The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-07-10
CURIOUS PEOPLE.
Some Of tho Peculiar Traits Of thu
Natives Of Brazil.
A Country Where tho Merchants Arc Too
Lazy to Walt on Customers and tho
Women Frittcr Away Their
Time In Gosslping.

Next to Incidence, the most impres.
sfve trait of brazilian character is NOR
bid curiosity, and it is that which keeps
him continually out of doors. pcram-
bulating n regular beat, like police
man, and which sends him to the sta
ton every morning when the train
departs for Rio and every evening when
1t returns, writes Fannie b. Ward. to
the Chicago Tribune. Walk along any
street i'll Brazil, at any time of day, and
You will observe that nearly every win
dow is decorated with female heads and
shoulders hanging over the stills, while
their owners chatter with ono another
and infinitely inspect all passers by
evidently quite as willing to be seen as
to see Not only do women of the
lower classes spend most of their
waking hours in this way, but the
haolo is probably the nat
ural outcome of the national charac-
tcristic of morbid curiosity, enhanced
by the Latin notion that for females
"a little learning is dangerous
thing" that reading is not good for
them, and that work of every kind
should be left entirely to the servants.
thus, ladies OF upper tendon have not
even the care of their own children to
occupy their thoughts, and society or
dams that they must not walk abroad
unless accompanied by some male
relative Therefore, without resources
in themselves or cultivated tastes to
gratify-nothing in the world to do but
to eat, sleep and look as pretty as na-
turc will allow-tho poor things are
driven to pass much of their useless
lives lounging in balconies and hanging
out of<yindows. Tho only alternative
is religion and music, and In both dis
fractions they indulge to excess without
going very deeply into the why's and
whcrcforcs. Day after day, years in
and out, one may hear them strumming
over and over again tho same lirhtcst
of French, Spanish and Portuguese
operas, until the wonder grows that in
crowded communicable windows
and doors being always open-the
ncighbors are not driven stark, staring
mad; rs, perhaps, they would be were
not the noise partially drowned by that
they arc making thcmsclvcs-thc same
airs being continually ratified on every
piano all up and down the street
Shopping in Brazil is by no means the
pleasant occupation one may find in
New York. Everywhere in this coun-
try you will find the merchants block
ing their own doorways, even during
the busiest hours of the day, by stand
ing in them, gazing into the strect,-not
because they expect anything to hap
pen-but merely from an ovcrwccninc
desire to see what other people are do
ing, the same instinct which impcls them
at the thcatcr to turn their back upon
the high-priccd performance and spend
the time staring ut each other. If you
insist upon buying something and sue
coed in pinning the unwilling shop
keeper behind his counter, you cannot
infusc into him any apparent interest
either in your business or his. He treats
you with an air that plainly says your
patronage is nothing to him. In reply
to your inquiry for some desired article
he is quito rs likely to say he has it not,
though it may be in plain sight, and
should you point it out he will smile
and elevate his eyebrows, as if to say:
hat persistent borcs these foreigners
are" Or, perhaps. if you ask for q
particular thing he will direct you 70
the case or drawer whcro it ought to be
and leave you to search for yourself,
while he hurrics back to his street-gaz-
ing and gossiping. No matter how
much or how frequently you buy there
is never any discount, and if you object
to an cXtortionate price the merchant
smiles politely, shrugs his shoulders
and turns his entire attention TO the
cigarette he has all the time been smols-
ing, as if glad to be rid of you on any
terms. And then it is SO cxaspcratine
to take n long walk in the broiling
sun. 10 find the shops all closed, as they
are about two-thirds OF the time (al-
ways excepting Sundays, because it
happens to be some saints day or
patriotic anniversary. or because the
alleged business hours have not begun,
or maybe they are over for that day,
though the streets are yet throngcd