Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-05-28
ROM PASSED PUBLICO TERRACE
living. When they die their splendid property

leads into the broad, well. paved Rua do Passeio
and runs past Rio de Janeiros favorite public
garden. the ''Passeio Pubhco." Only glimpse
Of its central lawn and shady paths can be OBJ
tanned from the street, but it is the most at
tractive resort in the city. though the Oldest,
having been opened to the public exactly one
hundred and ten years ago. Many of lis original
features have disappeared, but it still retains
some of the Characteristic beauties designed by
its founder, the Viceroy LUZ de VasconceIlas
On its side. facing the bay is an enormous mar
ble-paved. elevated terrace. from which may be
obtained magnificent view of the lower bay
and harbor entrance. Its garden is filed with
the choicest native and exotic trees and shrubs
and whether strolling through its shaded paths
in the day time or BY gaslight, or listening to
music upon its crowded terrace in the evening,
the Passeio Pubico Is place not soon to be for
gotten. Opposite its entrance is a street which
was formerly named ''The Street of Fine
Nights because on all moonl;t evenings Viceroy
Vaseoncellas used to pass through it on his way
to spend an hour in the garden. Facing ii is
also the department of Justice. the Casino and
the national library standing side by side.
THE LAPA CHURCH AND CONVENT.
Now we come to the Largo da Lapa--the Iapa
church and Carmelite convent on the left, on
the right the famous arches of the Caricoa
aqueduct, the Freitas Hotel in front and the big
bronze fountain of the new water works occu-
pying the center of the square. Here the street
ascends and affords charming view OF the bay
and Gloria hills, covered with handsome resi-
dences and crowned with q pretty Octagonal
church, which the imperial family used to fire.
quent. At its foot is untidy public garden
and beyond the garden is a large, square edifice
which was built for q market, but is used as
tenement for the poor and is said TO shelter
thousand people. Now We enter the Rua do
Cattete. at the beginning of which stands
large. One-stOrled private house, built in the
Italian style and backed by extensive gardens
At each end of it two small. square open
courts with spiral stairs leading to the en-
frances, within which are two marble ball
players, who seem to be tossing a ball over the
house top. 1t was built by a Brazilian capi-
talist and is known the "Palacete Cornelio"
just beyond is the "Palacete'' of the Baron de
Nova Friburgo, the richest private house in
Rio, built of marble imported from Lisbon and
adorned with carvings. paintings and statuary.
Beyond the pretty little public garden known
as Largo do Machado the tramway divides; and
again, couple of blocks further on near the
new Methodist Church, it divides again. usher
ing us at length into one of the most pictur-
esque streets in the world-the semi-circular
Praia de Botafogo, with beautiful residences on
one side, the quiet lake-like bay on the other,
with encirciing hills and mountains and aven-
ues of royal palms. To the left is the round
topped Morroda VIVA, crowned with reser-
vOir; beyond. the mighty Sugar Loaf, with a
military barrack on its outside base. approach
able only by water. In gap of the hills on
the right are the Vermelha Notifications and
military school, built upon the site of the first
Portuguese settlement in Brazil. and down on
the beach is the great Pedro Second Insane
Asylum and the medical college. All along the
Praia de Botafogo are many notable private
houses, beginning with that of the Barao de
Cattete and ending with the residence of Mr.
Andrew Steele, one Of Rios Oldest and most
respected foreign merchants. There are houses
of marble and stone. and of blue, white and
yellow porcelain tiles, inlaid in quaint devices.
There are grounds decorated with polished
globes of blue, green and yellow glass to mirror
the world it passes by; huge gateways,
guarded by carved dragons and lions, and moist
walls overrun by poisoning creepers-every-
where riot Of vegetation and q wealth of bril-
liant coloring.
THE COLOSSAL HUNcHBACK.
By and by the city street becomes a country
road and we come nearer and nearer to Corco-
vado, the colossal "Hunchback," till at length it
seems to stand directly over us, a sheer preci-
pice of gray rock towering skyward 1000 feet.
winding around the edge of a small salt lake
Lagoa ROdereigO de Erietas, which is separated
from the Atlantic only by narrow sand bank
We see on the right hand many interesting old
Portuguese estates. laid out in terraces and
winding paths up the hillsides and ornamented
with statuary and tropical shrubs-> Directly in
front rises the distant, square-topped Gavia,
lifting its weather-beaten face 5000 feet above
the valley, the seaward-lookipg peaks of Dias
Iramos and the green mountains of Tiiuca.
Soon the lake becomes brackish swamp where
wild birds are padding; then jungle, where
wild flowers perfume the air; then the country
road changes to a lane barely wide enough for
the car track and runs into what appears to be
a thicket of wild bamboo and banana. in the
midst Of which little fondita (restaurant) is
set on one side and a very tall iron fence on the
other. Here We alight at ponderous gateway
in the iron paling and find ourselves at once in
a manipulated marble-paved room, with mar
bic benches ranged around its Sides where visi-
tors may sit while waiting for the return car,
which passes every twenty minutes on the way
back TO town This Is the vestibule or entrance
to the famous Jardim Batanico. and passing
through 1t one stops amazed at the first sight Of
the vorid-renowned avenue of royal palms,
which begins at TINS gate and stretches away
across the garden to the foot of tine mountain. a
distance of half a mile or more. 1t is impos-
sible to give in words any idea of the magnifi-
cence of this living, arborescent gallery. which
surpasses anything Of the kind on the face
of the globe and il worth coming all the
way TO Brazil to sea colonnade of natural
Corinthian columns whose graceful bright
green caPitols seem to support a portion of
the blue dome that arches above As
one looks down the long vista of columns
straight, firm and smooth as though carved in
stone, dim vision of some Egyptian temple
rises 10 the lmaSlratlon-ODe feels if mon
archs had been drawn up Al line to do him
homage or as if he had been translated to another
sphere and this verdant gallery must lead to a
mansion of the gods. The most blase traveller
walks IN silence between the towering ranks,
impressed TOO deeply for words-as at the first
view Of Niagara, OF a snow-topped mountain, of
n grand cathedral and other sights which bring
the souls of mpressionabie people to their
knees, whatever may be the attitude Of their
bodies.
THE AVENUE OF PALMS.
To come down to figures. there are $50 of
those noble trees, the palma real (Oresdoxa
regia), planted thirty feet apart in double
row. inclosing wide gravel path. The palms
have an average height of eighty feet and an
average diameter at the base OF three feet: their
trunks have grown straight as a plum line
and their lines are rs regular q mathematical
device could make item. High up in the air
their enormous teathery tufts are in a perpetual
trenOr, shaken by every breath of air. As an
appropriate setting to these masterpieces of
nature the garden Is surrounded by the widest
OF tropical scenery.
Between the giant trunks you look upward to
incomparabiy blue skies, to nearby mountains
10 the sea, whose murmur you can family hear.
shorter alley of palms crosses the main one
near Its beginning. tine two forming a gigantic
cross. About midway down the avenue is
fountain. and here other avenues, scarcely less
sula hrap OF iobt pUIa ~tt