, in lotteries, at roulette and
in other licensed public gambling devices.
For a population of 8,000,000 people this
is going some.
The progressive city of Sao Paulo, in
Brazil, is taking a step in the right direction
by the construction, in time for the Brazil?
ian Centennial next year, of a casino and
hotel with a great swimming pool for which
sea water will be brought up 2,600 feet
from Santos through a tube 49 miles long,
furnishing 1,177 cubic yards an hour. It
is estimated that the total cost of this es?
tablishment will be 12,500 contos of reis,
of which 1,800 contos will be spent on the
canalization of the sea water. One conto of
reis at the present time is worth less than $110,
but the estimate of cost was probably made at
a much higher rate of exchange, and these
works are likely to cost $2,000,000, a consid?
erable outlay for a city of half a million inhab?
itants. The hotel might be expected to
pay for itself, but the sea baths, if made
available for all classes of the people, could
scarcely bo self-supporting. However, thj
contractors asked for a concession of thirty
years, exemption from duties, and other
privileges. There is a world of hidden mean?
ing in the words "casino" and "other privi?
leges," and one is thereby led to hope that
the Paulistas may be permitted to enjoy
the pleasures of sea bathing at the expense
of those who will, frequent the green cloth
covered tables within the walls of the Casino,
just as the good citizens of Monaco disport
themselves in their own way in blissful
ignorance of the nature of an income tax.
Santos, the principa! seaport of Sao Paulo,
is provided with sea bathing facilites within
easy distance of the city by trolley car. Thy
attendance is good in the early morning
and on holidays, but at no time ?3 there
any real popular exodus to the seashore,
as there are no inducements for holiday
makers except the ocean and a few restau?
rants.
But the glory of Santos is Guaruj?. This
little place, situated on the exposed shore of a
big island, one side of which forms the east?
erly limit of Santos harbor, is composed
entirely of villas owned by the rich people
of the capital. There is a small Ritz-Carlton
hotel and a casino where high play may be
seen in the season. The surroundings ar-j
enchantingly beautiful, and the beach is well
adapted to bathing, but, with the exception of
some men who spend their summers at the
place because they have to go to business
in Santos every day, and some damsels ar?
rayed in the latest fashions of Dieppe and
Atlantic City, who have been ordered by their
doctors to take dips in the sea of so many
minutes' duration for so many days, the
people who cross the sands from the prom?
enade to the water's edge are few indeed.
Guaruj? is at its best late in the evening,
when the brilliant crowd, mostly dressed in
white linen, walk under the stars and the
electric light and enjoy the perfumed airs
of the sea and forest while the band plays
the strains of the latest comic opera.
To get from Santos to Guaruj? you tak-3
a gasoline launch from the Custom House,
and, having crossed the harbor, a miniatura
train which pulls you slowly through the for?
est across the island to the door of the hotel
facing the Atlantic.
Perhaps it will be gathered from the fore?
going that roulette provides the incentive to
visit a South American seaside resort. After
all, one cannot remain in the sea all day long,
and away from home lack of amusement or
work means boredom. The writer well knows
that to chronicle the doings of the seaside
of a happy crowd of the working classes
would make a better story than to tell of
the vapid pursuit of excitement by the well
to do.
But the poor of South America do not.
make much use of the sea for their pleasure..
What do they do? I don't know, but I have
noticed that they often utilize a guitar.
it is generally spring time in South Amer?
ica?or so at least the lovely climate wouM
lead us to suppose?and then, we are told,
"the young man's fancy lightly turn . >
thoughts, of love." For him the purlieus <--i
the city are "Paradise enow."