Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-04-22

the Atlantic one after the other like
flock of sheep following their leader over
a fence, never turning aside to see If there
are not better pastures nor more agreeable
fields. The truth is you find more Won
ders in week in South America than in
England or on the continent in a month OF
Sundays.
Rio is one of the most picturesque cities
of the world. 1t lies on the most beautiful
bay OF the world, at the foot of great noun
tains, which rise like wall behind it, with
their tops in the clouds. These mount e.n.s
are covered with a tropical vegetation from
base to summit. They are of curious Shapes,
one being a sugar loaf 1870 feet high' an
other a hunchback and others looking IKE
great forts and massive hattlementS / nave
g en- the hay of Naples and the Golden Horn
of Constantinople. but the harbor of Rio
surpasses anything in the Mediterranean or
along the Bosphorus, and. with the Diisnt
colored buildings of Rio lying upon 1t ris-
ing above its forests of maSts, 1t IS the
most beautiful bay of the world Shapea
Ike a pear, it is a hundred miles IN CIR
conference. and almost everywhere II Is
more than sixty feet deep. All the ships
of all the seas could anchor WITHIN IT ana
have room to spare 1t is spotted with IS
lands, upon some of which great buildings
have been constructed, so that they APP
parently float upon the water.
Full of Attractions.
The city itself is full of strange things.
The average traveller scared by the ghost
brain throbbing with quinine and the film
of fear over his eyes He walks through
the streets with a smelling bottle and
shoots in and out of the town without
knowing its beauties.
To me every street here is picture L
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. l find beautiful parks, clean and well
citation imaginable. 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 hot houses, and
there are great palms whose branches wave
In the winds more than $50 feet from the
ground.
Rio is the home of the royal palm. on
see such trees all over the city. They are
as round and straight and as smooth as the
most beautiful column ever Clipped out by
a sculptor. They rise in symmetrical shafts
the ground without a 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 gardens. 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 l passed
street in which there were four rows of
| these lofty trees. The grove was at least
| mile long and each palm was on the aver
| age 100 feet high. 1t was the most wonder
full evidence of the God-like in nature
| have yet seen.
Within the City.
The City of Rio covers about nine square
miles. 1t lies Oh a low plain between the
ptoip no bar haol
| 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 san
| itary matters in this section that the very
| stones breathe miasma- The sun never gets
| q fair chance at the streets for they are
| so narrow that when the street cars go
| through them they almost Craze the side
! walk The car drivers are no respecters
| of person, and friend of mine here said
| that the numerous one-iegged men of Rio
| have been made SO not in the wars but
| by losing their legs from the careless tram
cars.
/ little back from these sunls and the
| warehouse section is vast quarter in
/ which the most of the business of Rio is
/ done. This Is also an old part of the city.
Some OF the houses are moss grown and
| they are almost all quaint and picturesque.
Here you find the chief clubs. the most
famous restaurants and the best shops.
1 On the Rua do Ouvidor.
| The center Of this mart of Rio and In
/ fact the center of the capital of Brazil, is
the street called the Rua do Ouvidor. This
is the Broadway, the Pennsylvania avenue,