Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1891-12-31
METROPOLIS OF BRAZIL.
City of Rio de Janeiro, Where the
Revolution Occurred.

| The revolt ton with which Brazil was
ablaze for several months eliminated in
the city of Rio de Janeiro, the metropo-
lis of the country. This city is one of
the most beautiful in all South America.
1t received its name of Rio de Janeiro
(river of january from the fact that
Martin Alfonso de Souza, who was one
of the first Europeans to enter the bay
where it is located, supposed that he had
entered the mouth of mighty river
rivaling the Orinoco and the Amazon, and
named it after the happy month in which
he made his imagined discovery. The
misnomer now clings not only to the
magnificent bay with its circlet of noun
tains but also to the province in which it
is situated and to the populous city which
sits like queen upon its bright tropical
shores.
This bay of Rio de Janeiro compels
the admiration of every traveller, says u
distinguished one of it. 81 have again
and again entered and quilted the Bay
of Rio de Janeiro when the pillows were
surgng and when the calm mantled the
deep, and whether in the purple light of
tropic morning, in the garish moon, or
in the too brief twilight of that Southern
cline, it has always presented to mo
new glores and new charms. 1t has been
my privilege to look upon some of the
most celebrated scenes of both hemi-
spheres, but l have never found one
which combined so much to be admired
as the panorama presented in this bay.
"On the height of st. Elmo l have
drunk in as much beauty from that
curvilinear bay of Southern Italy, upon
whose bosom float the isles of Capri and
lschia, and upon whose margin nestle
the gracefully shaped Vesuvius, the
long arm of Sorrento and the proverb
tally brilliant city of Naples. l have
yet to gaze upon scene which surpasses
in combined beauty variety and grandeur
these mountain engirdled waters, poet
ically termed by the Tamoyo Indians,
'Nitherohy' (hidden water)."
The city of Rio de Janeiro, or San Se-
bastian, is at once the commercial en-
porium and the political capital of Brazil.
Its position and scenery and internal de-
velopments render it metropolis worthy
of the great country. 1t is the largest
city in Sonth America and boasts an an
tiquity greater than that of any city in
the United States. The harbor commu-
nlcates with the wide-rolling Atlantic by
a deep and narrow passage between two
granite mountains. The entrance is so
safe as to render the services of pilot
entirely unnecessary. So commanding,
however, is the position. of the fortresscs
ut the mouth of tho harbor upon its
islands and surrounding heights that if
efficiently manned by body of deter
mined men they might defy the hostile
ingress of the proudest navies in the
world.
Rios streets are noted for their mar
rowness. Many of the principal ones
are exceedingly well paved. The
houses seldom exceed three or four
stories, but are higher than those of
similar number of stories in this city. 1t
has an immense foreign trade, as may be
estimated from the fact that fully two
thirds of the coffee product of all Brazil
pass through its port, while numerous
other articles are handled for foreign ex-
portation from tho entire country
Nail and Express.