sections, gold is continually being added to the available supply, not only by the rivers themselves but also by many of the small creeks and arroyos opening into them.

For generations the banks and bars of these streams have been washed by Indian women, known to the Spaniards as laranderas (wash women), among whom the occupation seems to be more or less hereditary, and quite a patrimony it is that has come down to them through the ages. In the morning hours or in the late afternoon they may be seen standing in the streams or sitting on the banks gayly chatting while working with their bateas, or wooden bowls. In these they wash the sands for the golden particles, which at night they carefully store in quills or wrap in leaves. It is especially on Sunday morning that many of the favorable spots ring with animated laughter and splashing that echo along the banks and from the canyon walls, clearly notifying one long before one comes within sight that the laranderas are at work. At nightfall they throw their personal belongings into the large bowls, and placing the bowls on their heads they stroll home looking like huge mushrooms in the gathering dusk. Indeed, the entire affair seems to be somewhat three-cornered, as gossiping, washing of clothes, and washing of gold are more or less indiscriminately intermingled, a good time being had by all present irrespective of the more material results of the gathering. However, they seldom give that feature any undue worry, as the returns are fairly satisfactory despite the crude methods employed and the limited time devoted to the work. Usually the women go home with enough to meet their simple needs, and the so-called gold villages are largely supported by them. The output is purchased by the local storekeepers, or traded for goods, and credit is often extended the lavandera against her next season's crop, as it were, with far more willingness than our own agriculturists encounter under similar circumstances.

The men, while not lazy, consider it beneath their dignity to wash gold as it is too much like working with the women in the domestic affairs of the home. Consequently it is an occupation to be strictly avoided by all males conscious of their more exalted sphere, though the inhibition naturally does not extend to spending the proceeds. It is sometimes amusing to note the shamefaced actions of some rash youth who has stolen off surreptitiously to wash a little gold on his own account. One such was throwing a number of good sized nuggets on the gaming table when a mining engineer who happened to be present asked him where he had obtained them, and offered to buy any more that he might have left. The boy seemed very much embarrassed, but after taking the engineer to one side in order that his friends might not hear the damaging confession, he stated that the nuggests had been washed from a certain near-by stream where he occasionally went for gold when he was hard up. He added apologetically, "But, Señor, it

is not work for a man!" Indeed I sometimes suspect that the wise lavanderas purposely confuse the family washing with the washing of gold in order to keep the latter monopoly in their own hands, and thus to control the output at least during the preliminary stages.

Sometimes a few hours of leisurely work with the bowl nets the gold washers up to a dollar or a dollar and a half, and occasionally that much is taken from one pan. They seldom wash over 15 or 20 bowlfuls of sand, and as there are 104 bowlfuls in 1 cubic yard, the result is not at all bad. Fortune at times selects certain individuals

This village lies just below the famous mine of Rosario, which has been the chief contributor to the country's production of gold and silver.

as recipients of her special smiles, or ambition or necessity spurs the lavandera to unusual efforts then the results are often spectacular. One old woman complacently ensconced on the bank of a small stream washed out $140 worth in one day, while in another location a group began operations far up a bank 20 feet above mean water, where any old mining man would tell you that nothing could be found. In six days they took out several pounds of gold. For many nights there were not quills enough in the community to hold the yellow grains, and leaves had to be drawn on liberally instead. Another

group of 16 women and girls are said to have washed out about $21,000 worth of gold in less than three weeks' work. The total taken from the rivers and streams of Honduras by the lavanderas alone is reported to amount to as much as $125,000 a year. This may be considered a good showing, when it is remembered that the work is carried on as part of the family régime and by the crudest of methods. only. At this rate approximately $50,000,000 would have been recovered by the Indian women since the Conquest, irrespective of more intensive operations by the Spaniards. And as yet the true stores of treasure locked within the auriferous sands and gravels may be said to be practically untouched!

Strange as it may seem, the placers have never been worked on an extensive scale along modern lines, although engineers have often pronounced them to be among the world's great alluvial fields. The unknown state of the country, the lack of transportation and the control of vast tracts by a few persons account for this. Likewise it never has been a poor man's country in the mining sense, however much it may have proved to be a poor woman's as far as the lavanderas are concerned.

And so it is that while the rest of the world is worrying about the gold standard and striving to stave starvation from its door, nature has given the natives of Honduras an unlimited credit in a bank of her own to be drawn upon as necessity dictates. Thus did their ancestors when they washed the golden sands for the glory of ancient dynasties long before the first floating houses appeared off their coasts or the tread of the Spaniard was heard in the land.

FEMINISM IN ARGENTINA1

By ADA STROZZI

WAS in 1906 that the first steps were taken toward a complete of

organization in Buenos Aires of the Centro Feminista, under the presidency of Dr. Elvira Rawson de Dellepiane. Twenty years later the efforts of this society and of other feminist bodies bore fruit in the civil rights act based on a petition which Dr. Alfredo L. Palacios had long since presented to Congress on behalf of the Centro.

By this act of 1926 the unmarried

woman, widow, and divorced woman were given, with slight exceptions, all the civil rights of men. A married woman gained many rights which she had hitherto not enjoyed: she was permitted to be the guardian of her children by a former marriage, to engage in a profession, trade, employment, commerce, or industry without the necessity of authorization from her husband, to dispose freely of her own property, inherited or earned, and to exercise other analogous rights.

Here this society of prominent women houses its library and allied departments in Buenos Aires.

Now that the Argentine woman's civil position has been assured for six years, the feminist movement is directed with renewed energy toward securing the suffrage. Señora Carmela Horne de Burmeister is president of the newest society, the Argentine Association for Woman Suffrage, organized only last December. Additional strength has recently been given to the movement by the support of the important National Council of Women (well known for its educational work), which finds the time ripe for demanding the vote.

Since 1823, when Bernardino Rivadavia intrusted to a group of prominent women, organized as the Sociedad de Beneficencia, the official protection and education of girls, the members of this society, with ever increasing prestige, have performed valuable services in

1 Translated and adapted from "Caras y Caretas," Buenos Aires, May 28, 1932.

conducting numerous hospitals and schools. It is needless to say, however, that the pioneer feminists met with many difficulties in breaking down the traditional concept that women should not intervene in political matters. There were women as well as men in disagreement with them, but the movement gradually gained in strength. The Centro changed its name to the Association for Women's Rights and for years continued its work to secure not only civil rights but the suffrage.

The feminists did not confine themselves, however, merely to seeking their "rights"; they were active in social welfare work for women

MATERNITY INSTITUTE, BUENOS AIRES

This institute is but one of the social welfare projects maintained in Argentina by the "Sociedad de Beneficencia," an organization of women, more than 100 years old.

and children. Among the projects which they advocated were: Higher salaries for teachers; workers' housing; reduced prices for articles of prime necessity; seaside camps for sickly children the year round, instead of during vacations only; branch libraries; maternity homes and benefits; newsboys' dormitories; school lunches; and day nurseries for the children of employed mothers.

Notable among suffragists was the late Dr. Julieta Lanteri, who in 1912 founded the League for Women's and Children's Rights, and in 1918 the National Feminist Party. In 1919 Doctor Lanteri offered herself as a candidate for deputy to the Federal Congress and some months later ran for the office of city councilor in Buenos Aires.