Let him realise that those
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.
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