hotel-keepers are difficult to awaken. Concordia has wide streets but low houses, with roofs either flat or sloping away from the front to the back, so that a straight, unbroken sky-line is presented to the eye. The Plaza or principal square of the town possesses a church with two towers, which, although of comparatively recent date, has, owing to the unfinished brickwork, the aspect of an ancient building. The towers, covered with small green slates, are typical of the church architecture that prevails over nearly the whole of South America. Inside, the church has a plain barrel roof supported by engaged fluted columns of the Corinthian order, the floor is tiled, and highly coloured statues and images adorn the walls; much of the great altar is painted to imitate marble, and a profusion of gilding testifies to the native love of the gaudy. Seen at night its effect is rich enough, when the garishness of the decorations is softened by the mellow candlelight. During the services in honour of the Virgin crowds of women and girls are seated in the front seats of the nave, and notices are placed upon the pillars and in other conspicuous places, intimating that men and boys are forbidden to trespass on the part reserved for the women, while, to enforce a due observance of the order, policemen, in white helmets and brown holland clothes, are in attendance, and the crowds of amorous youths are restrained with some little difficulty from gaining a point of vantage from which to observe the fair. Processions of little girls clad in white pass through the building singing “Ave Marias”; a black-robed priest beating time and marshalling the regiment. Bouquets of flowers are thrown upon the altar steps by the children as they pass--a pretty ceremony enthusiastically observed. The service over, the congregation slowly disperse into the Plaza, and the straw-hatted beaux form up in [Illustration: A PARAGUAYAN LADY.] line to gaze upon the fair beauties of the community. Ladies, young and middle-aged, attended by their duennas, linger under the lights of the lamps, conscious of and not ill pleased with the attentions of the human moths fluttering around them. There is no doubt that the ladies of the country towns and cities of Argentina enjoy a greater freedom than do their sisters in Buenos Ayres. In Concordia they play tennis and other outdoor games, and there is a growing disposition on the part of the “society” señoritas to become acquainted with the English tongue.