[Illustration: BUZZARDS AT THE MARKET, SÃO PAULO.] “_Estado_, Senhor? _Correio?_” These are the cries that greet one’s ears as the hustling little newsboys ply their trade, just as their counterparts do in our own land. This city supports a dozen dailies. The two above mentioned are very enterprising publications, which publish more foreign news than the average American daily, although the most of it is European. Then the lotteries are everywhere in evidence. In some blocks there are three or four agencies, besides the vendors on the streets. The Brazilians are born gamblers, and this is their favourite method of wooing the fickle goddess of fortune. There is a national lottery, and perhaps the next most popular one is that of this state. There is a drawing nearly every day, with an occasional grand prize of fifty thousand dollars. I met one American who had just drawn a prize of sixty thousand dollars in the National lottery, and this had caused quite a flutter in the English speaking colony. The people forget that not one dollar is paid out for perhaps four that are paid in, but they are always hoping that the lightning will strike in their direction. Men, women and school children, people in silk and rags, black, white and brown, all buy the little strips of paper with the magic numbers on them, and they eagerly scan the drawings when posted. Brazil is not alone in this folly, however, for all the republics surrounding her encourage the same form of gambling. As São Paulo is the capital of a state there are the usual public buildings that one will find for the transaction of the public business. The finest and most imposing building in the city is the Municipal Theatre, which is a very fair rival to the one in Rio de Janeiro. It is not quite finished as yet, but the exterior is very fine and in good taste. There are some beautiful homes on the Avenida Tiradentes and the Avenida Paulista, the latter being a comparatively new street. The new thoroughfares are broad and roomy, while the streets in the old town are, for the most part, very narrow and illy adapted for the traffic of a large city. This is overcome to a certain extent by allowing the cars and street traffic to move only one way on many streets. [Illustration: THE YPIRANGA.]