Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-17
STR0LLING OVER RIO.
A Steaming Furnace Full of All Sorts
of Tropical Smells.
HOUSES RIOT IN RICH C0L0RS.
The Streets Arc So Marrow That Vehicles
Cannot Pass In Them.
AN HOUR IN THE CITY'S BEAUTY SHOW

delightfully."- Is this v1le-smelllng old fur
mace which the early Portuguese dubbed
'Saint Sebastian of the River Of January"
Even its atmosphere Is contradictory. On
days when everything viribly steams and
you feel yourself dissolving in perspiration.
you are amazed that the Thermometer regis
ters less than it does in New York-here
seldom rising above S5 degrees. Fahren-
heit. But there is humidity in the air
that kills all oxygen and gives to every OBJ
ject, animate and inanimate, a clammy,
sticky moisture, so that you expect to wake
up some morning and find yourself covered
all over with green mold and fungi, like the
walls and tree trunks.
An Algerian siracco is not 50 oppressive
as any day here between the months Of
October and May-for the African wind is
only an occasional misery. seldom lasting
more than three days at times, while here
it is continuous, worse, if possible, by night
than by day, until you envy Shadrack,
Meshach and Abednago. for it was dry heat
they suffered, and Biblical history tells Us
that they came out of 1t unharmed-which
is good deal more than can be said of you
after week in Rio.
A Little OF Everything in It.
II is not easy to describe this queer old
town, because there is nothing elsewhere to
which one can compare it Its Hispano-
Portuguese origin is everywhere apparent,
suggesting mixture of Barcelona, Seville,
Cadiz-seasoned with . dash Of gaudiness
borrowed from its numerous wealthy cit
izens of African. descent and tropical
warmth of color entirely its own. And then
the mountains close by, with their precip-
itous sides, and eccentric vagaries of form
none of them being straight, but all leaning
in one direction or the other as if mighty
wind had blown them awry-give sort of
crazy appearance to the country, which is
enhanced by the billowing clouds that roll
about the peaks and through the vast val
levs and gorges between them, exhibiting
the strange and beautiful effects OF cloud
and moisture peculiar to tropical landscapes
and never met in colder climates.
The streets, in their narrow and twisted
courses. repeat the plan of city-building
which the Moors brought into the 1berian
peninsula, with Saracenic inspirations in the
way OF tiled roofs, projecting balconies, mar
row windows, arched door-ways and elabor-
ate stucco-all clothed in a very Joseph's coat
of many colors. 1t even excels Cadiz in the
Kaleidoscope hues of its roofs and walls, for
the pale pinks, yellows and blues of the
Andalusian seaport intensity in Brazil to
glaring reds, greens, purple and orange.
In Harmony With Tropical Nature.
Amid the brown or snowy months that
make up so large proportion of the North
ern year, nothing could be more absurd than
this system of architecture and decoration;
but under tropical skies they seem to be the
natural product of the sun and soil, a, ap-
propriate to their surroundings as the palm
trees that tower above, and the blossoming
vines that riot over them. .-tI
No regular census has ever been taken of
Rio, but it is believed that about $4,000
people are crowded within the narrow,
crescent-shaped space between the mount
aims and the sea. Hemmed in by granite
wall on one side and deep water on the other,
the city can never grow any wider, and so it
ten or twelve miles around the prodigious
harbor, which, by the way, is exactly the
shape of pear, the narrow entrance repre-
senting the stem of the fruit. Most of the
streets are extremely narrow, generally not
more than ten feet wide, paved with Belgian
blocks, with an open central drain to which
they slope, and with three-foot-wide side
walks on a level with the street. Canton,
and others of the great Chinese cities, have
streets as.wide as those ct Rio Janeiro.
Parlors in the Oprn Air.
The houses, many of them quite hidden
by the towering palms that line these cow
path streets, are no two alike, and range
from one to four stories in height. One of
their curious features is the absence of the
veranda, which, in the minds Of the
globe-trotters, have become intimate
ly associated with ideas of hot weather. In
lieu of the veranda the better houses show
in their upper stories broad, deep notches-
each sort of open-air parlor, tinted as deli
cately as lady's boudoir, often elaborately
frescoed, furnished with rattan and cane
sofas, chairs and tables, embellished with
statuary, and foored with Talavera tiles.
Some of these cool posts of observation have
narrow windows of colored glass set in their
sides surrounded by wealth of gliding,
carving and color, and the effect is unique,
especially when the outer walls of the house
are faced with blue and yellow tiles, as is
frequently the case.
The business houses are crowded into the
lower portion of the town, into damp and
gloomy alleyways, so narrow that carts and
carriages are forbidden to enter them during
the busy hours of the day, apd at any time
two wheeled vehicles could not pass one an
other without running up on the narrow
sidewalks, to the peril of pedestrians. Most |
OF the public buildings and commercial
houses are ugly and unpretentious, built in
the old Portuguese style OF broken stone |
and mortar, plastered on the outside or |
faced with illuminated tiles. There is no |
Government building in Rio. either Mon
archical or Republican, which begins to |
compare in elegance with hundreds OF the |
private residences.
The National Printing ONCE.
Perhaps the finest public buildings in
Rio are the postofice and the Government
printing house The first is a sub-depart-
ment, under the general control of the Min
lister of Agriculture, and is situated in the
Rua Primeiro de March (Street of the first