The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-04-03
OUR VISIT TO BRAZIL
The First Impressions Of Rio de
Janeiro.
THE FREQUENCY OF FUNERALS
Fifteen Thousand Miles Nearer the Eou,tor
-Afiairs in the New Republic
Uncanny Pets.

$50. ~ oANEIhO, FEBRUARY ~. lS92.-
special correspondence of TuE SUNDAY
HERALD.]-Our only excuse for so com
pletelJ altering the Recommendation
tickets had been bought for Buenos Ayres.
luggage actually on the way to the wharf
Oh the waiting steamer, and our mail for a
month past having been consigned to the
care OIL the Argentine miaister-is the time
nonored enc that 1t is woman's privilege
TO cnange her mind. The moving cause
was this:
| We learned By accident. at the literal
eleventh hour, that a pleasant party of
LADIES and gentlemen. in whose company
we 1ourneyed some hundreds of miles on
the other side of the continent, were bound
Tor Ito de Janeiro, on board vessel lying
out In the harbor, which in two hours
time would sail.
well great deal can be accomplished
Ia Two hours, by dint of vigorous hustliug,
AIDED BY TELEGRAPH AND CABLE
man never could have done it among
tnese procrastlnating mauana people; but
all the world is good to women, and the
LATEST South American will bestir himself
lor gailantry's sake when lucre would not
move MIN. On o1r side the incentive was
great. Having long outstaid the original
traVellng party, we found our ranks en-
DarrasSsingly reduced in this third year of
glooe-trotting; and in numbers there is
strength, especially for foreigners in these
Wild countries. We had been dreading
intensely the visit to Brazil, imagining all
manner OF bugaboos TO alright lone
females unGcquainted with the Portuguese
language; and here was en- opportunity to
accomplish 1t under the most favorable
circumstances.
therefore, here we are, 500 miles nearer
the equator than when we wrote you last
%eek-reekoning the distance from the fact
that the
FRENCH, GERMAN AND ENGLISH STEAMERS
mat PLY these coasts on their regular tri ps
between South America and Europe,
register an average running of thirteen
Knots an hour and the Journey occupies five
days. A few weeks later, when Yellow
JACK stalks abroad on his annual raid, we
WI mt southwark again and proceed 20
90 the Dig Argentine country, the lonely
Farana and unknown Paraguay-si dos
Qulere, as the Spaniards say. BY the way,
they assure US that just now is the healthi-
est season IN Rio, wEeu yellow fever cases
are down TO minimum; yet last evening, in
course OF an hours drive, which happened
to lie along the broad, palm Dor dered
avenue leading TO the main Campo Santo.
we passed no fewer than eight funeral pro
cesslons on their way 10 that city of the
dead, whose population must outnumb Der
the living city thousand to one. Though
every foot procession went at q live1y Jog
trot. and those in carriages galloped along
at full speed, it was easy TO tell to which
social strata the departed belonged, for
here, as elsewhere, the same treatment is
melted out TO dead people as when they were
living, according to
THE sCRIPTURAL AXIOM,
10 him that hath shall be givenn Those
BrazllIsns who have lived IN luxury are
escorted TO the tomb with the ''pomD and
circumstance" (and, Incidentally, with the
vast expense to the relatives, who thus
nave double cause to mourn), of sable
canopled hesrse, score of plumed horses,
and long following of hired carriages
filled with male friends-every man of
them wearing black kid gloves, a broad
band OF crepe around his tall silk hat and
yard or more of the same emblem Of woe
consplcuously streaming from his right
coat sleeve; and those whom we saw bowl
ing merrily behind the hearse were ell
smoking the inevitable cigarette and ami
matedly discussing politics. or perhaps the
financial condition of the family of the de-
ceased In no case are there any women,
Tor, as usual in the southern countries the
''gentler'' presumably moro tender
hearted-sex are excluded from funerals
and must Did the last adieux to those they
have loved III the privacy of their homes;
a very sensible arrangement among these
passionate, high-s,rung, uncomfortable
people who boast
10 SPARTAN FEMALES.
The humber dead, stretched, cofinless, on
4 black paled board, or enclosed in q
gauily-paiDted box, are borne to the plaza
of interment on the shoulders of their
friends, while these of the followers who
can muster enough mil refs go cut on the
second-class street cars. We observe one
beautiful custom, that every body in sight
on their balconies, in the streets. in
shops, in carriages, rich and poor, naughty
and umole-reverentially uncover their
heads when funeral cOrtege passes by do
ing Involuntary homage to the pathetic
''it'' which we must ell become when the
soul has fed. Even grim death is not with
cut its humorous side in this strange city.
Brazilian angelitGs-little angels. az the
cCrpses OF children are universally called
are not arrayed for the grave in the con-
ventior8l white or black of other countries
but in scarlet There is q small scarlet
hearse for the convenience of those who
can afford it, adorned with scarlet pail and
curtains, scarlet plumes and trappings for
the horses: while the little coffin it confirms
is invariably covered with scarlet, and the
wreaths and bouquets or top of it
TIED WITH SCARLET RIBBONS
To carry cut the eternal fitness" the
child should have died OF scarlet fever. in
stead Of diseases engendered by dirt and
neglect the prevailing cause herea bouts Of
mortality among children. The angelftas
OF people TOO poor to hire the splendid
scarlethearse are conveyed to the tomb on
the heads of their parents. in q small box,
painted blue or yellow striped with white.
almost identical IL contour size and color
with these boxes that are continually
trotted about TIE streets in the same man
ner, containing bread, CAKES and duloes. SO
that TO uuaccustomed eyes the two are in
dletinguishable.
We arrived al the cemetery gate Just as q
soldiers funeral was filling through, and,
wishing 10 see the spot where the wander
ings of so many OF
CUR UNFORTUNATE CoCNTRYMEN
have ended, we left our carriage aud fol-
lowed tue prCces5ion-at u very ''respect-
full distance" remembering The prevalence
OF smallpox and other contagions. The
dead warrior lay upon q sort OF double
Gecked platform, in full yisW of men. with
only his martial cloak around him, and had
been carried in this manner through the
crowded streets OF this city Oh the should
ers of his comrades from the barracks. q
distance OF three miles or more, preceded
by military band playing jubilant marches
and quicksteps. UncoifneG, he was laid in
the soldiers corner, to await the resurrec-
tion revellle. Each of his late comrades
took a shovelful OF the freshly turned-up
earth and threw upon him; and then, to
the eXhilarating strains of The Barber of
Seville" they quickstepped back 10 town.
The riotous growth and the intensity of
green in this graveyard is appalling, for it
is the rankness of the battlefe!d-life riot
ing upon deaLh. The splendid palms that
faunt their plumes in the face of the sky
have their roots set deep in decay; and il
that decay are
TIE GERMS OF FEVER AND DEATH.
BY this time the sun had disappeared; but
the evening breeze, reeking with poisonous
odors, came hot and unrefreshing We
thought of the old saw anent a green