The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1883-08-09
Homo Lie In Brazil.

T..
ported at an enormous expense from
Portugal. The other streets of the
town arc macadamiZed with the one
sort of stone that is common in Brazil,
Ibis common stone is composed of very
small quartz crystals and ochre cement.
1t Is exceedingly soft, and under the
heavy wheels of the clumsy vehicles
rapidly crumbles to a fine, red dust,
which would be intolerable but for fire..
quent wetting. Street sprinkling is
wholly performed by the clouds, and
as this section lies in the zone of calms
daily shower is expected. It usually
falls about d =. NJ. and with SO great re-
gularlty that daily appointments are
made with reference to the rain No
outlandish invention'' could so
thoroughly wash through the best pay
ed parts Of the city, and it is to be hop
Ell that no other sprinkler would leave
such wretchcd pools of water in the
fine red sand of the macadamiZed streets.
Winding among the elegant dwellings
OF the more wealthy. classes of people
the streets are wide and beautifully
planted with trees of various sorts.
Sometimes the palm is chosen and
sometimes the far-famed silk-cOtton -
trees are planted, but by far the COM
monest are the mangoes. Brought
from the East Indies. the mango -four
ishes in luXuriant beauty and its thick,
clustering foliage forms one Of the most
striking features of Para, making this
city stand out in bold relief among the
other individualities and pcculiarities of
various Brazilian cities.
In studying the habits of birds there
is nothing more interesting than to
mark each tribes special manner of
constructing its nests. SO, too, III max
ing the acquaintance Of new people,
nothing seems more important than a
consideration Of their houses and home
life, and they are first to attract the at
tcntion of foreigner. One might
naturally expect wood to be tho most
common building material in country
OF such vast forests of huge trees. This
however, is far from being the case,
There are only about a half-dozen saw.
mills on the whole Amazon river con-
Sequently hOme-manufacturcd lumber
is not abundant and all of tile stone
used III building is imported. But the
clayey soil bordering the small streams
and many parts or the larger rivers
makes brick far cheaper building
material and it is also Il much better
means of protection from the fierce
heat Of trOpic suns. The outer walls
and even the partitions are built three
feet thick, i'll order to support the
crushing weight of the heavy carthen
tiles Of the roof. The outsidcs Of the
brick houses are sometimes colored
tiiih, hh.o, stooIi, Jonv" WlllLU, DIIJ
they are for the most part covered with
porcelain tiling, in which blue and
white predominate, but in which al
most every color OF combination of col
ors may sometimes be seen. This til
ing is always of the same form, five
inches square and nearly half an inch
in thickness. Sometimes one piece
forms design, but commonly it takes
four of the pieces set together to form
a figure. The figure is fastened either
with cement or with mortar on the
brick walls. When not of glass the
outer doors are almost invariably paint
ed bright green, and without exception
both windows and doors open in the
centre and swing on hinges into the
room. In many cases blinds or "lat-
ticed windows :" are used in place of
glass windows, and these are frequent-
ly suspended at the top, SO that they
may be turned outward and proppcd
into kind ofawning for the windows.
The outer doors and windows are all
provided with wooden shutters, which
are made to exclude the hot sun and
are faithfully closed to shut out the
night air, Of which the people are so
much afraid that every house looks like
Il dungeon when it's inmates are Sleep
ing.
Perhaps one reason for these we'll
nigh hermetically sealed windows and
doors is found the fact that vampire
bats abound, and they are sometimes
SO bloOdthirsty that strong horse that
has been exposed to their ravenous ap-
petites for IA single night will be stag
gering and weak in the morning. They
seem TO be possessed of very fastidious
tastes, and the bats that freely bleed
one person will never be known to bite
another, even if the two individuals
are sleeping always in the same room.
But to return to tile houses. All the
doors of a common dwelling g-house are
wide and high enough to admit two
mounted horsemen riding abreast. AS
for the interior, papcr-hangings are not
very common, the walls being covered
from the floor to height of three feet
with glazed tiling, like that used for
exterior walls, and the remainder
simply WhitewaShed to the ceiling,
which is made OF wood and painted
white. Sometimes for better Ventila-
ton the ceiling is constructed of Stats
that are arranged in diamond form and
the diamonds expand III size from the
chandelier to the edge Of the room.
Insect life is 50 vigorous and 50 en-
croaching that even oilcloth is not COM
mon and other carpets are out of the
question-evcn the most elegantly fur
nished houses only boast OF rug or
two. The floors are, however, quite
ornamental, being composed of alter
nate strips of light and dark wood.
The roofs, rs have said, are tiled, and
the red tiling is made in oblong, curry
cd pieces which are 80 laid on the
wO3den frame that the roof is OF con-
tinuo,ls and parallel rows of earthcn
cutters the scalloped edge of the caves
being hidden in nicer houses by build
ing the front wall Il foot or two higher
than the roof, and placing upon the top
OF this parapct a row OF porcelain or
marble vases, urnS or monster acOrns
and beautiful statues.
Among the flowers and shrubbory of
the gardens there is often fountain
and around their marble basins statuary
is arranged. No high winds or winter