Argentina from a British Point of View by Various
page 41 of 245 (16%)
page 41 of 245 (16%)
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whom he meets in Argentina are as noble and pure as those he left at
home. Argentina offers to-day a splendid opening for the best of England's sons, but she does not want the loafer nor the ne'er-do-well. Can it be wondered at that England's prestige is seriously injured when so many of the "wasters," and worse, are sent from the country? It is but natural that from these, who go to foreign countries, England is judged. To my mind we should send abroad men who are bound to succeed, men who never forget that from their behaviour the Mother Country will be appraised. Argentina will embrace and reward them, but she will spurn and despise the dissolute and drunken. The advice I would give to all those thinking of trying Argentina as a field for agricultural work is to remember that to be successful one must begin at the bottom, the harder the school the better will be the result: you cannot detect and correct the faults which militate against success unless you have been through the mill. Not long ago I sent a boy out to Argentina and painted the first two years of learning in the new country in rather lurid colours. I explained and dwelt on the hardships--indeed, I described it as "a dog's life." Within a year, the lad wrote home to his parents and mentioned all that I had told him, but finished up by saying, "There's plenty of 'life' about it, but not much 'dog.'" The truth is that the boy had accepted things as they came along and had adapted himself to his surroundings, and, I predict, he will never regret having left his home, where opportunities were cramped by small surroundings, for the wider field of Argentina. A great many Englishmen resident in Argentina, whose sons are looking forward to finding their life's work in that country, send their boys home to England to be educated. Far be it from me to deprecate the training acquired by English public school life, but it might well be |
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