The Indianapolis journal., 1899-04-23
PICTURESQUE STREETS.


To me every street here is a picture. /
wander in and out of narrow lanes as
crooked as the cow paths of Boston. L see
houses which are centuries old whose foun-
dations were laid before Boston was start
ed. find beautiful parks. clean and well
kept, and in them the most royal vegetation
outside of heaven. There are bamboos
here which are fifty. feet high whose feath-
cry arms interlock and make regal avenues
through which you are shielded from the
heat of the sun. There are flowers growing
wild which we raise in our hothouses. and
there are great palms whose branches wave
in the winds more than 15O feet from the
ground.
Rio is the home of the royal palm. You
see such trees all over the city. They are
as round and straight and smooth the
most beautiful column ever Clipped out by
a sculptor. They rise in symmetrical shafts
of silver gray from 100 TO 80 feet above the
ground without branch. and end at last
in a canopy of beautiful green fern-like
leaves. Some of the residences have rows
of these trees at the entrances to their gar
dens. They do not need marble columns,
for nature furnishes these palms in their
places.
One of the finest avenues of these palms
is in the botanical garden here. but there
are other parks which you never hear of
which have trees quite as fine. During a
drive through the city one day / passed a
street in which there were four rows of
these lofty trees. The grove was at least a
mile long and each palm was on the aver
age 100 feet high. 1t was the most wonder
full evidence of the godlike in nature i
have yet seen.
The city of Rio covers about nine square
miles. 1t lies on a low plain between the
mountains and the harbor, extending back
to and for some distance up the hill. The
streets go up hill and down. They cross
| one another at all sorts of angles. and the
blocks are of as many different shapes as
| those of Washington The old part Of the
| city is very narrow and quaint, some of the
| streets near the wharves being so low that
| they are flooded at every rain. Near here
are the slums of the town, where yellow
| fever is rampant in summer and where the
stranger almost takes his life in his hands
| TO go through. Large families live here in
| one room, and everything is squalid and
| dirty
The city is so badly arranged as to sani-
| tary matters in this section that the very
| stones breathe miasma. The sun never gets
| a fair chance at the streets, Tor they are
| so narrow that when the street cars &c
| through them they almost Craze the side
walk The car drivers are no respecters OF
person, and a friend of mine here said that
| the numerous one-legged men of Rio have
| been made so not in the wars, but by los
| ing their legs from the careless tram cars
little back from these slums and the
| warehouse section is a vast quarter in
| which the most of the business of Rio is
! done. This is also an old part CT the city
| Some OF the houses are moss grown and
| they are almost all quaint and picturesque
| Here you find the chief clubs, the mos
| famous restaurants and the best shops.
ON THE ROUA DO OUVIDOR-
The center of this part of Rio, and. In
fact, the center OF the capital of Brazil. i:
| the street called the Rua do Ouvidor. Thi:
| is the Broadway. the Pennsylvania avenue
| the Champs d'Elysees Of Brazil. 1t is tn,
| great shopping street. the gossiping place
| the Rialto OF the Brazilian capital. IL ha:
/ the best stores. 1t has the chief newspaper
and the best of everything that the Bra
zilians think good.
Here there are thousands Of men and boy