The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1880-02-14

counts Of trials for capital crimes, set
forth as they are i'll the most dramatic
and attractive shape. The minds of pure
boys and innocent girls are thus familiar
had lived a generation earlier, would not
have been so much as named in their
hearing. Parents should exercise a care
full scrutiny over the newspaper which
forms the daily mental food of their chill
dren. Parents should remember that
when their boys and girls read the re-
port of this or that Great Murder
Trial, they are staining their souls with
blot. which, like the blood on Lady
Macbeth's hand. will never wash out.
AN AMERICAN FARMER IN BRAZIL.
There is Il great crcakinG OF wheels and
confusion of driver shouting. Down
the Santarem-St. come four brown horses
dragging an immense American wagon;
TALL CDstliCSS iii'tIN ttNti Va
one of the leaders, aud guides the caval-
cadc with much flourish and noise. He
draws up in front of ST.. Caetano $ store
and salutes the merchant; then alights
and marches straight up to us. remark
ing:
wal! Who are you?'
~ toll of
and Mr. Platt is man worth knowing,
TOO. fIe is one of some fifty Americans
who are established in the forest near by;
Platt himself is Tennessean; the others
are from Mississippi, Alabama, and so on.
IN its origin the colony was much larger.
Over 200 persons came here from Mobile,
Major Hastings. This was shortly after
the great civil war, when the subject of
Brazilian emigration was much agitated
in our Southern States. People who had
lost everything were willing enough to
begin again on new soil the Brazilian
Government encouraged them to come,
and agents were paid so much per head
for their importation. Naturally, these
agent, drew Il very glowing picture of
Brazil. and said nothing at all about the
difficulties that emigrants would have to
meet None of the colonies were very
successful: this one of Santarem was
badly made up in the outset: with few
good families there came rabble of lazy
vagabonds, oflScourings of the army and
warrants of Mobile, who looked upon the
affair as Il grand adventure. Arrived at
Santarem, they were received kindly
enough. but after little the good people
became disgusted with their guests, who
puarrellel necessarily and filled the town
with drunken uproar. Government aid
for the colony was withdrawn; gradually
the scum tloatcd away, leaving the men,
others. The few families that remained
had to outlve public opinion, and hard
time they had of it, with poverty on one
side and ill-will on the other. But in
| time the Braziiians discovered that these
were not vagabonds; they learned to re-
Spect their industry and perseverance
and now all through the Amazon you
will hear nothing but good words OF the
Santarem colony.
Farmer Platt presses us to come out
for a few days So, when the Wagon
moves Off presently we are seated in the
bottom of it. among Sundry bales OF drieo
! fish and baskets of matlioca-meal-tht
weeks provisions. The farmer cracks
his whip sharply: the sun is low already
and the wheels must wade through eight
miles of sand tonight. Bare-legsed boys
come out to stare; the. wagon has not
ceased to be wonder, and truly it il
a noteworthy spectacle. with the tou
horses and our tall farmer. The wagon
Mr.. Platt informs us, was sent from hi
old home in Tennessee. and it had t.
pass through many vicissitudes of Gus
tom house and travel before it reached
this place. Long ago, a law WAS passed
by which agricultural implements coult
be introduced, free of duty: but practic
allv. this law is dead letter in almoS
every way. and even if it is allowed, tn
importer must be put to vast amour
OF trouble. Mr.. Platt's wagon paid quit
as much for duty as it cost in the outset
everybody knows that this eXtortion wa
Illegal, that the duty was excessive il
any case: but poor Platt has no redress
except by litigation which he canno
afford. SO he submits, and grumbles, a
thousand other good men are grunl
bling. And Brazil wonders why immi
grants do not come.
BY the time we have toiled up one lon
slope and down another. darkness begin
t. fall The land, thus far, is sand
campo: trees are scattered over the SUI
face not close enough for shade no
thickly leaved enough to be called luxu
RANT; they are low and gnarled, bushe
and grass cluster about the roots. bu
there is no continuous under9rowtii.-
The road is merely q track. windin
among the trce-clumps until it enters tn
forests. five miles from Santarcm.
1t is too dark now to see how great tn
change is; only the trees rise high o
either side. and the branches almos
meet against the gray sky above. Platt
shouts to his horses have Il diherer
sound. among the echoes; he stoops no
and then, to avoid branch. Here an
there great vine-stems hang down til
darkness above: in making the road the
have been cut away near the ground br
the ends are still low enough to give I'll
driver an occasional rap: he swings thel
right and left into the bushes, with
great crash; we in the wagon must loo
ont for our hats. The darkness grow
deeper. until the tree-trunks are lost
gloom and our driver is hardly viSibl
The forest seems to be higher: We Cd
lust see few glittering stars overhead
where the gaps are widest. Tree-lro!
and orickets are chipping all around:
night-bird walls from the branches; ont
or twice we catch glimpscs of moths
| bats tIittiur above MS