The public and private art galleries of the city with their varied collections embrace a great number of old masters and of modern productions in painting, sculpture, pottery, engraving and every form of art representing all known periods and all nations. First amongst these exhibitions is the Museum of Fine Arts, which contains a number of important works collected and arranged with great skill and taste, whilst many of the private galleries have been especially erected in the palaces of wealthy residents for the purpose of housing some of the priceless objects which are to be found in the capital of the Argentine Republic. A feature of striking interest in the life of Buenos Aires is the number and excellence of the many hospitals, asylums and other charitable organizations established to provide for the afflicted and poorer classes of the community. Apart from those endowed by the various foreign colonies residing in the city, the majority of these institutions are largely supported by State aid in form of appropriation or specific revenues. On the other hand, vast sums are privately subscribed to those not entirely of an official character. As a great commercial centre, the aspect and movement of the city are equally striking. The port, docks, railroad depots, wharves, warehouses, street railways, lighting and other signs of industrial activity abound in every direction and make Buenos Aires to the Argentine Republic what New York is to the United States. It is, moreover, the principal mart for the agricultural and pastoral products of many of the leading ranches of the Republic and draws to its periodical sales of wool, hides, cattle and sheep, buyers from many foreign countries. Buenos Aires, like many other great capitals, is confronted with the difficulty of a congestion of traffic owing to the large increase of population and the narrowness of the streets in the older sections of the city, but this problem is being gradually solved by the construction of new broad diagonal avenues and by the building of subways which are now being rapidly extended. With all these evidences of progress on every side, it will not be a surprising revelation to add that Buenos Aires possesses some of the greatest newspapers, one of the finest Opera Houses and the finest Club Houses in the world. There are other large and flourishing cities in the Republic, such as Rosario, Santa Fe, Cordova, La Plata (capital of the province of Buenos Aires) and Bahia Blanca, but the City of Buenos Aires is the brain and heart of the Republic and must always maintain its supremacy as the leading metropolis of Latin America. END