The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-01-19
RUBBER IN BRAZIL.
Letter From the Mighty Forests OF the Am
azon Valley.
Especial Correspondence


azon Valley.
Especial Correspondence
PARA, Dec 10.-This interesting Bra
lillian port, situated ON an estuary of the
sea, one of the old mouths of the mighty
Amazon, is queer conglomeration OF
palaces and hovels-mostly novels. 1t is
mainly interesting as the distributing
center of caoutchouc, the raw material
of rubber. From this port goes two.
thirds of the worlds supply, or about
25,000,000 pounds annually. Fortunate
ly for the vast manufacturing interests
dependent on this trade, the seat of the
Brazilian civil war is 1900 miles south
of us, and so it is not likely to affect the
caoutchouc interests, as it has done the
coffee trade. The caoutchouc business,
which makes Para what it is, is in the
hands of few people, who constitute a
sort of syndicate, and the top sawyers
roll up fortunes very rapidly. There is
a good deal in the caoutchouc industry
worth sketching in it's salient points.
Caoutchauc is found in the milky
| Juices of many trees, but the most re-
markable is from the cachucu of Brazil
and Central America. The valleys of
the great streams here are marked by an
overpowering beauty and swarm with
countless varieties of animal and vege-
table life. The traveller cuts his way
through a gorgeous tangle of shrub and
creepers, cathedral vaults garlanded with
countless blossoms, to the more open
spaces of the "seringaes" or caoutchouc
forests, often spreading for miles not far
from the river banks. The india rubber
tree thrives best where the alluvial flats
are annually submerged by the floods.
Here the camps of the "seringueiros," or
rubber collectors, are found.
The low matched novels are made safe
from the freshets by raising the floors
about 10 feet on wooden piles. Here the
small proprietor lives with his native
laborers, or mojos, with nothing to do in
the wet season except to chatter with
the ague and fight countless insect pests,
the most venomous in the world, his sole
pleasure being the everlasting cigarette.
To the more remote riverine tracts the
mojos, or half civilized Indians, on whom
the industry is dependent, cannot be
persuaded to go. The wild savages of
the far interior are not only cruel, but
cannibal in their habits, and the richest
rubber section of Brazil is still virgin for
this reason.
With the coming of the dry season the
"seringueiro" at once begins his attack
on the caoutchouc giants, which fire.
quently stand more than 100 feet in
height. The workman chops a hole in
the tree, and conduits of bamboo convey
the milk white sap which exudes into
clay dishes. The collector transfers
the sap to the common receptacle of a
huge turtle shell. Now begins the smok
ing process, which operates something
like the action of tannin on hides. A
bottomless earthen jar, with long, mar
row neck for a chimney, is set on fire
of dry palm nuts. No other fuel will do,
for the fumes have peculiar value, CO.
agulating the milky sap into substance
like yellow cream.
The mojo workman pours the sap over
the blade of sort of wooden spade and
twirls this swiftly in the fumes till it be-
comes solid and attains a peculiar color.
So he adds layer upon layer till the rub
Der form grows to the needed thickness,
when it is cut away from the sides and
in the sunlight. The effect is
to make the substance evenly brown
and solid throughout. A common shape
of the product in the Para market is the
bottle prepared by pouring the caout-
chouc sap over an earthen mold with an
open neck. These rubber bottles are |
often ornamented while the rubber is
yet soft by the rude native artists with |
outlines of birds, beasts, plants, human
creatures and even landscapes.
Some of the mojo women are ex-
beautiful, brown Venuses, who |
would stagger the piety of st. Antho-
ny. An interesting romance had its be-
ginning at one of the principal rubber