site. Overlooking this valley, which is being laid out tastefully as a public garden, stands the Municipal Theatre, one of the finest buildings in the country, built at a cost of nearly half a million sterling. It is a fine monument to the wisdom, skill, and taste of its projectors, engineers, and architects, and from its commanding position compares more than favourably with its rival in Rio. The interior is elaborately decorated. Marble staircases, handsome balustrades, gilded columns, white and gold walls, and frescoed ceilings all enrich the imposing vestibule. The foyer is a spacious apartment, seen at its best when a dance is going forward. It was my good fortune to be present at a ball given by its inhabitants in honour of its architect, Dr. Ramos de Azevedo, and Señor Antonio Prado, who was Mayor of the city when the theatre was commenced. Exquisite floral decorations were lavished upon the staircase, corridors, and ballrooms, thousands of electric lamps being dotted everywhere amidst the flowers. The brilliance of the ladies’ costumes set off with sparkling diamonds gave an added animation to a scene which equalled if it did not surpass the grand functions in Rio, where one is used to costly and elaborate displays. The Largo do Palacio is a pleasing square which overlooks a great stretch of the surrounding country, and is formed by the President’s Palace and the administration buildings of Justice, Agriculture, and Finance, an imposing and quiet retreat on the margin of the busiest part of the city. But São Paulo is rich in fine buildings, schools, technical colleges, and institutes testifying to the educational facilities afforded to all classes of the community. Hospitals and asylums evince care for the sick and mentally afflicted. Government enterprise in the erection of these buildings has been ably seconded by private munificence, and the Escola de Commerco Alvares Penteado is a good example of the public spirit displayed by the citizens. This fine building, presented to the town by the Condé de Penteado, occupies the whole side of one of its squares, and its good and pleasant proportions are in the style associated with the latest architectural movements on the continent of Europe. The Condé has done much to embellish the city, and his private residence, the Villa Penteado, in the suburb of Hygienopolis, is one of the most notable of the hundreds of luxurious mansions that adorn the surrounding avenues.