The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-08-03
LIFE IN BRAZIL
Prevailing Customs In the Rural
Districts
The People Very Fond OF Dissertations
But Arc Not Partial to an Album
dance OF Clothing-strarse
Street Scenes

stranger observes In Brazil are the vast
numbers of decorations st2rs and
crosses, etc. = which appea- 20 have
been recklessly. bestowed, often upon
boys of twelve to fourteen lars old.
who certainly can have dope nothing
to win such distinction, says annie b
Ward in letter from Rio de Janeiro to
the Chicago Times There is very
large body of ex-ofiicials in Rio belong
ing to the decayed ar;stocracy, and
most of them still sport on ala possible
occasions the court dresses and uni
forms and decorations Of a past regime.
Il is their small sons and grandsons
whom one sees tricSed 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 r-'rrhase as
by inheritance, for there usel - be 3
custom IN Brazil under which patents Of
nobility, with all its signs and emblens,
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 a ''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 APP
pear often with ludicrous Inappropriate
ness
The prevailing costumeof Brazilians in
the rural districts has not changed much
| In the last one hundred years. The men
still wear broad-brimmed hats with low
crowns, tied under the chin with 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 a 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 weil-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 a word, than anybody in
France, barring glaring incongruities
in the matter of colors, sometimes so
atrocio,sly 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 all
the airs and graces of peafowls, wearing
enormous hoops, with ''pelerines" ano
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, IL one were so In
clined, for the majority of the common
, people" perambulate so near to naked
: that the slight sirnilitude OF clothes
they wear seems altogether superhuous
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 RAJ
of clothing upon them, with no mor'
idea OF modesty than the NANCY dog
that are their companions. At the ag'
, of eight or ten, or whereabouts (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 gauz!
, drawers. When fully grown and ar
rived at the dignity Of fatherhood ant
motherhood DEMONSTRATION will b
surprisingly early in life, you may b
: sure-their full dress will consist of. 70
e the women, a cotton chemise, embroid
= cred around the yoke and arnlet, ant
: generally slipped on one shoulder o
4 the other 70 tire waist, short, scan
: cotton skirt, q string Of beads, long ear
4 rings, and as many bracelets Of brass
{ silver, or beads, as the wearer can man
: age TO acquire; and for men Gallo
shirt, always unbuttoned in front an
worn with flaps outside the drawers. an
e I at haf