The Bonarenses, however, like the denizens of the Camp, are intensely patriotic and passionately insist upon a recognition of their own distinct personalities. They are the _Porteños_ of the great Argentine nation. Nor do they and their compatriots throughout the country welcome the inference that they are Spanish; they are Argentine. One asks a child of the streets whether he speaks Spanish or Italian. He answers haughtily (in the former language): “At home we all talk Argentine.” Strangely enough, their jingoism is not offensive; it is displayed with an amiable candor that is quite disarming. Not satisfied with being Argentine from top to toe, they seek to Argentinize even the transient guest. The rabid Argentinism of the _Porteño_, and his success in amalgamating the kaleidoscopic horde of Europeans and Asiatics living in his city, is illustrated by the answer of another youthful immigrant who, unable to deny that he was born in Genoa, murmured apologetically, “I was so little.” [Illustration: COLÓN THEATER, BUENOS AIRES.] [Illustration: FEDERAL CAPITOL, BUENOS AIRES.] One of their leading daily newspapers, _La Prensa_, which has the handsomest newspaper building in existence, displays its patriotism by devoting a large part of its home to public uses. At its own expense it provides physicians and a consulting room, where the poor can have medical attention free, a law office where those who cannot afford to pay for it can have legal advice, an excellent museum of the manufactures and products of the country, a free technical library for the use of students, a large hall for public meetings, a charming _salon des fêtes_, in which literary, scientific, and charitable entertainments are given. This paper has a circulation of more than 150,000. So have _La Nación_ and _La Argentina_, the two other big morning dailies. There are 225 periodicals published in the capital all together.