The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1904-09-29

| AcWci, uut every DIdZllldu family has
parrots and monkeys galore, not to
mention the useful house-snake, as uni.
versally and numerously as we foster
kittens and canary birds.
They assure us that just now is the
healthiest season in Rio, when yellow
| fever cases are down to the minimum
yet last evening, in course of an hours
drive, which happened to lie along the
broad, palm bordered avenue leading to
the principal cemetery, we passed no
fewer than eight funeral professions on
| their way to that city of the dead,
whose population must outnumber the
| living city thousand to one. Though
every procession went at lively
| jog trot, and those in carriage galloped
along at full speed, it was easy to tell
to which social strata the departed be-
| longed; for here, as elsewhere, the same
treatment is melted out to dead people
as when they were living, according to
| the script lral axiom, ITO him that hath
shall be given" Those Brazilians who
have lived in luxury are escorted to the
tomb with all the pomp and circum-
stance of sable canopied hearse, a score
of plumed horses, and long following
of hired carriages filled with male
frlends-every man of them wearing
black kid gloves, broad band of Grape
around his tall silk hat, and yard or
more of the same emblem of woe con-
spicuously streaming from the right
coat sleeve; and those we saw bowling
merrily behind the hearse were all
smoking the inevitable cigarette and
animatedly discussing politics, or per
haps the financial condition of the fami-
| ly of the deceased. In no case are there
any women in the professions, for, as
always in these southern countries, the
gentle" and presumably more tender
hearted sex-are excluded from funerals
and must bid the last adieu to those
they had loved in the privacy of their
homes; and very sensible arrange
ment it is among these passionate, high
strung, uncomfortable people, who boast
no Spartan females. The humber dead,
stretched cotfinless on black-palled
board, or enclosed in a gaudily painted
box, are borne to the place of interment
on the shoulders Of their friends, while
those of the followers who can muster
enough mil refs go to the cemetery ON
the second-class street cars. We OBJ
everybody in sight-on their balconies,
in the streets, in shops, in carriages,
rich and poor, naughty and humble
reverently uncover their heads when a
funeral cortege passes by, thus doing
involuntary homage to the pathetic cit
which we must all become when the
soul has fled.
Even grim death is not without it's
humorous side in this strange city
Brazilian angelitas ('iittle angels as
the corpses of children are universally
called) are not arrayed for the grave in
the conventional white or black of other
countries, but i'll vivid scarlet. There
is a small scarlet hearse for those who
can afford it, adorned with scarlet pail
and curtains, scarlet plumes and trap
pings for the horses; while the little
coffin it contains is Invariably covered
with scarlet ribbons. To carry out the
"eternal fitness the child should have
died of scarlet fever, instead of diseases
engendered by dirt and neglect, the pre-
vailing causes hereabouts of mortality
among children. The angelitas of peo-
pie too poor to hire the splendid scarlet
hearse are conveyed to the tomb on the
heads of their parents, in a small box
painted blue, or yellow striped with
white, almost identical in contour, size
and color with those boxes that are con-
tinually trotted about the streets in the
the same manner containing loaves of
bread, cakes and dulces, so that to the
unaccustomed eyes the two are undis-
tinguishable.
We arrived at the cemetery gate just
as a soldiers funeral was filing through
and wishing to see the spot where the
wanderings of SO many of our unfortu-
nate countrymen have ended, we left
our carriage and followed the procession
at very respectful distance" remem-
bering the prevalence of smallpox and
other contagious. The dead warrior lay
upon sort of double decked platform,
in full view of men, with only his mar
shall cloak around him. In this manner
he had been carried through the crowd
ed streets of the city on the shoulders
of his late comrades from the barracks
"a distance of three miles or more
preceded by military band playing
jubilant. marches and quicksteps. I'm.
coffined, he was laid in the soldiers cor
ner, to wait the resurrection reville.
Each of his comrades took shovel full
Of the freshly turned earth and threw
upon him; and then, to the exhilerating
strains of 1.-The Barber of Seville" they
quick-stepped back to town.
The riotous growth and intensity of