The Republican journal., 1904-10-06

plastered on the outside or faced with
illuminated tiles. There is no govern
ment building in Rio, either monarch
ial or republican, which begins to CON-
pare in elegance with hundreds of the
private residences. The Senate and
Chamber of Deputies occupy separate
buildings, both old and uninteresting.
The Senate convenes in a small house
on the eastern side of the Praca d. Ace
lamacao, and the same room is used for
| the ceremonial opening of each legisla-
tive session. The Chamber of Depu-
ties faces the Rua de Misericordia, oc-
cupying an angle between-the old pal
ace and the Department of Agriculture.
In colonial times it was used for Jail.
Perhaps the finest public buildings in
Pic are the post office and the govern
ment printing establishment. The first
Is sub-department, under the general
control of the Minister of Agriculture,
and is situated in the Rua Prinerio de
Marco Street of the first of March,
near the Custom House.
The new and handsome Typographical
Naclonal National Printing Office was
finished in 1877 at cost OF 81, 800, 900,
including its machinery. The main
building is radical departure from the
styles of architecture most employed
in Brazil, its facade being ornamented
by symbolic designs in relief, and the
statues of Faust, Gutenberg, Coster
and Schoeffer.
The commodious offices are provided
with machinery for typefounding and
stereotyping; the large halls on the up
per floors are used for lectures and ex-
hibitions, and the lower floor is mostly
given over to lottery drawings. Never
was government printing office so i'm
portant in financial point of view as
this, because the infant republic, hav-
ing little use for its presses, amuses it.
self with the costly pleasure of putting
out new issues of bank notes every few
days with truly infantile regardlessness
of the proportion of notes to coin re-
serves. When l went to the money
changers office to get some English
sovereigns converted into Brazilian pa
per, the obliging clerk asked if the
bills were for immediate use, and ad-
vised me to get rid of them as quickly
as possible, because counterfeits of
notes are so common that the govern
ment frequently orders out of circula
ton certain issues that are found to be
cleverly initiated, thus rendering value
less both the good notes and the bad.
Though Rios streets are not much to
boast of in the way of width or pa wing,
their nomenclature is striking, to say
the least. There is the "Street of
Good Jesus John the Baptist
Street, Seventh of September street."
''Street of Sac Sebastio," and several
S. Joaos (St. Johns and D. Joaos, the
first Portuguese emperor of Brazil.
The Wall street of Rio, is the Rua Di-
meta, and during the morning hours
when the coffee exchange is open it
presents an animated appearance. One
may hear nearly all the languages of
the world spoken there as merchants,
planters, spectators, commissioners
and agents of transportation lines
wrangle over business. Speculations
are chiefly confined to coffee and the
buying and selling of exchange on Lon
don.
About three O'Clock every afternoon,
and again in the evening, Everybody
who is anybody" HES to the Rua do
Ouvoidor, narrow alley way in which
two meeting carriages could not posi-
bly, pass were carriages allowed in that
street, which they are not. Like the
portales of Lima the Almeda of Santi-
ago, the Plaza Victoria of Buenos
Ayres and La Independence of Monte
vedio, it is the fashionable promenade
and beauty-show of Rio, where t1irta.
tons are carried on and matches made
between the ''gilded youth and dark
eyed damsels of Portugues-Spanish
Negro blood. During fashionable hours
the Ouviodor is literally packed with
people, not only from end to end, but
from wall to wall-for the middle of
the street is as frequently patronized
as the three-foot sidewalk. Here new
dresses direct from Paris and "crea-
tions" in bonnets are displayed for the
first time to the admiring populace,
while officers of the army and navy in
all the glory of gold lace and guady
uniforms, and officers from the ships Of
every nation anchored in the harbor,
add brilliancy to the scene--the whole
watched over by the mulatto gendarnes
that constitute the police of Rio, in
their ludicrously elaborate costumes.
The diamond dealers and other princi-
pal merchants have their establish
ments in the Rua Ouvoidor, and so
have the curio collectors and the ven
ders of those exquisite feather flowers
made by the Brazilian nuns. There
are tramways of both broad and mar
row gauge running in eyerv direction