The Latin Americans strive for beauty, and, for myself, I must say that in general I admire their style. Some of their buildings would not appear well in a cold climate, but in design and decoration they are well adapted to the country. The government buildings, the plazas, the numerous statues, all have lines of beauty that please the eye. In small towns far from the railway one will oftentimes stumble upon a church, a convent or some other building of real artistic beauty and design. These buildings in a sense satisfy the artistic hunger of the race, and they are the objects to which every resident points with pride. [Illustration: THE MUNICIPAL THEATRE, RIO DE JANEIRO.] The municipal theatre is one of these buildings that one will find in all the larger cities, where social life has attained anything of a metropolitan development, and even in smaller towns, where that stage has not been reached. It is constructed with the same care and regard for artistic proportions as the municipal building or the governmental palace, and, in many instances, with even more taste. The _teatro municipal_, as it is always named, is almost invariably built in an open place, where the view is unobstructed, while many of the public edifices are crowded up to the street line, and often hemmed in between surrounding buildings. Frequently it is exposed on all four sides, and an effort is made to give it an artistic appearance from whatever angle it is viewed, instead of limiting the artistic touches to the façade. Public money has been used for the construction of these buildings, and money from the same source, either municipal or national, is used to provide for the presentation of the drama or opera. It is only in this way that the best Italian, French, Portuguese and Spanish artists could ever be brought to Latin America, for the box receipts alone would not prove profitable. No one dreams of objecting to the use of the public money in this way, for the idea is inbred, and in accordance with the traditions of the race. This idea of practically subsidizing things artistic sounds strange to Anglo-Saxon ears, but among the Latins it is considered a proper function of government. [Illustration: THE MUNICIPAL THEATRE, SÃO PAULO.]