Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1890-02-05

pound or two of old iron and our bless
ing and left.
We then went TO money changer ;
and inquired for Brazilian paper curren-
cy; the day was warm, We had far TO 20,
and all this weight of coin was wearisome
dangerous, too, for if we should slip
and fall in the streets we should be like
the knights in armor made to resist bull
lets. who, when they were upset in fight.
could by no means get upon their legs
again. Currency there was, truly, and
in denominations from 100 reis upward
100 reis being about five cents in
American money, as near as You can
6gureit. Fancy full-proportioned bank
note worth five cents We spent eight of
these hundred-reis bills each in going by
horse car to the Botanical Gardens and
back. The conductor was so swelled out
with bank-notes ut the end of the trip
that he looked like a scarecrOw carelessly
stuffed-money bulging out of his pockets
and the breast of his coat like straw. He
must have had at least dollar and a-half
on his person.
A curious feature of the private houses
was the absence of the yeranda which has
become so intimately associated in my
mind with ideas of hot weather in the
Sandwich Islands and the South Seas. |
doubt If there is color known to the
complexions OF men that j. not TO be
found in the streets Of Rio-whether it
be the profound black of the full blooded
African, the red of the native Indian, the
brown of the halfbreed, the olive of the
Spaniard and Portuguese, the foridity Of
the Englishman, or the blondness of the
German. The darker the individual skin
appears, the more does its possessOr de-
light to adorn it with jewelry of silver,
gold, brass, or colored stone in bracelets,
armlets, and jingling earrings, and top off
costume of snowy linen with massive
turbans of red, blue, yellow and green.
The curiosity shops, into which we
plunged to buy examples of the beautiful
feather-work for which Rio de Janeiro is
noted, increased the regret over the brief
ness of our stay. They were full of
birds of amazing and fantastic gorgeous
ness of color of butterflies and moths,
whose expanded wings were like tent
curtains, and plumaged with sun-dust
and powdered gems of bugs with glis-
tening backs, spotted firefies, and beetles
as large as crabs and with nippers like a
lobster What an experience it would be
to see these birds and butterflies hutter-
ing like jewels amid tropical foliage and
flowers What delight to see one of
these big bulldog-looking beetles come up
privily and nip your friend in the leg
And what accounts one might write Of
centipedes nine inches long, scorpions
with coal of fire in their tails, and tar.
antulas straddling about on hideous,
hairy legs, whose span exceeds the width
of the largest dinner plate-not to men,
ton snakes of various sizes, all of which
we saw stuffed or otherwise prepared
Better so than in life form, no doubt
the tropics have their drawbacks as well
as other sections Of the earth's surface,
and the profuse crop of spiders which
catch and devour birds, of serpents and
other venemous insects and reptiles whose
harmless remains we saw in the shops
reconciled the ladies of our party, at
least, to a return to the sanctuary of our
vessels decks