Calle Florida is the fashionable shopping street. In the late hours of the afternoon the street is crowded with the shoppers and idlers, and all traffic is excluded from the thoroughfare during those hours. Mamma and her daughters, Juanita and Carmencita, are out to look at the pretty things, the latter in their freshly starched skirts and bright-coloured ribbons. Others, who have no shopping to do, invent some excuse for being on Florida at that hour, and the young dandies stand on the corners, twirling moustaches that turn up at an angle of forty-five degrees and smoking the inevitable cigarette. When the witching hours of night have come the crowds again appear. Calles Florida, Cangallo, Esmeralda, Cuyo, Maipu and many others are brilliantly illuminated, for the theatres and cafés are in that section, as well as the best restaurants, and rathskellers, and these people certainly love to eat. There are many good restaurants, of which the Sportsman is probably the most popular. Here you may partake of almost any European dish—to say nothing of native ones. In addition to music a free moving picture show is provided. To obtain a seat at certain hours it is necessary to make arrangements beforehand, for diners linger long at the table. The meal usually begins with a dish of cold meats. Then comes a salad or the soup, together with the appetizers. Fish and three or four kinds of meat then follow, ending with a pastry or _dulce_ (sweet) of some kind. It is surprising to see what a meal a thin Spaniard will put himself on the outside of, together with a choice assortment of liquors, and seem no worse for the effort. During my visit the “Merry Widow” was being played in three different languages, French, Italian and Spanish, in as many different theatres. The Teatro Colon is the largest opera house in South America and the very best of opera is given there, a government subsidy being granted. There are few of the world’s great artists who have not appeared here at some time in their career. In no country in the world can better Italian opera be heard. It will seat thousands of people, and it is always a fashionably dressed audience. A thousand dollars for a season box is readily paid by the nabob of Buenos Aires. Low-necked gowns for the women and evening dress for the men predominate, and jewels by the peck may be seen sparkling all over the audience. Nowhere can wealth and beauty be seen in greater abundance.