Along the Avenida are many fine office buildings belonging to private concerns, some of which cover almost an entire square, and many of which are truly architecturally beautiful structures. Perhaps among the finest of these are the homes of three of the leading newspapers; the _Jornal do Commercio_, _Jornal do Brazil_ and _O Paiz_. The variety of architecture prevents any appearance of monotony. The Caixa de Amortizacão, or treasury building, where the paper and gold money are exchanged and equalized, is a very beautiful building on the corner of the Rua Uruguayana. Near the other end of the Avenida are several fine public buildings. One of these is the new Art Museum, and another the new National Library, neither of which were quite finished at the time of my visit. The Municipal Building is a unique and ornate building, brilliant in colour and adorned with many statues. A number of stately palms which stand near the building give it a very fine setting. The most beautiful and striking building of all, however, is the magnificent Municipal Theatre, which stands in a conspicuous location at a street intersection, and in spacious dimensions, as well as stately appearance, well rivals the far famed Opera House of Paris. It was built by the municipality and cost several millions of dollars, and is said to have a capacity of twenty thousand persons. [Illustration: THE CITY HALL, RIO DE JANEIRO.] Rio de Janeiro has been transformed. It used to be that the traveller, frightened at the idea of yellow fever, would come here with his ears and brain throbbing from the effects of quinine. He would walk over the city with a smelling bottle under his nose for fear of contagion. Now it is different. Once the home of yellow fever, smallpox and other plagues, this great city has been renovated and overhauled, until now it is as healthful as the average city. The municipal government deserves great credit for the energetic and thorough manner in which this work has been done. Hundreds of miles of underground sewers have supplanted the open gutters of former days, and with the disappearance of the open sewers has vanished the unpleasant odours which formerly pervaded the atmosphere. Low, marshy ground has been filled up. The people were compelled to remove the dirt from the tiles in which moss and fungi had grown, and cement the joints so that there would be nothing to retain dampness. The first floors of all buildings must be made of tile or cement, so that rats can not get into the houses. And then the people scrub and clean, and clean and scrub, in most parts of the city, so that it is a fair rival of a Dutch town. The street cleaning department is alert and active, so that the streets in general are cleaner than the average American city. It is only when one of the heavy rain storms breaks on the city that it is different, and then tons of red sand and mud are washed down from the hills, and the street commissioner has his hands full for