The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-09-18
Sanitary Vultures as the Scavan-.
gers of a City.
AN EARLY MORNING PROMENADE.
Para ana the Paranese-Peculiar Appearance
Of the PeopIe-Admixture of Negro
and indian Blood.
Especial Correspondence OF THE HERALD

M NJ great number of zspelotes (vul-
Ri JNgzz A tnres1, that blacken every
w. IN church spire and house top and
= look down upon You with medi-
80 tativs air as if specializing now soon
Gzaz you WIN be likely to make meal
r sor them. Should you be SO unfor
tunate as to fall dead in some sequestered
spot unnoticed of the living. be sure they
would find sou out in the twinkling of an
eye and in an incredibly short time prepare
your clean picked skeleton 10 grace doctor S
shop or museum collection. A heavy fine
is imposed for killing one of these huge car
rion birds, and were il not for them
your chances of life in this locality
would be appallingly diminished, since
they do more than all the city fathers to-
ward keeping this hot, undrained, vile
smelling city in state of comparative
cleanliness.
Naturally, the next thing you notice is
the extremely picturesque custom house,
for thither you must go Immediately upon
landing, 10 the rescue of your luggage. A
fine old church and convent have been ap-
propriated 10 this ignoble use and in the
shady cloister garden, with its wealth OF
graceful l0ng-leaved plants, and thorn
crowned heads carved above every arched
doorway, you undergo the customary tussle
with suspicious officials. The next move
is to seek an abiding place, and you will
PROBABLY take every body's advice and go
10 the Hotel do Commercio, which is in
reality. The only decent inn in the
place, although the name Of the others
is legion. Ascending some wooden steps,
you are shown to enormously large, but
bare apartments, which remind you of
oil fr,s 6oo-s nd f-o~v, liz
ness by the awning-shaded French
windows. each opening on little balcony.
The tiny balconies in which 1t ia
safe to say that all your time indoors not
devoted TO sleeping and eating will be
spent, overlook an inner courtyard, gay
with flowers and Gagged song birds and
screaming parrots aud chattering monkeys
Brazilian interior" of which one never
tires.
When minded to seek the dining-room,
you find it deliciously cool and clean, its
long French windows also opening
upon flower gardens, with sanded
floors, white cloths, white china
and white aproned mulatto walters,
French cooking and fruits that have
attained absolute perfection, especially
pineapples, which grow to enormous size
and are served in ways we have never
seen before. ReckoEed in the coin OF the
country, the charges seem absurdty high,
900 reis per diam TO each person,
until you remember that the
sum only represents about So OF our
money. and that you are enjoying all the
comforts of New York hotel with the
luxuries Of the tropics thrown in, away off
here on the Amazon river in the interior OF
Brazil, within hundred miles of the
primeval, untrodden forest.
In Para the fashionable time for prone
nading is early IN the morning, between
desayuno (bedroom coffee) and the regular
IL O'Clock breakfast There is much more
busting activity than one expects to ind
in 4 tropical city, especially along the
wharves, for scores OF steamers come and
go every day-not only those plying up and
down the Amazon, supplying the river
towns with ali the necessaries of life and
bringing away the mnltitudinous pro-
ducts of the interior-but ocean ships,
direct from Europe and the United
Ststes, and from the other ports of the
southern continent, SO that Para enjoys
more trade than any other South Amer
lean city, The foreign ships carry away
enormous quantities of India rubbev-the
stable product of this part Of Brazil-be-
Fides hudreds of tons of Brazilian nuts,
fine cabinet woods sugar, cotton, cloves,
rice. sarsapArilla, farina, cocoa, annatto,
isinglass. piasaba rope, turtle-egg butter
and other queer, but valuable commodities.
Speaking Of cabinet timber, some of the
choicest varieties in the world abound
here Is commonly as pine at home-not
only tulip, mahogany, ebony, cedar,
laurzl ETC., but many kinds of iuca-
ranoa (rose-wood), the rare and beau
tiful tortcise-shell wood zebra-striped
moiracoatidra, yiolet-tinted paolo santo.
golden brown mao de arco, intricately-
notified tuyo, and q hundred others whose
names do not know-al of which are be-
ing rapidly introduced into the United
States for the interior furnishings of rich
mems houses, mosaic floors, wainscots, etc.
One knows exactly where to look for ev-
erything in Para, for there is an especial
quarter devoted TO each branch of trade
and strata of society. The first and second
streets running parallel 10 the anchorage
ground are devoted TO the wholesale
stores, ship chambers. banks and
consulates. The third street back,
called the RIA dos Mercados.
FsSIreet Of Merchaats.'') contains all the
recall shops; and SO on to the limits of the
town. A tramwaY runs down the middle
Of the Rua Mercedes, and the two-storied
buildings on both sides are painted in all
The colors Of the rainbow aud covered with
gsady advertisements, the goods hung in
long srreamers and otherwise arranged
with view tc decorative effect, so that
flags and pennons. The merchants used to
live ever their stores. in the good old Port
uguese and Spanish style; but that fashion
disappeared a fcw years ago, and now ali
the well-to do reside in another part Of the
city, All the wholesale establishments re-
main closed every afternoon, for the mer-
chants consider the hours between sunrise
and IL a. N. quite Sufficient for business
purposes. and spend the rest of the day in
their flower gardens. slipping coffee and
smoking cigarettes with friends who saun-
ter in aud out.
So fer as comfort is concerned, the after
noon is the best part of the day in Para
when it does not rain. The mornings are
ea tremely spltry, what wind there is blow
ing from the westward, laden with the
humid sticky fogs and maleria Of the trop-
ical lowlands; while in the afternoon ocean
breezes blow. The rainy season, however,
extends over two-thlrds of the year and
heavy showers fall in the afrerpart
of the day, accompanied with terrific
thunder and lightning, which render the
nights cool and pleasant. but reduce the
unpaved streets TO Quagmires. Though
variably, the climate of Para is not IN
healthy for South America To the credit
OF the zipalotes be it said that
yellow fever has never yet invaded
the place; but tertianas, fintermittant
feverl hardly less to be dreaded, inyari-
ably follow the nine months rainy season
and smallpox is present the year around.
often in epidemic form.
The general appearance OF Para is like
that of NEST Brazilian cities-with some
points Of difference. There are the same
whitewashed o. pale tinted walls with red
tiled roofs. marrow streets, laid out on the
plan and innumersble
churches and plazas. But these public
squares, unlike any others / have seen do
not appear TO be used by the populace, being
painless and oyerRrowD with rank grass.
The houses. too. have their peculiarities.
All are large and many are very pretty.