There are a number of very fine public buildings in Santiago. Perhaps the finest is the Palace of Congress, which is a large building of modern classical construction covering an entire square—not differing much from many public buildings that one will find in the United States. I attended a session of the Senate and the proceedings seemed very strange. The members talked at random without even addressing the chair or rising from their seats. In fact the proceedings were the most informal of any legislative body I ever attended. Not infrequently, however, the sessions are very stormy, and the reputation of the Spaniard for excitability is well maintained. The National Library is almost opposite this building, but is not an imposing building, although it contains an interesting and valuable collection of books. La Moneda is the name given to the residence of the President, and it also contains the offices of many of the government departments. It is a large three-story building with quite imposing surroundings. The President is generally attended by a military guard during his drives around the city. Other buildings are the Palace of Justice, in which the highest courts sit, the Army Building, and the Intendency, or City Hall. At one place in Santiago a beautiful marble monument has been erected on the site of a church that was burned in 1863. Church festivals have always played an important part in the social life of the capital. At the time of the Christmas festivities of that year a gorgeous _fête_ was in progress in the Jesuits’ church, which was known as the Feast of the Virgins. The interior was festooned and decorated everywhere with light gauze, wreaths of paper flowers and other inflammable material. Candles had been attached to these flimsy decorations. The church was crowded with women while high mass was being celebrated by the bishop. Suddenly the hangings caught fire, the burning candles fell among the crowd of worshippers and everyone rushed for the doors. As usual, the doors opened inward, and the crowds, jammed against them, made it impossible for them to be opened. It is claimed that almost three thousand women and girls lost their lives in this terrible holocaust. After the fire the bodies were found packed in a solid mass against the doors. The church was afterwards razed to the ground by order of the government, and this monument erected on the site. Scarcely a leading family in Santiago escaped bereavement, and the Feast of the Virgins has ever since been celebrated with mourning in Chile.