Evening star., 1899-04-08

and still live. ] spent day or two in San
tos, and thence came over the coast noun
| tains to Sac Paulo, the biggest city of low
er Brazil. Sac Paulo is the coffee metrop-
oils of the country. 1t is one of the richest
cities of South America, and it is growing
as fast as any town on our hemisphere. In
1870 it had 1900 inhabitants. Within the
next ten years it doubled its population,
and it now has about 100000.
Before 1 begin my tour through Brazil
1 want to give a general idea of the coun-
try. 1t is the baby among the worlds great
republics, the biggest infant in the inter-
| national animal show. Brazil is less than
ten years old as a republican government,
and to what it will grow no one can tell.
1t has twenty-one states some of which,
like this state of Sac Paulo, are growing
SO rich and so powerful that they may
break off from the main body polite and
become republics themselves. Each of the
Brazilian states has it's local politics and
politicians. Its people are full of state
pride, and the federal union has not the
strength that it has in other South Ameri-
can countries.
An UnwieIdIy Government.
Brazil is so vast and its sections are so
far apart that without better railroad and
telegraphic communications it will be inn
possible to manage it well from Rio de
Janeiro. I have written something about
Matto Crosse. That state is one-sixth the
size of our whole country. How long do
you think it takes the federal officials to
get to it from Rio Janeiro? 1t requires
more than a month by steamboat The dis
tance is 3,S4O miles, for one must go clear
around by Montevideo and up the Para
quay and other rivers to reach it's capital
Cuyaba. 1t takes a month to go from Rio
to Manaos, the capital of the chief prov
ince Of the Amazon, and Para, at the mouth
of the Amazon, is as far away from Rio
almost as it is from the United States.
tell you, this is big country. 1t is the
Russia of the South American continent
1t is as big as the United States without
Alaska and our outlying possessions. 1t
ranks fifth among the great countries of
the world. 1t is longer from north to south
than from Pittsburg to San Francisco, and
wider from east to west than from New
York city to Salt Lake. 1t comprises about
half of all the land of South America, and
1t has in 1t more than half the people.
A Portuguese Continent.
We look upon South America as a Span
ish continent. 1t would be just as proper
to call it Portuguese continent, for Brazil
is Portuguese, and its 100000 people
speak the Portuguese language. The Bra
zlians are different from the other South
Americans. They have character and Gus
toms of their own, and they are now for the
first time running their country for them
selves, and that upon republican methods
l find Brazil far different from what |
supposed it to be. Many of you look upon
it as a vast lowland forest with here and
there coffee plantation or a rubber grove,
and all around and everywhere the ghost of
the yellow fever. The real Brazil is this
only in spots. 1t is empire with soil and
productions equal in their variety to those of
the United States, and a climate in many
parts as salubrious as that of any part of
our country.
Brazil is by no means all fiat. The Anna
zon valley is great lowland plain about as
wide from New York to Cleveland and as
long as from Philadelphia to Denver slop-
ing gently from the Andes to the Atlantic
1t is covered with forests, but much of it
Is healthful, and on the Amazon itself the
weather is cool for a great part of the year.
South of the Amazon valley are highlands,
some sterile and others afflicted with ter
rible droughts. Just below the Amazon val
ley they are having drought now and the
ships of the Brazilian government are car
ryfng the starving people to the rubber
camps of the Amazon, where they can get
work.
Below this there are other great plains,
varying from 900 to 5000 feet above the
sea and having climate In which white
men can live. Upon these plains there are
rich farms. Many parts of them need only
slight cultivation to make them produce.
Southern Brazil.
The southern half of Brazil is the most
healthful part of the country. There are
regions near here which are as healthful
as any part of the world. am now a half
mile above the sea, and this is the nature
Of most of the land of this region. There
are about a million and half people in
the state Of San Paulo. The state of Minas
GeraeS, just above here, has 1900 900 peo-
pie, and just below Is the well-settled state
of Rio Grande do Sui.
Rio Grande do Sui is an agricultural prov
ince. It raises wheat and meat. 1t has
vast pastures upon which hundreds of thou
sands Of cattle are feeding, It has beef fac
tories in which more than $1,000 900 worth |
Of jerlxed beef was made last year. At the
town of Pelotas alone 300.0 600 oxen are an
nually slaughtered. and there are factories
there making soap, candles and manure out |
Of the refuse.
Rio Grande do Sui has number of cities |
IN which are street railroads, colleges and |
daily newspapers. In the town Of Rio |
Grande there are five daily papers, In Porte |
Allegro six and In Pelotas four There are |
good banks run by Engliahmen, but nearly
all other Businesses are npanaked by Ger
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