The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-03-11

ranks and threatens to become dangerous,
what does the emperor dor Send him to
the convict islandss Exile him faom the
countryg Not at all. lie makes him
Baron of some uninhabited waste with an
unpronounceable name if he is rich, or
gives him government position if he is
poor. Few are the republicans in Brazil,
that title or fat Office will not transmute
into conservatives. A certain well-known
representative of Brazil in the United
States was formerly most ardent repub-
lican here. He became troublesome, and
one fine morning he received his present
| commission. When he went to take his
leave of the emperor, before coming to
the States, his majesty said II hope you
will serve the empire better in the republic
than you have served the republic in the
empire" and the emperor was not mis-
| taken.
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 mo one seems to know exactly
what has taken place. There is one mar
row thoroughfare called the street of Good
|
freely used, 1t seems triffle singu
lar 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 don't
mind it. The principal street is the cele-
brated Rua do Ouvidor. 1t is a narrow
alleyway, in which two carriages could
not pass each other. In fact never saw
| o,,l ~
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 deal
ers in gold and silver and precious stones.
At night, from one end to the other, the
street is filled with people, not on the mar
row sidewalks only, but completely filling
the thoroughfares from wall to wall Of
ficers 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. Every
where too, are the deliberately caparisoned
mulatto gendarmes the police of the city
From the cafes chantants come the sounds
of music and the blinking of glasses. At
little tables in the cafes the Brazilians sit,
drinking strong coffee or other beverage,
talking, gesticulating, and never for a
moment completely still. The feat of
catching weasel asleep is easy compared
with that of catching a Brazilian when
some portion of his body is not in motion.
You will see group Of them sitting in a
cafe talking and every one will have the
ball of his right foot resting on the floor
and his knee moving with regular ner-
vous "dandle." 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."
One of the specialties of these cafes is
the mixing of cocktails" A Brazilian
lured me into one one night and said: snow
you are an American and know what you
want. You want q cocktail" 1t struck
me that the hour was a trife unseemly for
cocktails, but a mulatto waiter held me
with his glittering eye and 1 submitted.
Il believe have seen that expression be-
fore but, as pious old st. Donatus said, "Let
them be communicated and accursed
who have said our good things before u.s.
Well, the cocktail was brought. There
was large goblet full of a highly colored
liquid and the waiter, taking what looked
like wooden egg -beater, placed it in the
3 glass, and revolved it rapidly between his
J palms. AS soon as the drink foamed il
was showed toward me. Following thu
1 example of my friend, l slipped the bev
Q erage slowly and talked politics. 1t was Q
weak, aromatic sort of drink, and TASTED
. more like mince pie than anything else
, My friend labors to this day under the hal
lucine ton that the look of surprise which
could not repress was due to the fact
, that had not expected to find Brazilian
! bartenders SO expert in mixing American
drinks.
The total abstinence cause has few il
any supporters in Brazil. Everybody
l drinks, mem women and children-but
never saw drunken man in the empire
The police records show that men do ge
l drunk here, but it is very seldom that ont
is seen. The laboring classes drink vil'
beverage called "casesch." The "wild-ca
l whisky of the west is nothing to it, and swal
) lowing torchlight procession is a pleasan
task compared to drinking it. But moder
ate as the Brazilians are in the use Of Ii
| quors, they are decidedly immoderate il
the use of coffee, the first thing in tn
l morning and the last thing at night COTE,
at meals and coffee between meals, and al
: OF it made according to the proverb.
|, Getting shaved in Brazilian barber
l shop is an experience. Everything goe
;, along as it does in barber-shop in tn
States until the beard is removed. The
!, the "tonsorial artist" takes dish o
earthenware with cresent-shaped piec
cut out of the side SO as to fit into tn
s neck and making his victim sit upright il
h the chair proceeds to wash his face Will
8 the basin is held under the chin. TIL
g dish is exactly like the one which Dol
Q Quixots wore on his head for helmet.
g it is in swell" barber-shop the basin i
dispensed with and the customer is take
by the shoulder and marched to a marbl
wash bowel where he is told to wash hi
face and wipe it. That operation havin
been performed to the satisfaction of tn
barber, the ''shavee" is led back to tn
chair and has his hair combed.
Foreigners are generally puzzled {
know why the horse-cars in Rio are Gale
'bonds." Ithappened in this way: Whe
the first horse railroad was built in Rio
bonds were issued to pay for it. Their
was a great deal of talk about these bond
and the uneducated were at loss what tn