Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-03
YELLOW JACKS HOME.
Fannie B, Ward Arrives at Intensely
Tropical Rio de Janeiro.
MET EIGHTFUNERALS IN AN HOUR.
Tremendous Snakes and Impertinent
Monkeys as House Pets.
PIEXOTIO'S FEAR OF ASSASSINS

RIO DE JANEIRO, Marcn 4.-Our Onl1
excuse for completely altering the pro
gramme-after tickets had been bought fol
Buenos Ayres, luggage actually on the way
| to the wharf of the waiting steamer, and oul
mail for month past having been con.
signed to the care of the Argentine Minis.
ter-is the honored one that it is woman
privilege to change her mind. The moving
cause was this: We learned, by accident,
at the literal eleventh hour, that pleasant
party of ladies and gentlemen, in whose
company we journeyed some hundreds OF
miles on the other side of the continent,
were bound for Rio, on board vessel lying
out in the harbor, which in two hours time
| would sail. 20
Well! A great deal can be accomplished
in two hours by dint of vigorous hustling,
aided by telegraph and cable. A man
could never have done it, among these pro.
crastinsting, lazy people; but all the
world is good to women, and the LATEST
South American will bestir himself fol
gallantry's sake, when lucre would not
move him. We had been dreading in.
tensely the visit to Brazil. imagining all
manner of bugaboos to alright lone female,
unacquainted with the Portuguese language;
and here was an opportunity to accomplish
it under the most favorable circumstances
Eight Funerals in an Hour.
They assure us that just now is the
healthiest season in Rio, when yellow fever
cases are down to the minimum; yet last
evening, in course of an hours drive, which
happened to lie along the broad, palm
bordered avenue leading to the main Campo
Santo, we passed no fewer than eight
funeral professions on their way to that
city of the dead, whose population must
outnumber the living city q thousand to
one. Though every foot procession wen at
a lively jog trot and those in carriages gal
loped along at full speed, it was easy to tell
to which social strata the departed be-
longed, for here, as elsewhere, the same
treatment is meted out to dead people as
when they were living, according to the
rcriptural axiom. "To him that hath shall
he given.
= Those Brazilians who have lived in lux
ury are escorted to the tomb with the
"pomp and circumstances" (and, incidental
ly, with the vast expense to the relatives,
who thus have double cause to mourn), of
sable-canopied hearse, score of plumed
horses, and long following of hired car
riages filled with male friends-every man
of them wearing black kid gloves, band
of crepe around his tall silk hat and yard
or two more of the same emblem of woe
conspicuously streaming from his right coat
Sleeve; and those whom we saw bowling
merrily behind the hearse were all smok-
ing the inevitable cigarito and animatedly
discussing politics. or perhaps the financial
condition Of the family of the deceased.
Women Do Not Attend Funerals.
In no case are there any women, for, as
usual, in these Southern countries, the
''gentler"-and presumably more tender
hearted-sex are excluded from funerals
and must bid the last adieu to those they
have loved in the privacy of their homes; a
very sensible arrangement among these
passionate, high-strung, uncomfortable peo-
pie who boast no Spartan females
The humber dead, stretched, cofinless,
on black palled board, or inclosed in
gaudily painted box, are borne to the place
of interment on the shoulders Of their
friends, while those of the followers who
can muster enough mil reis 60 out on the
second-class street cars We observe one
beautiful custom. that everybody in sight
on their balconies, in the streets, in shops,
in carriages, rich and poor, naughty and
umble-reverentially uncover their heads
when funeral cortege passes by doing in
voluntary homage to the pathetic "It"
which we must all become when the soul
has fed.
Even grim death is not without its humor-
Gus side in this strage city. Brazilian
angelitas (''little angels" as the corpses of
children are universally called), are not
arrayed for the grave in the conventional
white or black of other countries. but in
scarlet. There is small scarlet hearse for
the convenience of those who can afford it,
adorned with scarlet pail and curtains. scar
let plumes and traDpings for the horses;
while the little coffin it contains is invaria-
bly, covered with scarlet, and the wreaths
asd bouquets on top of it tied with scarlet
ribbons.
Dirt and Neglect Kill Children.
TIC carry out the s'eternal fitness" the
child should have died of scarlet fever, in
stead of disease engendered by dirt and
neglect, the prevailing cause hereabouts of
among children. The angeltas of
people too poor to hire the splendid scarlet
hearse, are conveyed to the tomb on the
heads of their parents, in a small box,
painted blue or yellow striped with white,
almost identical in contour, size and color
with those boxes that are continually trot-
ted about the streets in the same manner,
bread, cakes and dulces, so that |
TO unaccustomed eyes the two are indjs- |
tinguishable. |
We arrived at the cemetery gate just as
4 soldiers funeral was filing through, and, |
wishing to see the spot where the wander |
ngs of so many of our unfortunate country |
men have ended, we left our carriage and |
followed the procession-at a very respect |
full distance" remembering the prevalence |
Of smallpox and other contagious. The dead |
warrior lay upon sort of double-decked |
in full view of men, with only |
his martial cloak around him, and had been |
carried in this manner through the crowded |
streets of the city on the shoulders of his |
from the barracks, distance of |
band PLAYING jubilant marches and quick
steps. Uncoffined, he was laid in the |
soldiers corner, to await the resurrection
revelle. Each of his late comrades took
shovel full of the freshly turned-up earth |
and threw upon him, and then, to the ex-
strains of f'The Barber of |
Seville, they quick-stepped back to town.
A Beauty Words Cannot Picture.
am not going to bore you with descrip- |
i on of the unrivaled beauties of Rios bav,
or other travellers have done it time and |
again. Enhanced by history and tradition,
hey are even more enhancing to-day than |
when the ancient mariners discovered them,
hat January day, 800 years ago, when, sail
ng through the narrow gateway from the
ocean into the bav, they fancied themselves
entering the mouth Of mighty river that
ed to the enchanted land, and christened it
Rio de Janeiro, ''River of January" from
he month in which the event occurred.
There are plenty of pictures to show you
low it looks, better than mere words could
l. -