The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1892-08-04
LIFE IN BRAZIL.
Prevailing Customs in the Rural
| Districts
The People Very Fond Of Decorations
But Arc Not Partial to an Abnn.
dance Of Clothing-Strange
street Scenes.

stranger observes in Brazil are the vast
numbers of decorations stars and
crosses etc. which appear TO have
been recltlessly bestowed often upon
boys of twelve to fourteen years old,
who certainly can have done nothing
to win such distinction, says Fannie B.
Ward in letter from Rio de Janeiro to
the Chicago Times. There is very
large body of ex-oficials in Rio belong
ing to the decayed aristocracy, and
most of them still sport on all possible
occasions the court dresses and uni-
forms and decorations of past regime
It Is their small sons and grandsons
whom one sees tricked out in tawdry
silks and velvets, with stars and crosses
and miniature crowns pinned on their
Jackets. These decorations are as likely
to have been obtained by purchase o.
by inheritance, for there used to be .
custom in Brazil under which patents Of
nobility, with all its signs and emblems.
could be bought for filthy lucre and the
rage for them was unbounded The
highest of all decorations was 1.-The In
sigma of the order of Christ" and at
one time the keeper of every pudqueria,
as well as his fellow citizens above and
below in the social gamut, appeared on
every holiday with "habito de Christie"
on his waistcoat front. Church digni-
taries and civilians of high degree wore
them also, and, being handed down from
generation to generation. they still ap-
pear often with ludicrous inappropriate
ness.
The prevailing costume Of Brazilfans In
the rural districts has not changed much
ia the last one hundred years The men
still wear broad-brimmed hats with low
crowns, tied under the chin with q rib
bon; vclveteen jackets. waistcoats Of
gorgeous colors, bedecked with brass or
silver buttons, linen drawers, high,
black CATERS buttoned to the knee; the
whole topped by sort of cape, similar
TO that still used in Portugal, generally
lined with scarlet and. thrown negli.
gently over one shoulder. This quaint,
old-time fashion prevails only in the in
terror, principally among the well-to-
do. In Rio and other seaside cities the
gentlemen dress in the most correct Of
European costumes, and the ladies get
themselves up more Frenchily, if one
may coin word. than anybody in
France, barring glaring incongruities
in the matter of colors, sometimes SO
atrociously blended as to ''swear at one
another" in way that would drive a
French woman crazy. During the few
short trips we have SO far made into the
interior we have been amused to see
ladies promenading the streets with ell
the airs and graces of peafowls, wearing
enormous hoops, with ''pelerines" and
waterfalls dangling down their shoul-
ders, exact copies Of the fashion plates
of thirty years ago.
But this is great country for the
study of anatomy, if one were so in
clined, for the majority of the common
people" perambulate SO near to naked
that the slight similitude of Clothes
they wear seems altogether superfuous.
The street gamin, and even children Of
people in tolerable circumstances play
about their doors and screech and tum-
Bile in the streets without stitch or rag
of clothing upon them, with no more
idea of modesty than the NANCY dogs
that are their companions. At the age
of eight or ten, or thereabouts (which,
In the tropics, you know, is equal to fif.
teen or sixteen In the far, cold north),
the girls are partially covered by cot
ton tunic and the boys by equally gauzy
drawers. When fully grown and ar
rived at the dignity of fatherhood and
motherhood themselves-which will be
surprisingly early in life, you may be
s,re-their full dress viii consist Of, for
the women, u cotton ckeInise. embrCid.
cred around the yoke and arnlct. and
generally slipped on one shoulder o,
The other to the waist, short, scan,
cotton skirt, a string of beads, long ear
rings, and as many bracelets Of brass
silver, or beads, as the wearcr can man.
age to acquire; and for men q calico
shirt, always unbuttoned in front and
worn with flaps outside the drawers, and
straw hat.
A Queer Pacific Coast Lake.
One of the natural curiosities In Klikt
A-A = IL