commercial houses. The city palace of the Emperor fronts the
market-place, in which donkeys and carts are unloaded daily, and where
the fish-boats land. It is impregnated by the stench of decaying
vegetation, and has an ancient and fish-like smell. The structure looks
more like a warehouse than the shelter of imperial power, and Dom Pedro
will not live in it. He has two beautiful palaces in the country, in
which he resides, and only comes to the city palace on occasions of
public importance. The only presentable Government buildings are the
post-office and printing-house, and many of the private residences are
superior in every respect to anything the Government owns. The building
in which Congress sits is a gloomy old pile, without a single redeeming
feature, and a great empire like Brazil ought to be ashamed to house its
Parliament in such a place.
The Rue Dineta is the Wall Street of Rio de Janeiro, and during the
morning hours, while the Coffee Exchange is open, presents quite an
animated appearance. Brokers and commission men, merchants, planters,
agents of transportation lines, speculators, men of all ages and
nationalities, assemble there to trade and gamble; and one can hear a
dozen different languages in half as many groups. Most of the
speculation is done in coffee, and in the buying and selling of exchange
on London.
Nothing in Rio strikes an American as more singular than the
nomenclature of the streets. Many of them, such as the “Seventh of
September” and the “First of March,” are named after days on which
something (no one seems to know exactly what) has taken place. There is
one thoroughfare called the “Street of Good Jesus,” and the names of the
saints are freely used. It seems a trifle queer to be directed to “No.
20 First of March Street,” or for a man to live at the corner of “St.
John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist Streets,” but the
Brazilians do not mind it.
The principal street in Rio is the celebrated Rua do Ouvidor. It is a
narrow little alley-way, in which two carriages could not pass each
other. In fact I never saw a carriage in
[Illustration: AQUEDUCT AT RIO.]
the street, and doubt if a driver would be bold enough to venture there.
Here are the shops of the principal merchants, and the gorgeous stores
of the artificers of feather flowers, and the dealers in gold and silver
and precious stones. The street, from one end to the other, is filled at
night with people, not on the narrow sidewalks only, but completely
filling the thoroughfare from wall to wall. Officers of the army and
navy, and soldiers and sailors, all in uniform, mingle with the crowd,
and flash their gold lace in the bright light that floods the street.
Everywhere, too, are the elaborate mulatto gendarmes, the police of the
city. From the _cafés chantants_ come the sounds of music and the
clinking of glasses. At little tables in the cafés the Brazilians sit,
drinking strong coffee or other beverages, talking, gesticulating, and
never for a moment completely at rest. Catching a weasel asleep is easy
compared with that of catching a Brazilian when some portion of his body
is not in motion. This is owing to the amount of strong black coffee
they drink. A Brazilian proverb says that coffee, to be good, must be
“black as night, as bitter as death, and hot as sheol.”
[Illustration: THE AVENUE OF ROYAL PALMS--RIO.]
The total abstinence cause has few if any supporters in Brazil.
Everybody drinks--men, women, and children. The police records show that
men do get drunk here, but they are very seldom seen. The laboring
classes drink a vile beverage called _casasch_, which is made of the
juice of the sugar-cane in the regular distillery fashion. But moderate
as the Brazilians are in the use of liquors, they are decidedly
immoderate in the use of coffee. It is coffee the first thing in the
morning and the last thing at night, coffee at meals and coffee between
meals, and all of it made according to the proverb.
Rio is a succession of disappointments. The only really pretty place is
the Botanical Garden, which serves to illustrate what the whole city
might be with the exercise of a little taste and the expenditure of a
trifling sum of money. Here are colonnades of palms which surpass
anything on the globe, and which are worth a journey to Brazil to see.
Here are all the plants and trees that the country produces, and no land
is so rich in vegetation as Brazil. Flowers of the most gorgeous hues,
orchids that are wonders of color, and a representation of the virgin
forests of the Amazon, a tangled mass of wild, luxuriant vegetation,
full of birds of the most brilliant plumage, bugs that look like
animated gems, and flowers of scarlet, purple, and yellow, that make the
forest appear as if it were ablaze. Every color is intense.
[Illustration: THE PRETTIEST THINGS IN BRAZIL.]
There are no delicate tints and no gentle hues. The flowers have no
perfume, and the birds no songs. The whole country seems to be painted
yellow and red.
Strangers always visit the fish-market, where all sorts of shiny
creatures are to be found, most of them peculiar to the waters of
Brazil. The whole business is conducted by auction, and the fish are
sold by the basket to the highest-bidder men, who have retail places
throughout the city, or who peddle them in the streets. All varieties
of food are peddled about the town, and the venders attract attention by
clapping pieces of wood together and uttering peculiar cries. There are
drinking-booths along the street at which all sorts of beverages can be
obtained, from goats’ milk to brandy, and casasch is sold by the
bucketful. There are plenty of street-car lines, and all the population
ride. The cars are always crowded, and everybody reads a morning paper
as he goes down-town, and an evening paper on his way home.
Foreigners are generally puzzled to know why the horse-cars in Rio are
called “bonds.” It happened in this way: When the first horse railroad
was built in Rio bonds were issued to pay for it. There was a great talk
about these bonds, and the uneducated were at a loss to know what the
English word meant. When they saw the first car they thought they had
found a solution of the question, and all exclaimed, “There is one of
those much-talked-of bonds.” So all over Brazil a horse-car is a “bond”
to this day.
It is noticed that every ox-cart in Brazil creaks with the most
soul-reaching sounds. I asked a cartman why he did not grease its
wheels. He replied that the creaking stimulated the animals, and they
would not work without it.
Humming-birds are plenty as flies about Rio, and the natives call them
_be aflores_ (kiss flowers). At night the air is full of myriads of
fire-flies that look like a shower of stars. To one who makes a tour of
South America before going to Brazil, it seems as if all of the homely
women on the continent had emigrated there, for pretty ones are
extremely scarce. Their complexions are sallow, and they all have a
bilious look. Another oddity is that the women are invariably fat and
the men are invariably lean. Their complexions are ruined by the
climate, and the lives of indolence they lead give them a tendency to
obesity, which is augmented by the excessive use of sweetmeats. The
women are munching confectionery from morning till night, and scarcely
eat anything else, and their time is divided between dozing in a
[Illustration: A BRAZILIAN HACIENDA.]
rocking-chair or peeking through the blinds to see the people on the
streets. One can ride about Rio all day without seeing a Brazilian lady,
and the only glimpse a man ever gets of them is during the evenings at
the cafés or at the playhouses, unless he gets out early in the morning
and sees them on the way to mass.
At six o’clock every morning the streets are full of women on their way
to church, at seven o’clock they are on their way to their homes, and at
half-past seven there is not one to be seen. In the evening, when the
gas is lighted, they pour from the houses into the streets, the parks,
the ice-cream booths, and the theatres. There they appear in their Paris
finery, overloaded with jewellery, munching candy, nibbling ices, and
gossiping.
Next to her complexion, the ugliest thing about a Brazilian woman is her
voice. It sounds as if the parrots had taught her to speak, and when you
hear it behind the blinds, as one often does, it is always a matter of
doubt whether “Polly” or her mistress is talking. But the Brazilians do
not call their parrots Polly, as we do. The common name is “Loreta.”
A Brazilian woman never goes shopping. Servants are sent for samples;
and if it is a bonnet the señorita wants to buy, a box or basket
containing all the latest Parisian styles is sent up for her inspection.
Most of the purchasing is done in this way, and a woman is seldom seen
in a shop. But in all of these remarks the negroes are excepted. The
streets swarm day and night with gorgeously dressed Dinahs, wearing
turbans that would shame a passion-flower for color, and usually yellow
or red gowns. They chatter like magpies, and seldom seem to be going
anywhere or to have any object in life beyond gossiping with the friends
they meet.
More attention is now paid to female education in Brazil than formerly.
At one time it was only necessary for a señorita to know how to read her
prayer-book and to embroider, but of late seminaries for females have
been established, and the nuns compelled to enlarge the curriculum of
convent study. The Brazilian woman is now beginning to receive the
respect that modern civilization demands for her, and is no longer kept
as a plaything for man. She is intelligent, learns readily, and has
considerable wit, but never reads anything except the fashion papers and
translations of French novels. A bookseller told me that the demand for
the last named was increasing largely, and that where he sold only one
ten years ago he sells a hundred nowadays. Education in music and the
lighter arts is also becoming popular, as the increased sales in music
and painting and drawing materials show. The Brazilian woman has always
been famous for her embroidery, and her house is full of the most
beautiful work, the doing of which she has learned from the nuns.
[Illustration: THE OLD CITY PALACE.]
In Rio social restrictions are being removed, the two sexes are allowed
to mingle with greater freedom than formerly, and society is beginning
to assume a new phase. Occasionally grand balls are given, and within
the last few years the natives have acquired the habit of occasionally
visiting one another’s houses socially with their wives--something that
was unknown a few years ago. The etiquette of modern society was
reversed in Brazil not many years ago. If a man bowed to a female
acquaintance, or addressed her, except in the presence of her husband,
father, or brother, it was considered an insult, to be punished with a
blow, but now it is considered entirely proper for ladies and gentlemen
to converse together. There remains, however, the old system of formal
calling or exchanging visits. Ladies never go out alone to call on their
friends, and no gentleman will be received at a house when the husband
or father is absent.
[Illustration: IN THE SUBURBS.]
The theatres of Rio are numerous and well attended, but are neither
handsome nor well arranged. There are French, Spanish, and Portuguese
performances, and during the winter season an Italian opera two or three
times a week, which is liberally patronized by the upper classes. The
performances at the opera as well as at the theatres are considered only
an adjunct to social conversation, however, and because of the talking
going on around him during the play, one can scarcely hear what is said
by the performers. Connected with every theatre is a garden and café,
and between the acts the people repair to these places. Ice-cream and
all sorts of beverages are served, and confectionery of course. They
have recently built the great Theatre Dom Pedro Segundo, larger than La
Scala or San Carlo, and said to have a seating capacity of eleven
thousand. In building this theatre the matter of size has rather been
overdone, for a large portion of the audience is unable to hear the
opera. The Emperor has two boxes in the opera-house--one a small private
box, and one a great and gorgeous box of state. When the venerable
gentleman is out spending the evening somewhere, and wishes to visit the
opera quietly for a moment, he goes into his private box, and sits there
without causing unusual attention; but when he goes in state he occupies
the large box. Then he dashes up to the theatre with his guards,
equerries, and gentlemen-in-waiting. As he enters the box the orchestra
strikes up the stirring imperial hymn, the people rise, and shout, “Viva
Dom Pedro Segundo!” the Emperor bows, smiles, takes his seat, and the
opera proceeds.
[Illustration: COTTAGES IN THE INTERIOR.]
The hotels in Brazil are very bad. There are two or three small ones,
which furnish tolerably good rooms and good living, but they are usually
crowded, and a stranger coming to the city finds it difficult to procure
rooms. The city might support a very fine hotel, such as is found in
Montevideo and Santiago, but at present there is nothing to compare with
the accommodations found in those cities. Rio is about as badly off for
hotels as any city in the world. The meats and fish served are usually
of a poor quality, but the fruits are excellent. There is no such fruit
to be found anywhere, either for variety or for deliciousness of flavor,
and the wines are usually good. Good wine can always be procured
throughout Spanish America. If a Spaniard were limited to a crumb of
bread and a drop of water per day, he would always expect a bottle of
wine to go with it. The strawberries and grapes of Brazil are unusually
fine, and are grown the whole year round. The peaches are also very
good; but the principal fruits are bananas, oranges, pineapples,
chirimoyas, sapotes, and some other things that we do not find in
temperate climates.
So far it has been found impossible to raise good cattle in Brazil,
although the province of Rio Grande de Sul, being the most southerly,
has a cooler temperature, and ranchmen have been utilizing the ranches
to be found in the interior on the border of Uruguay. Cattle-breeding is
chiefly in the hands of the natives, and the horses come over the
Uruguay border. The stock cattle sell for from five to six dollars a
head, while fat cattle are worth about twelve dollars. The larger amount
of the beef and mutton supply of Rio de Janeiro comes by steamer from
the Argentine Republic.
The native dishes are peculiar, and are not palatable to those who do
not care for an unlimited amount of garlic. In fact, a stranger going
into the interior cannot find anything to eat but boiled eggs, for these
are the only articles the native Brazilian cook cannot spoil. Grease and
garlic do not penetrate the shells; but even eggs are unreliable, for
the natives seem to have no idea of any difference in them, and use them
in all conditions of age, and often in the transition stage of being.
Among the important articles used for the table is jerked beef. Immense
quantities of it are imported from the Argentine Republic and Uruguay,
and it is shipped here by the ton. It is said that thirty thousand tons
of it are annually imported into Brazil, and it furnishes the staple
food for the slaves on the plantations and the common people in the
cities. Jerked beef and beans are always to be found on the table, and
both mixed in a stew with plenty of garlic compose the omnipresent
national dish. _Bacalao_, or codfish, is considered a great delicacy,
and about seventy-five thousand tubs are annually imported from Nova
Scotia and the United States. The people in Brazil are so fond of it
that they will use it at any time in preference to the fresh fish of
their own waters; but the Yankee would not recognize either the codfish
or the beans in this country, mixed up as they usually are in an _olla
podrida_ of yam, cabbage, and garlic.
[Illustration: THE IGUANA.]
The foreign commerce of Brazil is in the hands of the English, and the
retail commerce in the hands of the French and German. In fact, nearly
nine-tenths of the commercial community of Rio de Janeiro is composed of
foreigners. There are very few Americans there, however, and that is one
reason why our trade with that country is so small. The native
Portuguese are usually the land-owners, the planters, and professional
men; and there is a very large body of officials, composed to a great
extent of the decayed aristocracy.
At all the public gatherings in Rio these people appear in uniforms or
court dresses, decorated with stars and crosses so numerously and
inappropriately bestowed as to border on the ridiculous. Many boys,
apparently not more than fourteen or fifteen years of age, can be seen
at these gatherings, wearing tawdry silk and velvet dresses, and stars
which have been obtained by inheritance or by purchase. There used to be
a custom under which patents of nobility, with stars and crosses, and
“the insignia of the order of Christ,” which was the highest decoration,
could be obtained by purchase, and the rage for these decorations
attained a greater height in Brazil probably than in any other country.
At one time almost every petty shopkeeper in the empire might be seen on
the streets on holidays with a “habito de Christo” on his breast. These
purchased honors were worn by the dignitaries of the Church as well as
by civilians of all degrees, and being handed down from the generation
that lived when such
[Illustration: A BRAZILIAN LAUNDRY.]
things could be procured by purchase, still exist in great numbers among
the people of the country. In the present generation the decorations of
the empire are given to those only who have performed some service for
the State, and cannot be secured by purchase.
[Illustration: A COUNTRY SCHOOL.]
The prevailing costume of the people in the country is just as it was a
hundred years ago. They wear broad-brimmed hats with low crowns, tied
with a ribbon under the chin; velveteen jackets, and waistcoats of gay
colors, with metal buttons; linen or cotton drawers; high black gaiters
buttoning up to the knee, and a sort of mantle similar to that used in
Portugal, generally lined with red, thrown negligently over the
shoulders; but on the sea-coast people dress in the European style. In
Rio there is a great deal of rivalry in toilets among the ladies. As in
other cities of South America, the gentlemen usually dress in broadcloth
suits, patent-leather boots, and black silk hats, or in white duck or
linen.
The school system is very meagre, but is improving. There are in the
empire 2000 public schools for a population of 12,000,000 people, and
the State expends annually $8,000,000 for public instruction. During the
last few years, at nearly every session of Parliament, the Government
introduced a compulsory education bill; but the bill has never become a
law. The upper classes have an inclination for education; but nothing is
ever done by the Government towards educating the slaves. The little
learning which they acquire is received from the priests.
There are several institutions for higher education, several schools of
medicine, of law, civil engineering, and mining; a normal school for the
education of teachers, a conservatory of music, a school of fine arts,
an institute for the blind, and another for the deaf and dumb, several
reformatory schools, and an Imperial Industrial School founded by Dom
Pedro upon the plan of the Cooper Institute of New York, the suggestion
for it having been derived from his visit to that place while in the
United States. There is also a bureau of colonization and immigration in
the Department of Agriculture, and as an inducement to settlers, the
Government offers them free subsistence and shelter at the
boarding-house in Rio de Janeiro during the time that it is necessary
for them to wait, as well as free transportation for themselves and
baggage from Rio to any part of the country. They can purchase land on
credit, the first payment to be made at the end of the second year, and
four payments during the succeeding four years, and for cash they
receive a discount of twenty per cent. For the first season the
Agricultural Department gives them a donation of necessary implements
and seeds, and an allowance of twenty-five cents a day for each adult,
and ten cents for each child, during the first six months after
settlement, until the land they occupy can be made to produce. The cost
of the land is now from eight to sixteen dollars an acre. There are
under the care of the Department of Agriculture twelve colonies,
comprising a population of sixty-two thousand people, mostly German. The
number of immigrants arriving in the country amounts to from forty to
fifty thousand a year.
[Illustration: BRAZILIAN COUNTRY-HOUSE.]
The immense area of Brazil, stretching as it does from 4° 30´ north to
33° south latitude, and from the thirty-fifth to the seventy-third
degree of west longitude, affords almost as great a variety of climate
and soil as can be found in the United States, and the two countries are
of very nearly the same area. A glance at the map will show the
extensive fluvial system of Brazil. The many large rivers that traverse
the interior in all directions are navigable, and afford unequalled
facilities for commerce.
Independent of the agricultural resources which the climate, situation,
and productiveness of the soil afford, the mineral treasures which
nature has stored in the interior are very abundant. Gold, together with
diamonds and various other precious stones, is found in many localities,
and the resources of the interior of the country, which has never been
explored, are only a subject of speculation. The population now consists
of about twelve million people; and it has not increased any during the
last twenty-five years. Of this population there are about two million
slaves and five hundred thousand Indians; but neither the moral
character, social habits, nor intellectual attainments of this class
afford material of value wherewith to build up an enlightened and
progressive government. The natives are neither enterprising, thrifty,
nor industrious. The system of slavery has taught them idleness, and the
fact that they have gained their living without work has taught them
habits of extravagance. There are a few men of wealth among them who
have earned by their own efforts the money which they have, but nearly
all have either inherited it or secured it as the result of slave labor.
Brazil will never be a great or prosperous country until its population
is increased by immigration.
Considerable progress has been made, and great interest taken, in
railroad development. There are now about 2500 miles in operation, 800
of which are owned and operated by the Government, and 1700 by private
corporations. In addition to this, about 1400 miles are under
construction, and there are many prospective enterprises. The Government
guarantees an annual income of seven per cent. upon the construction
bonds of all railroads, and has so far paid this guarantee promptly.
Recently a loan of thirty-four million dollars has been made in London
for the construction of additional railways, and this is also secured by
the Government. The rails are all imported from England, but a part of
the rolling stock is brought from the United States. The roads are
surveyed
[Illustration: UP THE RIVER.]
and built by Brazilian engineers, but the principal machinists and
locomotive drivers are Scotchmen. The principal railroad in Brazil is
the one named in honor of the present Emperor, Dom Pedro II., and it is
familiarly known as the “Pedro Segundo” road. This line runs from Rio
Janeiro to the most important towns, and through a country which
produces coffee, corn, and cattle. There are now about 500 miles of
track in operation. It is a favorite route for tourists, and affords a
view of the finest mountain scenery in the empire.
[Illustration: DOM PEDRO II.]