Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-14

water, abandon their thatch shanties and
repair to the scant villages to live on the
products of their three or four months
labor in the swamps. Those houses we
found occupied were all surrounded by
water, being generally built upon stills.
The half-naked inmates come to their door
steps and look wofully at the passing
steamers. Yet after all, it is wonderfully
beautiful and fascinating panorama, we'll
| worthy of the visits of those who may be in
terested in tropical products; or if butterfly
| and bug catchers, they could soon amass
wonderful collections by few days canoe
ing under the guidance of the friendly na-
tives.
1t is not at all an exaggeration to say that
as an 'old boy" interested in exploring
Amazonian valleys, 1 have found it quite
the proper thing to engage young girl
| shaped like a palm leaf fan, handling it
and themselves in q most graceful manner
| They do not burden themselves with many
| clothes They sometimes wear a sort of
coat or wrap. l have seen young girls dive
into the water and come up smilingly, show
ing mouth of pretty teeth-a distractingly
suggestive model for a painter OF Native
Indian Girls Bath"
A Suggestion for Chicago Exposition.
The people of this region are becoming
quite interested in the Columbian Exposi-
tion, but they are quite at a loss Just what
to do in the way OF supplying proper ex-
hibits. There is not much in the way of
variety or of peculiar interest hereabouts
Nothing whatever is manufactured-noth-
ing produced. Everything they have is of
the natural product without cultivation.
Some little pottery is made and few won
derful hammocks woven by the Indians on
the upper rivers, but great majority of
the hammocks used here are brought from
Germany.
There are fbrous plants, crude rubber,
some cocoa, and the everlasting nasty
monkeys and noisy parrots, with big snakes
and Immense alligators. The question is
"What shall they send?' The Braziliero
is essentially initiative, .and if left to his
own resources, his contribution will likely
be failure, in that he will attempt to
follow some other land and send to Chicago
some matter that will be of no local or
striking interest
AS d sometime resident / fear that ANA
zonia may not be properly represented. 1t
occurred to ME while lounging N my
steamer chair on the voyage up here that
some plans should be adopted whereby a
tropical garden might be made in Chicago
In which specimen of all of the many va
rieties OF beautiful palm trees could be ex-
hiblted, along with mangoes, cinnamon.
rubber, cocoa, and cocoanuts, bread fruit,
so arranged that the tall Brazil nuts would
form background; in a word, an attempt to
reproduce in Chicago an acre of the Amazon
river forest, interlacing the beautiful trees
with the wonderful vines. Live par
rots and monkeys could be introduced to
advantage in the trees, and collection of
all the birds Of Amazonia be made, who
hriv oil inc nd
ings even in Chicago. A tiger or two, and
a live alligator with boa could be intro
duced and if one of the attendants were to
be a victim of beriberi it would be study
for the doctors. 1t is not contagious, but is
peculiar disease of this climate, quite like
palsy or paralysis.
They Know How to Make Coffee.
Under pretty bower of coffee trees, let
there be some pretty native girls making
and selling coffee, such coffee as only Bra
lillian can make, and if once tasted in Amer
lea, will cause the person who drinks to
propose to the Amazonese, and thereby
promote reciprocity. In the same garden
let there be a thatched Amazonian cottage
filled with nude children and half nude men
and women, while nearby can be placed one
OF the pretty and tasteful Portuguese cot
tages with tile roofs and surface covered
with colored tiles few nice dark-eyed
senhoras looking out of the balcony window
at the visitors. 1t would be success
This is not an impracticable idea at all
The largest ships can lay their nose on the
banks of the Amazon anywhere, and trees
may be lifted and transplanted in boxes
and safely slowed on deck and transported
to America in the earlv summer, when they
will certainly live through the six months
of the exhIbIt with proper care. The other |
material can be easily transplanted and set
up in Chicago. It such a tropical garden is
established, attended by natives selling
their own assai and coffee in tine manner
have attempted to outline, it will, 1 wager,
attract a great deal OF attention. As an ad-
ditional attraction to this Garden of
Amazonia" might be shown collection of
rare orchids, it being very well known that
this is the land of orchids, the rarest and
most beautiful kinds being found near
Manaos
But will it be done? Certainly not, if
left to the judgment of the natives them
selves 1 charge nothing for the suggestion.
and am on the ground in Amazonia to ad-
vance the scheme in the interest of the
Columbian Exposition.
j. ORION KERBEY.